Welcome back!  We explore Rav Kook’s description of the Birthpangs of Moshiach – we’re right in the middle of it (hopefully closer to the end).  Knowing what is happening allows us to stay afloat in such difficult times.  Rav Kook’s prescription for how to manage is quite surprising.

Chanukkah and the Yosef story are always intertwined.  This year we explore how Hanukkah and the Tzaddik can help us see what is and also what could be.   Yosef helps the brothers see who they are and then see what is possible, and Hanukkah helps us look at our own lives in order to truly [...]

On our wedding day, we are forgiven all our sins.  Rebbe Nachman used this opportunity toward G-d-service.  He used forgiveness as an opportunity to move, not to relax.  And we have the same opportunity on Sukkot after the forgiveness of Yom Kippur.

‘For I sat the Jewish people in Sukkot when I took them out of Egypt’ – but we don’t find this story in the Torah.  So Rabbi Eliezer and Rebbe Akiva disagreed – were they actual sukkot like we have, or the clouds of glory?  They are both true, and represent two kinds of sukkah.  [...]

As the 9th of Av came to a close, we looked toward the future with R’ Hirsch in order to find out when 9th Av will become a day of joy, as promised in the prophets.  Unlike Rambam, R Hirsch tells us that it will come to be only when we have broguht truth and [...]