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Elul: A Time to Work on Relationships
Every person who enters our life has been placed there by Hashem…
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Ani Le’Dodi V’Dodi Li: Doing Teshuva Out of Love
In contemporary times, with greater access to education and opportunities for deep spiritual reflection, women, like everyone else, can and do engage with their faith at higher levels, motivated by love and understanding rather than merely by fear. As women, we can also take away the important principle that our motivations matter. It’s not just…
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Selichot: Peeling Away the Layers Over Our Hearts
On Rosh Hashanah, we bring ourselves as a korban to Hashem…
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“Circle, Arrow, Spiral”: The Dynamics of Change and Acceptance in Teshuva
The arrow, which embodies the masculine, represents the drive to move forward: to achieve, succeed, and overcome obstacles. It reflects the impulse to improve, to transform the present into something better. The circle, by contrast, which embodies the feminine, represents the drive for harmony and stillness — the ability to accept reality as it is,…
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Good Guilt, Bad Guilt: An In-Depth Guide on the Steps of Teshuva
Teshuva is a miraculous gift, a golden opportunity to retroactively undo our mistakes and even turn them into zechuyot…
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Does Hashem Expect Us to Be Flawless?
Rav Amnon Bazak writes of his Yeshiva high school experience: “The rabbis in my yeshiva high school …all believed that one who truly wishes to serve God must totally cut himself off from this world and devote himself entirely to God. A true Torah scholar is someone who overpowers all his passions, rises above all…
