Articles by Yanki Tauber

What kind of "free choice" do we have, if we didn't choose to be presented with that choice?

A caricature of neurotic self-absorption, or the most encouraging and optimistic perspective of reality in the history of human awareness?

What did Moses feel ascending Mount Sinai for the third time, on the early morning of the 1st of Elul, 3,308 years ago?

Why are we never content to simply be? Why does our animal self posses willpower, passion and energy beyond anything our spiritual self could ever muster? What purpose does "happiness" serve? Which is greater--awareness or action? struggle or tranquility?

Imagine a person trapped under a collapsed building. There is a small fissure in the rubble--just large enough to allow him to extend his hand to his rescuers. We are that hand

Large, round object. Move it towards the goal. Outmaneuver those big, burly guys trying to stop you. Be quick. Use your feet. Sounds familiar? Sounds like my life

Before baking her toil, talent and thaler into bread for herself and her family, she pinches off a choice bit...

The Torah is a guidebook. A contract. Identity. Vision. A daughter. And a wife...

In this world that G-d made, there are no tourists--just local residents. There are no fans in the bleachers--only players on the field. No audience--just actors

Do we surrender to the anti-truth of arbitrary happenstance, or do we embrace the divine calling of purposeful engagement? The difference looks a lot smaller than it is

The head is obviously a critical piece of machinery. Would it not have been more judicious to put it in a more protected place, perhaps somewhere deep within the body's bulk?

"My design for A New Home for the New Millennium may seem revolutionary," explained the architect, "but only because we have drifted away from the home's initial, primal function..."

Is there really such a thing as "theoretical knowledge," or is it just a theory?

You may be the only guy wearing a red tie in seat 3B, but does that mean that if you'd put on the yellow tie this morning you wouldn't be you?

Walls insulate and isolate. Breached boundaries leave us vulnerable to attack and loss of identity. What, then, is it that we need?

There's nary a shul bench in Mineola or a park bench in Jerusalem that does not bear the inscription "In memory of ...." Is that what it's about -- memorializing the dead? or is there something more significant at play here?

The "child" and the "servant" exist in all relationships: in a marriage, in the family, in the workplace. In our lives as Jews and our relationship with G-d there are also these two prototypes...

Skeptic: Now if that's not the epitome of everything wrong with religion... Believer: Aren't you leaving out a very important part of the story?

Much is made of Abraham's valiant efforts to save the city of Sodom, how he went to battle with G-d on behalf of these very sinful people. But something about the story just doesn't add up...

To be a Jew is to be constantly moving from what you are to what you can be, and from what you have made of yourself to yet a deeper truth of what you are

Some of my best friends are atheists. And I can hear them saying: "You can be a moral and ethical person also if you don't believe in and respect G-d"

That "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is a fact already noted by the Talmud some 1,500 years ago. But what's so great about being rich, anyway?

"Know your enemy" is often the key to knowing yourself. And knowing yourself is always the key to defeating your enemies...

On the one hand, he's declared to be nothing less than the equal of Abraham (in passion) and Moses (in prophecy); on the other, he's described as the most perverse, greedy and corrupt human being ever to walk the face of the earth!

How do you impart the urgency, the commitment, the devotion you feel? How do you make others appreciate that it's not about you but about the vision-- the cause which has made you a part of something far greater than your own self?

The idea of inequality is distasteful to us. So we reject everything about it, everything it ostensibly resembles, everything it reminds us of. Including the most beautiful, gratifying and enlightening thing we have: our relationships with each other

It's my favorite oxymoron: If one indeed lives in the future, it's not the future anymore, is it? And if one only thinks he's living in the future, than he's not really living there, is he?

I made myself? Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Why would a smart guy come out with a ridiculous statement like, "I made myself"?

Purim, as everyone knows, falls in the month of Adar. Actually, according to the Kabbalists, it's the other way around: Adar rises in Purim...

It was an age of boors and ascetics, a time of conflict between body and soul. Then a master appeared. "Don't beat your beast," he taught, "don't overload him and don't abandon him. Help him"

You're walking down the street when, suddenly, a hard object with sharp edges hits you smack in the middle of the forehead...

