Rabbi Guzik - A Bisl Torah

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...

The world is heightened with emotion. When someone sneers or complains, it can feel like a snag at the soul. When someone smiles or offers a kind word, the gesture extends far beyond that moment. With the onset of the...

What kind of name do you hope to gain in this world? Are you known as a leader, thinker, doer, source of compassion, gossiper, kvetcher, change maker, well of goodness or blessing? The Midrash tells us that when God desired...

When we were kids, my siblings and I created a time capsule. We put in pictures of ourselves, favorite phrases and sayings of 1989, magazines and newspapers, and a list of the books we enjoyed reading. And we included letters...

Our family decided to plant a garden. For those that know me, I am not a gardener. I enjoy purchasing roses of different colors and displaying the beauty on our Shabbat dinner table. But as we determined ways to spend...