_(english).jpg "Taking the Spiritual Dive")
_(english).jpg "Genetic Screening for Breast Cancer Genes")
_(english).jpg "When Bad Things Happen")
_(english).jpg "Judaism and the 12-Step Program")
+.jpg "Knowledge and Wisdom")
+.jpg "Moshe, Miriam and Prophecy")
+.jpg "Don't Give Up")
About the Author
Rabbi Stephen Baars
Originally from London, Rabbi Stephen Baars resides in Washington D.C. and serves as Executive Director of Aish Seminars. He did nine years of post-graduate studies at the Aish HaTorah Rabbinical College in Jerusalem, and has been an educator and marriage counselor for the past 20 years. He is creator of the BLISS seminar, which was awarded a Federal Grant to help reduce the divorce rate in Washington DC. He studied and performed comedy in Los Angeles, and is known for imparting important ideas with creativity and humor. Rabbi Baars and his wife, Ruth, are blessed with seven children.
Hezbollah’s Yom Kippur Message
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThe door to holiness is in you. It’s the one marked "mistakes."
+.jpg "Money, Money, Money!")
Money, Money, Money!
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsDespite what ABBA may have proclaimed, it's not a rich man's world. Curtis L. Carlson, the founder of the Gold Bond Stamp Company and owner of the ...
Lying
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"The tongue is the pen of the heart." -- Bachya Ibn Pekudah (11th century Spanish Rabbi) "If a man makes a vow to God, or makes an ...
Job Opening: Leader
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"If you have wisdom, what do you lack? And if you lack wisdom, what do you have?" -- Midrash, Vayikra Rabba George Burns used to quip, ...
Really Needy People
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsBack in the 1970s there was a hit song, "People who need people." The lyrics went on to say that these kind of people are the luckiest ...
Satisfied Yet?
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsDespite our immense sophistication, technology and so-called brain power, most people never achieve what field mice enjoy nearly all the time - a ...
Living Comfortably
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThis is the outline of the major story in this week's Parsha: In preparation for entering the Land of Israel, the Jewish people send in a ...
The Best Things In Life Are Never Free
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsAs they say in Hollywood, "You just can't make this stuff up." There are some things in the Torah that could not have been written unless ...
Why Is Peace So Hard?
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"May God ... grant to you peace." (6:26) Peace is not achieved because you hate war. Peace is only achieved when you love peace. (based ...
The Head of a Family Tree
by Rabbi Stephen Baars(This week's parsha is based on an idea by Rabbi Moshe Chaifetz, as explained in "Growth Through Torah" by Rabbi Zelig ...
Gambling on the Game of Life
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsIf we require someone to attend driving school before he is allowed to drive, and flying school before he is allowed to fly, why don't we require ...
God's Cosmic Joke
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsIt would seem that life can go one of four ways: (1) the rich get richer, (2) the rich get poorer, (3) the poor get richer, and (4) the poor get ...
Cow Tears
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThis week's Torah portion says that for an animal to be acceptable as a sacrifice it had to be with its mother for at least the first seven days ...
All You Need Is Love
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsBelieve it or not, there is no specific Mitzvah (Commandment) to love your parents, your spouse (although it's a good idea) and even your children. ...
Heaven Meets Earth
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThis week's parsha declares that it's through keeping the statutes and ordinances of the Torah that a person comes "To live" (Leviticus ...
It's Good To Come Home
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThere is something comforting about walking through your own front door that no amount of pampering or luxury anywhere else can simulate. In other ...
The Greatest Parenting Technique That Was Never...
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"Wisdom is to the soul as food is to the body." -- Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, 1090-1167 Let me start with a disclaimer, I generally shy ...
Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsAs long as man has been trying to figure out how to rub two sticks together to make a BBQ, they have been pondering this question. Yet all the ...
The Seder To Set You Free
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsEach Jewish holiday is a lesson in life. Passover is freedom. It's the type of freedom that has given the Jewish people it's power to survive and ...
Finding Passion
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsIn this week's parsha God commands the Kohanim (priests) to remove the ashes every morning from the Temple. At first glance, that doesn't sound like ...
