Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld
The Riddle of the Red Heifer
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Chukat
I recently had the great honor and fortune to offer a benediction at George Washington University’s commencement ceremony. It was also a great opportunity to teach Torah to a very large audience. There were 25,000 people present. And on top of that, since Michelle Obama was scheduled to...
Rabbi Shmuel HaSatan, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and the Holiday of Lag Baomer
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Emor, Lag BaOmer
Around ten days ago I received a letter in the mail from my father. It was a Hebrew sheet of paper with a story on it. The paper was part of a publication called, “Bein Hadagim Le-Zemirot” (Between the Fish and the Songs—Stories for the Shabbat Table). When I read this story I nearly...
Remembering the Besht
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Emor
Sometime we will be sitting down to dinner in our house and the phone will ring or someone will ring the door bell. It is often an annoying intrusion of someone trying to sell us something. It can be annoying. Well the next time that happens think about this story. One time the Baal Shem Tov was...
Running Out of Time
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Pesach
The Shulchan Aruch (458) records that it is a custom to bake matzah specifically on the afternoon of the eve of Pesach. The reason is because that is the time when the Paschal lamb was offered and so it is a custom to bake the matzah at that exact time; as you may know by now, our synagogue baked...
A New Vision for the Temple Mount
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Tetzaveh
I have been to Jerusalem many times. So many times that I have lost count. But on my recent trip to Israel, I found myself in a new part of Jerusalem which I had never been to before. I drove from my hotel in the center of Jerusalem (with Danielle Frum a member of our synagogue), a short ten...
Recognizing your Children
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Vayechi
Recently our congregation was given a tremendous gift. The family of Rabbi Gedaliah Silverstone gave us a Torah scroll that had many years ago been acquired by the Silverstone family in memory of Rabbi Gedaliah. The family had read from the Torah on the High Holidays and memorable family...
Bedford Bikers and Satmar Chasidim
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Vayigash
Some of you might have heard about the Bedford Bike Lanes controversy. There is a major brouhaha currently going on in New York City concerning a bike path from Brooklyn to Manhattan and that goes along Bedford Avenue. Bedford Avenue goes through Williamsburg which has a very large and...
The Miracle of Overflowing Oil
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Chanukah
Twenty years ago on the 8th day of Chanukah a light was extinguished from the world. My Oma, my father’s mother, passed away. She was a real character. She had chutzpah and brilliance, warmth and humor. Thanks to her chutzpah my father and his uncle and my grandfather were able to survive...
Why Am I?
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Toldot
In our 13 years of marriage I have been fortunate enough to learn what it is like to live with a pregnant woman. During this time, I have heard some great one-liners during the gestation period. There was the one and only time Rhanni said, ?Lets do something exciting tonight.? Then she looked...
The Local Mitzvah Movement
Posted by Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld | Tags: Lech Lecha
There is a budding movement spreading quickly around the country known as the Local Food movement. The Local Food movement is “an effort to build a locally based and self-reliant economy in which food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic,...
