In electing Rob Ford as mayor, voters in the city of Toronto have voted for change. Our mayor-elect…
VaYera: Late Arrival
Our Sages assert that the Torah pre-dates the creation of the world, in essence serving as the…
Sukkot: Seeing Double
This week’s d’var Torah is sponsored by Gershon and Leah Vandenbrink with best wishes for a joyous…
Yom Kippur: Just a Minute
The death of the righteous atones, our Sages teach, and it is for this reason that during Mussaf of…
Rosh Hashanah: The Right Focus
“On Rosh Hashanah, it is written; and on Yom Kippur, it is sealed, who shall live and who…
The Morning After
The High Holiday period is one (we hope!) filled with introspection, reflection and a commitment to…
Time to Forgive?
The government of Italy recently completed their third tax amnesty in the past eight years. The…
Time to Share
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet recently announced the launch of the “Giving Pledge” campaign, asking…
The Power of Kaddish
I wrote the thought below on that last day of saying kaddish for my father, Harav Chaim Yosef ben…
Goldman Sachs: A Greek Tragedy
Just as we thought the recession was over and that economies around the world had turned the corner…
Paying for Health Care
The issue of heath care, specifically the economics of health care, has taken a central role…
How to get Fired
Corporate restructuring in the private sector usually entails job cuts and often increased demands…
Vaera: The Right Reason
Sometimes the reason why one does something can be even more important than what was actually done…
Lech Lecha: A Loving Son
“And Terach’s years were 205 years, and Terach died in Charan. G-d said to Abram,…
Noach: A Penny Saved
“Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generation” (6:9). It is hard to imagine a greater…
A Corrupt Year
From an ethical perspective this past year has not been a very good one. There has been a seemingly…
Parshat Bereshit - Science and Torah
"In the beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth" (1:1). Light, sky, land, vegetation,…