Rabbi Sender Haber

Rabbi, Monsey, NY

Citizens of the World

The Torah instructs the Metzora to end his or her period of isolation and repentance by bringing an offering that includes (among other things) a branch of a cedar tree and two birds. How is it that the Metzora, who is afflicted with a form of leprosy because of his...

The Gedolim Puzzle

My seven-year-old daughter recently asked for a puzzle of a Gadol. In the age of ‘Gedolim Memory’ and ‘Gedolim Guess Who’, her request is perfectly reasonable but still slightly odd. I can’t help but imagine completing a puzzle only to realize that Rav Shach’s...

Mourning the Kohanim – Thoughts on Kinah 10

If the Bais Hamikdash was the place that we could always depend upon to be G-dly and holy, then the Kohanim were the people whom we could always depend upon to be our steadfast role models in the service of Hashem. The Kinah of Aicha Yashva departs from the theme of...

Is There Another Torah?! – Thoughts on Kinah 41

Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg was famous for being in jail. He was the last of the Tosafists and a respected leader of his generation. He was incarcerated for trying to make Aliyah and avoid Servi Camerae under Rudolph I in 1286. If it wasn’t for the Maharam Rothenburg we...

Korban Credits

This week Rabbi Schwartz wrote a beautiful article about Eretz Yisroel. It wasn’t the new and beautiful concepts he mentioned that made it special, it was the fact that he is actually moving to Eretz Yisrael next week. Similarly, when the Benos Tzlafchad’s had their...