Author page: Reb Carl Viniar

My grandfather died at my wedding

It was quite an event. My grandfather was a great man. Abraham Jacob Viniar. Known as Yakov. He fled the czar, was educated for a while in Belgium, and ended up in NYC speaking Russian, Yiddish, Flemish, with a smattering of English. He went to Cooper Union, doing his work every night with a dictionary until he graduated. He served…

A story for Parashat Shemot, the burning bush

I was tending the flock of my father-in-law. I drove the flock into the wilderness, and I came to a beautiful  mountain. Whoa, it looked like there was something  in a blazing fire out of a bush. I looked, I gazed, and there was that bush all aflame, but the bush was not being consumed.  I said to myself, “I…