יום שישי, י״ח תמוז תשפ״וFriday, July 3, 2026
Follow Us
By Anat Coleman
These everyday exchanges have not only made life more convenient, but also reminded me again and again of the quiet generosity that lives in a community when people are simply willing to help each other out.
By Rabbanit Dr. Adena Berkowitz
In 2022, Agudath Israel of America circulated on Capitol Hill a legislative memo that pointed out the unique and disruptive challenges permanent DST would present to the Orthodox Jewish community; for example having to pray in synagogues at much later times because of later sunrises and then the challenge of getting to their places of work on time.
As a student in high school, I remember looking forward to the initial “Fall back” where we roll back the clock by an hour and for one or two mornings you felt like you gained an hour of sleep!
Hashem builds that spring into our lives; not to break us, but rather to launch us.
On a personal note, those of us with young children know that their bodies don’t respond to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s manipulation of time.
Perhaps this year we can use daylight savings as an invitation to pay more attention to those we love, and to ensure that we are not overlooking the little ordinary moments that we take for granted.
Healing has taught me something softer. Good does not always arrive loud or dramatic. Sometimes it is subtle, barely noticeable. I just have to slow down enough to see it.
If someone would ask you if you would feel like eating pizza or sushi after eating straight for twenty-four hours, what would you think?
By Nachum Segal
I am amazed at the diverse ways we celebrate Motzei Shabbos and marvel at how many in our community feel the need to make Motzei Shabbos special.
When my great-grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Dubinsky, arrived in America, he was shocked that Melava Malka wasn’t the norm, and marched across the neighborhood, inviting people to take part.
After the tragedy of Charlie Kirk, who was Christian, I was surprised to learn of his call to honor the Sabbath as a means to transform our lives.
The meal need not be elaborate, but the table should be set elegantly. Hymns whose message is to take the Shabbos spirit into the week ahead are sung.
In the Torah, the term laziness is not found; rather, unwillingness is used. This is because our mindset is geared toward being high achievers and creating outcomes that meet the expectations set for us.
The truth is, what we call laziness often has wisdom in it. Your body might be saying slow down. Your mind might be signaling, This feels overwhelming or This is scary.
It is an explanation of convenience when the adults in charge are more interested in blaming than in looking for a more accurate and helpful explanation for what is going on.
Lazy is the shorthand we use when we don’t want to do that work. It’s ironically the path of least resistance – a way to explain our behavior without actually understanding it.
There’s a fine line between lazy and intentional. It may appear like we're avoiding certain tasks, when really we're prioritizing where to expend our energy and focus. (At least, that's what I keep trying to explain to my accountant!)
The Thirteen Middos are more than a prayer formula; they are a blueprint for our personal transformation.
Some of my family’s most joyous memories come from those last few minutes of the Seder, when there are just one or two pages left to turn. We’re about to finish the penultimate song, and we get to its very last stanza – Who knows thirteen?
Everyone was so focused on my brother becoming bar mitzvah that no one remembered it was my birthday too! A milestone birthday. I had become a teenager.
For me as a youngster I couldn't wait to turn thirteen. I would finally be a TEENAGER. The world was going to open up for me.
On a mystical level, 13 is not merely not unlucky, it represents fullness, holiness, and unity, specifically the unity of Hashem.
Today, Chol HaMoed looks different. It’s about the kids. Taking them to the local jumping place, the orchard, or up to the mountains for air that feels fresher somehow when it’s wrapped in Yom Tov.
By Avi Ganz
Chol HaMoed represents the weekdays or mundane days of the holiday. It isn't less holiday and more mundane, but they are a time to see the festival as it manifests beyond the days during which creative activity is forbidden.
By Keshet Starr
When I think about Chol HaMoed trips, part of what comes to mind is pressure. Pressure to have the best, most exciting trips ever – while also cleaning up from Yom Tov, preparing for the next Yom Tov, and, oh right, working!
In Beit Shemesh we had the Rock and Soul Festival which I usually performed in. So, then we would not go on a trip during the day.
By Hillel Fuld
On these strange days, people have different customs. Some people don’t write, for example, while others do. The one thing that all Jews have in common is that on those days, there is a lot of quality family time.
By Maayan Zik
I follow Chabad traditions and usually a gartel of that caliber is worn by married men. It turns out that bar mitzvahed boys in Chabad also wear a gartel, but it’s thinner and hidden under the shirt. It is the difference between a single man and a married man.
We could hand-wring over this, as some do, seeing it as a turning away from a more rigorous Judaism to one that is more accepting.
