Rav Shlomo Katz

In this week’s Even Shlomo on the Parsha, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevre of Shirat David walk with Yaakov into the darkest, most misunderstood place in the human heart – loneliness. “ויבשר יעקב לבדו" – Yaakov was left alone.” Reb Shlomo reads this night of wrestling not as a tragedy, but as the moment Yaakov’s deepest self is revealed on the night he receives the name Yisrael and gives every Jew t...

In this Chanukah prep shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a piece from Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh, based on a sicha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe from 5714 (1954), contrasting two very different kinds of light: the light of the Menorah in the Beit HaMikdash and the light of our little Chanukah flames today. The Menorah of the Mikdash shone in a time of shleimut – when the Shechinah...

In this week’s Know Your Children, we take a courageous, very triggering step inward: Can I look at my child not only as “my kid,” but as a neshamah a soul that may even be higher than mine? Building on our work about friendship and authority, Rav Shlomo Katz opens the inner story: our children are not our property, not our projects, and not our therapy. On the level of guf (body), we are the pare...

In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos we return to Yedid Nefesh and the words: “ירוץ עבדך כמו איל – May Your servant run like a deer.” Chazal tell us: “לעולם ירוץ אדם לדבר הלכה אפילו בשבת – a person should run to a dvar halacha even on Shabbos,” and yet the pasuk they bring says “אחרי ה’ ילכו – they will walk after Hashem.” So are we meant to walk… or to run? With the help of the Chidushei HaRim, the S...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David go straight into one of the biggest questions in avodas Hashem: How do I actually know what Hashem wants from me? Building on the Biala Rebbe’s Torah about tefilas nashim, we revisit the difference between time-bound mitzvos and those that aren’t, and what it means that women are p’turot from so many mitzvos aseh shehazman grama, yet so often choose to...

In this week’s Even Shlomo on the Parsha, Rav Shlomo Katz learns a Beis Yaakov from Ishbitz on Yaakov Avinu’s first steps out into galus, and quietly rewrites our whole definition of “success.” We follow Yaakov as he leaves Be’er Sheva and discovers that when you’re searching for Hashem, every step on the way already fills you, unlike the Western model where nothing “counts” until you close the de...

This week, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David continue the letter from Reb Usher which deals with one of the most painful questions in real avodas Hashem: Why do the dirtiest, most damaging thoughts show up precisely in our holiest moments – during davening, on Yom Kippur, when we finally feel like we’re showing up? Instead of letting those thoughts “prove” that we’re garbage, Reb Ushe...

In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn that there’s a difference between believing in Hashem and leaning on Hashem. It’s one thing to say “I have emunah.” It’s something else entirely to make the Ribbono shel Olam your mish’enet – the crutch you actually put your weight on when nothing in your life logically adds up. Through a piercing Midrash about a...

A Woman's Candle Stays Lit Throughout the Night by Rav Shlomo Katz

Toldot | Things Don’t Have To Take So Long by Rav Shlomo Katz

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a fierce, grounding letter from Reb Usher Freund: why the most confusing thoughts show up specifically in the holiest moments, and how that’s not a failure but a signal. From the Kohen Gadol’s risk in the Kodesh HaKodashim to David HaMelech’s “beheimos hayisi imach,” we’re taught to stop panicking, return to bitul, and let those thoughts flip in...

This week we face the question every home is asking: how do we hold yedidut (friendship) and mashma’ut (discipline) together—without losing either? Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David learn that Chazal’s path isn’t “buddy” parenting, and it isn’t cold control. It’s a 50/50 coin: authority on one side, friendship on the other—flipped together by love. The Chafetz Chaim’s home modeled chav...

In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos we linger in Mizmor L’David and reach the line that so many of us recite without understanding: שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמוני “Shivtecha u’Mishantecha, hema yenachamuni.” How can a shevet (rod/whip) possibly console? Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevre of Shirat David learn that what feels like the blow often becomes the very mish’enet (staff) we lean on later. We hear a sea...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David open a living doorway into תְּפִלַּת נָשִׁים (women’s prayer) and why holy masters refused to daven without a women’s section. With the Biale Rebbe, the Sar Shalom of Belz, and Reb Aharon of Belz, we hear a simple, searing standard: if the gates of prayer feel closed, we must lean on the gates of tears, which never close. And whose tears flow most read...

