Give Your Rabbi a Break

Please note: This article was republished (and commented on by Rabbi Dov) from the original article published by Rabbi Shmuley Botech on the huffingtonpost.com website: here.

Every time I meet a rabbi or pastor who now is a full-time stock broker, a realtor, an entrepreneur with a storefront business or an export-import firm (not to mention a lawyer, an accountant, or even a therapist) — and I ask why they left the rabbinate — the answer typically is the ...

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Give Your Rabbi a Break

Please note: This article was republished (and commented on by Rabbi Dov) from the original article published by Rabbi Shmuley Botech on the huffingtonpost.com website: here.

Every time I meet a rabbi or pastor who now is a full-time stock broker, a realtor, an entrepreneur with a storefront business or an export-import firm (not to mention a lawyer, an accountant, or even a therapist) — and I ask why they left the rabbinate — the answer typically is the ...

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Courage Under Fire: So How Does A Jew Respond When Caught Unexpectedly In ALoshon Horo Environment?

One of the most difficult aspects of Jewish life is dealing with the grave sin of loshon horo. The Chofetz Chaim, author of the Mishneh B’rurah compendium on the Shulchan Arukh that serves as the defining halakhic work for Ashkenazic Jewry in the modern era, nevertheless attached his name to his other great life’s work – on the laws of loshon horo. He felt that tackling the complexity of loshon horo law was the greater contribution he made in ...

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Courage Under Fire: So How Does A Jew Respond When Caught Unexpectedly In ALoshon Horo Environment?

One of the most difficult aspects of Jewish life is dealing with the grave sin of loshon horo. The Chofetz Chaim, author of the Mishneh B’rurah compendium on the Shulchan Arukh that serves as the defining halakhic work for Ashkenazic Jewry in the modern era, nevertheless attached his name to his other great life’s work – on the laws of loshon horo. He felt that tackling the complexity of loshon horo law was the greater contribution he made in ...

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Forgive and Forget

In the real world, do people forgive?  Yes, of course.

And no.  Of course.

A spouse wrongs his wife or her husband.  He realizes his error and apologizes.  All seems forgiven and forgotten.  It was a mistake, a painful one that caused her husband or his wife terrible sorrow.

The hurt person responds, after a deep and emotional pause: “I forgive you.”

The relationship slowly resumes as it had been before, and life moves forward.

Then, one day later – maybe a week later, maybe ...

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The Price of Freedom

To facilitate pidyon shvuyim (redeeming captive Jews from secular prisons) we are commanded to go so far as to sell a community’s Torah scroll. Yet it is hard to rejoice that Bill Clinton pardoned four chassidim from the village of New Square, N.Y., along with an alleged tax evader who donated megabucks to Israel. In contrast to the complex moral and ethical questions that grated pro-and-con during discussions over the possible pardons of Michael Milken and Jonathan Jay Pollard, ...

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The Price of Freedom

To facilitate pidyon shvuyim (redeeming captive Jews from secular prisons) we are commanded to go so far as to sell a community’s Torah scroll. Yet it is hard to rejoice that Bill Clinton pardoned four chassidim from the village of New Square, N.Y., along with an alleged tax evader who donated megabucks to Israel. In contrast to the complex moral and ethical questions that grated pro-and-con during discussions over the possible pardons of Michael Milken and Jonathan Jay Pollard, ...

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A Mindset that Drinking Is Not Cool, Vodka Vomiting Is Not Cool, Crookery Is Not Cool

When I attended yeshiva high school, everyone kvetchedabout the school: kids kvetched about the teachers, the facility, the bathrooms, the color the walls were painted. It was in the culture to kvetch about the place — even though we loved it so much. And then I went to college at Columbia University. Students at Columbia did not love that place as passionately as we loved our yeshiva high school. But no one kvetched at Columbia. (Yes, there were political riots — but it was a different ...

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A Mindset that Drinking Is Not Cool, Vodka Vomiting Is Not Cool, Crookery Is Not Cool

When I attended yeshiva high school, everyone kvetchedabout the school: kids kvetched about the teachers, the facility, the bathrooms, the color the walls were painted. It was in the culture to kvetch about the place — even though we loved it so much. And then I went to college at Columbia University. Students at Columbia did not love that place as passionately as we loved our yeshiva high school. But no one kvetched at Columbia. (Yes, there were political riots — but it was a different ...

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Passover’s Uniqueness Among Our Holidays

Passover is unique among our holidays in that it brings us together, as extended families and communities, to worship and to learn and to eat and to enjoy the kids – all highlighted in one extraordinary evening at one large dinner table.

Some of our holidays, like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, center primarily around public worship.  Some holidays focus on learning, as when we devote Shavuot night to Torah study.  Some focus on eating, as with Sukkot and its outdoor meals or Chanukah and its fried ...

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