Parasha Insights - Chabad of Great Neck

What is the Value of Community?

Friday, September 27, 2024 - 6:00 AM

At a Bar, a NUN stands and preaches to all who would listen: Drinking is Bad. Man: Have you tried it?
Nun: No, never.
Man: Ok, you try once, if you don't like it, I'll give up Drinking.

Nun: Ok, but bring it in Teacup, I don't want people seeing me drinking. Man goes to the bartender and says: Give me two Shots of Rum in Tea-Cups. Bartender: Is that NUN here again again?

A Jewish man passing through Texas for a few days' stay on business checked into a rooming house in a very frontier town. Not to be conspicuous, he dressed in Western attire and went into the only saloon in the city. He was surrounded by men in cowboy clothes, wearing six-shooters and looking very gruff. He ordered a beer. While sipping his beer and trying to be as inco… Read More »

DO YOU HAVE GOALS FOR THE COMING YEAR?

Friday, September 20, 2024 - 6:08 AM

Mrs. Greenberg was teaching her first-grade class about saying blessings and praying.

"For example, children,” said Mrs. Greenberg “Before we go to sleep, we should sing shema.

“Who here says their prayers at night?"

Little Chaim answered, "My mommy says my prayers."

"I see," said Mrs. Greenberg, "And what does your mother say?"

Chaim replied, "THANK G-D, HE'S IN BED!

During the month of the holidays, we recite a special prayer, Psalm 27, by King David twice daily. In it, we say:

It is the poignant, powerful, and deeply spiritual request of King David: One thing I ask of you Hashem, one thing that I yearn for: that I may sit or live in the house of G-d all the days of my … Read More »

Do You Think of Her?

Friday, September 13, 2024 - 6:00 AM

“How is your marriage?” Someone once asked a woman. Her response: “Before I got married, I was incomplete. Now, that I married, I am finished.”

Something is perplexing concerning the laws of marriage, articulated in the weekly Torah portion Ki Tezei.

Biblical law is often ambiguous and riddle-like. Thus, when Moses presented the Torah to the Jewish people, he gave them an oral interpretation, clarifying and elucidating the meaning of the Bible. This oral tradition has been documented in the Mishnah and the Talmud.

Marriage is one of those issues where the Biblical law is unclear and requires interpretation. The Torah speaks in this portion, of “a man marrying a woman,”

but does not specify… Read More »

DO YOU RESPECT BOUNDARIES?

Friday, September 6, 2024 - 6:00 AM

In a Liberal temple in Toronto there once was a president of the community who was a nice man but Jewishly, well, he was ritually-challenged. On Rosh HaShanah the gabbai offered him an aliyah; panicked, he said "No no no! I can't read Hebrew, I'll embarrass myself."

The gabbai said: "You HAVE to take some honor, you're the president!"

"Isn't there anything where I don't have to talk?"

The Gabbai thought for a minute and suggested "How about glila?"

"What's glila?" said the president.

"Simple," replied the gabbai, "you just come up after the Torah is lifted, and when the cover is put on, you put on the breastplate and the crown and then sit down."

Relieved, the presi… Read More »