יום ראשון, ו׳ תמוז תשפ״וSunday, June 21, 2026
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Our Sages ask us to note that most of the time during our journey through the desert, the problem is not an external enemy but our internal state: our unity, our faith, our motivation. When these are absent, it is impossible to keep moving forward.
I wonder how many stood there, opening up their hearts and souls. How many knew that this would be their final prayer and yet they called out to Avinu Shebashamayim, ‘bring us home to Yerushalayim!’
Selling the home, paying off the mortgage, and accepting a large tax bill may feel painful. Few people enjoy writing large checks to the IRS. However, taxes are sometimes the price of simplifying life and unlocking financial flexibility.
Question: Is it prohibited to place a siddur or some other sefer on top of a Chumash? Menachem Kooper Via email
By Marc Gronich
How is it possible that when we’re living in a world where you need police protection to observe your faith, for Yom Kippur, for Rosh Hashanah, for any of the holy days, that’s not a scandal?
The Menorah teaches that outward illumination is the last step, not the first. That leadership begins with the quiet work of tending your own inner flame.
Israel has consistently maintained that the blockade exists to prevent the importation of weapons and military materiel into Hamas-controlled territory, a claim that is strongly supported by the historical evidence.
Rather than silently altering the text or replacing problematic passages with revised wording, the printers chose a different approach. Wherever material was omitted, they simply left a blank space on the page.
We are all living through a period of profound uncertainty, both globally and within the Jewish world. On a global level, it often feels as if we are living in the calm before a storm.
In this week’s parsha, we receive the command to raise up its candles, and of course on Shabbat Chanukah we are very involved with the mitzvah of lighting candles.
The study of Pirkei Avos contains lesson after lesson on how we can improve our daily behavior.
You are not missing anything. Everything has been going smoothly because it can. You don’t need conflict or disagreement. You don’t need an issue to address or a problem to fix.
Under no circumstances does Golding recommend glossing over the horrors.
It is explained that before we received the Torah, we were comparable to animals, so we bring the offering from barley.
When it comes to the technologies, medical breakthroughs, surgical innovations, and companies that have most shaped modern life since the 1990s, two countries stand out above all others: the United States and Israel.
Say what you will about a demagogic politician dedicated to reviving Marxism – one of history’s bloodiest and costliest failures – as if the catastrophic events and slaughter brought on by it never happened. But on this issue, at least he wasn’t a hypocrite.
He was among the first rabbis to embrace the internet as a platform for Torah, publishing responsa as early as the 1990s. But these were not ordinary responsa. Every ruling stood behind an idea.
Although he did not court the approval of Jewish newspapers, he was acutely aware of their influence in liberal circles, writing privately that “Approval or disapproval in the Jewish press is of minor concern, provided that the law stands and the state remains firm.”
In attempting to justify his unprecedented absence, Mayor Mamdani said that he has made his “views on the Israeli government abundantly clear.” Yet the Israel Day Parade is not a political rally for the Knesset, nor is it a blanket endorsement of every specific policy enacted by the government in Jerusalem.
In the wake of the Jewish people’s collective wedding anniversary on Shavuos, I offer five dating mindsets that I’ve gleaned from those summers – for those of us still on the journey toward our chuppah, and those genuinely offering support along the way.
Let me make it clear that G-d does not get angry, nor does He have any other human emotion. However, the Torah speaks in language we can relate to. The Torah anthropomorphizes G-d so that we can understand things better.
When a circle is merely cyclical, detached from growth, it represents spiritual death. This is the circle of routine, of habit, of endless repetition with no forward progress.
Intellectually I know that tznius is a middah, an outlook, a shield that guards our inner selves from becoming diluted, but invariably, one of the first images that pops into my mind when I hear the word tznius is that young teenage girl on her first day of school.
It is certainly harder in the heat of summer, but it makes it even more meaningful to make a kiddush Hashem when people know how dedicated you are to Judaism.
With such acceptance, one can attain wisdom, since one who acknowledges the limits of his or her knowledge is more receptive to new ideas.
Tznius is not about limitation; it is about elevation. It is about recognizing that dignity creates strength and that there is beauty in refinement and self-control.
By Ariela Davis
I try to enforce tznius dress code for my students at school and it upsets me if any of my own daughters try to push the limits but… to be honest, tznius does take center stage in our education system far more than halacha affords it in Shulchan Aruch.
