Purity
What is purity? Too much of what purports to be good is watered down by the "not so good." There seems to be a lurking selfishness behind many sin-cere gestures - a "what's in it for me?" approach....
View ArticleA Guide To Visiting The Sick
They have how-to literature on just about every subject and fortunately one has come out on visiting people who need to recover from an illness.
View ArticleConnecting To The Person In Need
When a person goes through hard times words of encouragement can be a big lift. However, these well-intended words can backfire if they are seen as too unrealistic by the recipient and do not connect...
View ArticleGratitude
He sat in his prison cell sulking. I'll call him Steven. Time was playing tricks on him. It seemed like only yesterday, but at the same time like a lifetime ago, that he was married to a wonderful...
View ArticleTaking The Anxiety Out Of Growing Older: An Interview with Author Dr. Eva Mor
In her much needed recently published book, Making the Golden Years Golden (AuthorHouse) Dr. Eva Mor offers strategies and resource information to help make one's senior years safe, secure and...
View ArticleThe Power Of Joy In Bikur Cholim
The man woke from his sleep at the sounds of movement around him. I'll call him Louis. In a moment, he realized he was in a hospital bed and he remembered his wife's unexpected call for an ambulance...
View ArticleMarriage
What's more important - love or money? Let's hear what a 90-year-old woman sitting in front of two elevators in a nursing home had to say. I asked her, "If both elevator doors opened at the same time,...
View ArticleAn Unseemly Hour
It’s my first moment of wakefulness, and I’m chilled to the bone. Pull the covers over myself, I’m thinking, while I decide to roll over to look at the clock. It’s 5:30 a.m. and I’m exhausted. But...
View ArticleThe Hat
I do not dress like the average Orthodox man in my Brooklyn neighborhood. It’s not that I’m trying to make a statement by often going hatless and wearing blue and brown suits, it’s just that in...
View ArticleImportant Moments In Becoming A Ba’al Teshuvah (Part I)
You don’t become a ba’al teshuvah overnight. There were many events in my life that contributed to the deepening of my religious commitment, including a party I attended with young, beautiful church...
View ArticleImportant Moments In Becoming A Ba’al Teshuvah (Conclusion)
Feeling more alone than at any time since arriving in New York, I looked inside myself for anything that could anchor me to bring me back to who I was, to move away from illusions of romance to my...
View ArticleThe Blessing
I was preparing a shiur to honor the memory of my father, Paul Magill, a”h, on the 20th anniversary of his passing, and I was looking at that week’s sedrah, Parshas Re’eh. I was struck by the words,...
View ArticleRoutes And Roots To The Truth
The five-year-old boy was in a church in Puerto Rico with his parents. As they and his grandparents were Catholics, that made him Catholic – as far as his young mind could figure.
View ArticleKiddush Hashem And The Right Thing To Do
It is very important for Jews to first help family, then other Jews close to us, then Jews not as close. Next, if possible and appropriate, Jews should help those of any race or creed.
View ArticleWith Gun Pointed, I Became A Rabbi
The first and only time I said I was a rabbi was also the first and only time I had a gun pointed at me. What led me to that moment was my need to stay on the Upper West Side for a Shabbos and a...
View ArticleSpiritual DNA And The Observance Of Shabbos
I recently heard a Pirkei Avos shiur in which the speaker said that our spiritual DNA derives from our patriarchs and matriarchs. The great tests they withstood and for which they gained ever greater...
View ArticleA Meaningful Hospital Stay During Chanukah
Patience seems to be in such short supply these days, yet it can make a world of difference. This is particularly so in certain kinds of stressful situations whereby we think we only have time to act...
View ArticleReturning The Kindness
The simple act of kindness should be the reward itself. Anything more in the form of a reward is gravy.
View ArticleFive Minutes
The fact that I was in a hurry made me think I should just take the card from him and open it for him.
View ArticleGetting Back To What’s Important To You
I asked him what he wanted to do when he got out. He said he would really love to go to college, something that had eluded him in his youth.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Put Judaism First
I asked Rabbi Buchwald, "If I became observant, would I have to give up all of those things I love?" He answered right away. "No Alan, you don't have to give those things up. You just need to put...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Good Deed That Traveled 45 Years
One day, I was in the basement of a building and I had just finished collecting the change there and was about to leave when I saw money on the ground. I picked it up and it was two one-hundred-dollar...
View Article