On Shabbat (September 14, 2024; 11th of Ellul 5784) Kee TayTzey, Piotr Stasiak’s soul completed this cycle. In Barry Cohen’s Opening the Drawer: The Hidden Identities of Polish Jews, At age 15, Piotr Stasiak enacts the book’s title, discovering the documentary proof that his Jewish father Leon Stasiak is Lazar Sylman. His father survived Buchenwald and Auschwitz and finally was rescued by his Catholic mother and her brothers. Piotr Stasiak was both a child of Jewish survivors and Catholic Righteous Gentiles.
FULL VIDEO
Modeling the Jewish Learning and Humanity of Our Late Teacher Rabbi Michael A. Signer.
Benefit of the Doubt as a Cornerstone of Trust
Thoughts on parashat Ki Tetze 5784
Let me start our reflection with quoting some laws from our Torah portion:
In the case of a virgin who is engaged to someone —if another man comes upon her in town and lies with her, you shall take the two of them out to the gate of that town and stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry for help in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst.[…]
Managing Pain
Thoughts on parashat Shoftim 5784
A week ago I had a dental emergency. My tooth began to hurt, on Thursday evening, just a little, but on Friday, during the day, it began to hurt more and more. I led evening prayers while on strong painkillers. However, they soon stopped working because the pain became unbearable, (8-9 on a scale of 1-10) – so unbearable that I went to the ER in the middle of the night. I spent about 4 hours there and they did basically nothing. If I didn’t ask for local anesthesia at the end, this visit would have been a complete waste of time. Using this local anesthesia again and again I survived till the morning. Then I called about 15, maybe 17 dental clinics and one finally accepted me, despite the fact that they were already booked for the entire day. I scheduled an appointment, the dentist opened my tooth, removed the nerve, applied temporary filling and scheduled root canal treatment in three weeks. I went home. The pain was gone! I spend the rest of Shabbat sleeping in my bed.[…]
Judaism and Meat
Thoughts on Parashat Re’eh 5784
A celebrated Orthodox rabbi gets to heaven and an angel takes him to a banquet that has been prepared in his honor. “We will serve you the most tender meat, the juiciest fish, and fragrant wine,” the angel tells him. “But who was the Mashgiach for this meal?” the rabbi asks. “Ah,” says the angel. “In your honor, God was the Mashgiach.” “Thanks,” says the rabbi. “But I’ll just stick with the fish.”[…]
We Mourn the Passing of Holocaust Survivor Estelle Glaser Laughlin
08-29-24 – We mourn the passing of Holocaust survivor Estelle Glaser Laughlin. Estelle Laughlin was an extraordinary educator of great human depth. Her active personal witness as a teacher and active resource for insight expressed itself in her speaking and writing; most notably in Transcending Darkness: A Girl’s Journey Out of the Holocaust I am entrusted with telling her life story to the Polish-speaking world, a task I am most committed to, for the sake of Polish and Jewish identity – for the sake of our common humanity.
In the Atmosphere of Shabbat in Kalisz
We had an evening in the atmosphere of Shabbat in Kalisz. It was our second meeting in this city
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- …
- 142
- Next Page »