The ancient Egyptians worshipped the Nile as a god. After all, it was their Dollar, Stock Portfolio, College Education and Career wrapped in one...

When faced with a tragedy we mourn. But we also ask ourselves: what positive element lies buried within this negative experience? We cannot always see it. But we always look for it

A chassid is a mystic. A chassid is pious. A chassid is joyous. A chassid is selfless. A chassid is a revolutionary. What is the common denominator of all these traits? That a chassid lives life from the inside

The disciples of Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch gathered around his bed to hear their teacher speak about Jacob's angels. It was the last Shabbat of the chassidic master's life...

A famous saying by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov goes: "The physical life of a Jew is a spiritual thing." Sounds great, but what does it mean?

If you ended up on the upper storey, consider yourself lucky. If you find yourself on the lower level, consider yourself luckier

You need to pick a spot and stick with it. You can't stop boring when you hit a rocky stretch, and you can't take the work home with you

"You get a comfortable salary, full health benefits, free day care and spa privileges, 31 days annual paid vacation. You have no duties and responsibilities -- you don't even have to come to work." Would you want this job?

It's not for the money -- I had plenty of that before I started. And I'm not the kind of person need to be "doing something" to feel complete. So why am I doing this?

Open your wallet. Take out a single dollar bill. Place it on the table in front of you. Take a long, contemplative look at it. In many ways, this is the most spiritual thing you own

Sometimes -- explained Rabbi Sholom DovBer -- like when a person is required to enter a tub of scalding water, the head will hesitate. It is the heels who plunge in and lead the way

Three ways to acquire a home. Three ways to get married. Three ways to do everything and anything in life

The details differ (a tiger raised in a Brooklyn apartment, a circus lion losing it in the ring) but the basic story is the same: a large cat "suddenly" sheds its domesticated persona and... well, you don't want to be in its way when that happens

"I, too, desire it!" Is Moses playing devil's advocate? Or is he baring a soul driven by a striving so exalted and G-dly that it is beyond the reach even of a Moses, a soul that finds its deepest yearnings frustrated by a divine command barring its path, commanding, "Stop. No. Not Yet."

Life is mostly waste. Take food, for example: we spend many hours earning the money, shopping, cooking, eating, and then most of it passes right through our bodies and into the city's sewer system

Don't try to challenge consensus. Don't bother with the lost cases. And stay away from the G-d stuff, unless there's some sort of angle

When you walk or run, your change of place derives from your prior position. One foot leaves the ground, while the other remains planted there to provide the forward impetus. But when you jump, both feet leave the ground...

First you had faith. Then you grew up. Then you discovered truths you always knew you knew but which your knowledge obscured. That's why we have pre-midnight matzah and post midnight matzah

What is "work"? If life is synonymous with creativity, is Shabbat a time outside life? What is the deeper significance of the curious Talmudic phrase, "forty labors minus one"?

Strip life of its false starts, of its missed opportunities, naive presumptions, fumbling first attempts and learned-it-the hard-way experiences, and what's left? Nothing worth writing home about, let alone going through all that trouble to live a life...

Push yourself to your limits and beyond, and if you do it with all the integrity and devotion and goodness of your Jewish soul and your Jewish body, there you will find G-d

Does G-d care if I cheat on my taxes? Am I going to be a better husband/wife/parent if I keep kosher? Are these the same question?

He led them to the very feet of the giant, opened a secret door in the monster's big toe, took them up a winding passageway to its belly, and showed them how the thing works...

Our source of sustenance is neither regular nor predictable. It does not well up from a channel grooved in the earth, nor is it treaded up from a hole in the ground. Our eyes are forever trained upward, in hope and expectation, and in faith...

The obvious question: Why are we made to forget? Obvious answer: Because there are certain things we should not know. Obvious question #2: So why are we made to know them, or almost know them, in the first place?

The purpose of the exercise was to move Jacob and family from Hebron to Egypt, about 200 miles as the crow flies across the Sinai Peninsula. But what a convoluted route this exercise took!

