Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism

"And G-d said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Genesis 1:26)

As the beginning of the book of Genesis discusses what was created on each day, the Torah tells us that G-d creates man after He has created everything else. The question here is the language that is used i.e. that it is used in the plural. Who, if anyone is G-d speaking to here?

Rashi tells us that through G-d's humbleness, He discusses with the angels and heavenly court about the making of man and seemingly asks their opinions of whether it is a good thing to do or not. Rashi also tells us that this language can be problematic because people could make the mistake that there are other gods besides Him. Why would the Torah allow people to make such a mistake and because of their own knowledge, be considered a heretic?

Very simply, G-d gave man free will and the ability to either make the right or wrong decision. When he breathes in the spirit of life into man, the Aramaic translation Unkelos explains that he gave man the ability to speak, think and reason. This means that he did not want to create robots but give people the opportunity to make the right decision of action and sanctify themselves exponentially while living in this world. That free will though may be somewhat limited as well.

 This means that although we have the ability to choose whatever we want to do, we are somewhat limited in that. The reason is because G-d has already put into motion where we came from, who are siblings are, socioeconomic status will be so not everyone starts out the same. Some will have some things easier than others while others will have difficulty in other areas. No two people have the same trials or tribulations and come out of it the same since the source of their soul is not the same.

This tells us that since the soul makeup of each person with their own "baggage" that they are given will react to situations in a different way. The reason for this is because of the life experience that they have been put through here on this earth. With that been said, two people could react very differently to the same situation.

If a person was miraculously saved from a serious illness or was in an accident and they realize how fortunate they have been to survive, another person could look at it as luck since they could say that there was someone in that same situation or similar that didn't survive from what they went through and this person came out of it through luck!

Judaism doesn't believe in luck and life has a purpose, not just based on chance. This philosophy of luck and chance was lived by the people of Amalek and that is what they brought to this world. The idea that things happen, have no purpose and everything is chance.

This ultimately led to Haman's downfall as he was pinned down by angels on Esther's bed as the king came in. How could Haman say he hadn't tried to do anything because he was pinned down by angels! This very statement is the antithesis of everything that the people of Amalek stand for and he was killed because of these beliefs!

G-d gives two eyes for every person to see. We need to learn and continue living through the eyes of the Torah. When we do the right thing, we uplift our body and soul; if not the body and soul are debased. This is the challenge we constantly face.

In this case, man is created last either to show he is the pinnacle of creation or if he acts just according to his animalistic nature, then he is not so great because all the animals were created before him!! His creation depends upon what they do with their lives, either a life of sanctification or pure hedonism.

As we start the first book of the Bible, let us renew our commitment to learn it and become the great people we can.

Shabbat Shalom

"There are four types of students: 1) One who grasps quickly and forgets quickly, his gain is offset by his loss; 2) one who grasps slowly and forgets slowly, his loss is offset by his gain; 3) one who grasps quickly and forgets slowly, this is a good portion; 4) one who grasps slowly and forgets quickly, this is a bad portion"

The Mishna here speaks about the importance of how a person should study. They should be eager to learn and do what they can to understand while at the same time do proper review so that they will retain it.  After all, what is the point of learning if in a very short amount of time you will forget it! Not everyone will have the ability to understand things quickly; for some it will come easier to others it will not.

What will determine one's level of learning will be on the amount of time they spend trying to understand the material at hand while constantly reviewing what they learn. Without review, how is a person supposed to retain what they learn? We may not find reviewing our learning and constantly going over it fun but at the same time, the more we have thoroughly exhausted the material the more we will acquire the learning at hand.

Many people feel that they have spent a great amount of time learning but they have not mastered it! There are a number of reasons why this might be true. It could be lack of focus, depth or insufficient time to properly review or all three of these things put together. Learning Torah is hard, no question about it but if we live what we learn and love what we do, then the extra time to master it will give us tremendous self-confidence!


 We may give up at the start because learning Torah seems as vast as the sea or as expansive as the heavens above. Nonetheless, we have an obligation to the best of our ability to master it. This means that if someone would ask us a question, we should readily have an answer at the tip of our fingertips!

