Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair
Wiggle Room! – Vayakhel
These are the things that Hashem commanded to do them:” (35:1) Here's a parable drawn from motorcycles to illustrate the concept of ‘bidieved’ - an untranslatable word usually translated as ‘after the fact.’ A mitzva has an ideal – lechatchila – way to be performed, but there is also a degree of latitude that, while not ideal, will still cause the mitzva to have its effect. That's 'bidieved.' But what's that got to do with motorcycles?
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 43 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Giving Leads to Love – Ki Tissa
We are in the middle of a period of spiritual uplift in the Jewish calendar . A journey from the beginning of Adar to Pesach. This is how it unfolds..."
A Freilichen Purim
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 42 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
In Memory of Rabbi Nota Schiller zt”l
Rabbi Nota Schiller zt"l, the great Rosh HaYeshiva of Ohr Somayach passed away last Shabbat. These are a few words in honor of his passing.
The Last Word – Tetzave
Although AI is still very much in its infancy, it’s clear that the basic skills of drawing and painting, of music, and much more, are becoming redundant. Why spend 5 years in art school when you can create a Turner or a Dutch Master with a few computer commands?
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 41 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Teruma – A Deeper Understanding
What’s the connection between Shema and Teruma? Our Sages tell us that one fiftieth is the average tithe that a farmer should give to the kohen from his grain and produce. The Vilna Gaon explains that the word 'terumah' is an allusion to 'trei m’meah', meaning two out of one hundred, which is one fiftieth. But if the word ‘teruma’ is hinting at a fiftieth, why use a word that hints to two parts in a hundred?
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 40 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Unraveling the Future – Mishpatim
The BBC reports that a badly burnt scroll from the Roman town of Herculaneum has been digitally "unwrapped", providing the first look inside it for 2,000 years. The document, which looks like a lump of charcoal, was charred by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79CE and is too fragile to ever be physically opened. Last year, a similar team managed to read about 5% of another Herculaneum scroll. Its subject was Greek Epicurean philosophy, which teaches that fulfilment in life can be found through the pleasure of everyday things. It struck me as ironic that an ancient scroll, which is now lifeless carbon, should glorify the pleasures of this world, whereas another ancient scroll, our holy Torah, which doesn’t need electrons to be accelerated to light speed to make out its message, should teach that life’s fulfilment is be found by taking the everyday things in our life and elevating them to a level of transcendence and eternity.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 39 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Digital Torah 1.0 – Yitro
The Torah is a ‘digital communication.’ It never loses its original pristine holiness, however much it is surrounded by the background noise and static of this physical world.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 38 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
This Is a Test!
Standing up to a test is one of the three tasks of Jew in this world. (along with praying and doing the mitzvos). Sometimes half the battle is to realize that you are in a test while it's happening. This is a story of something that happened to me recently.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 37 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
The Days of Your Life – Parshat Bo
"A day in the life, a moment of connection with God is a lifetime. Every breath we take is a world of opportunity. Every moment.
Time looks like a heartless, relentless march forever forward to our end. As poet William Carlos Williams said, “Time is a storm in which we are all lost.” But is time a rapidly dwindling, limited resource that we must spend frivolously before it’s all gone? Maybe time isn’t a desperate scrabble to use it all up – before we run out of it. The English word ‘moment’ comes from the Latin word momentum, implying relentless movement – The march of time. The Hebrew word for time - rega, comes from ragua, which means a state of calm or rest. The rest of your life.They are the tools of the artists of the soul.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 36 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Artists of the Soul
My life as a Jew is brimful of constrictions and restrictions. It is these very restrictions, however, that are the paint and canvas that make the physical world speak in the language of the spirit.
They are the tools of the artists of the soul.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 35 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 34 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
A Personal Message From Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair
Please click here:https://causematch.com/ohr-somayach-international-24/sinclair Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats:
Fast on Friday?! – The Tenth of Tevet
Why is the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet the only fast in the Jewish calendar that can occur on Friday, Erev Shabbat?
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 33 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Chanuka! Get Delight! – The OHRchestra
Hear the full-length version on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/track/5KzSQI3N9ebdyGFR9wC1yc?si=2f0f2ee5a1764e4e Lyrics: When you’re walking in darkness, In a world that is heartless, And you feel you’re alone in the crowd Feeling desperation, alienation from my nation What does it mean to be Jewish? You’d rather be bluish – Because you’re so YOU-ish. Chanuka – Get delighted! Light it! […]
Torah Versus Hollywood – A Chanuka Insight
The centuries old battle between Jerusalem and Athens.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 32 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Empowering Others – Parshat Miketz
Yosef’s wisdom and discernment geared up Egypt for a devastating famine, the likes of which had never been known. To achieve the mobilization of an entire country requires a specific kind of success
The Face of Holiness – Parshat Vayeshev
Walk down the street! Take an airplane! Get on a bus! Everywhere we go, we are challenged by a worldview that glorifies immorality and the unbridled pursuit of physical pleasure. What can protect us from these icons of immorality?
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 31 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/
Why We Believe In God
Tradition is more than chicken soup, or bagels and lox, it's why the Jewish People believe in God.
Finding Your Path – Mesilas Yesharim PT 30 (Jewish Understanding)
Please click below on “show more” to see additional formats: Rabbi Sinclair’s book on the weekly Parsha – https://www.israelbookshoppublications.com/store/pc/The-Color-of-Heaven-54p652.htm Rabbi Sinclair’s on-line art gallery – http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/