Time of Year

The Seder is not just a memorial to events of the distant past - it is a dynamic process of freedom from the challenges of the present. We are slaves. Slaves to our own addictions, habits, inhibitions, fears, cynicism and prejudices. These self-appointed pharaohs are laye...

Excerpts below taken from an article on www.jewishsexuality.com Our Sages tell us that we were redeemed from Egypt due to the merit of the two mitzvot (commandments) which G-d commanded us to perform on the eve of our departure - the Paschal sacrifice and the brit milah. ...

The Israelites had to rush out of Egypt so fast, they didn't have time for their bread to rise. Why? Does that make sense? What was the rush exactly? The Egyptians had just been blasted with ten plagues as divine punishment for holding the Israelites captive, they were mo...

Pesach cleaning is underway in all Jewish households around the world. As we toil to clean our houses from leaven, we are in parallel also cleansing ourselves from the evil inclination, which is symbolized by the leaven. We are toiling to break free of the evil one, in an...

If there is any time of the year to get help from Hashem to break free it is Purim, when all who ask are given. One case in point is our Feature Story where the writer writes as follows: One Purim, some eight years into our marriage, I got drunk. I was reading Psalms and ...

In the merit of the Yartzeit of the holy Ariza"l today, may we all be strengthened in areas of Kedusha. And as one member pointed out, Bein Hametzarim (the 3 weeks) is a time of Teshuva as it says in Aicha: "Kol Rodfeha Hisuguha Bain Hametzarim" and the Holy Books (see Oh...

One way or another, we are here to work. Our sages say "adam le'amal yulad" - "a man was born to toil". There's no escaping it, and there are no two ways about it. As the Torah makes clear many times, and as we remember all the more so during the three weeks, if the Jewis...

In the begining of this weeks Parsha, it is written: "And the name of the Israelite man who was smitten, who was smitten with the Midyanite, was Zimri Ben Salu the head of the tribe of Shimon". The holy Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, whose Yartzeit is today, asks why the Torah wro...

The word "Shavuos" is a double meaning, it translates both as "Weeks" and "Vows". Chaza"l say that on Shavuos there was a double vow; 1) the Jewish people vowed never to leave G-d, and 2) G-d vowed never to leave the Jewish people. We spoke last time about the power of vo...

Tonight is the holiday of Shavuos. "Shavuos" also means "Vows". Perhaps this is an indication that through "Vows", one can uphold the Torah that we receive on Shavuos. We read in this week's Parsha "ish ki yafli lindor neder La'hashem" - "a person who separates himself t...

Indented words are excerpts taken from www.jewishsexuality.com The week of Yesod in the Sefirat HaOmer corresponds to the rectification of the holy bris. Today is Malchus She'biyesod. "Malchus" is the all-inclusive day, which is the highlight and culmination of the week o...

A pre-Yom-Kippur Battle-Cry from "battleworn" on the forum. Dear Holy Brothers, Precious Yidden, great warriors, Yesterday we read in the Haftoroh, "Shuva Yisroel ad Hashem Elokecha Ki Chashalta Baovonecha". The Gemarah points out that "avon" refers to sinning intentional...

Dear Yidden, This morning on Erev Rosh Hashana, we stopped by the Kever of Shmuel Hanavi and I davened for all of us... I mentioned all the "spiritual" names on our forum that I could remember, Mevakesh, Chasdei Avos, Jack, Snax, Battleworn, Me, Elya, Niceguy (ben Nicedad...

Dear members of our Chizuk list! I must share with you what's happening lately on the GUE Forum, especially now, so close to Rosh Hashana. The other night, I was reading out loud from the forum to my wife what everyone had written just recently, and after a few minutes I ...

I want to share today a beautiful thread from our forum... "Mevakesh" wrote: Chaza"l say that when one says Krias Shema he should gaze at his Tzitzis. Seeing his Tzitzis (which were blue from Techeiles in the time of Chazal) will make him think of the sky, which is blue,...

It's Elul and we all want to start doing Teshuvah, but we ask ourselves "Where do we start?". Someone posted on the forum yesterday something simple yet profound from the Chofetz Chaim (and we added it to our Teshuva page). The Chofetz Chaim says that the essence of doing...

No matter how low a person may have fallen and no matter how severe the sins they have done, the doors of true T'shuvah are never closed and G-d's hands are always outstretched and waiting for us to return to him. The main part of T'shuvah is to STOP sinning. The next ste...

One should know that the principle aspect of a Jew's holiness and purity is in sanctifying his eyes. The Torah emphasizes this in the verse regarding Yehuda by asking, "Where is the k'deisha?" While the word k'deisha has the meaning "harlot," it can also be read in its ...