Title: Sparks From the Fire
Author: Rabbi Moshe Weinberger
Publisher: Feldheim
It’s said of a certain rabbi that he was a man of many hats – all black. Rabbi Moshe Weinberger is also a man of many talents, all of them deep and meaningful. Anyone who has attended or heard his shiurim knows that he’s a master speaker; brilliant, eloquent, and an endless source of deep insights.
In Sparks From the Fire: Shabbos Drashas Delivered at Kehillas Aish Kodesh, his congregant Binyomin Wolf has collected adaptations of R’ Weinberger’s Shabbos morning droshos from the years 2011-2013, and put them in this volume.
No one typifies neo-chasidism more than Rabbi Weinberger. He has long spoken about the fact that while observance for Orthodox Jews in the United States is relatively easy today, with the overabundance of minyanim, learning opportunities, kosher food of all types, and more. The one thing that is copiously missing is that people have lost a connection to their soul and spiritual self. If someone does not have a strong connection to the Almighty, then they are missing out in the most fundamental aspect of Judaism.
A recurring theme in the book is that life has its challenges, and struggling with those challenges is what life is about. In the drasha for erev Chanukah, he writes that being a Jew means that we have questions and we don’t always have the answers. The main thing is to keep moving forward and going to the next level, to never stop moving up in levels to the service of Hashem.
Most of the essays are a brief five to seven pages long and don’t always convey the depth and breadth of the message that R’ Weinberger is able to bring out in his full lectures. But for those looking to get a taste of the genius that is that R’ Moshe Weinberger, Sparks From the Fire can indeed provide those embers.