Vayikra: Love in All the Gross Places

“This is a book about love” Peggy Noonan begins her book on 9/11. It’s a captivating read: raw, unedited. Written at the time and in the aftermath of when jets crushed towers into rubble and white smoke smotered Manhattan and death choked the streets for days. Its reads battlefield, not memorial. And yes, with all the terror and bleeding and gory horror, she’s right – it is a book about love. Across the pages she sifts through her mind, her conscious, her life, her generation, our ethos. And she brings us through with a generous spirit.

Who Was Ari Halberstam? 20 Years Since Terror Strikes on the Brooklyn Bridge

Most of the millions of people who cross the Brooklyn Bridge every year have seen the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp signs, but many may not know who Ari Halberstam was, or why Mayor Rudolph Guiliani installed those signs in 1995.

A Wing and a Prayer: Combining Effort and Faith

“Can’t anything in the world ever go right?” These words of frustration, uttered by my six year old son, remain etched in my memory. They came after a valiant struggle with a model airplane, which, as you probably have guessed, ended in disappointment. I’ve since heard these words repeated by people of all ilk.

‘Derher’ Magazine: The Manuscripts that Came Home

After over 50 years of being in captivity, precious collections of Kesovim belonging to the Rebbeim were still located in Poland. In an incredible sequence of events beginning in 5731 (1971), what had seemed an impossible feat – was indeed achieved. Guiding every step of the way, the Rebbe directed a number of individuals on how to retrieve one section of the library.

Blog: Celebrating My 30th

Do numbers really count?
Do they define you, mock you, scare you?
Do numbers provide focus, gratitude, direction?

I think so.

Priorities, Priorities! Confusing the Book for the Cover

Legend has it that the late Albert Einstein, in need of a clasp to hold together some papers from a recently completed project, spent a considerable amount of time trying to straighten-out a twisted paper clip. While struggling with the dysfunctional object, his assistant found a box of new clips. Einstein took one of the new paper clips reshaped it and used it as an instrument to repair the old bent one.

“I Want Him to Receive Matzos from Where I Get Mine”

Every year, already from the days of Chanukah, Crown Heights’ veteran Matzah bakery is working at full steam, churning out hundreds of fresh Matzos every day. The Matzos from this bakery are shipped throughout the world, to Chabad families, Jewish communities and Shluchim in the farthest reaches of the planet, all under the supervision of the Crown Heights Beis Din.