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tzvi fishman

Book Reviews

Title: Arise and Shine!

By Baruch Gordon

The book’s main characters are not mere action heroes, but deep ideological thinkers, motivated by the 2,000-year dream of re-establishing the nation of Israel in its Divinely-promised homeland.

Tevye in the Promised Land

Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty-Two: A Letter From America

By Tzvi Fishman

          One late afternoon when Tevye returned to his tent after a back-breaking day in the winery, a letter was waiting from Baylke. Sure enough, she had been in touch with Golda’s distant cousin in Chicago, and he had forwarded Tevye’s letter to her in New York. She had been thrilled […]

Tevye in the Promised Land

Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter Thirty: Waters of Eden

By Tzvi Fishman

What was a man, Tevye thought, that one moment he could be so filled with power and seemingly invincible force, and the next moment a motionless pile of flesh?

Felafel on Rye

Who’s Afraid of David Dukes’ Dukes?

By Tzvi Fishman

We don’t want to rule over the goyim. We are to be their teachers, that’s all.

Felafel on Rye

Homeward Bound

By Tzvi Fishman

L eading up to the holiday of Sukkot, we’ll wrap up our condensed look at Rabbi Kook’s teachings on t’shuva with a few blogs on two of the holidays most important themes – Eretz Yisrael and Torah.

Felafel on Rye

Goodbye World, I’m Off to the Mountains!

By Tzvi Fishman

Rabbi Kook’s advice is to set out correcting the transgressions of the past which are within the person’s reach to correct. This will set into motion a snowball of t’shuva whose inner force will lead him to correct matters more and more difficult, until he succeeds in redressing all wrongs.

Tevye in the Promised Land

Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter 14: The Dybbuk

By Tzvi Fishman

Strangely, the person who seemed most affected by Tzeitl's death was Goliath. Upon hearing the news, he surrounded himself with an impenetrable wall. He even found it hard to play with the children. Shmuelik said the body had to remain wrapped in a sheet on the floor of Hodel's house until the Sabbath was over. […]

Felafel on Rye

The Key to Success

By Tzvi Fishman

Rabbi Kook has good news. If you are a loser, all is not lost. You too can be a winner. You too can succeed. How? Through t’shuva.

Tevye in the Promised Land

Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter 13: Tzeitl's Last Wish

By Tzvi Fishman

"What are we going to eat?" Shmuelik asked Tevye as they changed into their Sabbath clothing. Tevye did not understand the question. "What do you mean?" he asked. Before Shmuelik could answer, Hillel spoke up in a bard's satirical manner. "He means that though you may be overjoyed to be reunited with your daughter, the […]

Felafel on Rye

Don’t Worry! Be Happy!

By Tzvi Fishman

Even if you haven’t yet atoned for all of your sins, Don’t worry! Be Happy! As long as you are sincerely trying, this is what really counts.

Tevye in the Promised Land

Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter 12: Hodel

By Tzvi Fishman

It was impossible to tell which thought gave Tevye more happiness. The thought of stepping foot in Jerusalem, or the thought of seeing his Hodel again. True, Hodel was his own flesh and blood. She was like a little piece of his Golda.

Felafel on Rye

The Heroes of T’shuva

By Tzvi Fishman

The true champions of life are not the basketball players, not the Hollywood stars, not even the Prime Ministers and Presidents. The real heroes are the masters of t’shuva.

Felafel on Rye

T’shuva Brings Healing to the World

By Tzvi Fishman

When a man understands that his personal t’shuva advances the redemption process of the world, his motivation to mend his own life is enhanced.

Felafel on Rye

T’Shuva and Finding Happiness

By Tzvi Fishman

Rabbi Kook teaches that t’shuva encompasses man’s physical being, his moral life, religious life, and his highest, most ideal intellectual endeavor. T’shuva is man’s path to wellbeing, to physical and emotional health, as well as his path to the deep self-discovery which connects him to God. T’shuva can happen suddenly, in a burst of illumination […]

Tevye in the Promised Land

Tevye in the Promised Land, Chapter One: Anatevka

By Tzvi Fishman

Nemerov, the district Police Commissioner, reared his horse in the air. "Three days," he warned. "The Jews of Anatevka have three days to clear out of the area." It didn't matter that the Jews had lived in Anatevka long before the Russians. The Police Commissioner didn't care that Tevye's great-grandfather, may his memory be a blessing, had cleared the forest by the lake and built the first house in the region. It didn't matter to the Czar and his soldiers that for as long as anyone could remember, the Jews had dutifully paid the taxes which had laden the Czar's table with food, while the pantries of the Jews remained bare.

Books

The Jewish Press to Serialize Tevye in the Promised Land

By Jewish Press News Desk

We are happy to announce the upcoming weekly serialization of Tzvi Fishman’s award-winning novel, Tevye in the Promised Land, beginning Monday.

Felafel on Rye

A Jewish Hero Grows Up in Brooklyn

By Tzvi Fishman

“The non-observant Jew knows. Deep in his heart he knows. He knows that the path [he treads] is a false one, that the Judaism he professes is a mockery.... His moment of truth lies within him. His is the power to call it into being. Let him but dig deeply into his Jewish resources and draw from them the traditional Jewish qualities of courage, determination and sacrifice."

Felafel on Rye

Beyond Words – Rabbi Meir Kahane at His Very Best

By Tzvi Fishman

Why be a Jew!!! It is an agonizing cry from the souls of tens of thousands of young Jews who assimilate, integrate and disappear into the outer space beyond Judaism. It is THE cry, THE question. It is asked by young men and women who have seen the emptiness and the vapidness of the Judaism they grew up with.

Felafel on Rye

Who Thinks about Jerusalem During the Seventh Inning Stretch?

By Tzvi Fishman

This blog is not coming to reject, or condemn, any practice of Judaism which is based on a sincere fear of Heaven, nor to reject or condemn any Jew, or Jewish community, God forbid. The blogs we write come to reject only the misunderstanding of Judaism which negates the centrality of the Land of Israel to the Torah and to the vitality of Jewish life.

Felafel on Rye

If I Were Prime Minister

By Tzvi Fishman

Now that everyone is talking about elections, I’m thinking of throwing my kippah into the ring. In all modesty, my novels have won me a pretty fair following in the religious community, so I could very well garner the necessary number of votes to get elected to the Knesset.

Felafel on Rye

Hollywood to the Holy Land (Part 2)

By Tzvi Fishman

"Dear God," I said. "I don’t know why you have come into my life and done this great miracle for me. But I am certainly grateful, and I would like to make You happy some way in return. Tell me what You want me to do, and I will do it."

Felafel on Rye

From Hollywood to the Holy Land

By Tzvi Fishman

My bar-mitzvah ceremony was held in a Unitarian church. To me, that’s a perfect symbol for being a Jew in America, where you are totally immersed in a foreign, gentile culture. Even if you live in a strictly-kosher ghetto, the World Series, Michael Jackson, Christmas decorations, the Oscars, and the NY Daily News are waiting for you the minute you cross the street.

MUSSAR – Avi Ganz

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E-Edition

Serials

Freedom Is the Ownership of Time

By Itamar Frankenthal

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