Rabbi Guzik - A Bisl Torah

It is the Friday before Rosh Hashana. For some of us that means final sermon preparations, printing, rehearsing, and making sure we know the correct cantillation for our Torah readings. For others it means preparing the apple kugel, ironing the...

Tomorrow evening, we gather together for what is called Selichot: a night of petitioning God to remember us in this High Holy Day season. Often the days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur feel overwhelming…the amount of people, the pressures...

Getting “ready” for the High Holy Days isn’t an easy task. I don’t mean the writing of sermons or organization of the honors list. I am talking about soul work. Real work. Being open to repairing our wrongs and admitting...

Last week, my husband and I asked my 26 year old brother to help us babysit our children. Specifically, we needed him to help us early Friday morning, so he slept over the night before. Now, remember, we have a...

What music are you listening to? For the past three days, our children insisted on listening to every word from the soundtrack of the musical “Annie”. Our family enjoyed toddler renditions of “It’s The Hard-Knock Life”, “Maybe” and of course,...

This is a Bisl Torah on the go. Our family is traveling  throughout Philadelphia this week and spending time with loved ones. Diggerland, the Reading Terminal, Philadelphia Art Museum and other highlights are some of the stops on the trip. But...

Last night my daughter asked me to fix something in her room. I looked at her and said, “Honey, I have no idea how to fix that. We’re going to have to call someone else to do it.” Wide-eyed she...

For three days, we lost the television remote control. Now don’t worry, we do have a television in a different room of the house but the lost remote is to the main set. We searched: behind the couch, under the...

Sometimes we just need a break. A beautiful resource came across my desk: Dr. Leonard Felder’s “More Fully Alive~ The Benefits of Using Jewish Wisdom for Responding to Stress and Overload.” Instead of going over the next item on my...

Of all advice given to parents, I think the wisest is the following: You are only as happy as your unhappiest child. I don’t take this to mean that we should dissolve in tears when our children feel pressured by...