On Hanukkah, which will begin this coming Thursday, Jews celebrate their victory over the Seleucid Empire, which attempted to entrench the Hellenistic culture and belief system among the Jews in the land of Israel. This is the going narrative. However,…
John Lennon, who was murdered forty years ago today, imagined a common world without borders, without greed and without hunger, one world that is all love—and his message spoke to the hearts of masses of people. The idea of a…
Unity. Humanity needs to reach an understanding that only by uniting can the world become peaceful and harmonious. If not, then we will always be under the threat of our divisions breaking out into conflicts of all kinds. Unity is…
There is no better timing for the celebration of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, than the current period when the world is characterized by divisiveness and light is so much needed. Humanity now faces the impact of a global virus that…
From the very first competition, between Esau and Jacob, we’ve seen people competing against each other. We know that competition can give purpose to life, and who doesn’t love winners? But we also know that competition can be destructive to…
As a kabbalist, I think that 2020 has been the best year in all the years that I recall. It is the year when humanity began to shake off and get rid of everything it had in the former life:…
On Hanukkah, which begins tonight, Jews celebrate their victory over the Seleucid Empire, which attempted to entrench the Hellenistic culture and belief system among the Jews in the land of Israel. This is the going narrative. However, this epos is…
There are different definitions of happiness according to a person’s level, i.e., the kinds of desires a person has, and whether or not such a person has a desire to seek a higher purpose in life, and to what extent.…
Yet again money and control usurp American ideals as recent social media giants’ actions demonstrate. Instead of these new communication platforms bringing us together, diminishing distances between us and creating one global village, they are undermining America’s core values of…
Stephanie Zacharek, a film critic for Time magazine, wrote in its feature article that summarizes 2020, which it titled “The Worst Year Ever”: “If 2020 were a dystopian movie, you’d probably turn it off after 20 minutes. This year wasn’t…
Today, the most unusual way to light the Hanukkah candles could very well be the original way that these candles were lit. A candle contains oil and a wick. The wick lets us alight and burn the oil, which rises…
Chanukah (also spelled “Hanukkah,” Heb. “חנוכה”) signifies the beginning of our feeling the unified force of nature. It marks the initial penetration through the boundary between this world and the spiritual world. The Hanukkah concepts and customs link to the…