Coping With Anger
with Miriam Levi (author of Raising Children to Care and participant in “Raising Our Children to Have Good Midot”: a Darche Noam Yarchei Kallah panel discussion on Tuesday, August 8, 2000) A. The Harm In Anger Anger Is Wrong Chazal denounce anger as a destructive character trait. When we get angry we shout, scream, insult, […]
Coping With Anxiety
Jewish Parenting with Miriam Levi (author of Raising Children to Care and participant in “Raising Our Children to Have Good Midot”: a Darche Noam Yarchei Kallah panel discussion on Tuesday, August 8, 2000) Coping With Anxiety What Brings On Anxiety? Anxiety is the result of future-oriented thoughts. We imagine what might happen–things working out badly, […]
Changing Character
Sefirat Haomer and Building Character How can we become better people? The period of Sefirat Haomer (and the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur) has traditionally been a time for focusing on improving character. Much of the ethical literature speaks of what kind of people we should become, or what we should do, but focuses […]
From Matza to Chametz
Sefirat Haomer: From Matza to Chametz! Around Pesach time one usually hears a number of anti-chametz drashas. These are based on an image already found in Chazal; the yeitzer hara, the evil inclination, is likened to chametz, “the leaven in the dough.” It is usually pointed out that chametz causes a puffing up of the […]
Purification and Elevation
Based on the Nesivos Shalom on Sefirat Haomer (vol. 2, pp. 311-314) Sefirat Haomer’s place in the Jewish calendar is not accidental. It is sandwiched between Pesach and Shavuot, and each of the holidays leaves its imprint on the forty-nine day period, revealing its dual nature. Sefirat Haomer is both 1. a continuation of the […]
Redirection and Sanctification
Sefirat Haomer and Changing Character During the Omer, the 49 day period between Pesach and Shavuot, Jews have traditionally focused on character development. Our middot shiurim will share this focus during these weeks approaching Shavuot. Redirection and Sanctification The “Omer” itself was a barley sacrifice offered on the morning of the second day of Pesach. […]
Intelligence, Wisdom, Torah and Humility
The connection between humility and Torah is very well developed in the teachings of Chazal and later rabbinic literature. The nature of this connection, though, demands some elaboration. Being highly intelligent and bright does not, unfortunately, preclude being arrogant. Sometimes it even seems that a high intelligence level feeds an arrogant person’s bloated self-image. Nevertheless, […]
Mordechai: Another Kind of Tzaddik
Humility Alongside the Jewish romantic image of the humble tzaddik — self-effacing, slightly bent-over, hidden, and devoted to all — is an alternate type of Jewish figure — powerful, unbending, strong, and even stubborn. Moshe, when pleading the case of the Jewish people after the sin of the Golden Calf, uses the term stiff-necked people […]
Redirection and Sanctification
Sefirat Haomer and Changing Character During the Omer, the 49 day period between Pesach and Shavuot, Jews have traditionally focused on character development. Our middot shiurim will share this focus during these weeks approaching Shavuot. Redirection and Sanctification The “Omer” itself was a barley sacrifice offered on the morning of the second day of Pesach. […]
Humility and Self-Esteem
Straightening Up After Bowing: Low self-esteem has often been called one of our generation’s main inner difficulties. Rabbi Abraham Twerski, MD has devoted a number of books and countless lectures to the importance of proper self-esteem. He makes a crucial point, very relevant to our discussion of humility – that cultivating self-esteem does not in […]
