Ahavat Yisrael

It is unbelievable how small and petty differences drive us apart.

I was feeling great before she walked into the room. She came in, our eyes met, and my joie de vivre started to deflate . . .

How can I share something I don’t have? How can I accept another if I don’t accept myself? How can I “love my fellow as myself” if I don’t love myself?

Some commandments share “verse space” with another mitzvah. It is interesting to analyze these “compound verses” to find the unifying thread. Rebuke and love . . . Love and revenge . . . Know, but remain silent . . .

So what if he's ugly and his mother dresses him funny? His soul is pure and untainted

Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik's "The Lonely Man of Faith", and the famous chapter 32 of the Tanya of Rabbi Shcneur Zalman of Liadi. To state the contrast is not to formulate an opposition; simply to open another gate...

The idea that the entire Torah focuses around the theme of one's relationship with other people is quite striking

What earthly resemblance do any of these comic book characters have to me or my lifestyle?

The Talmud relates that one who came to Hillel and asked him to teach him the whole Torah whilst standing on one foot. Hillel replied 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Torah - the rest is commentary..." Why did Hillel pl...

Have you ever felt like losing your temper but at the last moment you managed to restrain yourself? Inner battles of this kind are often associated with traffic wardens and similar representatives of officialdom...