Torah Cafe

In 1977 at the age of 75, the Rebbe suffered a major heart attack while celebrating Simchat Torah with his followers. At a time when survival rates hovered below 50%, treatment was complicated and success was uncertain. Yet the Rebbe insisted on doing everything differently from the common medical wisdom at the time. He made a miraculous recovery in only 5 weeks!J

The fascinating story of the Rebbe's medical miracle. 

In Judaism, in addition to a general Mitzvah to care for people in need, we have a specific Mitzvah to comfort mourners. Comforting mourners is a challenging Mitzvah because it requires us to support someone at their most difficult moments, often facing a loss, we've never experienced. 

A fascinating class about the Mitzvah of comforting mourners. 

Abraham's first son was Yishmael, born from his second wife Hagar. However, G-d rejected Yishmael as the future of Abraham's movement. Later Abraham was forced to send Yishmael away and he fell into an unholy life. Today many people (mostly Arabs) claim to be descendants of Yishmael.

What do our Jewish traditions say about Yishmael? What does he represent in Judaism?

The Torah opens the story of Abraham when he is 75 years old and G-d commands him to go to the land of Canaan. What happened for the first 75 years of Abraham's life?

A fascinating tale of the first 75 years of Abraham's life.

We believe that Judaism is not only about Jews. We Jews have a message to share with the world around us. A universal code of morality and values that we should encourage all humans to live by.

A fascinating discussion about the Jewish message to humanity.

Many people are afraid to have more children. They add to a already too large population competing for scarce resources. They increase the pollution and add to the CO2 destroying our planet. They are to expensive to raise and take too much energy. Throughout our culture we are encouraged to have as few children as possible.

The first of our 613 Commandments is not only that we must have children but also to have many. Is that really a good idea? Are we not afraid of the harmful results of irresponsibly having children? 

What about people who cannot or did not have children? Are they missing this commandment? Do they have an alternative?

Each year on Sukkot for over 3,000 years, we have taken an Etrog along with three other plants to shake together on the festival. The Etrog is a very unusual fruit and obtaining a real Etrog each year was a challenge in many Jewish communities across the Jewish diaspora.

A discussion about the extraordinary Etrog and the other plants for Sukkot as well as the history of our people's use of this amazing fruit.

Today, Yom Kippur is marked by fasting and all-day prayer in the synagogue. when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, Yom Kippur was marked by a unique service performed by the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest. The highlight of the service was when he entered the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant stood. 

Today, we read in detail about the service in the ancient temple during our Yom Kippur prayers while mourning the loss of the Temple and praying for its restoration. 

Kol Nidrei is for many the most important prayer of the year. However the prayer itself was once extremely controversial. Many Jewish scholars and rabbis called for removing the prayer, others made changes to it.

A fascinating history of the Kol Nidrei prayer and the controversy behind it. 

We believe that G-d is our Creator and in our prayers often refer to Him as our father. However, on Rosh Hashanah, we mostly refer to G-d as our King. 

What does it mean that G-d is a King? Is there an advantage to being a Monarch? How does G-d's role as King connect to Rosh Hashanah? 

A fascinating discussion about G-d role as a king.