Rabbi, Yosil Rosenzweig writes a weekly Parsha column, "Vortify Yourself". This column has been available by Email and is now available here at the UJC website.

The following Parshot are presently available:

Last week I asked you to find the source of a saying that I had used in the previous VORTIFY. Baruch Hashem (Bless Hashem), some of you (Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose, Rabbi Arlene Schuster, Eric Mack, Norman Abramson and Rabbi Jeffrey Ableser) responded with the famous quote from Ahad Ha'am (Asher Zvi Ginzberg 1856-1927) "More than the Jew has kept the Shabbat, the Shabbat has kept the Jew." Dr. Laurence Kutler thought that the text that inspired Ahad Ha'am was from Shemot (Exodus) 31:16-18: 
        "And the Children of Israel shall keep the Shabbat, to make 
        the Shabbat an eternal covenant for their generations.  It is 
        an eternal sign between me and the Children of Israel..."
I thank all of you who responded and I am delighted that so many of you send me your comments on a regular basis.

Happy Purim,
R.Y.R.

A number of readers have written asking for the meaning of the word VORTIFY. I made a connection between the Yiddish word for a D'var Torah (a Vort) and the word fortify. By the study of Torah, one can fortify oneself to carry on the holy work of Hashem. Hense, VORTIFY YOURSELF. RYR
"Vortify Yourself" can be received via Email by writing Rabbi Yosil Rosenzweig