Pinchos Lipschutz

There is a growing unease over the direction of the Republican Party when President Trump leaves the political stage. For decades, support for Israel was one of the few issues that transcended partisan politics. While that bipartisan consensus has steadily eroded, particularly as anti-Israel sentiment has become increasingly mainstream on the left, Republicans have largely remained steadfast allies of Israel. President Donald Trump, more than perhaps any American president before him, has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to Israel's security and legitimacy.

I'm back on an El Al plane, heading for Eretz Yisroel, expecting to spend a couple of weeks in Yerushalayim. Making the trip was not

My grandchildren were by us for Shabbos , and they were chewing gum, as children are wont to do. As I watched them, I was thinking about something my rebbi , Rav Mendel Kaplan, would tell us. He would say, “Life is like chewing gum. Ah bissel tzuker un kei kei kei — It has a little sugar, but most of the time you are simply chewing.” His pithy comment is quite deep and has much meaning.

Some things change, while other things remain remarkably the same. What appears to us to be new and unprecedented has often happened before. History has a way of repeating itself, and the Jewish people have learned, sometimes painfully, that the circumstances may change, the personalities may change, and the challenges may take on new forms, but the underlying story is often familiar.

What separates man from beast? Well, there are many things that separate man from beast, but one of them is the ability to make choices. We call that bechirah

There are times when we become so focused on doing the right thing that we fail to notice the opportunity to do something even greater.

One of the great ironies of life is that we spend so much of it trying to achieve the very thing that we often find most difficult to hold on to.

The Torah begins by telling us the story of creation, Bereishis . The Torah introduces us to the creation of the universe, the formation of the world in which we live, and the emergence of mankind, the one creation entrusted with the ability to recognize its Creator and choose how to live.

As we learn this week about Noach and the Mabul , we encounter a description of the world that is devastating and unsettling. The pesukim Bereishis 6:11-12) tell us, “ Vatishocheis ha'aretz lifnei ha'Elokim vatimolei ha'aretz chomos — The world had become corrupt before Hashem, and the earth was filled with thievery.” The Torah continues, “ Vayar Hashem es ha'aretz vehinei nishchosah — Hashem saw the earth, and behold, it had become corrupt.”

There are moments in life when everything we have relied upon suddenly seems uncertain. The plans we carefully constructed no longer appear workable, the future we envisioned recedes beyond our reach, and the ground beneath our feet seems less secure than it did yesterday. We can find ourselves confronting circumstances we never anticipated, struggling with questions for which we have no answers, and wondering why the path ahead has become so difficult.