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YU Professor Rabbi Jacob Schacter Writes New Commentary on Selihot

In preparation for the New Year and Yom Kippur, Jews recite a series of prayers known as Selihot. From the word “forgive,” these soul-stirring supplications ask G-d for Divine mercy. They are usually said in the morning, before the Shacharit morning prayer service.

David and Ruth Weichselbaum, pillars of the Kew Gardens Hills community, were a couple who rose above the atrocities of the Holocaust to build a flourishing family that has left its mark on their respective communities. Their lives chronicled the Jewish triumph and remain an everlasting legacy to how the Chosen Nation continues to survive and thrive in face of Amalek.

During the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, B’nei Yisrael take upon themselves to recite T’hilim, because saying T’hilim is a s’gulah for t’shuvah. According to Likutei Moharan II:73, saying T’hilim is a great way to rouse feelings of awakening toward Hashem.

Five Towns residents packed the Village Court in Cedarhurst to remember the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Rows of people stood while seats were full. More than 100 people attended.

Growing up as a kid, I distinctly recall a large black box with a couple of low, stuffed chairs sitting in the corner of my shul’s social hall. This chevrah kadisha box, originally containing soft-covered siddurim falling apart and later upgraded to the ArtScroll Siddur Nechamas Yisrael, was spotted at shiv’ah houses across the neighborhood. Dealing with death is an uncomfortable part of life, and aside from the emergent scenarios – such the death of a loved one, and the family is therefore sitting shiv’ah – when the community springs into action, or the annual Chevrah Kadisha dinner, dealing with death is “out of sight, out of mind” for most people.

Agudath Israel of America decries today’s one-sided New York Times hit piece on New York State’s chasidic community and its educational institutions.