Rabbi Yogi Robkin is the Director of Outreach at DATA of Plano, a synagogue and center for Jewish Education in Plano, Texas. Rabbi Yogi received his rabbinic ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland and joined Data in 2006 with the goal of sharing Jewish wisdom to individuals with little to no Judaic background. Rabbi Yogi lives in Plano with his wife Shifra and their five children. Follow him on Facebook.
A different version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. I’ll admit it. I got excited along with the rest of the country when the Mega Millions lottery hit a whopping $1.6 billion jackpot in October of this year. I bought a ticket and enjoyed an overly long conversation with my wife…
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. I think we can all relate to the challenge of overcoming the lure of instant gratification. Whether it’s the magnetic pull of the glazed doughnut, the couch or a forbidden act, exercising self-control is one of the greatest challenges of life. And generally,…
Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey know a thing or two about the nature of human change. For over two decades this highly decorated professorial pair from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education researched the subject, and in the process uncovered an underlying rationale that helps to explain why human beings find change so difficult and what…
There is a great political cartoon I saw recently entitled “Genesis of the Trial Attorney.” The single-framed cartoon depicts Moses coming down the mountain with the tablets of stone in his hands. The Jewish people stand below, seemingly ready to accept the law in its fullness, when one man comes forward with confidence and opines,…
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. Can you trust the rulings of the rabbis? This is a question that my brother and I have discussed and debated for quite a while now. The root of our brotherly debate is not what you might imagine. Neither my brother nor I…
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. We are all well aware of the side effects of power. It can intoxicate as well as corrupt. But can it cause brain damage? This is the question asked by author Jerry Useem in a summer 2017 article in The Atlantic. His conclusion,…
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. Do you believe that morality is complicated? Does living a moral life requires dedicated years of in depth study? Or is morality something more intuitive, something any sensitive person can pick up through genuine empathy? Perhaps morality requires a healthy mixture of the…
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. Just as God works in mysterious ways, so, it seems, do human beings grow in mysterious ways. Each Jewish person decides on a particular course, as well as to the degree in which they plan on committing and investing themselves in the observance…
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