A person who constantly succumbs to his needs and urges without any intellectual thought or consideration is no better than an animal.
By Brian Romick
The United States should absolutely use its leverage to advance peace. But that leverage should not be focused solely on Israel.
There isn’t an educator in any of our schools who isn’t a hero. Teaching is the most valuable and integral profession we have, despite the fact that teachers are often underpaid and underappreciated.
After winning a decisive military victory in Operation Epic Fury, the United States cannot afford to sign a flawed document just to secure a fleeting public relations win.
When complaints become constant, there is usually something deeper taking place. The words people use are not always the whole story. Sometimes the frustration we hear is only the outer layer of a more painful sense of loss.
By Mendi Glik
Over the years, Cohen was in close contact with his uncle. He used to send him songs and consult with him. Shloime taught him that to sing is to pray.
Does buying jewelry now count for the mitzvah of simchas Yom Tov?
Your child’s fears are very real and should not be ignored. That would only make them grow. However, bedtime is not the time to address those fears in a genuine matter.
The Jew as a Gentile’s “Kashrus Certificate” “We Do Not Give Innards to a Gentile” (Chullin 33a)
Her positivity, energy, and incredible enthusiasm shine brightly. She is truly a light for all of us to emulate.
f you just stated the details of the korban once, with Nachshon ben Aminadav, and then said that the others brought the exact same korban (without listing the elements), this could arouse jealousy between the tribes.
Having low fixed expenses early in life allows you to save aggressively and build a foundation that can compound for decades.
Question: Why do we take three steps back at the conclusion of the Amidah, and yet the chazzan is not required to do so when he concludes the Repetition of the Amidah – Chazarat HaShatz? Sam (Shnayur) Weiss Via email
It begins with counting. Order. Structure. Arrangement. But almost immediately the parsha shifts into the unpredictable terrain of human emotion.
On Shavuot it is customary to make a new commitment to Torah study. Our Sages explain that Shavuot is considered a “Rosh Hashanah” for the Torah, and that a new year of Torah study is about to begin.
At that moment, surrounded by song and holiness, Israel no longer felt like merely a country. It felt like destiny fulfilled.
Particularly poignant was a copy I once owned that contained an inserted typed letter signed by Rabbi Shlomo Shleifer himself.
Does Hashem desire that we sever ourselves entirely from the physical world, surviving on as little pleasure and comfort as possible? According to the Rambam, the answer is no. The Torah demands calibration rather than withdrawal.
Ever since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the use of Holocaust inversion by enemies of Israel has gone from being used only by pariahs to becoming chic.
The Aish Kodesh explains that in this world, a Jew can be identified by virtue of his rootedness in the supernal wisdom, but all the wisdom that reaches his consciousness comes through an extension of the Divine spirit into this material world.
Six months is definitely enough time for a man and a woman to decide if at the very least, they want to commit to one another. It is certainly enough time to see if they are compatible, if their personalities align, if they have the same life goals and values, and if they have chemistry.
When we follow their advice and pay attention to their criticism, they actually give us life in the World to Come.
With most of its primary source of revenue cut off, the question remains: How did the PLO-P.A. continue financing terror payments?
When we fulfill the mitzvah of hachnosas orchim it doesn’t make a difference who the guests are. The halacha is to treat them like royalty.
There are even bracketed additions embedded within the English translation, so as to clarify the meaning and also allow the language to flow more naturally.
By Alan Magill
I am a big believer in putting people in the spotlight with the strengths they have.
By Jessica Russak-Hoffman - JNS
The buffer zone would be twice the size of the one Mamdani vetoed earlier this year.
Wells exemplifies a strain of liberal thought that underestimated the resilience of antisemitism and overestimated the protective power of universal ideals.
Parshiyot come in two flavors: p’tuchot and s’tumot, open and closed. A parsha p’tucha begins on its own line, with a blank space on the line above from the end of the previous parsha to the end of the line. A parsha s’tuma begins after a blank space on the same line on which the previous parsha ended.
Dying with a weapon in defense of Jewish life in Israel is not the same as dying helplessly in exile. Perhaps both belong to the same Jewish story, but they tell different chapters.
By Maayan Zik
Tzom unlocks teshuvah because fasting is an act of self-denial that asserts that you are more than your appetites, which is the very foundation of repentance.