The gartel is serious business, but also a reminder that even in the most disciplined practices, there’s room for personality, preference, and humor.
A common custom is to wear a gartel either in accordance with the last approach or because it signifies the differentiation between what is higher and lower about people.
The struggle for every Jew is finding a way to strike a balance between physicality and spirituality. Most of us are not in an environment that is fully focused on ruchnius.
Perhaps you’re thinking of cherubs. Those may be described as having a childlike face, based on the Talmud. But cherubs are also characterized in Tanach as weapon-wielding guardians, and several medieval Jewish thinkers see them as referring to intelligence, so that reference doesn’t fit either.
By Eli Lebowicz
Yes, we’re flawed, but that imperfectness makes us strive to do better.
By Adina Broder
Angels are perfect in obedience, yet they lack free will. This leads to a paradox: while it is true that they are incapable of sinning, they are also unable to choose virtue, being forced to comply with their directives without the option to disobey.
My hope is that our students see in their teachers not unattainable angels, but human beings reaching upwards – and that they too will be moved to live in an angelic way, lifting themselves and those around them closer to Hashem.
Angelic, to the Chumash, seems to mean something else entirely: something that is wildly interventionist – even sometimes violent. Angels do not stand by and passively watch. They engage.
It insists that sweetness and substance go together. That what delights you also roots you. The juice is only there because the seed is there. The beauty of the moment is carrying something hard, lasting, alive.
By Ariela Davis
Of all the Rosh Hashana simanim, the pomegranate is the one that stands out most aligned with Rosh Hashana – be it from the fabled 613 seeds it holds (has anyone actually ever checked that?) or its majestic crown, reminding us that Hashem is the ultimate king.
How unusual it is to have a fruit with its own royal crown, and timed to ripen just as the holiday of G-d’s kingship arrives.
By Sara Blau
We ask Hashem: don’t judge us by our “peel” – the outer mistakes and shortcomings – but by the fruit inside, the pure intention and the desire to be close to You.
By Anat Coleman
I loved the idea that every pomegranate contains 613 seeds – one for each of the mitzvot – tucking sacred meaning into something as everyday as a piece of fruit.
The word shehakol conjures happy memories of the first bracha under the chuppah, ‘shehakol bara l’chvodo’ – everything Hashem created is for His glory and honor.
By Akiva Kra
No matter how much effort you put into a recipe, whatever comes out, whether a crowd favorite or a kitchen disaster, ultimately exists because of His word.
The Baal Shem Tov taught that by speaking a blessing with awareness, we release sparks of holiness trapped in the physical.
Shehakol is the humble workhorse of blessings, ever ready, ever flexible, and ever reminding us that even in the mundane or overlooked moments of life (a sip of soda, a bite of chocolate), there is reason to pause, acknowledge, and give thanks.
To serve Hashem fully, we need to be aligned in everything: how we treat others, how we care for ourselves, how we grow emotionally, spiritually, physically. It’s not separate – it’s one. It's all Shehakol.
What’s the point? Why so many? Are you actually going to read all those sefarim? Why not read them online?
By Rabbanit Dr. Adena Berkowitz
Our sefarim are not merely books with values and wisdom. They represent something far deeper. They hold honored places in our homes and their departure is akin to saying a tearful goodbye to loved ones.
I wondered then: Why is she selling these new sefarim from her bookshelf in Washington Heights? Were they not wanted anymore?
I tell my husband I'm bringing the ones with cracked spines to sheimos. He tells me there's an inyan about not getting rid of sefarim. I ask for the source but he can't tell me where it is.
From the moment G-d spoke at Sinai, the Jewish people have been listeners, readers, and scribes. The Torah isn’t just a story – it’s a constitution.
The reason that it makes the heat index hotter is that it stops your body's ability for sweat to evaporate, thereby trapping body heat.
It's not the heat. It's the humidity. That's the common refrain. A high temperature alone isn't enough to change your day, but when it's humid? Humidity is everywhere.
By Martin Bodek
Hot and humid, hot and humid, everybody loves it when it's hot and humid, and your clothing sticks to you. I know, catchy, right?
Recently I was in Washington, D.C. for a work trip; it was 95 degrees and humid. As I walked around town, exploring the sights, I was sweating so much that my sheitel started sweating as well.
A person can think of all sorts of ways to cool down. Perhaps a glass of cold water, a cool shower, or a shady spot would do the trick.
