Category Archives: Inspiration

A Journey through the Jewish Calendar in Thought and Practice Part 1

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Join Rabbi Wolbe and his trustful comrades as they attempt to unlock the wonderful meaning and insight of the Jewish calendar. This presentation will succeed in shattering the childish and simplistic understandings of the Jewish holidays that most of us have harbored since our youth, and infuse the holidays and rituals of the Jewish year with structure, meaning and purpose.

Holidays discussed in Part 1: An overview of the system of Jewish months and the interrelationship of a lunar month with a solar year; Rosh Hashana; Yom Kippur; Sukkot.

The 5 C’s of every happy and harmonious marriage

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It is well documented that modern humans fail at marriage at alarming rates. In the United States for example, in any given year the amount of divorces are roughly half the amount of marriages pegging the divorce rate around 50%. Shockingly, 5 out of 10 couples who commit to stay married to each other “until death do us part” renege on their vow. This staggering percentage does not include all couples who are dissatisfied in their marriages. Some couples have miserable marriages but remain married because of the legal costs and hassles of divorce, or to avoid the religious or social stigma associated with divorce, or even to protect their children from the pain and suffering of a family torn apart. These couples, while technically married, may be permanently separated as is the case by 15 percent of separated couples who don’t divorce nor reconcile rather remain separated permanently,  or they may even live together but have separate bedrooms, separate TVs, separate bank accounts and separate lives. Thus the true rate of failed marriages is significantly greater than the quantifiable divorce rate.

Can anything be done to ensure that our marriages succeed? The Torah outlines five principles of great marriages –  each beginning with the letter C – all you need to do is follow the instruction laid out and you are guaranteed to have a wonderful marriage.

What happens after you die

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Thinking and contemplating about our own demise is perhaps the most powerful tool we can use to change the way we think about life. When we realize that we too will swallow that bitter pill of death, our life and values appear in a new light. But what actually happens when we die? And what happens afterward? These critical questions, and many others are addressed in great detail in this presentation.

*Originally presented at Temple Beth Torah in Humble, TX on Sunday May 4, 2014.

The Ten Commandments of Parenting

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A parent who brings a child to this world has accepted upon himself/herself the responsibilities of raising that child to be a happy, healthy and stable adult. This axiomatic idiom has been an unfortunate causality of today’s society. In America today only 63% of children grow up together with both biological parents. As Jews we heed the Torah’s requirement to educate our children but also benefit from the Torah’s guidelines of how to educate them. In this presentation we have selected ten of the Torah’s core pedagogical lessons. Namely:

  1. Thou shall parent.
  2. Thou shall individualize your parenting as per the unique nature of your child.
  3. Thou shall parent with the long term view.
  4. Thou shall love your child and express it.
  5. Thou shall boost your child’s self esteem.
  6. Thou shall teach by example.
  7. Thou shall discipline and demand infrequently but with consistency.
  8. Thou shall collaborate with your partners.
  9. Thou shall not make your parenting an arena for your own negative character traits.
  10. Thou shall not be obstinate.

Come and hearken to the presentation that caused one participant to exclaim: “I wish I heard this seven years ago”.

Man, Judaism and the Pursuit of Pleasure Part 4

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Humans have a physiological innate need to live for something; to have meaning. Our needs go beyond the physical. In Judaism we say that this need is the yearning of the soul for soulful nourishment the same way bodies scream out for their unmet needs. Rabbi Wolbe teaches the Torah’s methods of how to utilize this drive for maximum pleasure

Beware of the Two Cliffs: How to navigate the perils of Self Perfection

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Any pursuit of self perfection and character refinement will invariably be accompanied by two frightening and formidable challenges: 1. Body-Backlash; when the body rejects the agenda of the soul. 2. Heightened Haughtiness; when someone ascends to Mount Pious and declares himself mayor and looks down condescendingly upon others. These two dangers must be approached very carefully…

Man, Judaism and the pursuit of Pleasure Part 1

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We begin this first of a multiple part exposition of major items in Jewish Life, Philosophy and Practice with a controversial but logical conclusion and a question. The conclusion: Life can only have meaning if God exists. The question: When you accept the Jewish definition of God you accept that God lacks nothing; so for what purpose did God decide to create the universe? We then dig into the two answers promulgated by traditional Jewish sources. Tune in for some advanced Jewish philosophy.

The Overachiever’s Secret

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The term “overachiever” should not be mistakenly conferred onto people who achieve greatness; greatness can result from great intellect, opportunity and circumstance, overachievers are those who achieve beyond what their peers in circumstance and ability achieve. What is their secret, and how can we emulate them?