Yaakov Astor
About Yaakov
Yaakov Astor, founding Editor-in-Chief of Zman Magazine, has written, co-written or edited more than 30 published books and hundreds of articles.
His most recent books are: Awaken Your Emunah 2, Rav Avigdor Miller on Middos,
Holocaust Heroes and Heroines, Awaken Your Emunah, Rav Avigdor Miller on Tefillah, Rav Avigdor Miller on Teshuvah and the Yamim Nora’im, Rav Avigdor Miller on Olam Haba and Nothing Bad Ever Happens, (re-titled, Run Rachel Run) which documents the amazing Holocaust story of his mother-in-law, Rachel Blum.
Online Articles
Astoria
June 16, 1811 was blazingly hot along the shores of what is now Vancouver Island. The young man from New York was bleeding profusely – he had been stabbed in a surprise attack by the seemingly passive Clayoquot Indians, who only hours before had been trying to trade their otter furs for trinkets and blankets. Instead of becoming witness to a productive day of trading, he watched as his shipmates, one by one, were butchered, clubbed, stabbed and thrown off the American boat, the Tonquin. The young crewmember James Lewis did not envision a horrific clubbing death to end his oceanic career much less his life – he was simply an enterprising youth looking for new adventure and maybe a small fortune in a wide-open North America. The native New Yorker jumped at the chance to be part of the grand vision of John Jacob Astor, the visionary if not delusional millionaire tycoon who immigrated to New York from Germany as a child to make his fortune. With the rest of the two dozen or so men and its autocratic captain, Lewis and the Tonquin had just completed a nine-month voyage to Hawaii.
Making Tisha B’Av Relevant
Tisha B’Av night we sit on the floor and read from the Book of Lamentations. In a mournful voice we chant “Alas, she sits in solitude! The city that was great with people has become like a widow. She weeps bitterly in the night and her tear is on her cheek.” We grieve for our Temple that was destroyed. We recall a once golden Jerusalem that now sits in darkness, abandoned. The streets of the city run red with rivers of blood. Lamentations describes a glorious nation being led out in chains as the fires of destruction fill the air. We cry “for Mount Zion which lies desolate, foxes prowled over it.” On Tisha B’Av we are asked to remember the destruction of our holy Temple nearly 2000 years ago. This is our national day of mourning. But it is difficult to feel loss for a Temple we never saw with our very own eyes. Can we feel the pain of exile today? When the Western Wall became ours again in the 1967 battle for Jerusalem during the Six Day War, Israeli soldiers embraced the stones with their tears. It was an indescribable moment. But two soldiers stood back, somehow feeling distanced. They had not grown up with a connection or an understanding of the Wall. Suddenly, one soldier began to sob.
Stealing Abraham Lincoln
It was one of the most audacious crimes in American history. A rowdy band of counterfeiters would steal the body of Abraham Lincoln right from his tomb and ransom it for cash and the release of their ringleader. A bust of Abraham Lincoln sat behind the bar at a saloon on Chicago’s west side called the Hub. By 1876, Lincoln had been dead for 11 years, but the sixteenth president kept watch of the customers. One August afternoon, James Kennally walked into the Hub. The tall, light-eyed man, better known as “Big Jim,” co-owned the saloon with bartender Terrance Mullen. The mustachioed Mullen managed the tavern, while Kennally oversaw the more profitable side of the business—counterfeiting.
This space will be where I give you picture-links (e.g. see below) to articles I’ve written that have been posted elsewhere at one time or another.
You can see the full list of my articles that have appeared on Aish.com through this link to Aish.com.
Some of Yaakov's Books
General Audience Books
Online Articles
Most Recent Article
Our Goods Deeds Speaks
The great Jewish sage and saint of the last century, known as the Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, zt’l), told the story of a wealthy man who was summoned to the palace of the king. In those days, such a summons was a very bad sign and the man quickly found out who is true friends were. Some “friends” immediately took leave of him. “It was nice knowing you,” they said. “But please don’t even mention to the king that you ever knew us.
Older Articles
The Blind Man Who Climbed Everest
2019 has already been one of the deadliest years for those hoping to reach the top of the world. The ascent of Mount Everest presents
Sabotaging Hitler’s A-Bomb
2019 has already been one of the deadliest years for those hoping to reach the top of the world. The ascent of Mount Everest presents some incredible challenges, where the difference between life and death is negotiated one step at a time. That makes it all the more remarkable that one particularly brave climber attempted to do something no one had done before – to be the first blind person ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest. This is his inspiring story. Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth at 29,035 feet. Few have ever made it to the summit and about 300 people have lost their lives trying. But in 2001, one man, Erik Weihenmayer, tried to do something no one had ever dared try – become the first blind person to climb Mount Everest.