Forgetting what we learn should be an embarrassment to us because it shows that yes we are interested in the learning but it doesn't stay with us for so long so it doesn't stay with us. The idea of in one ear and out the other comes to play here. The following story with my rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlit'a will help us understand this idea.

I once was giving over to him something I had prepared and in the middle of my presentation he told me to stop because I had quoted one of the commentators wrong. I had mentioned a different name of one of the rabbis that the text did not quote. He told me that I should go back and look it up because I had not quoted it properly and if I didn't quote it properly then he had no obligation to listen!!

"After all, how could you forget who said this," he shouted at me. "Isn't the Torah important to you enough that you should at least remember who said what?" Taken aback, I told him that I had just seen this commentary the other day and didn't think I misquoted it.

I took the Talmud off the shelf, opened it up and sure enough it was not as I had quoted it. The rav was vindicated and made a very strong point to constantly review and don't forget what you learned! This story will be forever etched in my memory because I can't say when the last time he had seen this commentary but I bet it wasn't very recent!

I took great pride in what transpired here because it taught me a valuable lesson. The Torah is so holy, so precious, can it be we would forget some aspect of it that we learned? The goal is as the Mishna clearly tells us, be eager and quick to learn and love to learn but constantly review so that you retain it and have it at the tip of your fingers. A true lesson for life!

As we have finished the month of Elul, made it through the holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we now enter the joyous holiday of Sukkos. We are reminded by this temporary world as we go into our sukkah and bask in the glory of the "tzel d'heminusa" (the shade of belief in G-d). What does the holiday represent for us today?

The whole purpose of why Sukkos is in the fall is to show that we are going into the sukkah for the sake of the mitzvah alone. The reason is because during the fall in most places it is usually starting to get cold and most people would not live outdoors during this time unless it was the for the sake of the mitzvah itself!

Even if our sukkah boards are tightened and sturdy, the schach (branches or palm fronds) put on the top remind us that we are subjected to the elements. No matter how much we put on the top of our sukkah, if it rains the water will come in.  This is the essence of sukkos to be reminded that this world is temporary and just a corridor to the world to come.

This is one of the reasons on the shabbos of Sukkos we read the book of Ecclesiastes. King Solomon begins by telling us that this is a world of vanities and that he has searched out all the wisdom of the world and found nothing better and more meaningful than Torah. He constantly reminds us to remember that we live in a temporary world which is what the sukkah represents.

The sukkah itself as we build it and put up the white sheets that are representative of the clouds of glory that guided us as we came out of Egypt and wandered in the desert. These clouds took care of all our needs, gave us light in the darkness and made sure our clothes never wore out or smelled, which is a great feat considering there were more than two million people in the desert!

Since the sukkah is now our home for the next seven days, we do everything in the sukkah that we would normally do in our house. We eat and drink there, sleep there, speak with our friends there or even on the phone; it is our home outside the home so to speak. That being said, we are not allowed to do anything that would be considered disgusting in the sukkah.

This means that we should not bring in dirty pots to the sukkah or make it dirty in any way all the more so we shouldn't speak badly about others or denigrate them in the sukkah either! Not that it would be better if we did that in our own homes but to do that in the sukkah is even worse!

Sometimes the weather does not cooperate and makes being in the sukkah uncomfortable whether it be from the cold or heat. Nonetheless, our temporary dwelling gives us the ability to just be alone with G-d and His world, the "tzel dehemnusa". If we change the letters around in the word "tzel" we get the word "letz" which means to scoff or mock.

If we use the sukkah properly and encapsulate its timeless message, then we get the benefit of the sukkah and all that it entails. If not, then we make a mockery of it and scorn it which everyone would agree is not good,

As we take our lulav and esrog and shake it in six directions representing G-d's dominion over this world and the world above, we are reminded just how fragile life is. We share the joy of sukkos and remember man's purpose in this world by doing everything in our power on a daily basis to tune into His world and do what He wants us to do!!

Have a great Sukkos!!

