The ”23rd Psalm” was written by King David. This was at a time when he was being pursued by King Saul and his army. At that time, he found himself in a barren forest, parched and dry, where his chances of survival seemed unlikely (1 Samuel 22:5). Despite this, David trusted in...

  The Ner Tamid (Perpetual Lamp or Eternal Light) is based on Exodus 27:20 and Leviticus 24:2-4 where the people of Israel are commanded to keep the Menorah burning in the Tabernacle continually before the Holy of Holies. It is a symbol of the Permanence of the Torah and...

  On the morning of October 7th, 2023, I was attending the local synagogue in Bamberg, Germany, where the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah was celebrated, to which Jewish friends had invited me. The holiday, which did not exist in biblical times but became part of the...

The Model Family? Esau and Jacob Fight it Out by Rabbi Ed Snitkoff   “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”   --Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina   “The other night I ate in a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument...

The Way of the Mothers By Rabbi Ed Snitkoff Israel is such an interesting place. Over the past year, the entire country has been inundated with a very curious advertising campaign on behalf of a large optical chain. In newspapers, over the internet, on bus posters, in gigantic...