Posts by Asher Gottesman

In the Jewish faith, it’s truly fascinating to ponder why God chose to give the tablets to the Jewish people in the desert at Sinai. Why not wait until the Jews reached the homeland? Why did this happen in such an isolated space? Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers a beautiful explanation; he explains that it was…

How can we come to see the similarities instead of the differences? How do we figure out a way to understand that we are all seeking the same thing — safety and connection — and that it’s possible for us to coexist and find similarities, even if we really are polar opposites in terms of…

It’s so important that we take time to pause, reflect, decompress, and give our minds and souls time to rejuvenate. Especially today with cellphones and social media, we are always so connected, and we are all being constantly stimulated and distracted. My teacher Ted taught me that it takes 20 minutes after we put down…

The greatest gift a teacher can give me is two-fold; first is saying, “I don’t know, let me see if I can find an answer”, second is to admit when they were wrong and say, “I’m sorry, I made a mistake”, and a close third is sharing their own humanity. As a child, at times…

I have suffered with anxiety for most of my life, which has been both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because anxiety motivates me and gets me going. It’s a curse because it can be debilitating, and provides me with a skewed perspective as my defenses are down. The ultimate negative is when…

This past week has been the celebration of Passover, and an overall personal lesson I have chosen to take from this holiday is the importance of timing. The scholars suggest that it was very difficult for God to split the sea. We could spend days discussing what difficult means when it comes to God, yet…

This is the season of freedom. Next week, the Jewish people celebrate Passover, a holiday commemorating the exodus from Egypt. The Commandments serve to teach our youth about “our” exodus from Egypt and—dare I say— our exodus from self, which is the basis of freedom. I say “our” in quotes to specify the idea that…

I visited my friend Rabbi Yitzy this week and the first thing he asked me was how my son Nate is doing. I haven’t seen the Rabbi in a month, and he’s only met my son once, yet he remembered who he was. This made me feel so sad for the Rabbi, as his mind…

This week, the theme of charity has come up multiple times. I had one person ask me, “I have given away so much money, and the Torah says God will reimburse me and reward me, so how is it that I’m struggling financially?” Separately, my dear friend asked, with all the suffering, homelessness, poverty, etc.,…

The grave sin of the Golden Calf showed us the greatest level and form of leadership in the history of mankind. That leader was Moses. What made Moses the greatest leader of his time and still to this day, is that he knew that without his people he wasn’t anything. He led from humility and…