יום רביעי, א׳ אב תשפ״וWednesday, July 15, 2026
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By Alan Magill
I am a big believer in putting people in the spotlight with the strengths they have.
By Alan Magill
It wasn't the best time for me to give, as I would have to take my gloves off and reach into my wallet through many layers. But when it was a much better time to give, I always found reasons not to, so I decided this was the day.
By Alan Magill
I didn’t want her to hurt herself, but sometimes it hurts more to be denied opportunities for enjoyable, meaningful experiences.
By Alan Magill
It is important to know, that in addition to my father's full-time job he fixed televisions on the side to earn extra money. Not like today's flat-screen TVs, but televisions with picture tubes and other varying shaped tubes.
By Alan Magill
I was astounded at this tremendous mitzvah she was doing. She was dispensing HOPE in a big dose.
By Alan Magill
Three diseases could not stop my mother. They never had a chance. She LIVED and was a giver until the last moment she passed from this world to a better world.
By Alan Magill
One day, I was in the basement of a building and I had just finished collecting the change there and was about to leave when I saw money on the ground. I picked it up and it was two one-hundred-dollar bills in a rubber band. I wanted to find its owner and return it but I knew that would take time.
By Alan Magill
I asked Rabbi Buchwald, "If I became observant, would I have to give up all of those things I love?" He answered right away. "No Alan, you don't have to give those things up. You just need to put Judaism first."
By Alan Magill
I asked him what he wanted to do when he got out. He said he would really love to go to college, something that had eluded him in his youth.
By Alan Magill
The fact that I was in a hurry made me think I should just take the card from him and open it for him.
By Alan Magill
The simple act of kindness should be the reward itself. Anything more in the form of a reward is gravy.
By Alan Magill
Patience seems to be in such short supply these days, yet it can make a world of difference. This is particularly so in certain kinds of stressful situations whereby we think we only have time to act in a knee-jerk way instead of acting thoughtfully.
By Alan Magill
I recently heard a Pirkei Avos shiur in which the speaker said that our spiritual DNA derives from our patriarchs and matriarchs. The great tests they withstood and for which they gained ever greater prominence was witnessed by the Jews who followed them, many of whom succeeded in overcoming great challenges as well. It seems that an individual’s great effort helps the spiritual strength kick in.
By Alan Magill
The first and only time I said I was a rabbi was also the first and only time I had a gun pointed at me. What led me to that moment was my need to stay on the Upper West Side for a Shabbos and a hospitality committee that arranged for me to stay with a man who lived in the former janitor’s apartment on the fifth floor of a synagogue.
By Alan Magill
It is very important for Jews to first help family, then other Jews close to us, then Jews not as close. Next, if possible and appropriate, Jews should help those of any race or creed.
By Alan Magill
The five-year-old boy was in a church in Puerto Rico with his parents. As they and his grandparents were Catholics, that made him Catholic – as far as his young mind could figure.
By Alan Magill
I was preparing a shiur to honor the memory of my father, Paul Magill, a”h, on the 20th anniversary of his passing, and I was looking at that week’s sedrah, Parshas Re’eh. I was struck by the words, “See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing: that you hearken to the commandments of Hashem, your God, that I command you today. And the curse: if you do not hearken to the commandments of Hashem, your God, and you stray from the path that I command you today, to follow gods of others, that you did not know.”
By Alan Magill
Feeling more alone than at any time since arriving in New York, I looked inside myself for anything that could anchor me to bring me back to who I was, to move away from illusions of romance to my central sticking point. Suddenly and unexpectedly, being a Jew meant more to me than anything else in the world.
By Alan Magill
You don’t become a ba’al teshuvah overnight. There were many events in my life that contributed to the deepening of my religious commitment, including a party I attended with young, beautiful church members who tried to make me one of them, and how I met their “Jewish priest.” (I’ll discuss both experiences during the course of this continuing column.)
By Alan Magill
I do not dress like the average Orthodox man in my Brooklyn neighborhood. It’s not that I’m trying to make a statement by often going hatless and wearing blue and brown suits, it’s just that in becoming religious I have changed so much - there are certain things I don’t want to give up, especially since my religion doesn’t truly ask me to do so.
By Alan Magill
It’s my first moment of wakefulness, and I’m chilled to the bone. Pull the covers over myself, I’m thinking, while I decide to roll over to look at the clock. It’s 5:30 a.m. and I’m exhausted. But attending morning minyan – even once – is the least I can do.
By Alan Magill
What's more important - love or money? Let's hear what a 90-year-old woman sitting in front of two elevators in a nursing home had to say. I asked her, "If both elevator doors opened at the same time, and out of one came the richest man in the world, and out of the other came the nicest man in the world, who would you want to marry?" She thought about it for a good while and then answered, "Both of them."
July 10, 2026 
