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Mordechai Soskil

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Aug 10, 2017, 11:45 PM

Teaching Our Children . . . Camping?

As a Jew, I know that in some contexts I am a minority in the dominant American culture. As an Orthodox Jew I live in an even more limited demographic. And to make matters worse, I’m an Orthodox Jew...

Apr 14, 2017, 6:10 AM

Passover Singing

If a father sings Taylor Swift songs in the car, but there isn’t a teenager there to be embarrassed by it, does it sound as bad? I assume it does, yes. It’s less fun, but it sounds just as...

Apr 4, 2017, 9:48 PM

Neurosis or Holiness? It’s Hard to Tell.

My rebbe says that there are two types of people in the world; the type of people who divide all the people in the world into two categories and the type that doesn’t. With that in mind I think...

Mar 22, 2017, 10:55 PM

The Jerusalem Marathon and the Golden Calf

In the last few months I've had a couple of pretty amazing experiences. A month ago I went to Budapest with a team of colleagues to teach at a Jewish school there. And right now I'm on a plane...

Dec 27, 2016, 6:57 AM

Making More Oil

We are a people that knows a lot about questions. The seder, which is likely the most widely observed Jewish tradition, is built around questions. And like the Inuit people and their apocryphal 50 words that mean snow, and...

Dec 18, 2016, 8:54 PM

Wrestling Til Dawn

I collect stories. My kids know that anything they say or do can be used against them in a dvar Torah. In fact after something cute or funny happens my kids will call it out, “oh, that’s a story!”...

Dec 2, 2016, 10:28 AM

Digging Wells in a Hospital Room

I have a special affection for this week’s Torah reading. I had a rebbe for one subject or another during the years I was in middle and high school who had a big impact on me. Each year this...

Nov 24, 2016, 10:56 AM

Jews are Freakin’ Awesome

Just sit right back and your read a tale, a tale of a bunch of amazingness. This story, which I don’t need to embellish or exaggerate in any way, is totally true. My son Shua is spending the year...

Nov 18, 2016, 3:16 PM

Lot Goes to College

Let’s pretend for a moment that your average college campus is Sodom. I know the comparison might be a bit of a stretch since Sodom’s infamy was based on its greed, parsimony and exclusion of the other, whereas our...

Oct 14, 2016, 7:16 AM

The Debate and the Esrog

It feels like it’s been erev yom tov in my house for like the last three weeks. Don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur was truly uplifting. I walked away from the day...

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About Me

Mordechai Soskil has been teaching Torah for almost 20 years. Currently the Director of Judaic Studies for the high school at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School. He and his wife Allison have 6 children that range from Awesome to Fantastic.