The teacher has locked his door, the mentor has disappeared, and one's own soul has turned dark and cold. When no solution for the darkness is in sight, this can only mean one thing: the darkness itself is the solution

According to the ancient mystics, all actions of man -- indeed all workings of creation -- derive from two general forces: love and awe. More specifically, there is "lower awe", "lower love", "higher love", and "higher awe" -- in that order

We're in this world. It seems real to us, but it's really an ingenious charade designed to make us think that it's real, act as if it's real, and thus allow it to feed on our vitality (didn't I see this in a movie somewhere?)

You're marrying the man you love. But there's this one strange thing: no one knows where he's been or what he's been doing for the last three years. What does this bode for your marriage?

Physicists are looking for ten dimensions. The Kabbalists speak of ten spheres of reality. And yesterday I bought my 10-year-old daughter ten bicycles

Are we transient beings for whom movement is life and "at rest" an inscription for the gravestone? Are we rooted souls, for whom the "journeys" of life are just so many guises of the singular quest for home?

Is time a line? Is it a circle, or perhaps a series of interlocking circles? Or is it a spiral? A swinging pendulum? A terrain? A sea? An organism?

It's as if you would ask the Creator, a billion times a second, "Seeing what's become of it, would you do it all over again?"

We are all warriors, for we each harbor the conviction that we were born to make a difference

"Blessing" is a very important word. So is "Curse", "You" and "Today". But the most important word in the sentence is the three-letter verb that opens the parshah: "See"

America has spawned many wonderful myths. The most wonderful thing about these myths is that they can be made true. There is, however, one American myth that is very dangerous, particularly for us Jews

What would it be like to live in a world without death, pain or suffering, without struggle or striving, anxiety or yearning, without deadlines or hassles, effort or achievement? What would we do all day?

The extremist makes us feel uncomfortable, because he makes hypocrites of us all: if we all acted on what we believed in, we'd all be extremists...

If we stop and think about what we're doing at any given point in our lives, we'll discover that, as often as not, we're doing something for someone else or sending someone else to do something for ourselves

We "raise" our children, "climb" the ladders of our careers, "rise" to life's occasions, think "highly" of people we admire, "aspire" to high ideals, regard "heaven" as representative of all that is good and "lofty". Why all this uppity talk?

Both parents offered the same advice, with the same degree of sincerity. But as the years went by, there was a change: the first child heard exhaustion in their voices, while the second child heard restraint

"I'm going to tell him everything," insisted the first father. "I want a son," objected father #2, "not a puppet." "I'll tell him everything," said the third father. "But I won't tell him what it means"

We all appreciate a statement like, "There's always a second chance." It fits quite nicely on the Dec 31 page of an Inspirational Sayings Calendar. But how does it mesh with real life?

Is it what we do, or why we do it? Do we enter life to play a part in a pre-established cosmic plan, or do we also have a role in defining the significance of our actions?

You're trapped in your life. Whichever way you turn, you encounter walls -- unshakable habits, antagonistic colleagues, elusive desires. There is a way out, but you're too big to squeeze through

I tried talking to my inner woman about Purim. "Haman?" I asked. "Haman is your authority on how to be a Jew?" She said I didn't get it

Love is the hallmark of Judaism; some of us even claim that we taught that word to the world. This Shabbat, however, we will stand in our synagogues and listen to a reading from the Torah that tells us to hate

Single-minded people aren't much fun. We wouldn't want to be like them -- well, maybe just a little bit...

The Talmud tells us that "Rabbi [Judah HaNassi] honored the rich." Many puzzle over this statement: does the fact that Joe has more money than Frank make him a better person?

Imagine a house with three rooms: a large room where the bulk of your time is spent; a smaller chamber where precious occasions of the spirit are enjoyed; and a rarely visited sanctum that is the absolute center of your life

There are four approaches to understanding what the Torah is all about: a) it means what it says; b) it's all a metaphor; c) it should be read from the top down; or d) from the bottom up

Billions of people have heard of the Ten Commandments. Less common, however, is the knowledge that this 10-point encapsulation of G-d's message to man reads in two directions: from top to bottom, and from side to side

What is the difference between being "taken out", "delivered", "redeemed", and being made truly, eternally, inherently and intrinsically free?

