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Leah: The True Value of Gratitude
Every Jewish schoolchild knows that the very first word out of our mouths each morning is “Modeh ani.” Rav Shimshon Pincus z”l once opened a class on tefillah with the question: Why is it that we say “Modeh ani” (Grateful am I) and not “Ani modeh” (I am grateful)? And he answered: Because first, we…
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The Multifaceted Personality of Rivka Imeinu
Rivka Imeinu, the second of our four matriarchs could be described as the ‘sandwich matriarch’. Unlike Sarah who together with Avraham sets the foundation for the birth of the Jewish people, and Rachel with her and Yaakov’s love story and the legacy of being the mother in whose zchut the geula will come, Rivka’s life…
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Speaking Up: Women in Tanach Who Changed Jewish People’s Lives
Our actions and words can change one life or many…
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Sarah: Beauty According to the Torah
One of the first episodes in the Torah regarding Sarah, the wife of Avraham, introduces us to her in a very interesting way. Avraham is forced by a famine to leave his home and travel to Egypt. Concerned that the Egyptians, taken by her beauty, will want Sarah for their own, Avraham takes serious precautions…
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Lilith: A Demon, Not to Be Defended nor Glorified
In college, I analyzed the history of vampires in a creative writing class. Interestingly, from each culture researched, the earliest dated origins of vampires came from the Old Testament…
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Chava: Connecting Back to the Source
“The world was created in the merit of three things — challah, tithes, and first fruits.”
