Posts by Asher Gottesman

Great leaders have many qualities, but humility is usually not one of them. With rare exceptions, they tend to be ambitious, with a high measure of self-regard. They expect to be obeyed, honored, respected, even feared. They may wear their superiority effortlessly—Eleanor Roosevelt called this “wearing an invisible crown”—but there is a difference between this…

In the portion of the week, the Torah discusses the idea of commandments which don’t make sense, yet we are still obligated to keep them. The Torah isn’t superfluous or controlling—it’s not looking for ways to play mind games—so why must we do things which don’t make sense?! With modern science, we have become acutely…

I have been noticing in my personal life that there are certain habits that are so obvious to me—whether they be physical habits like eating and exercise, spiritual practices such as meditation and prayer, or personal commitments to speak kindly and respectfully and not engage in gossip. While these are all areas I know I…

One of my favorite parts of Judaism is that it encourages us to question, to doubt, to grapple, to seek, and to find the deeper meaning.  This doesn’t give us permission to not follow the rules, yet it gives us permission to question them. Judaism challenges us to not just be a lame duck, yet…

Prof. Ronald Heifetz, co-founder and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University discusses the difference between technical challenges and adaptive challenges. An example of technical challenges are illnesses, where you can go to a doctor who gives you a pill, tells you to rest and you…

I want to talk about guilt vs. shame.  I have always understood shame to be ‘I am bad’, and guilt being ‘what I have done is bad or wrong’. When I am bad, I have nowhere to go, I have no way of repenting, because I, myself am useless. However, when I have done something…

Sitting in judgement, jumping to conclusions, and giving the benefit of the doubt are all areas that in certain places I struggle with, and in certain circumstances I’m able to handle favorably.  When it comes to self-judgment, I’m extremely harsh. Yet when it comes to how I want others to judge me, I want them…

I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them: for I am the lord, their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I…

The Sages went so far as to say that the Torah commands us in only one place to love our neighbor, but thirty-six times to love the stranger. Why is this so important?! Isn’t it more important to love those closest to you? Why so much emphasis on the stranger? I think the answer is…

Next week, we celebrate a day known as Lag BaOmer which is the 33rd day of counting from Passover to the holiday celebration of the Torah called Shavuot. The celebration is because the 14,000 students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying; these students perished because they weren’t kind to one another. My question is, I understand…