Rabbi Avraham Edelstein

And what does G-d demand of you except to do kindness and justice and to walk modestly with your G-d. Micah (6:8) IN THE IMAGE OF G-D R. H. Tawney stated that “The essence of all morality is this: to believe that every human being is of infinite importance, and therefore that no consideration of... Read more »

THE HISTORY OF MAN AND THE HISTORY OF EACH MAN We are, as the British-American poet W.H. Auden once said, “history making creatures.” [1] We make this history together with our G-d. As Jews, we cannot allow ourselves to be passive observers, swept along by the events that others make. We are a history-making people!... Read more »

KNOW YOURSELF TO KNOW G-D Knowledge of the self perforce precedes knowledge of G-d. If I don’t understand myself, I cannot understand the ultimate Being beyond myself. We learn this from the story of the prophet Balaam, who was asked by King Balak to curse the Jewish People. [1] As he was riding along, Balaam’s... Read more »

What is the proper path that a man should pursue? Whatever is of intrinsic value to himself and also earns him the esteem of his fellow men. [1] Ethics of our Fathers (2:1) ABRAHAM KEEPS G-D WAITING If you had to choose between chatting with G-d Himself and conversing with a mere mortal, what would... Read more »

MAN — THE SOUL THAT SUSTAINS THE WORLD The first person ever created was a solitary male-female being. [1] G-d initially avoided creating Adam and Eve as separate beings to send us an important message: each and every one of us has individual responsibility for the entire universe as if I were the only human... Read more »

A wise man, Reb Zusha, once said of himself: “When you go up to heaven, you will not be asked why you were not Moses. You will be asked why you didn’t become yourself.” As humans, we are spiritually dynamic — something that cannot be said about any other creature. When it comes to spiritual... Read more »

“And behold it was very good.” This is the yetzer hara (the bad inclination) … [For] without the yetzer hara, a person would not build a home or marry a woman; he would neither have children nor engage in business. Midrash Rabbah Genesis (9:7) The deepest part of us — our souls — genuinely wants... Read more »

Let the good in me connect with the good in others until all the world is transformed through the compelling power of love. Rebbi Nachman of Breslov TO LIVE YOUR VALUES TAKES PASSION Value-based living is a totally different ballgame than value-based believing. It doesn’t take much to resonate with an idea and hold it... Read more »

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl CONDEMNED TO CHOOSE Jean-Paul Sartre claimed that we are “condemned to freedom.” By this, he meant that I am not free because I must make... Read more »

A blind man and a lame man steal some fruit from an orchard guarded by a high fence. They do this by joining forces. The lame man climbs onto the shoulders of the blind man and guides him toward the fruit. When caught, each of them claims that he is obviously unable to commit the... Read more »

Pages By: Rabbi Avraham Edelstein

Inner vs. Outer Directedness

The Unity Theme of the Universe

Belief as Truth

Imitating the Creator

A Kabbalistic View of the World

Man — The Forever Incomplete Being

The Negative Inclination

The Human Challenge: Passion — The Missing Link

The Human Challenge – The Threshold of Choice

The Human Challenge – Body and Soul

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