Oprah Winfrey was famous for giving amazing gifts to her audience. In 1996, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of her show, Oprah surprised her entire audience with a trip to Disney World. For the premiere of her nineteenth season, she made television history by giving a brand-new car to every member of the audience. And in 2006, she sent each audience member home with $1,000, a handheld video camera, and a challenge: use the money to “pay it forward” by finding creative and

Before our son Moshe left for Israel to study for the year, Arielle and I wanted to make sure he was properly prepared. Like most yeshiva students, he would be spending many Shabbosim as a guest in other people’s homes, and we wanted to make sure he understood how to conduct himself. So one Shabbos afternoon at lunch, we ran him through a series of simulated scenarios to “test” whether he was ready. What happens if the wife gets up to clear the table but the husband remains s

In Rabbi Soloveitchik’s eulogy for Rabbi Chaim Heller, one of the great Torah educators of the twentieth century, the Rav describes what it means to be an authentic Jew: “It swings like a pendulum between the two ideals of maturity and childishness. The great man, whose intellect has been raised to a superior level… should not be viewed as totally adult. The soul of a child still nestles within him.” He is an adult, knowledgeable and experienced. But, the Rav continues, “

After Ezra and Nechemia returned to the Land of Israel and began constructing the second Beis Hamikdash, the Navi describes that Ezra built a wooden pulpit and started to read from the Torah in front of the entire Jewish people. This impressive event takes place during the month of Tishrei, and as the people listen to the words of the Torah, they begin to cry and weep uncontrollably. They realize they had completely forgotten about the holiday of Sukkos and their religious

Pete Rose remains baseball’s all-time leader with 4,256 career hits. He was a 17-time All-Star, won multiple MVP awards, holds the Major League record for games played and plate appearances, and set a National League record with a 44-game hitting streak. With his brash, fearless style and relentless passion for the game, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was hardly a more exciting player in baseball. But Pete Rose was also, infamously, one of baseball’s most controversial figures

On May 10, 1996, 33 climbers set out to summit Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world. It quickly became a disaster. The ropes weren't ready, climbers were backed up in narrow passages, and by late afternoon a massive blizzard had engulfed the mountain. Visibility disappeared, temperatures plunged, and winds reached more than 45 miles per hour. Tragically, Eight climbers would never make it back down. Just last week, I read a book about that infamous day. But, what

In the mid 1960’s, George Leonard conducted research for Look magazine on the subject of human potential. He interviewed countless psychiatrists, brain researchers, and philosophers across America on the subject of potential and found that “not one of them said we were using more than 10% of our capacity.” His conclusion was that most of us were living far below our potential, leaving an enormous amount of our capacity unused and undeveloped. Leonard subsequently devoted

In April, a grandmother from England named Helen sparked a fierce online debate. The question was simple: Who is responsible for cultivating the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren? Is it the parents’ responsibility to initiate that relationship, or is it the grandparents’ responsibility to nourish the relationship with their grandchildren? In a video she posted online, Helen was quite forceful in her opinion: I think it’s the grandparents’ responsibility to a

A few years ago, my family was vacationing in my hometown of Boston when Arielle asked me to run into Walgreens to pick something up. As I went to pay, the woman behind the counter asked me if I would like to make a $1 donation to the Red Cross. To be honest, I was in a rush. I wasn't really paying attention, and I am usually a little suspicious of these kinds of checkout donations. So I politely said, "No, thank you" and handed her my credit card. Suddenly, a hand reached ou

Visualization has long been part of elite sports. Athletes use all of their senses to imagine how they’ll swing the bat or what the motion will feel like as they shoot the ball. They picture the crowd and imagine what the shot looks like as it goes in. They envision the euphoric feeling of scoring the winning run or goal and they detail all of the twists and turns of a given race. Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus famously used mental imagery for every shot. In describin

As our plane landed in Israel, the familiar ritual began. Phones came out of airplane mode, messages flooded in, and everyone hurried to discover what they had missed during the previous twelve hours. While this familiar scene was playing out among many people, there was one particular passenger who caught my attention. A yeshiva student sitting nearby reached for his kosher phone. But he didn't open email and he didn't check text messages. Instead, he immediately opened What

One of the deadliest days in American military history could have been easily avoided. On September 6, 1862, Union General George B. McClellan led 87,000 men into the Battle of Antietam against Stonewall Jackson and his 50,000 Confederate troops. At one point in the battle, when some Union troops found themselves trapped, 2,000 men were killed in a matter of minutes. In all, nearly 23,000 men were killed, many others wounded. The casualties at Antietam numbered four times

Lionel Messi is widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players ever to step onto the field. His résumé is staggering: over 900 career goals, more than 400 assists, and more goal contributions than any player in history. During Argentina's World Cup run that fell just short, he scored eight goals and assisted on four more. Yet if you watch Messi closely, you'll notice something surprising. He spends much of the game simply...walking. During this World Cup, researchers

It’s a letter that might have changed the course of European history, had the letter ever been sent. In early June 1944, on the eve of the D-Day landings, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill drafted an intensely angry letter to General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French forces. Churchill was furious. De Gaulle had refused to publicly support the D-Day invasion and had prevented French officers from participating in the operation. An exasperated Churchill, fuming in

Several years ago, the Guggenheim Museum in New York unveiled one of the most talked-about exhibits in its history. It wasn't a painting and it wasn't a sculpture. It was a toilet. Not a replica, or a conceptual display, but an actual, fully-functioning public toilet that museum visitors were invited to use. There was just one catch. "America” (the title of the art piece) wasn't like any other toilet. It was carved from 18-karat solid gold and valued at more than $2 million,

While America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, it is worth remembering that the independence of the American colonies was far from guaranteed. What began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, would not conclude until more than eight years later with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Growing up in Boston, the Revolutionary War was never relegated to the historic past. Battlefields, monuments, and memorials around my hometown served as const

When BRS had the privilege of hosting former hostage Bar Kupershtein earlier this year, the event was filled with gratitude, celebration, and inspiration. But little did anyone know that night what ripple effects Bar's words would have. Bar spoke about his mother, Julie who, after Bar was kidnapped, decided to focus her efforts not only on the media and political pressure, but also on inspiring people worldwide to increase prayers and good deeds in Bar’s merit. One of her re

Several years ago, after giving a class about David Ben Gurion and Chaim Weitzman, I was approached by a few people in the community. The individuals who approached me were highly accomplished and educated. They were highly successful professionals, yet during the class they realized something was missing. Despite many years of Jewish education, they felt woefully lacking in their understanding of modern Jewish History, of the seminal events and dates that have shaped the

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American spends nearly six hours a day in leisure, almost half of which is spent watching television. By the end of the week, this adds up to nearly twenty hours, half of a full-time job, just sitting in front of a screen. Pew Research adds that even working parents spend about twelve hours a week watching TV, while those without children average closer to seventeen. Yes, we work very hard during the day and we com

Ed Jackson, a former British Rugby player, not only has an impressive professional resume, but has climbed some of the world’s highest mountains. Over the past few years, he has climbed Mount Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales, he’s conquered the Matterhorn, one of the most iconic and challenging mountains in the Alps, and has scaled the most extreme mountains in the world, from Pakistan, Switzerland to Nepal. For anyone else, these grueling climbs would be in