Person in the Parsha: BO

December 27, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“CREATURE FEELING“

Our tradition teaches us to avoid using the divine name. We are instructed not to pronounce it in vain, and not to refer to it directly in writing. Some...

Person in the Parsha: VA’EIRA

December 20, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“WORK AND WILL“

There was a time in my life when I was fascinated by the works of the great psychoanalytic thinkers. Chief among them, of course, was Sigmund Freud, whose attitude towards...

Person in the Parsha: SHEMOT

December 12, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“READING THE FOOTNOTES“

I often find myself disagreeing with the phrase, “It’s just a footnote in history”. I have found some of the most interesting and important facts buried, unseen by most people,...

Person in the Parsha: VAYECHI

December 05, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“THE HORSE THIEF“

They called him a horse thief. That was the worst possible epithet that one could hurl at a young man in the early 19th-century shtetl, or village, of...

Person in the Parsha: VAYIGASH

November 28, 2013

By TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“WAGONS, CALVES AND RESPONSIBILITY“

I have been blessed with many fine teachers. She was one of the best. Her name was Mrs. Lachmann. I no longer recall her first name. She taught an advanced...

Person in the Parsha: MIKETZ (Shabbat Chanukah)

November 21, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE“

“There are two kinds of people.” I am sure that you all have heard one variation or another of that theme.

We seem to have a well-ingrained habit of...

Person in the Parsha: VAYEISHEV

November 13, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“THE ‘WISDOM’ OF THE EAST“

There are jokes which are very funny on the surface, but which, upon reflection, can be quite painful and disturbing.

One of them, which was told frequently twenty...

Person in the Parsha: VAYISHLACH

November 08, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“SEE YOU LATER“

There is an expression that we often use when we say goodbye. Most of us pay no attention to what we are saying. I doubt that very many of those...

Person in the Parsha: VAYEITZEI

November 08, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“THE THANKFUL JEW“

He may or may not have been an anti-Semite, but he sure was an abrasive personality. He was my seat mate on an Amtrak train, returning to Baltimore from New...

Person in the Parsha: TOLDOT

October 29, 2013

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

“DISILLUSIONMENT“

Disillusionment. I first learned about it on a park bench on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where I attended high school. I learned about it from three old gentlemen, each affected...