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The Question Is Not About The Facts, It Is About How You Face Them! People know a lot about statistics, but statistics know nothing about the power of will!

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky 4 comments

“This Torah portion begins with “Shelach lecha”. According to Rashi, God says – if you wish, send the envoys over to check. We often think that we need to see in order to believe. However this portion demonstrates that the truth is generally the opposite: we need to believe in order to see”. People know a lot about statistics, but statistics

If It Hurts Scream! Someone May Hear You…

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky Leave a comment

During the last ten years I met many many friends and colleagues struggling with this, emotionally flooded. Beautiful, brilliant and talented people becoming closed, passing hard times. And most of them not asking for help and therefore not receiving what is required in order to continue, to get over it. One of the things which worry me the most is the

Parashat Naso: Blessing – Just Do It!

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky 4 comments

The capability to look with love and empathy and to grant the gift of a good word, a hug, a thought, your presence. Parashat Naso is the longest Parasha in the Torah, 176 verses! It continues to list details regarding enrollment in what later will become the Israeli army (not that of the nowadays state). To this end it deals with

Tuning Our Souls For Shavuot: PoveSham’s Top 4

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky 2 comments

Bamidbar: Our Nation, Our Army and Our Spirit!

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky Leave a comment

Army. This is the first word in my reading of Parashat Bamidbar, and it’s the most remarkable word. It is of course not a new word in the Torah, but it is a new concept. The Israelites are turning into a nation, and as such we need an army! Following God’s announcement to Moses about enrolling the people of Israel in

Shavuot: Torah To Take Away!

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky Leave a comment

Think about it! The Torah was delivered on Mount Sinai at the time in the midst of our walking in the desert. This means that if you compare it with milk or with the “food for our souls” as our Sages z”l did, this delivery would be closer to the idea of “Take away” than to sitting in your place

Holiness: Not In The Synagogue

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky 2 comments

Parashat Kedoshim: Res non verba! (Deeds not words) Often the role of the interpreter of the words of the Torah is to bridge the gap between the text and the reader. In other cases our role is much closer to delivering the message “as is”. Parashat Kedoshim (Lev. 19-20) is one of the latter, conveying a clear message and

Yom Hazikaron: When An Entire Nation Cries

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky Leave a comment

Experiences of an Immigrant who Learned to be a Mourner I was born and raised in Argentina. From the first years of my adolescence I participated in the ceremonies of Yom Ha’azmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). I remember these activities at the headquarters of Hacoaj, as well as the national ones organized by the juvenile Zionist movement in different areas in

Death, Birth & The Secret Of Life: Impurity! Tazria- Metzorah

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky Leave a comment

Yeshayahu Leibowitz explains that the reason to couple the Torah portions of Tazri’a and Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) in the Jewish communal reading of the Torah is that they both deal with biology of Man, with the biological filth of human existence. A central element in both portions is impurity. A woman who gave birth is considered impure for a period of

Yom HaShoa Ve’Hagevurah

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Rabbi Nico Socolovsky Leave a comment

Jewish Resistance During The Shoa Resistance is. . To smuggle a loaf of bread – was to resist. To teach in secret – was to resist. To gather information and distribute an underground newsletter – was to resist. To cry out warning and shatter illusions – was to resist. To rescue a Torah scroll – was to resist. To forge

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