There is a teaching, tucked into The Zohar, that is so quiet you could miss it if you weren't listening for it: Yom Kippur, the sages say, is Yom k'Purim — a day like Purim. Sit with that for a moment. The holiest day of the year, the day we stand before the Gates, stripped of food and pretense and everything that ordinarily insulates us from ourselves — this day is compared, not to Rosh Hashanah, not to Yom HaZikaron, not to some other solemn day in our calendar. It's compa

Good Yontif. During the time of Napoleon, a boy was born in Poland. His arrival brought his family so much joy that they gave him a name to reflect it: Simcha. It quickly became clear that Simcha was an ilui, a child prodigy, and someone worth listening to. In time, Simcha became a great and influential Hasidic rebbe. One of his most famous teachings tries to get us to balance humility and ego: “A person should always carry two slips of paper, one in each pocket. “On one you

Rabbi Daniel Gropper, DD, Community Synagogue of Rye Oct 11, 2024 A Story, because Judaism is all about stories: The Lithuanian Jews...

Kol Nidre, 5784 Rabbi Daniel Gropper, Community Synagogue of Rye On October 5th, 1973, exactly 50 years ago on the Jewish calendar, Jews...