A significant shift may be emerging from within the Religious Zionist movement in Israel.

In recent months, respected Israeli Religious Zionist voices - many of them strong supporters of the settlement movement in Yehuda and Shomron - have begun speaking out against Jewish violence toward Arabs.

This video briefly addresses the rise in such violence, but focuses on this new and potentially important internal response.

Is this the beginning of a broader change? Are we approaching a tipping point on one of Israel’s most urgent moral challenges?

For the sake of Israel, I hope so.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

This evening we find the connection between last week's Parsha and this week's through two stories about putting as much care into what comes out of our mouths as what we put into them. We examine the opportunity of being alone (not lonely), and see this as one of the magnificent goals of Shabbat, the purpose of pauses, and letting things sink in.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

My love for Israel is deep and fierce. My desire for Israel to be better flows directly from that love.

This issue is not new. Many of us have been speaking about it for years. But in the past two months, something has changed - both in intensity and in kind.

A significant and largely overlooked story is unfolding in Israel, in two parts, concerning violence by Jews against Arabs in Yehuda and Shomron. It has received less attention than it deserves, overshadowed by the war with Iran and ongoing attacks from Hezbollah.

Today, I present two primary sources.

The first is an interview with Elisha Yared, who identifies himself as a leader of the Hilltop Youth. He describes his worldview, his strategy of what he calls “initiated friction,” his desire to increase Arab emigration, and his tensions with Israel’s military and intelligence institutions.

The second is a document recently delivered to Israeli security officials titled: “Summary of the Past Month in the Struggle Against the Arab Enemy in the Holy Land.” It details incidents including reported injuries to Arabs, arson against mosques, destruction of Arab property, uprooting of olive trees, and attacks on Arab villages.

My goal is simple: to present these voices as clearly and fairly as possible - in their own words.

Tomorrow: the response.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

David Lazarus is 50 years old, a husband and father of three, living with a progressive, terminal illness.

For years, he believed visiting the sick was simply a good deed. Now, from the inside, he understands it very differently.

In his essay, David shares what actually helps a person who is ill - and what, despite good intentions, can make things harder. His insights are simple, practical, and deeply human.

If you’ve ever visited someone who is sick - or will - this will change how you show up.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

Today is Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We tell the story every year.

We say: never again.

And yet, the question lingers - has the world actually changed?

Drawing on the haunting words of Elie Wiesel, we confront a painful possibility: that memory alone does not transform humanity.

But if memory is not enough - what is?

Through the story of Cathy Lawi, a trauma specialist in Israel, we explore two radically different responses to helplessness - shaped by histories from France and Iraq - and what they reveal about how people rebuild after devastation.

And then, one final image:

A 97-year-old survivor, Dov Landau, dancing at his great-grandson’s wedding.

In one moment, he lifts his sleeve - revealing the number etched into his arm in Auschwitz.

In the next, he continues to dance.

What does it mean to remember - not just the past, but the responsibility it places on us now?

This is not just about history.

It’s about what we do with it - this year.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

Every morning, near the end of Shacharit, we say Shir Shel Yom—the Psalm of the Day, once sung by the Levites in the Beit HaMikdash.

It feels like a closing note. Something we say and move past.

But it’s not random—and it’s not just a memory of the Temple.

Each day’s psalm was chosen with precision. Each one reflects a different dimension of the world—and a different way we are meant to live within it.

What if your week isn’t just a cycle of days… but a structured opportunity to imitate God?

In this video, we explore how Shir Shel Yom quietly shapes the spiritual architecture of your week—and how it can transform the way you step into each day.

Once you see it, you won’t say it the same way again.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

I was asked a simple question:

Why are there three Rothko prints behind me?

That question opens into something much deeper.

Mark Rothko was born Jewish, and many have tried to read his work through that lens—seeing in it echoes of the Holocaust, the Temple, or even Kabbalah.

But I’m not convinced.

In this video, I briefly trace Rothko’s life and then set those interpretations aside—not because they’re impossible, but because they may be missing something more essential.

