Rav Bendavid, Shabbat Chazon 5786 Over the past few weeks, our community has had four shiva homes. Many people have come to pay shiva calls, and that is deeply appreciated by the families. But attendance at several of the shiva minyanim has been lower than it should be. I know it's vacation season. People are away, and sometimes the family isn't someone we know particularly well. Still, I feel a responsibility to write about this, because I believe it touches on one of the mo

Parshat Matot-Maasei 5786 I’m writing this dvar Torah from the Gush, where Aryeh Lev and I have been studying Torah for the last few days. It has been an extraordinary experience. At first, I had doubts about going. Would we succeed in learning together all day? Would he be able to sit for so long? Would I be able to sit for so long?! But when I asked him whether he was interested in coming with me to yeshiva and he answered, emphatically, “Yes,” my doubts fell away. During o

Today, as we fast on Shivah Asar b'Tammuz, we commemorate not only the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans, but also two tragedies that strike at the heart of Torah itself - Moshe Rabbeinu's shattering of the Luchot after חטא העגל, and the burning of a Sefer Torah by Apostomus. What is the takeaway message from this fast? The breaking of the Luchot and burning of the Torah remind us that even the Torah itself can become entangled in Chillul Hashem. Against th