Category: Sept 2023

Sukkot Ushpizin By: Paula Levin “His way is to distribute tzedoka – that is his way of beautifying the sukkah.” The mystical sources tell us that seven supernal guests (Ushpizin) visit us each night of Sukkot. Here’s a thought experiment: if you could invite anyone from the past, present, or even future to share a meal with you in your sukkah, who would you choose? The answer might reveal something about where your heart or interests lie and is a lovely conversation starter you can try at your Yom Tov…

Read More

Confluence What a shame By: Rabbi Dr David Fox Pullquote: “Was he such a treasure that somehow the Jewish world would be better with him among our ranks?” People used to say that my Rosh Yeshiva could read into a person’s soul. His warm countenance and glowing smile drew people to open up to him. He was modest and drew no attention to himself, modelling empathy in his interest in all others. As my late father would say, “He was the world’s greatest listener.” The insights which he had into…

Read More

Sukkot JOIN THE FAMILY IN THE SUKKAH AND VANQUISH YOUR DRAGON By: Rabbi Moishe Schnerb “Every Jew who commits any sin creates within himself a formidable opposition, comprised of 70 elements which become our antagonists.” “We take our weapons and praise our Creator that He has given us the intellect to defeat all the evil on this earth.” The greatest secret of our lives is life itself. The one question that we would love to have an answer to, but never will is, for how long are we going to…

Read More

Seeing the other side By: Paula Levin “It starts with the realisation that certain things are either someone else’s business or G-d’s business. And there’s not one thing we can do about that.” The Jewish New Year starts with the month of Tishrei, symbolised by the Zodiac sign of the scales of justice and the first day of the new year is known as Yom Hadin, Judgement Day for all humanity. On Rosh Hashanah, Hashem weighs our deeds and determines what resources we need for the coming year, based on…

Read More

 What’s in a name? Forget me not! By: Rabbi Dovid Samuels “Hashem has charged each one of us with a mission, and we are His agents to carry out that mission.” On the very first Rosh Hashanah, man was born. That same day, man was named. When the heavenly angels saw Hashem’s magnificent creation – man – they were motivated to sing songs of praise to him. Hashem saw their error and named man Adam, to remind the angels that although this creation was fashioned in the image of G-d,…

Read More

 A good sign The first bite is with the eye By: Sharon Lurie It was the ‘taste’ of nostalgia that encouraged me to do a Rosh Hashanah lunch for this edition. For 20 years I always did 2nd day lunch, however, things change, children get married, families grow, thank G-d, and we start sharing Yomtavim, “who’s doing first night, who’s doing 2nd?” …and so it goes. This year I ‘banked’ 2nd day lunch and reclaimed my spot! That way I won’t have to worry about load shedding as cold meats…

Read More