OTS Faculty

Inspiration for the New Year 5783

Torah essays to add meaning to your High Holiday experience “God Not Only Loves Us; He Needs Us!” – Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander “Rosh Hashana’s Mandate to Recreate the World” – Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin “Throwing it All Away” –

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Throwing It All Away

Throwing It All Away Rabbanit Sally Mayer is the Rosh Midrasha of Midreshet Lindenbaum’s Maria and Joel Finkle Overseas Program When I was a little girl, I remember walking down to tashlikh at the stream not far from where my

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God Not Only Loves Us; He Needs Us!

God Not Only Loves Us; He Needs Us! Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander is President and Rosh HaYeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone  Often, we look at the High Holidays as a two-holiday event consisting of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. After

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The Opportunity for Renewal

The Opportunity for Renewal Rabbi Eliahu Birnbaum is the Director of OTS’s Beren-Amiel and Straus-Amiel Institutes, which train couples to work as emissaries in Diaspora communities across the globe One of the most beautiful things about Judaism is that we

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Rosh Hashana’s Mandate to Recreate the World

Rosh Hashana’s Mandate to Recreate the World Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin is the Founder and Rosh HaYeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone “And [Nehemia] said to them, ‘Go, eat delicious foods and drink sweet beverages, and send portions to whoever has

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A Different Path to Teshuva

A Different Path to Teshuva: Why We Read the Book of Yonah on Yom Kippur Rabbanit Chamutal Shoval, a graduate of OTS’s Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute of Halakhic Leadership (WIHL), is the Ohr Torah Stone Scholar-in-Residence in North America and a Talmud teacher

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Eight Days – Eight Thoughts

Day One – Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin Day Two – Rabbanit Sally Mayer Day Three – Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz Day Four – Pnina Omer Day Five – Rabbi Yehoshua Grunstein Day Six – Rabbanit Atirat Granevich Day Seven – Rabbanit

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Chanukah Rabbi Brander

Eight Days – Eight Thoughts: Day Eight

The Flame and the Light Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel offer differing views on the kindling of the Chanukah lights. Beit Shammai’s reason for requiring a continual decrease from eight (Chanukah) lights to one is so

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Chanukah Bili Rabenstein

Eight Days – Eight Thoughts: Day Seven

A Light that Gradually Diminishes; a Light that Gradually Intensifies Rabbanit Bili Rabenstein The Sages taught in a beraita: The basic mitzvah of Chanukah is to have a light kindled each day by a person, the head of the household,

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Chanukah Atirat Grunevich

Eight Days – Eight Thoughts: Day Six

“If it was Extinguished, One is Not Bound to Relight it” Atirat Granevich The flickering lights in the Chanukiyah are truly heart-warming. These candles, melting away under the flames, draw our gazes and publicize the wondrous miracles that Hashem performed

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Chanukah Yehoshua Grunstein

Eight Days – Eight Thoughts: Day Five

Chanukah: For All and For Us Rabbi Yehoshua Grunstein The private and public symbiosis of the Chanukah candles is vital in halakha: why are they lit in the home, but facing the outside? Both the Talmud and Rambam’s code illustrate

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Chanukah Pnina Omer

Eight Days – Eight Thoughts: Day Four

The Women of Chanukah Pnina Omer Lighting Chanukah candles is an obligation as well as a privilege for women. This is clearly illustrated and accepted within Jewish law “… for they, too, were present at that miracle”, according to the

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