The Journey of Life
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"Journeys" is the last word of this week's Parsha, which being the last Parsha, makes it the last word in the entire book of Exodus. What ...
Don't Worry America
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsHave you ever been in a store and thought to yourself, "A few simple changes would make this place so much more pleasant and probably even more ...
Parenting Made Easy
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsWhat makes parenting so difficult is this universal principle of human existence: "No matter how objectively good and valuable something ...
H-O-N-O-R
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsIn Jewish life, there are two things that wear bells: Daisy the cow and the High Priest (the Cohen Godol). The Torah describes lots of bells sown ...
This Is It
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThe real way to protect your kids from drugs. I haven't seen Michael Jackson's movie "This is it." However, I am 236% certain he didn't ...
The Secret Israeli Military Disasters
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsYou've just got to love it when God is on the Jewish people's side. And as such, it doesn't get much better than this week's parsha. The Jewish ...
Why Is There a Holocaust Museum?
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"And Yitro heard..." (Ex. 18:1) Rashi: What did he hear that made him come? ... the war with Amalek. He came and converted. Question: ...
Don't Complain Here
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThis is the story of the Jewish people as they left Egypt: "...And they went out to the Shur Desert, and they travelled for three days in ...
There Are Some Things Even God Cannot Do!
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsAnyone with a basic grasp of Jewish theology understands that God doesn't say please. It's not that God doesn't have manners, or that He's like one ...
Animal Rights
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"And God said to Moses, Speak to Aharon, Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt.... And they shall become ...
Holy Ground
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"And He said (God to Moses), Do not come any closer, remove your shoes from off your feet, for the place upon which you stand is holy ...
A Brief History of History
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNewly Revised "Friendship is one heart in two bodies."(Ibn Ezra - Torah commentator) The book of Genesis is the history of the world. It is the ...
Oops
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsThe name of this parsha means "end." It refers to the end of the two-year period that Joseph spent in jail. If you remember, last week Joseph, who ...
Wisdom Is A Verb
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"Through me, Kings rule." (Proverbs 8:15) Not money. Not power. Not family. King Solomon is talking about wisdom. In the very short ...
Worry Makes The World Go Round
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsMost of the top 10 prescription drugs are for worry and/or its related symptoms (Med Ad News 1999 ]609-530-0044]). That's just the visits to the ...
Maggid - Bread of Affliction
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt."
Whatever Floats Your Boat
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNewly Revised "A person is only as great as the ideas that form the fabric of his being." To paraphrase Clint Eastwood, what would make your day? ...
How To Raise Emotionally Healthy Children In A...
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNewly Revised There is nothing like a challenge. Mount Everest blindfolded, the 3-minute mile, a Mars landing. Great, but they all pale to a piece ...
All Who Are Hungry
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"All who are hungry ― come and eat. All who are needy ― come join the Passover celebration."
Only The Good Die Young
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsOne of the most insidious messages from Hollywood is that only the "naughty" have fun.
Real Peace
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNewly Revised I forget the number, but studies show average American teenagers have seen hundreds of murders on TV. As bad as this sounds, that's ...
Pagans Among Us
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNewly Revised "No one is more dependent upon others than one who seeks glory." (Rabbi Yisrael Salanter) Ask the average person, on a scale of ...
This Is Boring!
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNewly Revised When did "boring" become cruel and unusual punishment? On any given Sunday, at least one of my children will proclaim his despair of ...
Dreams and limitations
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"Every man's enemy is under his own ribs - i.e. his own desires." (Chovot HaLavovot)
Choice equals life
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"Man is wise only while he searches for wisdom. If he thinks he has found it, he is a fool." - Rabbi Ibn Gevirol The legendary real estate tycoon ...
Sukkot and the Quality of Life
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsNever-ending ambitions keep the world spinning hysterically. We live and strive for attainments in the future, while the achievements and successes ...
Education Is Life
by Rabbi Stephen BaarsEducation is not simply a room lined with desks. Education takes place every instant of every day. Education is the experiences of life. Our ...
Choice Equals Life
by Rabbi Stephen Baars"Man is wise only while he searches for wisdom. If he thinks he has found it, he is a fool." (Rabbi Ibn Gevirol) The legendary real estate tycoon ...