Somewhere there is a boundary, a line that separates the near from the far, the within from the without. If you can straddle that line, if you can stand with one foot inside and the other foot outside, you can be both

Adam was so perfect that he went looking for imperfection. Noah went by the book, Abraham by love, Isaac honed himself to nothingness, Jacob was a whole of infinite parts and Joseph found perfection in challenge

If you recorded every word you said for 24 hours, you'd probably find hundreds of references to light. Light, brightness, radiance -- these are the metaphors we use when we wish to speak about hope, wisdom, and goodness

One would think that after all that Rachel had gone through in the last 14 years there'd be at least a moment of contentment. Isn't it strange to name your firstborn child "I want another son"?

How should a person be judged -- by what he or she is, or by what s/he can be? A mysterious Parshah commentary by Rashi, a Talmudic adage and a chapter from the Chassidic work Tanya provide an unconventional formula

You're sitting in your room and meditating when you hear a voice. Is it the real thing? Is it another of your roommate's pranks? Or just your imagination running wild? How to know?

Sometimes it can be frustrating being a Jew. No matter what you do, one of your grandfathers or grandmothers has already done it. How can one ever do anything original with such ancestors?

Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years. That's enough time to do everything wrong and everything right

"And the earth was chaotic and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of G-d hovered upon the face of the waters." A spooky verse, a Talmudic law, and an empowering Midrash.

You can always tell a married couple by their arguments. You won't see these arguments anywhere else, for the simple reason that they don't make any sense anywhere else

A common denominator in all the explanations of the "Waters of Strife" incident is the implication that whatever the problem was, that wasn't really the problem. Basically, G-d is getting Moses on a technicality

We tend to think of life as composed of two kinds of time: "real time" devoted to career, family and friends; and "in-between" time -- waiting-room time, airport time, between-jobs time. Not so, says the Rebbe

The finish line is in sight; a few more surges of body and mind and you are there. But at this very moment, you stop thinking, stop concentrating, cease all conscious effort, allowing a wave of nothingness to engulf you

The king commanded his coachman to halt at the peasant's door. "How are you enjoying my gift?" he inquired of his beloved subject

Even if we manage to avoid saying outright untruths, there seems to be something intrinsically dishonest in the process we call "education"

Memory is a victory over time; but to truly free ourselves of time's tyranny requires the ability to not only relive the past, but also remember the future

We remember people, events, scenes and feelings from our childhood. But do we remember the self we were? The manner in which we perceived reality?

A person praying is a standing paradox, a swaying contradiction, a self divided. The body is praying for life and existence; the soul is praying to escape life, to transcend existence

Did you ever wonder why our calendar has both weeks and months? Why follow two different cycles that never add up?

Wine has no secrets: when a thing is what it is, it's the same from the inside looking out and from the outside looking in

When a Jew abandons Torah, does he or she lose their connection with G-d? Or is it the Torah that loses its connection with G-d?

Because it's a good way to get things done, because it's a good thing to do, because it's a happy time, and because of a fourth reason that's not really a reason

The "That's How G-d Made Me" excuse, the "Sorry I Lost It" excuse, the "I'm Special" excuse, and the "What's the Use" excuse

How do you measure the things you own? By the degree of your investment in them? By the intensity of your desire for them? By how possible it is to get rid of them?

Create an absence, and the vacuum will fill itself with a ferociousness that no "active" force can match.

Moses was absolutely sure about G-d. But he doubted his people.

We philosophized our way to science, and then science led us through the doorway into mysticism. But we still don't know how to live our lives.

If killing is wrong, why do we kill murderers?

