Every Wednesday night, I attend Chabad at Binghamton's Supper and Study (a forum for Jewish young adults to eat together and reflect upon Jewish texts). The topic of our dinner conversation last week did not focus on how cute my chevruta's shirt was, nor did it center around who's dating who or the unfair professor or the impossible midterm. Instead, we spoke about the tragic murders of six members of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar in the northeast Samaria. We discussed everything from our frustration towards the lack of media coverage to our feelings of helplessness dealing with the turmoil in the Middle East. ...

תפארת or Tiferet is the sixth sefira in the Tree of Life in Kabbalah, ancient rabbinic mysticism. There are ten sefirot and together the system roots spirituality with the physical self and attributes of Hashem. This particular sefira is commonly associated with balance and integrating many aspects into one whole being. תפארת is understood as the balance between the sefirot chesed, compassion, and gevurah, control. I am on a constant search for balance. A twenty year old from suburban Massachusetts, I am challenged with balancing a full academic course load, several student organizations and my ever-wandering mind about the ...