His time to talk Torah – Radio show hits multiple issues

Sometimes the words are for personal growth, other times just for information, or maybe inspiration. But every time, The Best of You radio show infuses talk radio with a Torah twist.

Rabbi Chay Amar, spiritual leader of Chabad of Golden Beach in Miami-Dade, hosts the radio program Monday through Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. on WLVJ (1040-AM). It features Israeli music and lots of talk.

The theme of the program, which began in November, is to “discover your inner spiritual potential.”

“We go into the depths of the secrets of the Torah or reveal our inner potential,” the Orthodox rabbi says. “The Best of You is to discover the best of themselves, which is basically the infinite power of the soul inside every one of us.”

Amar offers tips — “Do not go to sleep with the television on,” so you don’t slumber off with negative images in your head — to changing bad habits by listing each night the day’s failures and accomplishments.

“The failures are always the same and the accomplishments are always new,” Amar says. “You can change many, many of your behaviors.”

And he answers questions from callers.

On one day, a woman who identifies herself as Flora from Aventura calls to ask what Tehillim means.

He explains that it’s the Hebrew name of the Book of Psalms and that by reciting the psalms, readers have power to “bring good in the world. … If we knew the power of Tehillim we would be saying them all day long.”

Another man calls to say he is listening with his 13-year old son.

“Can you explain why it’s important to have continuing education?” he asks.

After a teen’s bar mitzvah, “this is when the work starts; this is not when you say goodbye to God,” Amar tells him.

The Best of You is taped at WLVJ’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. Listeners from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties can tune in.

Besides advice and religious lore, Amar announces community events and interviews leaders on the air. He likes to ask “how they were able to make it up there, what motivated them.”

His interviews have included Elie Wiesel, Nobel peace prize winner; Philippe Vinogradoff, consul general of France; and Ainslee Ferdie, the past president of the National Museum of American Jewish Military History.

Gideon Shavit, regional director of the Jewish National Fund, recently talked about the organization’s projects and role in education in Israel and how “our vision is to bring 250,000 people to the Negev [desert] in the next five years.”

And Andy Henschel, from the National Psoriasis Foundation, explained that the disease is not contagious, although people often “feel like they are a leper.”

Amar replied with a note of hope built on the Bible: “Moshiach [the Messiah] comes and eradicates all sickness in the world.”

The rabbi says he hopes the program both inspires and educates.

“I’m not here to try to tell people my opinion of life, or my view of things. I try to share the ancient wisdom of Torah and apply it to modern life.”