Hi, You’ve heard the clichés. Every day should be Mother’s Day.  And every day should be Thanksgiving. The thing about clichés? They may not be the whole story. But there is truth to them. Every day should be Mother’s Day, but it’s okay to make one day special. As long as we don’t forget about […]

Hi, I just visited a good friend in San Francisco. What a beautiful city! Among the amazing places we visited? Muir Woods. You may have heard of it. It’s an isolated canyon where ancient redwood trees grow. You walk through it surrounded by giant trees as much as 260 feet tall. And as much as […]

Hi, You might be wondering. Did Alan Dershowitz respond to my invitation for dinner? And my (chutzpa) suggestion that he pay for it? Yes. A one liner from his Blackberry. “I look forward to a good kosher meal”! What about paying for it? I would have to say that he was non committal! … If […]

Hi, … Lieutenant Meyer Birnbaum. A typical “American Jewish kid” who was drafted during the Second World War. He was among the liberators of Buchenwald and other D.P. camps. As a fellow Jew, he was able to give emotional and spiritual support to many survivors. Here’s an excerpt from his autobiography. “In Buchenwald, a gentile […]

I recently had an eye opening experience. Literally! One day at supper my wife noticed that our son Ari’s eyes were tightly closed. She immediately suspected that “it happened again.” That something got into his eye. He started rubbing it. And rubbing it. And now he has a scratched cornea. Which is very painful! … […]

Here’s a great story just in time for Thanksgiving. It’s about Rabbi Israel Salanter, a leading Torah scholar of the 19th century. … One day, he went to a very elegant restaurant, to meet someone. He was seated. And asked the waiter for a glass of water. He waited a while, but the man didn’t […]

Hi, Happy Chanukah! … I love getting feedback from Torah Minute readers. One raised an issue with something I wrote about my “davening at the airport” experience. I had said that I thought to myself, “let’s make this fast”. Here’s what he said. “When it comes to morning prayers, “do it quick” should never enter […]

Hi, I’ve returned from Rabbi Deutsch’s son’s wedding. It was beautiful! … I had an interesting experience on my way home. Davening (morning prayers) in the airport! The ideal time for morning prayers starts with sunrise and continues for a few hours. (There’s a little “wiggle room’ to start earlier when necessary.) It’s best to […]

Hi, Hope you have had a great summer. As we continue to pray for peace, I wanted to tell you about a special friend of CTN. A guy with a deep love for Israel and the Jewish People. Mort Friedman. Like Jews all over the world, Mort was deeply concerned with Israel being at war. […]

Hi, You could have thought you were reading a Torah Minute. But it wasn’t. It was Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaking in the Knesset. His speech was a masterpiece. And it was very Jewish! He spoke about the need for us to defend ourselves. About the strength and determination of the IDF. And the spirit […]