SHS 2011 (1)

We were free people. But freedom is not automatic. It is something that needs to be learned, integrated and experienced. And if you have never been free, you may not know how to do it . . .

Is the hole a part of the bagel, or just its absence? Rabbi Infinity explores this Kabbalistic question in depth when he attempts to explain to his four-year-old granddaughter why he’s so good at explaining things.

It’s the first word a baby learns to speak. It’s the kindest word in any language. It’s the name of G‑d.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, of sainted memory, learns a life-altering lesson from the spring season.

The day’s first battlefield is your bed, and the first shot is fired when the alarm clock rings. What is the first action we’ll take on the battlefield?

Even laymen are obligated to be learned in Torah. But how much is one actually obligated to study? How often?

Rabbi Nissen Mangel, a renowned philosopher and author who was sent to Auschwitz as a 10-year-old boy and spent five years in the death camp before his liberation in 1945, addressing the concept of belief in G‑d after the Holocaust.

The poor man ate greedily. As he left, a man with kind eyes nodded. The poor man knew that this man had saved his life.

Maya asked a few questions, peered into cupboards and bedrooms in her best social-worker manner, and then left. I was sure we passed the test . . .

Lending money is the highest form of charity, far greater than giving handouts. A handout may preserve a life for a day, but a loan preserves that sense of self-sufficiency necessary to get back on your feet.