Ari Shishler

Working to bring Moshiach

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Nov 15, 2024, 2:43 PM

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?

Five years ago, this month, we got our youngest daughter, Shaina’s devastating BPAN diagnosis. I remember the suffocating realisation that our lives would never be the same. I worried how we would manage as a family and how I...

Oct 15, 2024, 10:33 PM

The Great Etrog Emergency

South Africa experienced a shortage of etrogim last year. At the time, I penned this for our community newsletter. It feels lke an appropriate metaphor for what the Jewish world has experienced this year. The Sage was concerned. Yom...

Jul 26, 2024, 5:38 PM

Up close with a rhinoceros

Have you ever touched a live rhinoceros? It is a unique experience. A white rhino weighs around three and a half tons. They are docile creatures, despite their size and large horns. As long as you don't taunt them...

Jul 18, 2024, 4:53 PM

Closing a circle, 37 years later

I closed a thirty-seven-year circle this Sunday at the consecration of a tombstone for a man I never knew. Last year, as I drove to the local cemetery to officiate at a funeral, the funeral director phoned. "There is a...

Jun 6, 2024, 11:06 PM

You know that feeling when you stop at an intersection and a car pulls up next to you, heavy bass booming from his radio, into your car, through your chest and stomach and out the other side? That is...

May 23, 2024, 9:33 PM

Letting go of being right

Rabbi Goldenberg is mediating a quarrelling couple in his study at home. When the wife finishes her tirade against her husband, the rabbi strokes his beard and says, “You’re right”. Ten minutes later, after the husband completes his harangue, the rabbi sways back and forth...

May 17, 2024, 1:16 AM

Sapir Cohen is one of the strongest humans I have ever met. This week, I was privileged to hear her harrowing but profoundly inspiring story of faith and resourcefulness while held captive by Hamas. Shivers ran down our spines...

May 10, 2024, 12:23 AM

The Divine Marshmallow Experiment

Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow Experiment is one of the most well-known studies in delayed gratification. Mischel and his team famously challenged preschool children to delay eating a treat for 15 minutes. If they held out, they would earn an additional...

May 3, 2024, 1:16 PM

When academia loses its mind

Who sat next to you at the Pesach Seder? Was it your fidgety nephew, cantankerous uncle or the new guy with too many questions? When you read the Haggadah, you discover that where you sit at the Seder might say...

Apr 18, 2024, 11:18 PM

Hearts of stone

On Monday evening, we will gather around the table for our annual colourful, oversubscribed, possibly drawn-out family dinner called the Seder. We will read about taskmasters and frogs and might debate if our ancestors built the pyramids. Our children...

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About Me

Rabbi Shishler is the director of Chabad of Strathavon in Sandton, South Africa. Rabbi Shishler is a popular teacher who regularly lectures around the globe. he hosts a weekly radio show in South Africa and is the rabbi of Facebook's largest Ask the Rabbi group. Rabbi Shishler is also a special needs father. His daughter, Shaina has an ultra-rare neuroegenratove condition called BPAN. Rabbi Shishler shares Shaina's story and lessons about kindness and disability inclusion on his other blog, "Shaina's Brocha" and through lectures and Kindness Cookies teambuilding workshops.

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