Rabbi Abrams Blog

  Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev once challenged G-d, “Master of the Universe, You have placed all the earthly temptations before our eyes, while the spiritual pleasures and rewards for following Your will are relegated to the books we study. That is quite unfair! Why not reverse things and fill our senses with an appreciation and understanding of spirituality, and leave all material benefits and pleasures to the library shelves. See, then, how few people will sin!” What does “understanding” mean? There’s an English expression “to grasp an idea”.  Just like you can grasp or hold a ball, feeling it and controlling it from every side, your brain can understand , hold and feel an “idea” in the same way. As people, we can understand things we like to eat, do and figure out how to get more of them (this is instinctual and survival stuff). We can also understand nature (biology and physics), the engineering of machines, and different skills. We can also understand people (like I wrote la

Mazal tov Miriam and Jason! My sister, Miriam just got married to Jason Bernstein this past Monday! The wedding was beautiful and Natanya and I wish you a beautiful life together! This week's email is dedicated in honor of the bride and groom, and the topic will be “the purpose of marriage.” So what is the purpose of marriage? Some people might say it’s to suffer. Some people might say to enjoy life together. Some people might say it’s “to not be lonely”. Some people might say to have children. Or maybe to be partners in life, have financial stability or emotional support. There may be some truth in some of those answers but I don’t think any of them capture the essence of marriage. The purpose of marriage is for husband and wife to become one . Let’s have a look at the beginning of the Torah.  On the sixth day of creation, after speaking all the land animals into existence, G-d took some earth, formed it into a body, and then blew a soul into it. G-d called him Adam because he wa