The struggle between Jacob and the "angel of Esau", which "raised dust up to the Supernal Throne", is the cosmic struggle between the spirituality of Israel and the materiality of Edom (Rome). The struggle is conducted on two planes -- "with the divine and with men"

For the entire fourteen years that Jacob was secluded in the study house of Eber, he did not lie down. Nor did he lay himself to sleep for the 20 years he labored over Laban's sheep. In between, he spent one night at the holiest place on earth -- "and he lay down in that place" (Genesis 28:11). What is the deeper significance of that single horizontal night in 34 vertical years?

The very unnaturalness of galut, its very strangeness, is at the root of all that the Jew has accomplished and achieved, both for himself and for the world....

You were one with your environment: you were the universe and the universe was yourself. There was no I, she, it or that, for all being was one

As the Torah tells it, G-d spent six days making a universe, creating physicality and spirituality, time and space, matter and energy, water and earth, stars and trees and animals -- and then created a single human being and said to him: "All this is to serve you."

How can we possibly imagine that in the conglomerate of cells, organs and limbs we call our "body", extending across the hills and valleys of the terrain we call "time", there resides a single and singular "I"?

Once you get inside the brain, you can do just about anything. You can waken memories, restore lapsed talents, alleviate fears, magnify joys, abolish prejudices, stimulate interest and charge up motivation. You can basically re-program you life -- at least for a year

It's the time of year that Jews bless each other with life and health, sustenance and happiness. How does the blessing thing work?

How does G-d prepare for His annual reelection? Does He just sit up there in His "palace" trusting in our good sense to proclaim Him king once again? Does He go after the vote, mingling with the masses, pressing the flesh, kissing babies?

The whole fruit business is a scam

We all know what it does, but what does it say?

Try ignoring your parents. Not only is it possible -- it often feels right and necessary. After all, they let you do it. Sometimes they even seem to want you to...

So I don't exist. Or I don't exist and do exist at the same time. So what? I still have to get up in the morning, I still have to deal with my credit card balance, my mother-in-law, and this guy whose elbow is crushing my ribs on this crowded subway car. It might make interesting reading, but in the final analysis, what difference does it make?

The penimi appreciates the differences between important things and things of lesser importance, between means and ends, between journeys and destinations. But in whatever he is involved, he is fully there. When he's on the way to something, he's fully invested in being on the way to something

We all know the story of how Balaam's curses turned into blessings. But according to the Talmud, most of them turned back into curses

a) It's a phase we're going through; b) It's an empowerment thing; c) It’s the (spiritual) nature of things; d) Life is what you make it; e) Truth is in the externalities; f) It works.

There comes a point at which the external resources we've come to rely on are suddenly ineffectual, and the only place to turn is inward, to ourselves

We seek specialness. Everything else just is, and as such, unworthy of our energy or attention. But is that how we really are? Or is there another, perhaps deeper, self, that thrives on routine and regularity?

Having children is an act of faith: Faith that the world is going somewhere good. Faith that in our children's lifetimes it will be a better place than it is today. How do we know this, when there's so much evidence to the contrary? We just do

Have you ever closed a deal, celebrated your marriage (or its anniversary), or simply spent time with a good friend -- without eating something together? Why do our teeth, gullet and stomach figure so prominently in who, how, where and with whom we are?

Once upon a time, many years ago when we were little, we knew the importance of the story

Since the universe is basically words (see Genesis 1), everything -- marriage, community building, international relations, cosmic harmony -- is a question of proper grammar

Is it a bad, harmful deed? Is it the very face of death? Is it mere stupidity? Is it a potent opportunity for conquest and growth? Turns out, it's all four.

There are two holidays on which we spin. The Chanukah dreidel is spun from above. Purim's gragger is turned from below...

The fatalist maintains that nothing that anyone does really makes a difference. The activist believes himself to be the master of his fate. The Jew is neither and both.

Commonly perceived as a concession to the weaker sex by the stronger, the rule is actually founded upon a very different rationale

What's going on? Hasn't Pharaoh come literally begging Moses and Aaron to take their people out of his land as quickly as possible? Who, then, is this mighty Pharaoh materializing like a mirage in the desert?

