The one week plan.

This weeks episode of Lazer Beams is incredible. This is a great show for both Jews and Non Jews. Believers and non believers. Rabbi Lazer Brody is an incredible teacher based on the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslev. He's truly influenced and helped my life. I would not be where I am without his help and many others can attest to the same. I definitely recommend Listening to this show. And once again Shabbat Shalom with love and blessings!

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/Author.aspx/4130

Happy Hanukkah!

For some great information and background about Hanukkah including the story of Hanukkah please visit,
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102816/jewish/The-Sto...

Mattot 5771 - Covenant & Conversation - Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks speaks on the weekly Torah portion

Pinchas 5771 - Covenant & Conversation - Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks speaks on the weekly Torah

Embedded in this week's parsha is one of the great principles of leadership.
The context is this: Moses, knowing that he was not destined to lead the next generation across the Jordan into the promised land, asked God to appoint a successor.
He remembered what happened when he was away from the Israelites for a mere 40 days. They panicked and made a golden calf. Even when he was present, there was a rebellion on the part of Korach and others against his leadership. The possibility of rift or schism if he died without a designated successor was immense. So he said to God:

"May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out before them and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in. Let the Lord's people not be like sheep without a shepherd." (Num, 27: 16-17)

God duly chose Joshua, and Moses inducted him. One detail in Moses' request, however, always puzzled me. Moses asked for a leader who would "go out before them and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in."
That, surely, is saying the same thing twice. If you go out before the people, you are leading them out. If you come in before the people, you are bringing them in. Why then say the same thing twice?


The answer comes from a direct experience of leadership itself.

Balak 5771 - Covenant & Conversation - Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks on the weekly torah portion

A People that Dwells Alone?

The dictionary defines epiphany as "a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something; a comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization." This is the story of an epiphany I experienced one day in May, 2001, and it changed my perception of the Jewish fate.

It was Shavuot, and we were in Jerusalem. We had gone for lunch to a former lay leader of a major Diaspora community. Also present at the table was an Israeli diplomat, together with one of the leaders of the Canadian Jewish Community.

The conversation turned to the then forthcoming -- now notorious -- United Nations' Conference against Racism at Durban. Though the conference would not take place until August, we already knew that it and the parallel gathering of NGOs would turn into a diatribe against Israel, marking a new phase in the assault against its legitimacy.

The diplomat, noting that the conversation had taken a pessimistic turn, and being a religious man, sought to comfort us. "It was ever thus," he said, and then quoted a famous phrase: "We are am levadad yishkon, the people that dwells alone."
It comes from this week's parsha. Bilam, hired to curse the Jewish people, instead repeatedly blesses them. In his first utterance he says to Balak king of Moab:

How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord has not defied? From the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, it is a people that dwells alone, not reckoned among the nations. (Num. 23: 8-9)

Hearing these words in that context I experienced an explosion of light in the brain. I suddenly saw how dangerous this phrase is, and how close it runs the risk of being a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you define yourself as the people that dwells alone, you are likely to find yourself alone. That is not a safe place to be.

The Torah is G-d's Gift to You!

My Email is Awesometorah@live.com
The Torah can also be known as the Chumash and can also be found in the Tanach (Jewish bible) For a free online copy of the Jewish Bible please visit,
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi...
and for good Jewish books and torah please visit,
http://www.artscroll.com/
Artscroll's the best type. you might also find good stuff at
http://www.eichlers.com/
or
http://www.judaism.com/chabadstore.asp?cdo=chabad.org

if you cant find anything under Torah Try Chumash or Tanach and make sure your looking under books. and in fact even a Amazon or Ebay search might provide some good results but I wouldn't recommend it. Here's the companies i would recommend.
Artscroll, Matsuda, Feldheim, Judaica Press Atares, Koren Hebrew Publishing company, The Gutnik Edition is also good but make sure it's the entire Chumash and a further update. JPS is not kosher but some people make the mistake of confusing it as kosher.

Thank you for you time.

Tazria 5771 - Covenant & Conversation

Tazria 5771 - Covenant & Conversation

We Can do It!

This video is about the hidden potential of people with disabilities that we should believe in ourselves from a Jewish prospective with some Non Jewish examples too.

For my story please visit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaiqgE0wm9s

for my video,
A disabled Jew's Journey to Torah

Purim: The Evil Haman or the Bright Light

Purim symbolizes the perpetual battle of the Jewish people with the tyrannical Haman of every generation.