Shlomo Carlebach

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May 28, 2025, 9:35 AM

Holding the Centre Together

This week’s parsha, Bamidbar, is one many people skim over. It starts with another census—tribes, numbers, flags, and positions in the camp. It’s easy to see it as technical, even dull. However, the truth is that this parsha strikes at the...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

May 22, 2025, 3:59 PM

In Memoriam: Michael Brand

Reb Shlomo Carlebach had a left-wing and a right-wing side. A friend of mine once asked him what he would vote for in the upcoming elections in Israel, he said, 'I'm like the Almighty, "Who elects songs and laudations",'...

Apr 27, 2025, 5:43 PM

Broadcasting from the Soul

Broadcasting from the Soul: Nachum Segal on Faith, Israel, and Jewish Identity in a Tumultuous Time For those unfamiliar with Nachum Segal, he is one of the most enduring and influential voices in Jewish broadcasting. For over four decades, he has...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Feb 26, 2025, 11:49 AM

Our greatest classical music is commonly destroyed by expert misinterpretation

How classical music stayed an elitist affair I'm not a music authority by any stretch of meaning or imagination, but I know what I like and what I find boring. I want to clarify that I don't mean that such musicians...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Feb 20, 2025, 11:09 PM

Don’t let the news manipulate your emotions

When we're too upset, we eat away at our lives and our resistance In the first part, Reb Shlomo sings a comforting tune acknowledging the atrocities. The second part encourages us to stay alive. Both are important. We must stay calm...

Nov 13, 2024, 10:35 AM

Am Yisrael Chai

Parshat Vayera opens with a striking scene: God appears to Abraham as he recovers from his circumcision. This divine visitation, rare and profound, is interrupted by three strangers who approach weary and in need. Abraham then faced a choice:...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

May 15, 2024, 11:46 AM

Really sad and really happy

May we see the complete Redemption for everyone soon and in our days What are we to do on the Shabbat of the Shivve (week of mourning)? There is no public mourning on Shabbat. Tears are fine. Also, because they make...

Apr 15, 2024, 3:50 PM

It’s time for unconditional love

The Jewish people unites not because we have common enemies, but when we remember that we'd be nothing without each other

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Mar 20, 2024, 7:02 AM

In times of disasters, we must celebrate because true joy is brave resistance

A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to wail and a time to dance—Ecclesiastes 3:4 Here are eight thoughts that may help us to enlarge joy around Purim. 1. Don't Make it Worse When you are in official...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Jan 1, 2024, 3:38 AM

Historical progress, generational decline, and the power of unity in Judaism

Solving problems, you didn't know you had Modernity believes in progress to such a degree that all old is suspected to be obsolete, and old people and their ideas deserve hardly any respect. Judaism, never too tired of going against the...

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