"He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a G-d of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he" (Deuteronomy 32:4-5)

Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlit"a in Ta'am V'Da'as writes that mankind is baffled by the hiddenness of G-d's ways and how He runs the world. There are righteous people that suffer and evil people that seem to have it easy and they lack nothing while the righteous constantly suffer and seemingly have many difficulties in this world. Not only that but they see G-d's chosen people who have constantly suffered and gone through pogroms and holocausts!!

Rav Sternbuch explains that this world is just a corridor to the next world. What we do in this world matters only in context of the next world. We will only understand and have clarity at that time but when we live on this world in a physical body it is impossible to comprehend G-d's ways! Sometimes we may get a glimpse of why some things may occur but in general it is impossible to fathom what transpires here!

If we understand what transpires in this world on a soul level, things become a bit clearer. This means that each soul has a unique purpose that only it can fulfill here. It has to go through certain trials and tribulations to perfect itself in this world and then return to the next world. The soul has great difficulty though shining here because it is stuck in a physical body!

For the body and soul to succeed it must be steeped in Torah and mitzvos to reach that perfection. Just like the body needs nutrients for it to survive, the soul must also otherwise it will die. Even if we understand this idea to a certain extent, it still doesn't fully explain what we see; some die young, some suffer from horrible diseases and others seemingly have no issues or minor ones at best as they muddle their ways through life.

Where is the fairness and justice you may ask? It's there we just don't have the eyes to be able to see what is directly in front of us! Can it really be that G-d's chosen people, who He loves like a first born child really suffer so much throughout the millennium? At face value a lot of what we see doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

At the same time, it is as if we are in the army; we do what we are told and have an obligation to serve. G-d has manufactured a book for us to live by and grants us life; because of things we see that we don't understand we should have the chutzpah to think we understand Him and his ways?

Everyone should read carefully the end of the book of Job to see G-d's response to him about the suffering that he endures. Just read the vivid description of the Leviathan to see how great G-d's creation is and how He controls nature. We need to learn to be more humble and understand there is something that controls the world and keeps things at an equilibrium.

How dare we think we can figure Him out and claim to know what's right and fair. We have no idea how things play out the way they do. This does not mean we are just blind sheep following We have to admit when things are beyond us and when to put ourselves on the line for Him!

As I have heard many times, if you are happy with the way G-d runs the world 95% of the time, then the 5% that we don't understand we won't come to understand them in 10 lifetimes. This is not a leap of faith but a reality. When we realize this we will be able to serve Him better and understand our place!!

Shabbat Shalom

"Moshe summoned Yehoshua and said to him before the eyes of all Israel 'Be strong and courageous for you shall come with this people to the land that Hashem swore to heir forefathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it". (Deuteronomy 31:7)

Moshe in front of the entire nations tells Yehoshua that he will take the people into the land that G-d swore to our forefathers. This is truly amazing as at the very end of Moshe's life, he strengthens Yehoshua in the eyes of the people to lead them into the promised land. Why is this so remarkable though? After all, Moshe is told he won't be going in the land so why should he not praise his successor in the eyes of the people?

There are different interpretations as to why Moshe is not allowed into the land and what exactly the desecration of G-d's name was. Even if Moshe hit the rock, why should that be any less miraculous that water comes out from it instead of speaking to it? Not only that, but for that seemingly small infringement Moshe is not allowed into the land.

The Torah tells us that Moshe was the most humble of all men. That being said, when G-d tells Him he is not allowed in the land Moshe prays and prays and prays to have this decree overcome but G-d tells him enough prayer, you are not going in, period! Moshe definitely did not have it easy with the Jewish people.

He came under fire from them many times, making his life miserable. At the same time, he understood his position and he understood what it meant to be a leader. He could have told this to Yehoshua privately and not made such a big deal about it This could have looked like having sour grapes though in the sense that he was still upset about not being allowed into the land so why should he make such a big deal to give Yehoshua that big boost of confidence in front of the people?

The answer is that great spiritual and moral leaders look beyond themselves and their own egos for what is best for the people. In this case, although he is not allowed to enter the land, he backs G-d's decision one hundred percent by demonstrating his confidence in Yehoshua in front of the nation.