The events recounted in the Torah section of Chayei Sarah all take place after Sarah's death. Not only that -- they seem to all underscore the fact of her demise. Yet "Chayei Sarah" means "the life of Sarah"!

Why was the leadership of Israel taken from Reuben and given to Judah? What does this teach us about the leaders we should choose to follow and the leadership we should display?

Don't run away from the dream, don't look for some other meaning. If the cosmic slumber of galut presents you with the paradox of the fat cow and the lean cow grazing together, make the dream the solution. Even Pharaoh recognizes good advice when he sees it.

"Is it not enough for the righteous what is prepared for them in the World to Come," the midrash declares, "that they also ask for a tranquil life in this world?" But why not? Does G-d have a limited quantity of tranquility to mete out?

Evil exists because it is so much more powerful than good. Is there lover in the world who loves with the intensity that a hater hates? Is there a light as bright as darkness is black? Has there ever been an act of kindness unleashed with the force and ferocity contained in an act of cruelty?

The question is not really do we have it, but what exactly is it. Is it a self-improvement thing, like a woodworking class or a therapy session? Is it a duty, like obeying the law of the land and going to work in the morning?

We take on the world, vowing to turn it upside down. And then we relax, and learn to savor life's little pleasures. And then, one day we realize what's wrong: we're not having fun anymore!

I think I know why the Rebbe liked this story so much. The child's question and the grandfather's explanation express two extremes, whose contrast and synthesis are a hallmark of the Rebbe's approach to life

Unlike mice, maple trees and angels, who are content to be what and where they are, the human being is constantly "on the go", forever striving to get somewhere, preferably somewhere where no one has been before. The problem is, there's nowhere left to go

Of a heart agitated by financial worries, only a small corner is free for pure feelings towards a loved one. Of a mind consumed by business, only a small amount of brain power is diverted a few daily minutes of meaningful learning. At best, only miniscule "samplings" of our resources are dedicated to a worthy purpose. Is it even worth the effort?

Slumbered time is probably the most wasted human resource. Why did G-d create us in such a way that we spend 25% to 30% of our lives doing nothing?

"I love my wife," said Berl. "That's why I do everything she asks me to do. She says, 'Berl, please take out the garbage,' and right away, I take out the garbage." We all agreed that Berl loves his wife.

We are physical beings, and the laws of physics (at least as they stand now) dictate that time runs in one direction only. Yet for some reason, we just won't let go. We continue to feel responsible for what was, continue to regard our past as something that still "belongs" to us and which we can somehow "fix"

Unless you're particularly religious, "G-d" is probably not a word that you use comfortably

For several years now, positive thinking has been in vogue. But the New York Times reports on a group of psychologists who are "worried that we're not making space for people to feel bad" and advocate a return to the psychologist's original role of "focusing on mental illness and human failing..."

According to the School of Shammai, if your spouse is unfaithful; according to the School of Hillel, a burnt supper is grounds; Rabbi Akiva says, "even if he found another more beautiful than she."

There is good and there is evil, blessing and curse, light and darkness; now choose. Not much of a choice, is it? So what's all this talk about "freedom of choice"?

The message is mixed

I was feeling quite satisfied over how I had handled the situation, when I discovered The Three Fundamental Rules on How To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands. That nipped my career as an outlaw in the bud. Though it was fun while it lasted.

Why do you bother getting out of bed in the morning?

Think back twenty, forty, sixty or eighty years, to the day that you learned how to walk. What you sensed but could not understand then, will tell you much about what you understand but cannot sense today

By law, the menorah stood in a chamber into which only kohanim ("priests") were permitted entry. But the law also states that an ordinary person may light the menorah. What is the point -- and lesson -- of this legal paradox?

