Tishah B'Av 5769 - July 30, 2009
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Beyond Punishment & Repair
By Tzvi Freeman
At first, there was punishment. Then came a time when there were no prophets to provide due warning. The suffering that occurred then is called "tikun"—healing, repair. But what is it today? |
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Mourning What is Missing
Understanding Tisha B'av
By Elana Mizrahi
Why do the Jewish people continue to mourn and weep year after year? Isn't there such a thing as live and let go? Be happy with the moment and forget the past? |
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Why We Mourn
By Naftali Silberberg
Why the obsession over an ancient Jerusalemite structure? Does the lack of a Holy Temple leave any of us feeling a gaping hole in our lives? |
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A Rose Among the Thorns
Jewish Pride in a Death Camp
By Mirish Kiszner
Another violent blow landed on my other cheek. "You are still praying?" The Blockelteste asked. Her face was crimson, contorted from fury, her eyes bloodshot. A sudden Jewish pride arose within me like a pillar of smoke rising from a chimney... |
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Sorry Doctors
By Naftali Silberberg
Simply put, the doctors decided to start owning up to their mistakes. The upshot? They're saving lots of time and money. |
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On Schindler's List: Leon Leyson's Story of Survival
By Miriam Metzinger
When the Nazis invaded Poland, Leon Leyson was ten years old. He recalls, "Suddenly, I lost my most basic rights. I was hungry and frightened all the time." |
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Life in a Bleak World--Is There Hope?
By Eli Pink
The world seems to be going through significant turmoil. How can we sleep peacefully in our beds at night with such storms brewing outside our front doors? |
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One Letter. One Life.
"I became pregnant a few weeks ago… I already have several small children, and I cannot care for another baby… Can I pray to G‑d to terminate the pregnancy?"
By Mendy Kaminker
Our site receives hundreds of letters each week. Among the questions we received recently, one stood out: "I became pregnant a few weeks ago… I already have several small children, and I cannot care for another baby… Can I pray to G‑d to terminate the pregnancy?" |
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How Much Effort Have You Invested in Your Marriage?
By David Kaufman
I have seen the worst marriages--marriages characterized by many years of dysfunctional and abusive behaviors--change. Here are eight key steps necessary for positive change.... |
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Family Meals Full of Frustration
By Tzippora Price
My wife maintains that family meals is one of the foundations of strong family life. However, our nightly reality is anything but a contented family catching up on the day's events. These dinners are a nightly exercise in frustration... |
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Starting a Jewish Settlement in Israel
Life in Maale Amos
By Bracha Goetz
With each long stretch of uninhabited, barren land we passed, interrupted only by an occasional primitive Bedouin village or a lone, wandering donkey or sheep, I was feeling that in every sense of the phrase, I had gone too far... |
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Hatred at the Supermarket
Confronting Antisemitism in 2009
By Orly Fuerst
She comes closer; her finger is waving inches from my face. "I can tell," she rants, "from your hair covering and your necklace (a Star of David) you're not an American..." |
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The Parshah in a Nutshell
Va'etchanan - Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
In which Moses implores G-d, describes the Exodus and the Giving of the Torah, predicts Israel's abandonment and return to G-d, and summarizes the fundamentals of the Jewish faith |
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The Inexistence of the Universe
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Twice Moses states in our Parshah that "there is none else"--that nothing exists aside from G-d. Are these just words, or do they mean something that we can understand? |
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Being Alive to the Full
By Tali Loewenthal
"And you who cleave to G-d, are all alive today" (Deuteronomy 4:4). To "cleave" means to join together, to be one. How can this word apply to the relationship of a tiny human being and boundless, eternal G-d? |
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To Study Our Children
By Dovid Hazdan
How often are we left unmoved by a truth because we are self-consciously aware of the ramifications of accepting such truths? |
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