Articles:
Do Your Thing!
Something occurred to me today. Why are we all different? Why do we all have different talents, natural skills and different likings? The answer is because we all have a different contribution to make. It is our unique abilities that define the contribution we need to...
Noah and Abraham
Abraham saved the world Noah saved himself. Although Noah was a righteous man and did whatever G-d told him to do, Noah’s silence was deafening. As far as we can know, all the years of Noah he didn’t say a word! G-d told him to build a boat – he built a boat. G-d told...
Noah and Abraham
Abraham saved the world Noah saved himself. Although Noah was a righteous man and did whatever G-d told him to do, Noah’s silence was deafening. As far as we can know, all the years of Noah he didn’t say a word! G-d told him to build a boat – he built a boat. G-d told...
Rainbow -Beautiful or a Curse?
The rainbow symbolizes peace because it demonstrates how so many can become one. It symbolizes curse because it shows how one can be divided into so many. Noach and his family emerged from their ark and saw a rainbow. The rainbow represented a covenant of peace...
Where Do You Stand
The following drasha was given at the Saranac Synagogue in Buffalo on Shabbat Vayera, 5748 (1987), and transcribed from memory by Jeffery Zucker. The Torah relates a heart-rending story. Abraham evicts Hagar and his son Ishmael from his house. He supplies them with...
Vayeira 5761 / 2000 (Jerom Haber)
Friday is my busiest day, especially since we changed the clock. Last Friday I received a call from someone who needed to talk. It was a stranger who had been recommended to me by a local therapist. I suggested some possible times for a meeting - Saturday night,...
Vayeira 2001
When we think about a bris milah we immediately conjure up images of a new life, a new beginning and a fresh start. Our Parsha begins when Avrohom Avinu was ninety-nine years old. He had just had a Bris Milah. It is difficult to consider ninety-nine years old a new...
Selling Torah
The following drasha was given at the Saranac Synagogue in Buffalo on Shabbat Lech Lecha by Rabbi Yaacov Haber, and transcribed from memory by David Sher. This weeks Torah portion describes how Abraham performed the Mitzvah of Bris Milah on himself. Our sages list...
Lech Lecha 1999
I'm going to give you Eretz Yisroel; it will be yours and your children’s. This is what G-d said to Abraham. G-d said this to Abraham in person; Abraham didn’t have to rely on Mesorah, transmission or old texts. Hashem said it to him and Abraham heard it. Abraham’s...
Abraham’s Message
The following drasha was given at the Saranac Synagogue in Buffalo on Shabbat Lech Lecha 5749 (1988), and transcribed from memory by Jeffery Zucker. in today's parsha we read about Abram's travels. He did not travel alone. Apart from his many followers, he had three...
Lech Lecha 1999
I'm going to give you Eretz Yisroel; it will be yours and your children’s. This is what G-d said to Abraham. G-d said this to Abraham in person; Abraham didn’t have to rely on Mesorah, transmission or old texts. Hashem said it to him and Abraham heard it. Abraham’s...
Lech-Lecha 5761/2000
Noach spent 120 years building an ark, deliberately stretching it out so that people would ask questions, hear about the oncoming world crisis and repent. For one hundred and twenty years Noach prophesied the end of the world --yet not even one single Baal Teshuvah....
Lech Lecha 5762/2001
Today we review the story of Abraham, the founding father of Judaism. From what we know about Avrohom Avinu we can be very proud of our roots. Avrohom was a great philosopher. Avrohom was a great teacher. Avrohom was a man of unyielding principals - ready to give up...
Whole Life
"Sarah was a hundred years and twenty years and seven years, these were the years of Sarah" (Bereishis 23:1). Rashi comments that from the unusual phraseology we learn that all her years were good. "Abraham was a hundred years and seventy years and five years" (ibid....
Teshuvah – Bringing Out the Beauty of Our Souls
There is a standard metaphor that we are taught as children. On the Day of Judgment God, the judge, sits on His chair with a large scale in front of him. Not a digital scale or the type of scale that you would see in the butcher shop or the vegetable store but an old...
Exposed to the Elements (Sukkos 2000)
I have become addicted to the news. I get news about Eretz Yisroel wherever I can. I have become an Arutz Sheva junkie wondering why they haven't updated in the past five minutes. I call Israel. I wake up with my clock radio blaring news and I talk to anyone who...
The Information Age
There is a story I have been selling all week. Someone came to his Rabbi with a serious problem. Yom Kippur is coming and the Mets game comes out the same time as Kol Nidrei! The Rabbi put his arm comfortingly on the shoulder of his congregant and said Marvin, what...
How Much Are You Worth?
In the story of the Creation of the world, it is recorded that "G-d blessed the seventh day" (Gen. 2:3). How did He bless the Sabbath? According to Rashi, He blessed it with manna, by providing a double portion on Fridays, while the Israelites were in the desert. This...