by Rabbi Sender Haber | Jan 12, 2012
Rav Mendel Weinbach once approached Rav Michel Twerski with a dilemma. As the Rosh Yeshiva of one of the premier “Baal Teshuva” Yeshivos in the world, Rav Weinbach was often asked to accept students who had been born Orthodox but were not flourishing in the Yeshiva...
by Rabbi Sender Haber | Nov 11, 2011
While learning in the Mir Yeshiva, I once approached Reb Nosson Tzvi Finkel with a difficulty that I had encountered in a gemara in Kesuvos. The Rosh Yeshiva listened carefully to my articulated question and spent several minutes in thought. I stood awkwardly and...
by Rabbi Sender Haber | Nov 1, 2011
A friend of mine is the founder and director of a gardening program at the University of Maryland. They plant a garden, tend to it, and donate the fruits to the needy. The students at Maryland call their program ‘Am Ha’aretz’, but I think that it could just as...
by Rabbi Sender Haber | Oct 6, 2011
Before my last trip to Israel, I invited my third grade students to write notes to G-d. There is an ancient custom to put messages in the Western Wall and I thought that it would be a meaningful and worthy exercise. I promised not to read the notes and encouraged the...
by Rabbi Sender Haber | Oct 4, 2011
In Parshas Haazinu, Moshe addressed the Heavens and the Earth. The Medrash observes that if Moshe addressed the heavens, we can assume that they were affected by the words of Torah. If the words of Torah have the power to affect the heavens and the earth, they surely...
