Moshe Becker

The JRE and YIWP had the opportunity to host my father for a talk last night. Rabbi Dr. Ephraim D. Becker is a therapist with over 30 years experience incorporating Mussar thought and practice into his counseling. He lives in Israel and lectures worldwide on Mussar and psychology.

This week's horrifying tragedy should be seen as an opportunity for us to reflect on life-affirmation, as a response to the cold disregard for life that we were witness to this week. Affirming life can be seen as a spectrum ranging from not killing all the way to the highest level of sensitivity to the quality of another individual's life. We must move ourselves along that spectrum by focusing on and bulding up our strengths and talents in these areas. The class is available below for listening and/or download.

The JRE hosted Dr. William Kolbrener of Bar Ilan University this past Thursday. Dr. Kolbrener is a noted author, lecturer, and philosopher. He shared with us some of the lessons he learned about difference in general, and in the context of parenting in particular. Much of his presentation are his experiences confronting real difference - raising a child with Down's Syndrome.