It is widely accepted that Rav Meir Chodosh, zt”l, was one of the luminaries of the mussar movement, as well as one of the most revered mashgichim of the previous generation. Born on 27...

When I went into my parents’ bedroom on a quiet, ordinary Sunday afternoon, I was looking for a book I had misplaced, but I became distracted by a dresser drawer that had been left...

“The Brisker Rav was niftar right before Yom Kippur,” Rav Rafael Reichman says reflectively, looking upward. Rav Reichman is a rather tall man, and he is sitting on a stool, making him look even...

Rabbanit Leah Kook is an enigma. She was born into rabbinic scholarly aristocracy and grew up among the crème de la crème of the Ashkenazi yeshivishe chareidi  rabbinic leadership centered in Yerushalayim and Bnei...

On a recent visit to Eretz Yisrael I had the great privilege to pay a visit to Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the esteemed rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Slabodka in Bnei Brak, one of the...

Dear Ami: After my father died, my mother was inconsolable. She withdrew into herself and gave up on life. Nothing interested her anymore, and whenever I visited, her eyes were red and she shuffled around...

‘‘Rebbe, who is worthy in this generation to bestow a brachah?” the chasidim asked the Satmar Rebbe. “One who has numbers on his arm has the power to give a brachah,” he told them. * *...

“Your mother is here.” “What?” “Your mother is here, outside.” “It can’t be. My mother is in Milwaukee.” “She’s waiting for you outside. Go speak with her.” I was part of the elite inner circle of the Scientology cult...

This week, on a visit from Los Angeles, Chuck Abel was greeted at Yeshivas Ponevezh by its nasi, Rav Eliezer Kahaneman. Although this was Chuck’s first visit to Bnei Brak, his connection runs deep—harkening...

Around this time of the year, it is customary in many shuls to switch the paroches to a white one for the Yomim Nora’im. If you are davening in a shul in the tri-state...