Me, Myself and I: Ethics of the Fathers 1:14
Hillel is widely recognized as one of the wisest people who ever lived. This Mishna is arguably his most famous aphorism. The first clause of the aphorism roughly translates: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"1 The phrase distinguishes between two selves - "I" (ani in Hebrew) and "me" (li). It implies that somehow we can have a self called "I" and a self-called "me." The "I" self is the deepest self. It is our personalized facet of the Divine image. By contrast, the "me" is the persona we develop during life. Elements of the "me" originate from others, from society - from that which is outside "I." The biblical paradigm for successfully wrestling with this identity crisis is Abraham.
A Whale of a Tale
Rashi says the tananim hagedolim (Bereishis 1:21) are the great sea creatures, whales. The Ramban says that these creatures are so unique that they were a special creation (signified by the word bara). By any measure, whales are an especially thought-provoking example of nifla’os haBorei. A sperm whale lies stranded on a beach, close to death. Looking at him now, it is hard to imagine what an extraordinary life he’s led. This is the largest predator the world has ever seen. Adult sperm whales can grow to 60 tons (120,000 pounds or more) and up to 60 feet, although some have been estimated to be 100 feet (such as the one that destroyed a whaling ship in the 1800s and became the basis for the legendary white whale, Moby Dick, of Herman Melville fame). By the end of its life, a sperm whale will have traveled far enough to circumnavigate the globe 40 times! That’s over half a million miles.
Meat-Eating Plants
Plants seem like passive creatures of fate – stuck in the ground, blowing in the wind, soaking in sunlight and serving as food for the insect and animal worlds. It comes as a shock to discover that not only are they eaten, but they also eat. Yes, we’re talking about flesh-eating plants! From Venus flytraps to cobra lilies, the weird world of carnivorous plants is remarkable. The existence of carnivorous plants was not even suspected by scientists until researchers climbed Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia in 1858. There they found an incredible plant that grew leaves formed into the shape of a pitcher with a strange liquid at its bottom. When biologists studied these pitcher plants, they were astounded to find a partially digested rat in one of them. The discovery triggered a sensation. Most European scientists flatly disbelieved the story. A few years later, a world-renowned researcher carried out a study confirming the reality of flesh-eating plants. Now they have identified almost 700 species of carnivorous plants across the globe.
A Womb for the Soul
Imagine twin brothers in their mother's womb. How natural it would seem to be hunched over with one's head between one legs. How commonplace to float all day in fluid. How mundane not use one's nose or mouth, but rather to have air and food sent down a tube that passes directly into the stomach by way of the navel. And how long the "lifetime" of the nine-month gestation period. How unimaginable the existence of a world extending beyond the walls of the womb. Imagine that the two brothers possessed different world outlooks. One accepted by way of tradition that there was a future life beyond the womb. The other was a strict "empiricist," who accepted only that which he could see with his five senses. Accordingly, the latter brother acknowledged only the existence of "this world" alone, the world of the womb. Now, let us imagine that we had the ability to listen in on their conversation.
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Project Inspire’s mission is to empower committed Jews to take responsibility to create a vibrant and unified Jewish people…
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My father’s heartfelt eulogy beautifully captures his life, legacy, and values. Watch this touching tribute on Torah Anytime here.
Life After Death
In 2003, my first book Soul Searching was published. It set out to compare ancient Jewish teachings about the afterlife with modern scientific research into near-death experiences (NDE’s) and reincarnation, and tried to show how time and again the two seemed to be talking about the same reality.
General Histrory
One of my pet subjects in history is looking for evidence of Divine Providence, which can be defined as “coincidence” so unusual that even skeptics have to take pause to consider them. I have two books on the subject:
The Hidden Hand: Uncovering Divine Providence in Major Events of the 20th Century Among my favorite things in the books are quotes said by those most closely involved with the given events whom one might not think would have acknowledged something as “spooky” as Divine Providence. Here’s what I mean:
Check out my blog, “A Taste of Wein,” for class excerpts before and after sessions.
Jewish History
One of the great projects I was merited worked on was the JewishHistory.org website for Rabbi Berel Wein’s organization, The Destiny Foundation.
The JewishHistory.org website is based on a series of lectures Rabbi Wein, zt”l, delivered in the late 80’s under the general title, “Travels in Jewish History.” They quickly became a classic and touched all types of Jews from the very uninformed to the most scholarly.