Chayei Sara is the world after the Akeidah: how Avraham and Yitzchak walked back into life with new eyes, and how we’re meant to daven with those eyes today. Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevre of Shirat David learn a short, potent piece from Reb Carlebach's Even Shlomo about מיחדות—that inner point of “what’s special” inside every Jew—and why Yitzchak and Rivka’s shidduch had to be more than “compatib...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a fierce, yet compassionate, letter from Reb Usher Freund on what to do precisely when, in holy moments, the mind floods with מחשבות זרות—blurry, intrusive, and confusing thoughts. Instead of spiraling into self-hatred, Reb Usher reframes them as invitations to ביטול/אין: not “I am garbage,” but “I’m held and that my strength is borrowed Light.”...

In Vayera, the name Yitzchak —“laughter”— opens a window into two kinds of kedushah: the holiness we build through our choices, and the inborn holiness that no failure can touch. On Reb Shlomo’s 31st yahrtzeit, we sing, remember, and learn how courageous love makes our days longer and our lives larger. Drawing from Even Shlomo, we explore why the world “burst into laughter” at Yitzchak’s birth: Av...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David lean into תפילת נשים (women’s prayer) and the secret of the gates that open through a woman’s heart. Building on כֹּחַ הַהַבְחָנָה (discerning what truly matters) sourced in בִּינָה יְתֵירָה (heightened inner understanding) embedded in the feminine dimension, we trace how the Matriarchs teach us to pray in a way that Heaven receives. With רִבְקָה אִמֵּ...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a short but searing letter from Reb Usher Freund about what happens when pain starts to crumble. Writing to a woman trapped in an agunah reality, Reb Usher validates the anguish, and then reframes it: pain can be a cleansing wash (רחיצת שמלה) that scrubs away stains; the process still hurts, but accepted with love it stops being torture and begi...

In this week’s shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz invites us to re-examine the core of chinuch: can a parent be both moreh (teacher) and chaver (friend) without blurring roles? We return to last week’s kesher nafshi (soul-bond) and learn why natural love alone isn’t the funnel—mutuality is. Around ages 12–13, many children feel, “You love me, but you don’t understand me.” The work now is to move from “I care...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David enter Mizmor L’David (Tehillim 23) through the eyes of Rav Tzadok HaKohen (ר׳ צדוק הכהן) and discover why David HaMelech shifts from לשון נסתר (speaking about Hashem)—“יַרְבִּיצֵנִי… יְנַהֲלֵנִי… יַנְחֵנִי”—to לשון נוכח (speaking to Hashem)—“כִּי אַתָּה עִמָּדִי.” The teaching is piercing and tender: most of us turn to אַתָּה (You) only in the גֵּיא צ...

Rav Shlomo Katz and the women of Shirat David open a tender gate into תפילת נשים: the gift of בינה יתירה—a woman’s inner knowing to separate עיקר (primary) from טפל (secondary). Returning to “לא תירא לביתה משלג כי כל ביתה לבוש שנים,” we hear how “snow” (the Amalek-cold that numbs holy feeling) is disarmed by a woman’s warm feeling for Hashem. With Sarah Imeinu and Rivka Imeinu as living guides, we...

In Parshat Lech Lecha, Avraham Avinu begins the journey that defines what it means to be a Jew, and asks the question that still echoes through every generation: “במה אדע כי אירשנה” — “Hashem, how will I know that this Land is truly ours?” Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David explore Reb Shlomo Carlebach’s teachings on the Even Shlomo, uncovering why Eretz Yisrael is the deepest and most...

In this week’s shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz asks the heart-level question: Do I Want to Know My Child’s World? We deepen last week’s kesher nafshi—a two-way soul-bond—by facing a common gap: many parents are pouring from their world into children living in a different one. Without curiosity and reciprocity, the funnel leaks; with it, chinuch can finally land. Together we learn: - Why a mutual bond (ke-m...

In this week’s Hachana L’Shabbos, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David enter the niggun of “ה׳ רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר” and ask a very simple, very brave question: am I still wrestling with life, or am I letting the Shepherd lead? Together we learn that Shalosh Seudos is an עת רצון to be led: to discover what we truly want, to cry for it, and to begin living it now. From the Slonimer and the m...