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Pulse of the Parsha – Noach 5787 | Fruitarian, Famine, and the Fellow Jew
When actor Ashton Kutcher prepared to play the role of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, he went to extreme lengths to inhabit the tech icon’s mind, including adopting Jobs’ famous, strict fruitarian diet, an extreme regimen consisting almost exclusively of raw fruits, nuts, and seeds obtained without harming the plant. However,…
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Rebbitzen’s Reflection Noach
Why Are We Building? When my children were young, our home was full of builder characters like Bob the Builder and Handy Manny because building is exciting and seems like fun. Repeatedly, to the extent that I still can hear it, the toy workbench played sage advice: measure twice, cut…
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Pulse of the Parsha – Bereishis 5787 | Preach What You Practice: The Wealth of Wedlock
In what may be a new twist on the age-old practice of marrying for money, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently reported that married couples aged 25-34 have net worth nine times that of single households of the same age[1]. The gap only widens with time: sociologist Brad…
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Rebbetzen’s Reflection Bereishis
A Fresh Start This week we begin the next phase of our year: the post-chagim stretch, when we either return to our routines or take the opportunity to create new ones. New beginnings are a chance to refresh, reset, and start again. And this week, we literally start again as…
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Pulse of the Machzor – Simchas Torah 5787: Why Are These People Dancing with a Book?
A similar version of this article was published in this week’s edition of the Jewish News. Someone who unwittingly wanders into an Orthodox synagogue on Simchas Torah night may wonder what they have stumbled into. Men of every age dance in tight, sweaty circles around the Torah scrolls, singing the…
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Rebbetzin’s Reflection Simchas Torah
As we approach the end of our Chagim season, I think about the meaningful time we have spent in shul, the quality time we’ve enjoyed with family and friends, the festive meals, and the unique feeling of this time of year. We still look forward to what for many is…
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Rebbetzin’s Reflection Sukkos
Survival to Celebration The abrupt mental and physical transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkos deserves explanation. On Rosh Hashanah, we stood before Hashem and asked to be written in the Book of Life. We had the ten days of repentance culminating on Yom Kippur, when we revisited the initial request…
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Pulse of the Machzor – Shabbos Shuva 5787: Nothing Is Neutral at the Defense Table
Last week, when London-based Revolut, among the most popular of Europe’s digital “neo-banks,” was duped into handing over sensitive customer data to a scammer impersonating a government agency, the company was immediately thrust into crisis.[1] Standard business operations were frozen as executives scrambled into emergency war rooms to contain extortion…