Instead, I turn to what Rothko actually said and wrote…

to how he constructed his paintings…

and to what decades of living with his work have taught me.

This is a personal attempt to answer a different question:

Not what Rothko meant—but what his paintings do.

And why they continue to hold me.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

At first glance, Sh’foch Chamatcha—“Pour out Your wrath”—feels like a jarring note near the end of the Seder. Why introduce anger at the very moment we should be moving toward redemption and joy?

But in its deeper context, this is not a call to vengeance—it is a declaration of vision.

We open the door not in fear, but in hope. It is an invitation: a call to all peace-seeking people and nations to join us. As God says, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations.” Those who choose peace are welcome. Only those who cling to violence exclude themselves.

And that clarity leads us to the true climax of the Seder: Hallel.

After everything we’ve experienced—slavery and freedom, questions and struggles, memory and meaning—we arrive at a place where praise is no longer scripted. It is real. We are ready for it. We want it.

The Seder is no longer something we are observing.

It has become something we are living.

And in the final words—so often sung with a beautiful melody—we are reminded: this is possible. The Seder can be understood. It can be felt. It can change us.

That is my hope—for myself, and for you.

When the Haggadot are closed, something vital remains open.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

This is my 10@9 for Monday, March 30, 2026

Though every section of the Haggadah holds both slavery and redemption - as we explored yesterday - the real question is this:

What are you meant to feel when the Seder ends?

That question turns on a subtle but critical debate about the final passage of Maggid. How much of the story do we tell - and where do we stop?

We explore the approach of Rabbi Tarfon, and why Rabbi Akiva insisted we go further.

Because this is not just a technical dispute.

It shapes the emotional trajectory of the entire Seder - and what you carry with you into the world afterward.

At a time when many feel uncertain or discouraged about the Jewish present and future, the Haggadah quietly insists on something radical:

You must end with hope.

In this series, Unlocking the Haggadah, we uncover the hidden structure of the text so that each paragraph leads to the next - and the Seder becomes a coherent, meaningful conversation.

In the final episode, we’ll explore the climactic conclusion of the Haggadah—and of this entire journey.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.

There is a clear chronological arc to the Haggadah.

We begin as slaves. We end as free people.

But beneath that story lies something far more unsettling - and far more powerful.

At every single moment of the Seder, from Karpas to Hallel, we are experiencing both slavery and freedom at the same time.

Not sequentially. Simultaneously.

Why would the Haggadah be structured this way?

And what does it mean for how we understand freedom - not just then, but now?

In this episode, we explore this hidden layer through two familiar moments: Charoses and the Hillel sandwich - and uncover a deeper emotional truth at the heart of the Seder.

Because real freedom is more complicated—and more fragile—than we like to admit.

In this series, Unlocking the Haggadah, we reveal the underlying structure of the Haggadah so that each part flows into the next—transforming the Seder into a meaningful conversation rather than a disconnected collection of texts.

In the next episode, we explore a historic disagreement within the Haggadah that still shapes how we see the world today.

Michael Whitman is the senior rabbi of ADATH Congregation in Hampstead, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. ADATH is a modern orthodox synagogue community in suburban Montreal, providing Judaism for the next generation. We take great pleasure in welcoming everyone with a warm smile, while sharing inspiration through prayer, study, and friendship.

Rabbi Whitman shares his thoughts and inspirations through online lectures and shiurim, which are available on:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FLcsC6xz5TmkirT1qObkA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adathmichael/

Podcast - Mining the Riches of the Parsha:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mining-the-riches-of-the-parsha/id1479615142?fbclid=IwAR1c6YygRR6pvAKFvEmMGCcs0Y6hpmK8tXzPinbum8drqw2zLIo7c9SR-jc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3hWYhCG5GR8zygw4ZNsSmO

Please contact Rabbi Whitman ([email protected]) with any questions or feedback, or to receive a daily email, "Study with Rabbi Whitman Today," with current and past insights for that day, video, and audio, all in one short email sent directly to your inbox.