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Rabbi's Blog

Rabbi Mendel's Blog

Rabbi Mendel's blog features his Dvar Torah (Torah lesson) column from the weekly E-TORAH, ocassional musings and other articles that he authors from time to time.
Your comments are welcome.

Fake News

Okay, I won’t enter the debate about what’s considered fake news and how prevalent it is in the media today, or whether it is even worthy of discussion.

I’ll leave that for the pundits, media personalities and, well… the President of the United States.

But, I will argue that fake news was a concern for thousands of years.

When the Jews left Egypt – as recounted in this week’s parsha Beshalach – there were plenty of people shouting from the rooftops that it was fake news. Even after it was confirmed that the Jews had indeed departed Egypt, there were still those that questioned just how grand that exodus really was.

Pharaoh himself urged his people not to fall for the 'fake news' that G-d was pr… Read More »

G-d’s Ace Card

As the country faces a possible government shutdown tonight, we wonder what type of negotiations might succeed in avoiding it.

In the art of negotiating, you might want to leave an ace up your sleeve. But, politicians seem to be expert at both not having an ace card and at waiting until the last minute.

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When we look at the plagues that G-d brought upon Egypt, we see a purposeful mission. Hashem did not only want to release the Jews from bondage. He wanted to help the Egyptians come to the realization that the one G-d is the true Master of the Universe. The plagues gradually taught the Egyptians this priceless lesson.

During the first two plagues the Egyptian magicians attributed the miraculous events to magic.

At the third plague t… Read More »

Short Sightedness

Our son Ari will soon be getting his first pair of glasses.  With 90% of his parents’ families wearing corrective lenses, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise for us.

But, it did.

Ari wasn’t really complaining about his eyesight.

But, Esther noticed that he wasn’t picking up on simple things. So, she asked if he could see certain objects – and the answer was no.

With children, doctors – and parents – sometimes feel that glasses can wait a bit, or be used sparingly. But, Ari’s near-sightedness is actually quite developed already, so the doctor suggested he obtain glasses right away.

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It turns out that our views on Ari’s near-sightedness were actually quite short-sighted!

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Read More »

Sneaking In – But Breaking Out

Eating a few more calories than you burn, even from something "healthy" like a glass of orange juice every morning, can make you gain 100 pounds in five years!

Cell phones have slowly become so entrenched in our daily lives that one Supreme Court Justice commented, “The proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.”

In fact, the World Health Organization announced it will soon recognize 'gaming disorder' as a mental health condition for those who play video games obsessively.

We all can relate to the little challenges in life that actually turn out to be not so little.

It might be the gradual build-up of clutter, the tiny difference of opinion that is inching toward di… Read More »

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