To the fire-and-brimstone types, the word smells of shame and scorched flesh. To the hedonist it sounds like fun. Some think it's a wholly Christian concept while others ascribe it to the ancient Hebrews. To the sages of the Talmud, it is, above all, an act of profound stupidity

It's been said that if you talk to G-d, you're a religious person; if G-d talks to you, you're crazy. I guess that means I'm crazy. G-d talks to me. Not as frequently as He should, but fairly often

In the desert there are no office buildings or factories. So if you lived in the desert, chances are you wouldn't have a job. There'd be no boss bossing you, and no underlings under you

Bad things happen. They happen to good people. Contrary to common perception, bad things also happen to bad people. The difference is not so much in what happens, but in what happens to the person

Granted, Mount Sinai was no Everest. But G-d was coming down all the way from the heavens--couldn't He have descended another few thousand feet, instead of making an octogenarian sage climb a mountainside?

Numbers are funny things

How can we truly love another? Isn't that a logical impossibility?

At the Passover seder, the child asks, and we answer. But there is another dialogue taking place -- a dialogue in which we ask, and the child explains

Sticks and stones break bones, but the damage wrought by negative words reaches far deeper, to the very soul

A love relationship can thus be compared to an electrical circuit: should the resistance fall, the circuit will "short" and burn out

Why do we disguise ourselves on Purim?

Man has shrunk over the centuries. Suddenly, there were all these other people, and all these other species, dwarfing our significance. At the same time, our planet became infinitesimal speck in a universe of mind-numbing vastness. Did we become humbler? Are we less infatuated with self the our ancestors?

You see the way things are, and the way they ought to be. That's why human beings enjoy a higher stress level than cows, for example

How did G-d address the gold-sickness of His newly chosen people? He didn't abolish gold. He didn't even take away theirs. He told them to use their gold to build Him a Sanctuary.

Giving is the easy part; it's receiving that's so difficult. How many people do you know who have mastered the art of graciously receiving a gift or a compliment? Why, many of us find it hard to bring ourselves to ask for directions!

Man is the only truly clothed creature -- a creature who attires him or herself not only for warmth and protection, but to alter, enhance, even transform, his very identity

A corner of the universe that is utterly, exclusively, one's own

As a rule, people don't like rules. We don't like restrictions; we don't like being told what to do

The princess up in the grandstand catches your eye and is about to indicate the door leading to life and bliss. But at that moment Mr. Philosopher appears at her elbow...

"Everything that exists on land," says the Talmud, "also exists in the sea." The Kabbalists apply this law in a broader sense as well...

The easiest thing to do would be to get a divorce and follow one path through life, but Jews are notorious for their refusal to accept the easier solution

Are thing supposed to be the way things are, or are things supposed to be the way things are supposed to be?

It's probably the oldest question in the history of human thought. It's surely the most disturbing, the most frequently asked and the least satisfactorily answered. Why, oh why, do bad things happen to good people?

Knowledge may bring power, but absolute knowledge brings utter powerlessness

In Jewish tradition, prayer is an activity with distinctly violent connotations...

On the essence of shamash, the "servant candle" of the Chanukah menorah

We can sit and gaze at it for hours. What is it about a burning flame that captures our imagination?

Sometimes it all seems so hopeless. You can feed a hungry child, yet millions more remain hungry. For every good deed you do, so many evil deeds are committed...

"You're holy, but you stink!" That's what the village children would yell at the bechor (first-born animal) who would often be seen wandering about the shtetel...

Whatever for does Jacob need "the dew of heaven and the fat of the land," anyway?

Do not be misled by the legendary philanthropy of the Jews, by their saturation of social and humanitarian movements, by their invention of the pushkah, the meshulach and the UJA. Jews do not practice charity, and the concept is virtually non-existent in Jewish tradition

Why do we care? If our existence is an accident, why should it make any meaningful difference if we are or are not?

Try to imagine life without the word "because."

One of the most fascinating clauses in the Torah's criminal justice system is the law of the "indefensible criminal." If the evidence against the accused is so compelling that not a single one of the 23-member tribunal is inclined to argue in his favor, he cannot be convicted!

One day about 200 years ago there was a fire in hell. The whole place burned down. It was bound to happen, with those infernal fires burning night and day and the old devils getting careless over the years...

The fact that you cannot rationally understand something is no reason not to study it.

Half the world are givers, and half the world are takers. The interesting thing about this division is that the half you belong to has little or nothing to do with how much you actually have