ב"ה

Vayechi

Parshah
Life, Death and Reality

"Our father Jacob did not die," said Rabbi Yochanan. Asked Rabbi Yitzchak: "Was it for no reason that the eulogizers eulogized, the embalmers embalmed, and the buriers buried?"
Why G-d Listens to Rachel

All day, I couldn’t shake the haunting image of a child, shaken from sleep, startled out of complacency, crying instinctively for his mother.
Your Questions
Why Is Challah Braided?

The long-standing Jewish custom is for Shabbat breads to be braided. Here's why.
Story
Saved by His Honesty

Besides his day job, he had another duty, one that he carried out secretly and with great devotion . . .
The Inspiring Story of Rabbi Avner, the Sinner

One Yom Kippur, Avner sent guards to the synagogue, ordering the Ramban to appear before him. In his palace, before the eyes of his former teacher and master, Avner slaughtered a pig, roasted it and ate it on this holiest of fast days.
Jewish News
Following Anti-Semitic Attacks in Holland, Dutch Jews Say ‘Thank You’

Chanukah was just the right time to recognize the community’s ‘lights.’
Soup’s On! Seniors Get Weekly Deliveries From Preschoolers

Brooklyn-based intergenerational program feeds mind, body and soul.
Women
Battling My Eating Disorder, Day by Day

I have an eating disorder.The doctors call it anorexia nervosa, but I resent being put in a box with a nice little label.
Lifestyle
"Teshuvah out of love" [arises] from the depths of the heart, with great love, desire, and a craving soul to cleave to G-d; the soul thirsts for G-d like a parched and barren soil, because, up until now, it was in a barren wilderness and in the shadow of death... very distant from the face of G-d... It is regarding repentance out of such great love that it has been said that premeditated sins become, for him, like virtues, since through them he attained this great love...
— Tanya, chapter 7