Rabbi Abrams Blog

  I took a trip to Washington D.C. to visit my step-uncle and aunt and comfort them for the  loss of their daughters . Torah teaches that visiting mourners, especially in their home, is comforting to the mourners  and to the deceased. Indeed, the process of death is painful not only to the family of the deceased, but to the deceased themselves. The ability to do productive work, help people and do mitzvahs is only possible while alive in this physical world, and this is why death is painful (unlike what most people think, that death is the end of pain). We mourn  with  the dead over the lost opportunities to give light to the world. On the way back, I stopped in Dallas, TX for a day. It made $$ sense and gave me the opportunity to visit a couple good friends and supporters who have moved there. Here are some observations and reflections from the visit: Texas was very different than I expected. I wasn’t expecting the toll roads and traffic. Instead of Ford and Ch...

  Shabbos-Sunday is the culmination of the “Three weeks & nine days”. These are sad days on the Jewish calendar. They have “negative energy” for the Jewish people. If you have a court case, try to push it off until after this time. If you are buying a house, signing a big deal or traveling, best to push it off. It’s not a time for swimming, extensive travel or other potentially dangerous things. Tisha B’ Av is the day the Jews were sentenced to die in the desert (and thereby spend 40 years wandering). It is the day the first and second Temples were destroyed. It was the final day for the Jews to be out of Spain in 1492. It is the day that WWI broke out. But Tisha B’Av is not just a “bad day” in far off history. In my lifetime I’ve seen tragedies on this day too. It is the day all Jews were expelled from Gaza in 2005. It is the day Fariba, a single mother from our Hebrew School, died and left her twins literally orphans. It is the day last year that Helene tragically passed away...