By David Curwin
Moshe was a Hebrew name from the start, but he also bore an Egyptian name. A key piece of evidence supporting the Hebrew origin is the pun itself.
By Avi Ganz
The lesson is that to aspire to greatness in leadership, we need to realize that the kedusha; the greatness, is everywhere. Not just in the burning bush or the heavenly voice.
By Solly Hess
Sadly, the culture in which we find ourselves today tells a different story. Leadership has been reduced to “influence.” If you can find or rally an audience, you are a leader. All you need is followers. How you act, what you say, or how you treat the very people who look to you for guidance, matters far less than your status, position, or title.
The Torah emphasizes the fact that all eyes were on him throughout his lifetime, and his leadership becomes that much more inspiring when one considers what his experience must have been like in that environment.
He was even open to his father-in-law's advice to delegate judging disputes, instead of acting like he could do it all.
By Nachum Segal
We must remind ourselves not to fear. We know who is in charge and who choreographs daily life for our beloved nation.
Everywhere I go throughout Israel, every hostage poster, every sticker or magnet memorializing a fallen soldier hits hard. Despite being an outsider, they are all so familiar, their names and faces, because we have all been following so closely.
Yisrael is the most sublime of the names, given to Yaakov by G-d’s angel with whom he had battled.
Yisrael, of course, is the name of (or, at least, one of the names of) our forefather. Given that the Torah explains why Yaakov received this name, it should be easier to understand why we, too, are called by that name.
We daven Shimoneh Esrei every day and ask Hashem to heal the sick of Am Yisrael. It doesn't matter if we don't personally know the person we are praying for because as the Talmud teaches us that all Jews are responsible for one another.
Israel is often depicted as the oppressor, rather than the civilized country that it is. Yet Israelis exhibit courage and determination, rather than succumbing to dejection and despair.
During the 9 Days, and on Tisha B’Av, in particular, it's easy to feel dejected. Those feelings are further compounded by the surge in antisemitism. Remaining in a constant state of dejection is not the Jewish way.
When I feel that familiar inner voice whispering, “This is hopeless,” I remind myself that my value isn’t based on someone else’s yes or no. I am inherently worthy. Each of us is.
Dejection slows us down and sometimes that’s exactly what we need. It can soften the parts of us that have been moving too fast or staying too distracted to notice what’s really going on beneath the surface.
I used to think that if I followed the “right” formula, the one I’d learned, absorbed, inherited, I’d feel okay. Say the tefillah, keep the mitzvah, share the vulnerability online, smile in real life. But when the anxiety kept coming anyway and the joy didn’t show up on cue, I blamed myself.
With individual liberties curtailed, the government felt that it could keep the populace content by promising them the elimination of Israel. We have all witnessed miracles of Biblical proportions as to how matters did not work out this way.
By Keshet Starr
When the world feels like it’s falling around us, we can still choose what we do next – because when stimulus comes our way, we can create a space to choose our response.
Iran used to be Persia. The story of Purim. Esther and her son Coresh (Cyrus). It is through them that the second Beit HaMikdash was built. Where are the people that will represent Coresh? Is this the way it is supposed to be at the end of days?
Truth is, we owe a lot to that corner of the world. Without Paras, you don’t get Purim. Without Paras, there’s no megillah in shul, no matanos l’evyonim, no yelling Yimach shemo! at some poor guy dressed as Haman.
By Hillel Fuld
Iran was once a modern nation and an ally of the Jewish people. But since the Islamic Revolution, it has been radicalized, leaving its own citizens oppressed and the region destabilized.
It seemed totally impossible for him to come out unscathed. And yet he did. He then revealed a very narrow space, just big enough to curl into, safely out of reach of the nails.
A manicure is still not all that important to me. But I understand more about the women for whom it is – both in its presence as a basic element of personal grooming, and in its absence as an announcement to the world that you've just gone to mikvah.
Suddenly, during the meal, my face started itching and burning. My ears were tingling. I looked in the mirror and saw a swollen face staring back. My husband gave me Benadryl, but by the next day, I looked like a horror show.
By Eli Lebowicz
The one Kabbalistic custom we all know is cutting nails over a garbage can or toilet. People on public transit should adopt this custom!
By Anat Coleman
In the end, the corkboards went up, I was relieved that the piles of paper had finally found a home, and the kids now have a new appreciation for the difference between a screw and a nail – and perhaps a bit too much confidence with a hammer in hand.
By Maayan Zik
Catastrophes can strengthen communal ties and can paradoxically be a catalyst for profound positive change.
July 3, 2026 