Although the people would be missing Moshe's leadership he thoroughly backs Yehoshua which will put the people at ease in his absence. This is truly remarkable because most people would not be able to do this. Keep in mind as well that G-d tells Moshe that he will die after the Jewish people go to war against Midyan. What does Moshe do?

He directs the people to war immediatley knowing that once they are successful he will no longer be in this world. Many of us would put off such a thing for a few more moments to live here but Moshe goes full force knowing that it will quicken his days here.

Shouldn't we all live up to these ideals? Definitely easier said than done but if we truly want to be the people we can become then the first thing we need to do is become more selfless and let our egos go out the window. That doesn't mean that we have to be walked upon and abused; we should have self-esteem but the more we learn to forget about ourselves, the more godlike we will become.

We get ourselves into trouble many times by refusing to let go of that. This is something very hard to do because we have pride and we don't want others to step on it or try and destroy. No one ever said the Torah was easy to live by but our goal in this world is to do just that.

Shabbat Shalom

"There are four kinds of dispositions: Easy to become angry and easy to be pacified, his loss is compensated by his gain; hard to become angry and hard to be pacified, his gain is offset by his loss; hard to become angry and easy to be pacified is godly; easy to become angry and hard to be pacified is wicked".

The Mishna discusses the benefits and weakness of anger and pacification. Anger is one of the worst character traits a person can have and the Talmud tells us that when a person is angry even if they were standing over the pit of gehinom (hell) they wouldn't repent because they are caught up in the moment and lose themselves.

Obviously it is forbidden to be angry but there are times when something happens and a person is caught off guard that they lose it in some way. The Mishna here tells us that even if this happens some times but not often if a person is hard to be pacified then his gain is offset by his loss. Pacification is something we all need to learn and not to stand on principle.

This is much easier said than done because if someone has wronged us in any way, most often we will not forgive them fully and the relationship has totally changed. This is a major difference between man and G-d and how the entire teshuva (repentance) process works.

Before Yom Kippur, a Jew is obligated to forgive immediately for the wrong that someone may have done to them. The Talmud tells us that we should forgive that person immediately because if we look past what someone has done to us then G-d will look past at what we have done against Him throughout the year. How does this work exactly?

When we ask forgiveness from someone we don't say "well I did this and that to you, do you forgive me?" That most likely could get you a well deserved punch in the nose. What a person should do is to tell them that if you have done anything against them, will they forgive you and they should immediately forgive you because if they don't then you could end up bearing a grudge and taking that transgression with you into Yom Kippur which is something you don't want to do.

G-d gave the Jewish people this novel idea of teshuvah but in reality it should never work for a number of reasons. First of all, if someone has wronged us and they try to make amends how can we truly forgive them? After all, look at the damage that has been done; the relationship is never the same. At the same time we should forgive them but that doesn't mean I have to be best friends; it just means that I can't hold a grudge which isn't a good thing either.

As for our relationship between man and man repentance and uprooting what has been done doesn't set the relationship back to where it once was. When we sin against G-d on the other hand, our sincere repentance not only uproots what we have done but we are even closer to G-d afterwards.

This is truly remarkable because when we transgress against what G-d wants us to do, we draw a wedge between us and Him. We pollute the universe spiritually and physically. Even if we do things wrong over and over and over again, if we repent, G-d looks at us as not only with a clean slate but we are even closer to Him. How does this work?

G-d understands the nature of man and the fact that they were created from the ground and from this world they will sometimes give in to their evil inclination. This is nothing more than rebellion against Him whether we do things on purpose or by accident. At the same time He has a tremendous amount of patience and allows us to come back to Him by admitting what we did was wrong and how we are going to fix our ways.

We could understand this by someone who only transgresses some of the time. In reality we all transgress and after the first number of times G-d can so-to-speak cut us some heavenly slack but after the 10th, 11th. 12th time...why should He not react and allow us to come back to Him and wipe the slate clean and uproot what we have done totally?

The reason is because He is G-d and not man. He lives and acts in ways that we cannot begin to fathom and the miracle of teshuvah is that if we admit what we have done wrong and sincerely want to draw close to Him He grants us that. Nothing short of miraculous because in human terms this doesn't exist.

