Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

12/30/2025

12/28/2025

One of the greatest freedoms in life
is realizing how little control others actually have over you.

What truly defines a person is not what happens to them, but how they choose to respond.

People will say things. Situations will unfold in ways we didn’t choose. That’s life.

But your reaction? Thats yours.

When we react automatically, we hand over the keys to our inner world. When we pause, even for a breath, we reclaim authorship of our soul.

Choosing not to react doesn’t mean suppressing emotion. It means responding from clarity instead of chaos. From strength instead of instinct. From the soul instead of the wound.

You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to. You don’t have to absorb every storm that passes by.

Calm is not weakness. It’s mastery.

And the moment you choose your response, you choose freedom.

— Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

12/27/2025

So many people stay stuck not because they chose the wrong path, but because they were too afraid to choose any path at all.

The soul was not sent into this world to live cautiously. It was sent here to move, to choose, to grow, to engage with life.

Yes, you might make mistakes. But there is no such thing as a wasted step when it’s taken with sincerity. Even a misstep becomes a message. Even a wrong turn can reveal the right direction.

Indecision, however, freezes the soul.
It keeps possibility locked in theory and potential trapped in fear.

G-d doesn’t expect perfection. G-d asks for partnership. Make the call. Have the conversation. Take the step you’ve been circling around.

Trust that if your intention is honest,
He will meet you on the way.

Because life doesn’t open up for those who wait endlessly to be sure, it opens for those who are brave enough to begin.

Choose movement over fear.
Your soul knows the way.

12/26/2025

What’s harder: to cry… or to change?

This week’s Torah portion opens with one of the most emotionally charged moments in Jewish history. Joseph stands face to face with the brothers who betrayed him. No disguises left. No tests remaining. Just truth. Tears. And reunion.

But Vayigash isn’t a story about crying, it’s a story about what you do after you cry.

Joseph and Benjamin embrace and weep. Our sages teach that they weren’t only mourning their own lost years. Each was crying over the future destruction that would happen in the other’s portion. And the Rebbe points out something striking: When the pain is in someone else’s portion, you cry. When it’s in your portion, you act.

Judaism values empathy. But it demands responsibility even more. We live in a world overflowing with feelings, posts, hashtags, and awareness. That matters. But Vayigash reminds us: if something is within your reach, your task isn’t to feel, it’s to move.

Joseph doesn’t collapse into his trauma. He steps into leadership. He feeds a starving world. He chooses responsibility over resentment.

As we welcome Shabbat, we don’t just remember light, we add it.

Candle lighting in Montreal: 3:59 PM

May this Shabbat help us know when to cry, when to care and when to stand up and do something that actually changes the story.

Shabbat Shalom!

12/26/2025

Not everyone will understand your words. And that’s okay.

Souls communicate on different frequencies. What sounds like noise to one person can feel like home to another.

You don’t need to sharpen your truth for everyone. You don’t need to shrink your voice to be accepted. The right people don’t just hear you, they receive you.

They hear your intention, not just your tone. They hear your heart, not just your words. They hear the goodness behind what you’re trying to say.

Our task isn’t to be understood by all, it’s to be faithful to who we are
and trust that the souls meant to connect with us will find their way.

So speak honestly.
Love generously.
Show up as yourself.

The right people will hear you, clearly, kindly, and completely.

— Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

12/25/2025

Emmy Award–winning Matty Matheson and Rabbi Yisroel Bernath take you inside the world of Montreal Kosher food on this Vice episode of Dead Set on Life.

12/25/2025

Joy is not a reward for a life that finally works out. It’s fuel for a life that’s still unfolding.

Joy comes first. Not after the bills are paid. Not after the tension resolves. Not after life becomes neat and predictable.

Because it never does.

Life is layered. Messy. Beautiful. And unfinished by design.

Waiting to be happy “when things calm down” is like waiting for the ocean to stop moving before you swim.

Joy doesn’t ignore pain, it gives you the strength to carry it without being crushed by it.

Look at a child. They don’t wait for permission to laugh. They don’t need conditions to celebrate. They know something adults forget: This moment is alive. And that’s enough.

So choose joy, not as denial, but as defiance. Not because life is easy, but because your soul is strong.

Be happy now.
Not later.
Not someday.

Now.

Because joy isn’t what happens when life cooperates, it’s what happens when the soul decides to live.

12/24/2025

Did you know that Paddington Bear, the marmalade-loving star of the books and films was inspired by Jewish children escaping the Holocaust on the Kindertransport?

Paddington’s creator, Michael Bond (1926–2017), never forgot the sight of refugee children arriving at London’s Reading Station during WWII, each with a tiny suitcase and a label around their neck so they wouldn’t be lost.

So in the very first book, there he is: a small, hopeful traveler sitting alone in Paddington Station with a suitcase and a handwritten tag…

“Please take care of this bear. Thank you.”

In other words: Please take care of this child.

Paddington is welcomed into the Brown family, a reminder of the kindness that saved so many young lives. And his dearest friend? Mr. Samuel Gruber, an elderly Jewish man from Hungary who himself escaped the N***s.

And one more sweet twist: When “Paddington 2” debuted in Israel in 2018, one of the beloved voices belonged to Nechama Rivlin, the late wife of Israeli President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin. She adored Paddington — the little bear with the enormous heart.

May we always remember where hope comes from and keep passing it on.

Photo: Geoff Pugh
Source: American Society for Yad Vashem