Rabbi Guzik - A Bisl Torah

I relay a wonderful story from Philip Goodman’s “The Rosh Hashanah Anthology”: At the conclusion of the service, the cantor approached Rabbi Vevel, the maggid of Wilna, to extend New Year greetings and to be complimented for the manner in...

Our family is in possession of an abundance of shofarot. Many, many shofars. During quarantine, our children took up chess, learned to swim, and now, blow shofar. But unlike the other somewhat delightful skills, the practice of blowing shofar is...

Some superheroes wear capes and fly through the sky. Other superheroes manage classes of anxious, excited, confused students through a world pandemic. Whether instructing in person or via zoom, this Bisl Torah is in honor of the extraordinary people co-raising...

Some people lose socks in the laundry. Others constantly lose their spare key. In my family: we cannot seem to create a full puzzle. No matter what, there is always one puzzle piece missing. I would understand if we were...

In a rare escape from our home, my husband and I were driving through West Los Angeles, admiring the sunset and looming palm trees. Something compelled me to ask him, “What’s one of your dreams?” And I qualified the question,...

Five months ago, I never would have imagined celebrating a birthday during a pandemic. Five months ago, I never would have imagined planning for Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world in the midst of quarantine. Five months ago, I...

On Sunday, my brother and now sister in law got married. The wedding had been postponed from May and the bride and groom decided not to let any more time go by to celebrate their love. If you had asked...

We’ve recently moved. Our family feels blessed that our children will create memories in this beautiful home. The kids have claimed their spaces, started decorating their rooms, and seem to forget they lived anywhere else. Our home has become more...

My son has a custom of wearing his swim goggles in the bathtub. He figures if the goggles keep out the water in the pool, they must keep out the soap in the tub. Somehow, no matter how hard we...

I am going to take the liberty of my Bisl Torah space to write about terms that are being thrown around in an unfortunate way: “opting out” or “taking a break”. In choosing whether or not to belong to a...