RABBI David Shaw’s Blog

It is one of the first whole sentences that we want to teach our children although we say it to them long before they can understand it. It is also the last sentence that we as Jews strive to say at the moments prior of our death. This expression of our absolute belief in one [...]

As we zoom through the seasons and head deeper into autumn on our way to winter, I have to say that for me, with our Shul full of gorgeous Minnie Berhrsonalities and their parents, who came to Shul for their birthday blessings on Shabbat, it was like spring. Each child like a blossom, bright and [...]

I came across a nice idea that I thought to share with you. A student once asked his Rebbe, I think it was the Apter Rabbi, if there was a hint somewhere else in the Torah other than the specific command in last week’s Parasha, for the mitzvah to love one’s fellow Jew. The Rebbe [...]

At the end of every Holy Day we make Havdala, a ceremony which separates between the holiness of the day and the ordinary-ness of the week that is to follow. On Shabbat, Havdala consists of wine, spices and a multi wicked candle, while after a Yom Tov it consists merely of wine. No spices! No [...]

The Fast of Esther, which is being brought forward this year to Thursday 21 February is different from any of the other four rabbinical fast days described in the eighth chapter of Zachariah. Despite the fact that the fast of Esther is not mentioned explicitly in neither the Gemara, our oral law, nor in fact in [...]