This Jewish Life - By Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

We tackle the question of theodicy.

What does Jewish Law say regarding suicide? What about physician assisted suicide? We briefly outline the central element of these laws, although we may revisit it at greater length in the future.

The experience of pain and suffering is ubiquitous across all spectrum of human life. All of us, in some capacity, experience difficulties and challenges. Any measure of human suffering creates a dilemma for believers in a just God: How can a just God supervise over injustice? Why do bad things happen to good people? This […]

Striving for character development and ethical refinement are included in the demands that the Almighty expects from every Jew. The very first step on the path to total character perfection is acquiring and refining our capacity to have patience.

Ever since the founding of the Jewish state tension between the political and societal elements in Israel and the religious implications of a Jewish state have existed. In truth, the Zionist dream was hotly divisive across a very broad spectrum of the Jewish world fifty years before Israel’s founding. Recently several issues in the Israeli […]

Jesus is not, and never was, the Messiah because he fulfilled none of the personal qualifications of Messiah, accomplished none of the necessary requirements of the Messiah and the Messianic Era is clearly not underway. Jesus is not, and never was, divine because assigning godly qualities to a man is anathema for Jews and against […]

Maimonides, in including this as the ninth of the thirteen principles of faith, makes it abundantly clear: If you do not believe that every word of the Torah is true you have no place in the Jewish people. The Talmud further clarifies (Sanhedrin 99a) that even if someone acknowledges that all the Torah is divine […]

Jacob’s life was a seemingly endless streak of suffering and challenges. His own brother was hellbent on murdering him; his father in law tricked him into marrying the woman whom he did not desire to marry; his father in law also marginalized him professionally. Joseph’s life path follows a similar line: His brothers conspire to […]

What does the Torah have to say about love? How can we be required to love God? Why is there an additional mitzvah to love a convert? This class was given in Cypress, TX at Shalom Cypress.

At the beginning of the Second Commonwealth Era the Jews were introduced to a reality that they were previously unexposed to; namely living in Israel under foreign rule. With relatively minor exceptions such as the successful Macabbean revolt in 67 BCE and the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132 CE, Israel will be thenceforth dominated by […]