Rabbi Eliyahu Safran

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Not long ago, a prominent matchmaker replied to a request for shidduchim by writing that she has many, many wonderful young ladies looking for a successful match. What she was lacking, she went on to say, was some young gentlementches. I was surprised to learn about this. The community was not lacking for young men […]

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There Are No “Alternative Facts”

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Such an odd sequence, to pledge to “do” before hearing what it is that you are to do! When a people makes such a pledge before a king or a tyrant, the only promise that will ensue is their own slavery. There is only one leader before whom such a pledge should ever be undertaken […]

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To Him Who is Prepared

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Before anything else, preparation is the key to success – Alexander Graham Bell Dayeinu! Had He brought us to Mount Sinai, And not given us the Torah, It would have been enough for us! * * * There is an old Chinese proverb that states, “May you live in interesting times.” On their face, […]

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Denial Doesn’t Mean There Are No Consequences

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Denial is not a river in Egypt A small child believes that by closing his eyes, the “monsters” he fears cease to exist. When Moshe foretold of the plague of barad (hail), he warned Pharaoh that any person or animal left in the fields would be killed. “Whoever among the servants of Pharaoh feared the […]

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Moshe Rabeinu: To Grow, To Become Great

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New parents are always filled with excitement and apprehension. This new child, their responsibility, is an amazing disruption. Yes, disruption. Nothing about their lives will be as it was. What a newborn makes eminently clear, as Rav Shimon Shkop writes in his classic, Shaarei Yosher, is that human beings are essentially selfish. When a newborn […]

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Heasfu – Assemble Yourselves!

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Schechina rests only upon one in a state of simcha… 2017 dawns on an age in which anger, negativity and personal animus is spiking across the nation and the world. Disturbingly, this same trend seems to be etching its way ever deeper into our own Orthodox community. For more and more Orthodox the sine qua […]

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A Mile in His Shoes

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How beautiful are thy feet in sandals… (Shir Hashirim 7:2) We are all blessed with gifts bequeathed to us by those who walked before us. For some, those gifts have practical value – a business, real estate holdings, a trust fund. For others, the gifts speak to the soul. They are gifts of knowledge, insight […]

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Can We Learn From Laban? Our Galut in the Secular World

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Learn from Laban? The very thought of it seems absurd! In our tradition, Laban is the antithesis of all we hold up and admire. To model our lives in any way after him? To learn from him? Who could suggest such a thing? If any lesson is to be learned from Laban, having lived in […]

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Love and Marriage

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Not long ago, I was walking along when I noticed a sign in a storefront window, “SAT prep.” Beneath the sign was another sign that read, “A must for success!” Hmm, I thought to myself, that’s interesting. We offer preparation classes for all sorts of things, except the things that we really need preparation for! […]

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The Cynic No Longer Whispers

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Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. – Stephen Colbert Cynicism is a posture and language that is both weapon and shield – […]

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