Why are the stories of a father, his son and his grandson so central to the Torah?

Come see how the three forefathers found and founded the knowledge of Hashem, each in their own way; how this knowledge became the subject of the history of their descendants, the Jewish nation; and how the key to the future redemption lies in the relationship between these three great men.

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It is the pinnacle of divine worship, but what exactly is love for God and how is it achieved?

Explore the distinctive paths of love charted by the Rambam and the Chovos HaLevavos, the one rooted in intellectual perfection and the other in purity of spirit, and learn how love unites us with Hashem and evokes His love for us.

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Hear O Israel, Hashem is one; one and not two, one and not composite – that is the simple meaning.

But the Mekubalim say: Hear O Israel, Hashem is unified.

This mystical unity of God with His Attributes gives unity to the entire creation and history, all rooted in one God and tending towards one good.

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On Sukkos we’re judged regarding water. The basis of life, it plays a central role throughout the Torah: Eden, Sodom, Egypt and Eretz Israel are each defined by their water sources.

In a cryptic statement about the unique mitzvos of Sukkos, Chazal allude to a little-known journey from the rivers of Eden to the waters of Sodom, and to the stream that will one day flow from the Holy Temple.

Learn how Sukkos is part of this journey and why water is so pivotal to our relationship with Hashem.

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How does repentance work? Can a wrong be made right with no more than regret and a commitment to be better?

Teshuva goes much deeper than regret and commitment, teaches the Avodas Hakodesh. The sinner who engaged with evil must reconstruct God’s divine world by understanding the roots of good and evil; by facing his evil and repudiating it, he strengthens the connection between Hashem and His creation. This endeavor secures atonement and redemption for him and the whole of creation.

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What exactly is determined on this awesome day?

A deep reading of the sources shows that the judgment of Rosh Hashanah isn’t, essentially, about what will happen to man; it is about man himself.

On the very first Rosh Hashanah Hashem saw everything that He created, and it was all very good in His eyes. The creation was all goodness, but man introduced evil and became evil himself. On every subsequent Rosh Hashanah Hashem again reviews each individual man, looking at him and seeing if he is good or evil.

Every new year, man gets another chance to align himself with the good, to redeem himself and all of creation with him.

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God’s oneness is the foundation and basis of R' Bachya ibn Paquda's monumental religious system delineated in his "Chovos HaLevavos." Beginning with The Gate of Divine Unity and ending with The Gate of the Love of God,  this book charts a journey of spiritual development that starts with the first verse of the Shema: “Hashem is one,” and culminates with the second: “And you shall love Hashem your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might," the oneness of God leading to oneness of devotion. 

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It is a simple passage that declares God’s unity, but its translation is far from simple.

The most fundamental statement of faith that is constantly on the Jew’s lips, the Shema is given three distinct interpretations by Rashi, R' Bachya ibn Paquda and Ibn Ezra.

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The Meraglim viewed Eretz Yisrael – and land itself – wrongly, maintaining that physical Earth could never be made divine. What is the remedy for their flawed sense of vision? How can we train ourselves to properly view this materialistic, temporal world?

The answer is hiding in plain sight: Tzitzis teaches us how to see. As the four corners of the Earth hide their Maker, the most inner and true reality, the four corners of a garment hide their wearer; Tzitzis guides us to penetrate the outer mask and always look for the inner world. 

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If, as Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi says, the Holy Land is the axis of all spiritual experience, then to spurn the Holy Land is the root of all evil.

Indeed, this idea lies at the heart of the Meraglim story. Commissioned not merely to see the land, but to see what a land could be, the Meraglim were on a mission to determine if it's possible to replicate Heaven on Earth. They erred, and that original error is the root of all the Jewish nation’s shortcomings.

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