We recite the "Etz Chaim" prayer after reading the Torah portion, when we return the Torah scroll to the ark. I love trees and the imagery that our Torah is a tree of life. Before I became a rabbi, I was a tree-fruit farmer. Even the symbol of my old IDF unit is a very famous Israeli oak tree that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. With that in mind, I composed this melody, which I hope you will find soothing and inspiring. In this recording, I am playing the native-Israel flutes. Yosef Karduner and Guy Tzvi Mintz are playing guitars and singing. Enjoy this.

The human brain is quite similar to the hard disc of a computer. Just as your computer has a certain memory capacity, so does your brain. Professionals are careful in protecting their computers from needless files and programs that waste memory space. All the more so, people must protect their computers from worms and viruses. The same goes for the brain.

The forty-foot-high waves crashing down on the Pacific Coast are a tiny testament of Hashem's power and glory. The power and glory of the Creator is His royal garment, which no one possesses but the King Himself.

For busy people, here's an important message in 28 seconds; here's how to stay young until 120. 

A lack of motivation leads to laziness. That's only the beginning of the downward spiral because laziness leads to sadness. If a person lacks the power to persevere in any endeavor, he or she can forget about success. Perseverance requires motivation. So where do we acquire motivation, especially in spiritual endeavors? Rebbe Nachman provides the answer.

Star Wars is nothing compared to the battles that a soul must endure. If people had completely spiritual eyes, they couldn't live long. They'd faint in fright. The atmosphere is full of toxic enemy and lethal forces, both physical and spiritual. The "Protective Force" is our only safeguard.

The Maglan* commandos of the IDF are one of Israel's most elite units. They're far from the limelight and few people know what these quiet yet powerful heroes do. Rabbi Lazer Brody was their guest yesterday; here is a 6-minute segment of the inspirational talk he delivered there. It's especially timely for the month of Elul. The talk is in Hebrew, with English subtitles.

*Hebrew for "Ibis", a quietly determined bird 

There are two types of love. One is based bodily-oriented. It's therefore finite like the body and often is as brief as last night's dinner. But the other, which stems from the soul, is a lasting love that also brings a person to inner peace.

Caesar's daughter couldn't understand how the great Rebbe Yehoshua ben Chanania was so scholarly yet so unsightly. He answered with an interesting comparison, as told here (based on the Gemara, Tractate Nedarim 50b)...

The sound of the Shofar invokes unfathomable Divine compassion. As such we blow the shofar and Rosh Hashanah. But that's not all. The shofar heralds the arrival of Moshiach and the reestablishment of David's kingdom, our prayer in Psalm 89.