Fasting is an expression of closeness – achieved or desired. And when we think about it, isn't that really the point of all of our own fasts as well?
Jewish wisdom teaches that every person is made up of two parts: the physical self and the spiritual self, the body and the soul. They are meant to work together in harmony.
By Ruchi Koval
The first thing that pops into my head is “tzom kal,” because no one in America calls it a “tzom” – they call it a “fast day.”
It is incredibly easy to sit in a television studio thousands of miles away from the front lines of civilization and lecture a traumatized nation on the finer points of morality.
Time does not move along a continuous, straight line; it circles around in a repeating yearly cycle. As the Ramchal explains, Hashem created thematic cycles of time, and each point in the year contains unique spiritual energy.
The question now is, at what point does the spread of the disease become so bad that the only solution is to flee.
The ability to collaborate, connect, and negotiate between the built-in masculine and feminine traits and perspectives is what allows creation to occur, literally and figuratively.
Imagine what another decade of inaction would have produced.
If a father embarrasses his son in shul because the latter was talking during davening, he may get his son to stop talking in the moment, but in the long term he has not taught him anything about kavod ha’tefillah
In fact, it is an agency whose very mandate is structurally designed to prevent the resolution of the Palestinian refugee crisis.
By Ben Rothke
The topics are all real, important, and relevant in this significant work.
From a philosophical perspective, many Jewish thinkers have focused on the unique role of speech as a defining element of humanity. Speech, at least in its fully realized form, distinguishes Man from the animal; for humans, speech expresses thought, making this distinction especially profound.
It is not fear of having to account for one’s misdeeds after one dies that should be the motivating factor. It is the love of life that should inspire him, the love that is generated by keeping the daily mitzvos and learning His Torah.
The story line struck a chord because I’ve known several couples who dated when very young and ended the shidduch (or were advised to end it), then married that very same person years later when the match was proposed again.
The Siren’s Wail “If a Festival Falls on the Eve of the Sabbath…” (Chullin 26)
What survives here is not merely a mohel’s register, but an extraordinary ethnographic document of Jewish life in transition...
Laban wasn’t the only person in history whose given name means “white.” In fact, names meaning “white” or “bright” have a storied history, particularly in European nobility.
When people feel unfulfilled or discontented with their jobs or their lives, they might turn to food to suppress those feelings. Food becomes a focus instead of the boredom or the discontentment.
Throughout the narrative, Horowitz points out examples such as this, where things in her life could have been so much worse, and woven throughout the entire sefer is evidence of the incredible gratitude she has to Hashem for the many gifts she has received that help her navigate through a world without sound.
How do we present our leaders? Do we portray them as flawless beings, untouched by error, existing on a plane so elevated that they bear little resemblance to the people we are raising? Or do we present them as the Torah itself does: as extraordinary individuals who nevertheless grappled with very human struggles?
An inheritance is yours by default. It comes whether you asked for it or not. A heritage becomes valuable only when you claim it.
You are in the middle of work, replied Rabbi Spitz. I assume that Rabbi Dayan also taught you the importance of having a good work ethic and not wasting time as an employee.
By Alan Zeitlin
The play presents Dahl as a man in physical pain, desperate to secure his marriage to his second wife, and increasingly cornered by public backlash.
The Torah begins with the most universal and global message: G-d created the world. But it ends with the most Jewish, national, and personal story: that same G-d, who gave King Cyrus dominion over all the kingdoms of the world, wants one House in Jerusalem, and wants us, with G-d’s help, to go up there.
It is important to remember that many teenagers experiment with smoking not because they are “bad kids,” but because they are curious, stressed, influenced by peers, or trying to feel more grown up.
By Mendi Glik
The album features rich orchestration, blending strings, brass, and piano with saxophone, clarinet, and electric guitar in the style of traditional chassidic music.
By Marc Gronich
Six Democratic hopefuls have emerged as contenders for the seat, which Nadler described to The Jewish Press as the safest Democratic seat in the country. “If my district ever went Republican then there isn’t a congressional district in the country that would be safe,” Nadler said.
Does Gere really object to the idea of Jewish families living in areas where ancient Jewish history is everywhere to be found?
Ruth’s story is not about conversion as a moment. It is about covenant as a life. Her geirus is not described as a ceremony. It is described as a relationship.
Wealth should serve a purpose beyond individual comfort. Before personal consumption, the first portion of one’s resources should be directed toward higher purposes.
