FOSTERING A VIBRANT RENEWAL OF JUDAISM IN POLAND
Kedoshim tihiyu – You shall be holy (Leviticus 19:2) – thus begins parashat Kedoshim, the second of the two Torah portions for this week. What does it mean to be holy in Judaism? It means ve’yareta me’Elochecha – to fear God (Leviticus 19:14). The fear of God in Judaism is not something irrational. It means to have a sensitive and scrupulous heart and to be prudent in your actions, in order to do[…]
The quality of our life, in all its dimensions – material, social, psychological and spiritual, is dependent on our morality, our culture and how we relate to each other on a daily basis. We can make our life heaven and we can make it hell – it is in our hands. As the famous verses of the Book of Deuteronomy state:[…]
At this moment there are 7.9 billion people living in the world. Those people speak different languages and they practice different religious and various customs and traditions. In short: they are representatives of many different cultures. Each of these cultures has its specific values, its ethos and teachings, telling people what they should do and what they shouldn’t do in their lives. Sometimes they,[…]
Shabbat has come – our most precious day of the week. Along with Her, we receive the two ministering angels (malachei hasharet) familiarized in the song Shalom Aleichem. We know from Hassidic tradition that one of the angels is a “good” angel and the other one “bad”.[…]
Today people lament over the crisis of political and religious leadership. I gripe and grumble along with the best of them, notwithstanding, this “crisis” is nothing new and is quite possibly inherent to human societies. While we must tip our hat to our preeminent leaders that inspire and galvanize,[…]
La Yehudim haita orah ve’simcha ve’sason v’ikar – The Jews enjoyed light and gladness, happiness and honor. (Esther 8:16) – these are the words of Megilia that we read on Purim that has just passed. We recite these words at the end of every Havdalah prior to which we also look at the reflections of lights in our fingernails. Light is a fundamental element/principle of the world, both physically[…]
