A Different Rosh Hashanah | Rabbi Yaacov Haber | Rosh Hashanah 2020
This years Rosh Hashanah will be like no other. what is Rosh Hashanah like under COVID-19? Let's use this opportunity properly.
Letting Go
These are my words at Kehillat Shivtei Yeshurun, Ramat Beit Shemesh this Rosh HaShanah. They are still pertinent today. The words that I’d like to share with you tonight actually took me about 50 years to prepare. Tonight, as we greet Rosh HaShanah into our lives, I’d...
A Brand New World; Where do I Fit In?
"היום הרת עולם היום יעמיד במשפט כל יצורי עולמים" "Today is the birth day of the world; today all creations are judged." The world was created on Rosh HaShanah and according to our sages it is recreated every year on Rosh HaShanah. It's a new world, complex and...
It’s Hug Time
The three weeks and the nine days are behind us and the High Holidays are not yet here. So, it’s party time. Concerts, barbecues, hiking and a lot of junk food in the Mountains. The Catskills have the feel of a Jewish Woodstock. It is a break between crisis and...
Breaking Heavenly Barriers
An interesting person in Jewish history was King Menashe -- interesting, that is, in a negative sense. He was the son of King Chizkiahu, and one of his early acts was to kill his grandfather, the prophet Isaiah [see the drosha on Shabbos Shuva for some background]....
Approaching The Finish Line
We’ve all been there. We are enjoying the first course at the wedding meal. There is light music in the background, pleasant conversation and a beautiful setting. Suddenly the band pumps up. With pomp and fanfare the music reaches a crescendo and a new beginning is...
Tips For the New Year
The Parsha speaks about Teshuvah. The great Ezra designed the calendar so that this Parsha will always be read before Rosh HaShanah so that at this exact time of year our hearts and minds should be focused on improving our relationship with the Almighty. Recently I...
Nearing The End
Here we are getting ready to usher in the last month of the year. There is a vast amount of discussion and literature on how to start off the year and very little about how to end it. Even the last month of the year Elul, has been marketed as the preparation for the...
Where Did All The Leaders Go?
This week's parsha speaks of the different models of leadership; the king, the judge, the Kohein and the prophet. It's relatively easy to examine and criticize leaders but as the saying goes; the people get the leader they deserve. As we arrive at Chodesh Elul, and we...
Rosh Hashana
Close your eyes and imagine what the world must have looked like on the first day of creation. Pristine, fresh, untainted, healthy and unpolluted. Man is created. He is naive, pure and innocent. His face shines from the goodness of his unadulterated soul. His tongue...
Let’s Get Rid Of the Boxes
How does the Ribono Shel Olam decide our destiny for the upcoming year? How does He judge us? The answer is simple. The same way we judge others. A Medrash. Hashem said to Moshe "Hain Kirvu Yamecho Lamus". Your time has come. The end of your life is here. The Hebrew...
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...
Re’eh 2003
As we welcome in the month of Elul and we begin our preparations for a New Year, we must keep in mind our G-d given challenge. ‘Leshichno Tidrishu’, always keep searching for Jerusalem, ‘Uvoso Shama!’ and you will get there. We are leaving tomorrow!
The Ten Days of Repentance
The great days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, together with the seven days in between, are the ten days of repentance. These days provide the Jewish people with a unique opportunity to repent and improve themselves. G-d is particularly close to Israel during these...
Commitment, Kol Nidrei
Kol Nidrei really bothers me. Through the year we have made many types of commitments. We have committed our money our time and ourselves. In Kol Nidrei we enumerate seven types of commitment we may have made. We recite a formula that absolves us of any commitment we...
Forgiveness
G-d's capacity for forgiveness is infinite. A person has a choice whether or not to sin. It doesn't say anywhere that a person cannot do Teshuva even for the sin of murder. Teshuva helps. For example Menashe the wicked king killed thousands of people. At the end of...
We make the Difference, Kol Nidrei 2000
On this Yom Kippur we must all be aware of the following fact. The big decisions that will be made in the world will not be made in the Knesset. They will not be made in the White House. They will not be made in The United Nations. They will be made in Shul! Yes, our...
My Neighbors Neshama, Kol Nidrei 1999
I rewrote my Kol Nidrei Drosha today. Actually you rewrote my Kol Nidrei Drosha today. Rav Yisroel Salanter once commented that we have a natural tendency to worry about our own physical welfare and be very concerned about the welfare of our neighbors Neshama. Our...