How many second chances is a person going to give someone after they habitually do things against them? This is the hope and prayer we have at this time before Yom Kippur to remember G-d's infinite mercy. At the same time, though if we have wronged someone else we should ask their forgiveness and grant it to others as well, immediately!

"For you to pass into the covenant of Hashem, your G-d, and into His imprecation that Hashem. your G-d, seals with you today, in order to establish you today as a people to Him and that He be a G-d to you, as He spoke to you and as He swore to your forefathers to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob" (Deteronomy 11-12).

The Torah here tells us that the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people is as valid as it is today as when G-d swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This covenant is not only the same but the Torah itself is the same as well and has not changed. This is one of the thirteen principles of faith: "I firmly believe that the whole Torah which we now possess is the same which was given to Moses our teacher, may he rest in peace".

Moses has passed this on to the Jewish people and after Moshe's death, Joshua will lead the Jewish people into the promised land, Torah and its timely message intact. Nowhere in the Torah is it stated explicitly or even hinted to that this has changed in any way, shape or form. This is what has kept the Jewish people together throughout the millennium.

People often make the mistake and think we have the ability to change it, make it more modern for today's age or even G-d forbid throw things out that seem antiquated and old fashioned. If that were to be true, then the more the Torah has changed and the more innovative we are, the masses of Jews would be flocking to keep whatever is left of it, right?

Out of all the so-called movements within Judaism the only one with any capability of passing it down to the next generation is the Orthodox. With seemingly no intermarriage rate as opposed to 60% or more by the other movements, Orthodoxy is thriving!

This does not mean that they don't have any issues but in the bigger scheme of things, they seem to have the formula that works and that is all that matters. At the end of the day, philosophy mumbo jumbo doesn't really matter if the message cannot be passed down to the next generation.

When we see the direction in which the world is going (and it has been a downward spiral for a while) morality and honesty is needed now more than ever. If the family structure is threatened, then the hope of attaining any morality now dissipates exponentially.

If we would take the consequences of these actions to their logical conclusion then the United States as we know it would not cease to function. The reason is that there would be less children brought into the world (even less than the average now) which would mean even less kids and the future generations would look bleak at best.

With this said, because of the death rate and the almost non-existent birth rate that would exist, where would we have workers for the next generation? People will say that this way of thinking is archaic because there will be people that will have children and men and women will still get married so what is the big deal if this is passed?

The Torah here explains that the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people is forever and it doesn't change because if we do decide that we need to spruce things up or take thngs out then the results are catastrophic!

The purpose of the Torah is not only to keep society functioning properly but to change man and help them reach their potential. The laws are not set up just to make sure that society functions properly which is why we the secular laws exist otherwise there would be even greater chaos than what we witness today!

The Torah is not a five year obligation to renew and if we feel like doing it we will if not not. It is G-d given and we have to the best of our ability to live up to its high standards. This world is not a world of fairy tales, sports or movies but bringing G-d's presence to this world and absolute morality!

This is what the essence of Rosh Hashanah is. We are in synagogue most of the day proclaiming G-d to be king of the world and we are fighting for our lives that G-d should give us another year of life, health and livelihood. As we read the Una Sana Tokef in Musaf we are inspired by its chilling words.

Who will die by fire, water, starvation, who will become rich, who will become poor... When we look around and see that there are others that not among us, why do we brazenly think that we will be here next year? The only reason that will happen is if G-d grants us life!

Life means physical life but also spiritual life as well. We get judged on the Torah we learned last year. Did I put my best effort when learning? Did I learn when I had time or did I waste it away doing other things? Did I implement what I learned or did I just learn it for intellectual stimulation but the implementation I just gave lip service?

We are just a few days from Rosh Hashanah, shouldn't we be taking stock of this now more than ever or do we just lull ourselves back to sleep thinking that G-d will continue to give me live and satisfy my every need. There are no guarantees and we certainly cannot rest on our laurels.

May we all be inscribed in the book of life and have a meaningful Rosh Hashanah

Shabbat Shalom