Posted on 01/19/26
Stronger Than We Think
“How many times can you hop on one foot in a minute?” Avi Avraham asked the girls in an educational Zoom workshop for girls from all over the world.
Avi, director of the Coma Center for Advancement and Empowerment, jotted down their guesses: 20, 30, maybe 50. Then, during the Zoom session, the girls stood up. A signal was given. For one full minute, they hopped. The results were astonishing: 90. 100. Even 120.
“Do you see?” Avi said, smiling. “Sometimes we underestimate our abilities.”
Through a series of simple exercises like this one, he taught us a powerful skill: how to notice our strengths and build from our successes. Because most of us do the opposite. We spend so much time preoccupied with what we did wrong, what we lack, what we still haven’t mastered, and far less time examining what we are doing well. We’re not trained to analyze success, even though it often reveals our truest potential.
Everyone, Avi said, should be able to answer one basic question: What are you good at? And that answer should become the starting point for what comes next.
Our leaders, too, spoke about this.
Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz (1873–1936) of the Mir yeshiva in Belarus told his students: “Woe to the one who does not know his weaknesses, for he does not know what to fix. But woe even more to the one who does not know his strengths,because then he does not even know what tools he has for fixing.”
Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibuz (1753–1811), grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, offered an interesting interpretation of the verse from chapter 145 of Psalms, Ashrei, which we recite three times each day. The verse is usually understood as, “To make known His mighty acts,” meaning God’s. But Rabbi Baruch read it differently: “To make known the mighty acts of human beings.” In other words: it is a mitzvah to help people recognize their own strength. Most people do not know the extent of their power. Someone needs to tell them about the incredible forces that lie within.
Thank you, Avi.
And now you, too, are invited to try it: hop on one foot for one minute—and count.
The Exodus in the Torah, and the Exodus Today
We are praying for the fall of Iran’s evil regime. Anyone who wants to stand on the right side of history is invited to the Torah reading on Shabbat morning, in synagogues throughout the Jewish world. No, this is not a protest. It is something quieter and deeper: a reminder of clear moral awareness. The Exodus from Egypt begins in the weekly portion, and the Exodus from Egypt begins in real life.
And this isn’t only about Iran. Lately it feels as if reality itself is moving at double speed.
Just weeks ago, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro was still in his bed in the capital, Caracas, until, he was suddenly seized in a daring operation. Years of a regime soaked in violence, drugs, and terror collapsed in a single moment. It can happen. And we were able to witness the former president, in prison uniform and shackles, being escorted into a U.S. courtroom.
And Syria? It sounds almost unbelievable, and for many Israelis it has probably slipped under the radar, but Israel and Syria are now holding direct talks toward an agreement. Senior American officials are even speaking about a real peace deal between Jerusalem and Damascus. For decades, the murderous Assad regime was synonymous with Syria. Who imagined it would disappear in our lifetime, and so quickly? Another government built on hatred of Israel, always tangled up with crime, evil, and oppression, has collapsed into itself, thank God.
That is why the Book of Exodus, which we are reading now, may be the most accurate commentary on this moment. Our sages teach that on the personal level, the national level, and the global level, we are constantly called upon to “leave Egypt”: to topple regimes of evil, and to break our own inner forms of slavery.
And the destination in this week’s portion is not simply to escape Egypt. It is to reach Mount Sinai, to receive the Torah.
Wishing good news to the Iranian people and to all of humanity.
Parashat Bo: Navigating Our Emotions
Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Flooded by a range of powerful, even conflicting emotions?
It’s worth mastering the mechanism offered in this week’s Torah portion, parashat Bo. Right in the middle of a dramatic, historic storyline, we are given anchors. We are given practical mitzvot.
In this week’s portion, we leave Egypt. One moment we read about the Plague of the Firstborn, with every firstborn son in Egypt dying, and the very next moment we receive a practical commandment: to sanctify the new month. Then Pharaoh announces that the Jewish people may leave, yet right in the midst of this unfolding drama, God commands us to put on tefillin and to celebrate the Seder night in every generation.
Why is the portion that tells the story of the Exodus also the portion that contains no fewer than twenty (!) mitzvot? There is a deep and important message here.
The Torah is not a story book or a movie. It is a guide for life. And so, within the most intense moments, within the great “wow,” it gives us eternal commandments. It weaves values into everyday life. It engraves the story within us forever in the most practical way possible. It teaches us to channel all our stormy emotions into something tangible: mitzvot and good deeds, positive action.
Each of us is invited, especially in turbulent times, to ask ourselves: what am I taking upon myself? What steady anchors am I adding to my life?