emersonr@ncsy.org

We have learned a ton about Shabbat over the course of the last 52 days and as I mentioned all the way back on Day 4 ”keeping” Shabbat is only a small part of what Shabbat is really about. Let’s review: There are actually 4 pillars of Shabbat: Oneg Shabbat – Enjoying Shabbat (By eating) Kavod Shabbat –

With only 10 days left in our journey, I am reminded of an important Talmudic passage: “רבי יהושע בן קרחה אומר כל הלומד תורה ואינו חוזר עליה דומה לאדם שזורע ואינו קוצר – Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says ‘Anyone who learns Torah but does not review it is like a person who plants but does

The fifth of the Ten Commandments read (Exodus 20:11), “כַּבֵּד אֶת-אָבִיךָ, וְאֶת-אִמֶּךָ–לְמַעַן, יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ, עַל הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ – Honor your father and mother so that you should live a long and happy life”. We see throughout the Torah how valuable this instruction is. In fact, even those characters who are regarded as

  Previously, I mentioned the fact that if you are a Cohen you should avoid going to the cemetery. But who are Cohanim (the plural of Cohen) and why can’t they go to the cemetery? Basically, back in the day, there were twelve tribes, one for each of the sons of Jacob from whom we

King Solomon tells us (Ecclesiastes 7:2), “טוֹב לָלֶכֶת אֶל-בֵּית-אֵבֶל, מִלֶּכֶת אֶל-בֵּית מִשְׁתֶּה – It is better to go to a funeral than to a party.” What does he mean by this? Haven’t we said before that Judaism isn’t a negative philosophy? That we try not to focus on negativity? Today, I visited a cemetery with a group of

There is an ancient Jewish tradition, dating back around 2000 years, it is quoted in the Talmud (Brachot 60b), “אמר אביי…כי נפיק אומר ברוך אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה וברא בו נקבים נקבים חללים חללים גלוי וידוע לפני כסא כבודך שאם יפתח אחד מהם או אם יסתם אחד מהם אי אפשר לעמוד לפניך – Abaye

Over the last 2 months we have been discussing the importance of fully experiencing Shabbat and the various aspects of properly experiencing it. We outlined that their are 4 general categories that encompass the experience and amazing gift that is Shabbat, Honoring Shabbat, Enjoying Shabbat, Remembering Shabbat and finally, Keeping Shabbat. The final category being the

Have you ever heard the expression, “He’s such a menstch“? or in Hebrew, “Act like a ben-adam!”? What do these phrases really mean? The Yiddish word, menstch, literally means man and the Hebrew word, ben-adam, literally means “son of Adam” or “son of man”. What is meant when we use this expression? Well, you see, in the

We have been growing together for more than 40 day. When we begin to focus on growth, it is easy to get discouraged and think we aren’t making any progress. This should never be our attitude, we are always growing and making progress. Check out this video, for a better understanding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo8siqfciHo