Rabbi Guzik - A Bisl Torah

I don’t have a knack for keeping plants alive. Often, I add too much water, or most of the time, forget to water the plant until it is just too late. Sometimes, I pretend the plant will grow in environments...

This week, I turned 44. When people wished me a happy birthday, my first inclination was to respond with a shrug: “It’s not a big birthday.” But their returned reaction reflects what I truly feel: “Each birthday is a big...

We are approaching Elul, the formal period in the Jewish calendar devoted to repentance and repair of the heart. There are different iterations of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev’s relationship to change. One story shares that Rabbi Levi Yitzhak would...

On a recent trip, I learned a bit about our flight attendant’s story. She explained that she commutes back and forth, from Atlanta to the airline’s home base in Chicago. Impressed by her commitment, I asked if she always wanted to be a flight attendant. She laughed and said, “Ask any flight attendant. This job finds you. And I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

At the beginning of Deuteronomy, Moses begins his series of diatribes to the Jewish people. He begins to recount the events and experiences that he and the people endured together.

Often, we remark that life is about the journey. Upon reflection, this seems incorrect. Life is about the detours.

According to the Jewish calendar, the next three weeks are an intense period of mourning; a duration of time that marks the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem to the eventual destruction of the Temple. The time is described as “between the straits.”

Ribono shel Olam, Master of the Universe, our hearts are broken as we continue to learn about the devastation in Texas. Water offers the power of rebirth and, destruction. We remember the story of Noah in which, “All the fountains of the great deep burst apart, and the floodgates of the sky broke open…all the highest mountains everywhere under the sky were covered.” As we learn about each stolen life, the floodgates of the sky broke open once more. We pray with urgency and angst that the waters recede, and semblances of peace find ways into the hearts of the bereaved.

Journalist Jancee Dunn asks us to look for life’s tiny, little joys. Often, the grandeur of happiness feels unattainable; it’s too lofty and fleeting. But tiny, little joys can be seen and felt every day.

We had the opportunity to visit the Jewish area of Rome. An Italian Jew, Sarah, was our tour guide for two synagogues: the Great Synagogue of Rome and a smaller synagogue sometimes used by the Italian Jewish community and sometimes used by the Libyan Jewish community. It is often shared by both.