Each and everyone one of us is more than who we think we are. We cannot but be ourselves, and yet, we are also comprised of the genes and personality of our parents and they in turn, by theirs, continuing through every single other person in our family history, and eventually going back to the beginning of human life itself.

In this week's episode, I speak with Rabbi Shalom Schwartz about his relationship with the fifth Dibber, Kibbuv Av V’em, honouring parents. Rav Shalom’s love, awe, respect, and appreciation for his parents and grandparents is deep and heartfelt and a potent reminder for all of us about just how much we have to be grateful for the gift of life itself.

You will learn about it means to honour parents, how to learn from their wisdom and example, and how all this Dibber is connected to our relationship with God and the Land of Israel.

This episode should inspire all of us to learn more about our own family histories and the wondrous and mysterious beauty of Mesorah, of traditions travelling through time and today. It is something worth listening to right before the Passover Seder, the ultimate ritual in connecting children with the rich tradition and chain that goes back to Abraham and Sarah, the parents who started it all. 

Rav Shalom is the founder of Project Aseret, a movement aimed at reawakening the Ten Commandments as Core Values of the Jewish people, in Israel and beyond. To learn more about what inspired him to create such a powerful movement, click HERE to hear a prior interview I did with him. See link in the show notes for a prior interview I did with him.

Before Project Aseret, Rav Shalom started as one of the earliest students of Rav Noach Weinberg Zt’l of Aish HaTorah. He served as the founding director of Aish Toronto and upon making Aliyah, he directed Aish’s Russian Program in Israel and the Former Soviet Union. He and his wife Debbie have 7 children and bli ayin hora, 27 delicious grandchildren.

Find out more at https://aseret-the-wisdom-of-the-ten.pinecast.co