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The yetzer hara is an instinctive impulse for self-gratification (bad), embodied by the emotional responses of the beast within you.
On the outside, Torah is water. On the inside, it is fire.The text, the instructions, the practical side of Torah--that is water.People come to water. When they are thirsty, they gather around.But what if you have no thirst for Torah? What if you find the water cold? What if dos and don’ts don’t excite you?Then you must enter within, to the hidden meanings, to the mysteries of Torah. To its fire.But what if you fear fire? What if you fear the unknown, the spiritual, the transcendental?Then, you must know: This fire does not burn. It ignites the soul. It is life itself. In truth, it is your fire.Enter within. Do not be afraid. “G-d, your G-d is a consuming fire.”Based on Hayom Yom, 16 Menachem Av. From the talks of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Acharon shel Pesach 1940.
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 10.ConquestNow that we know of this internal battle, let’s see how it plays out as five possible states of war and peace. We’ll start with wars that are won.Let’s discuss a person who empowers his divine soul and wages such a war with his internal beast that he banishes the bad from within the beast, eliminating it from the left chamber of his heart.He fulfills the verse, “You will eliminate the bad from within you.” Deuteronomy 13:6. See Ohr HaChaim ad loc.; Likkutei Torah—Torat Shmuel 5629, new ed., p. 319.At the same time, there is one step further that he has not achieved: The essential pleasu
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 10.Key Words and Concepts You Will Need For This ChapterBitul (adj. batel): A state of insignificance within a greater context.A grain of salt is batel within a large soup. A candle’s light is batel held up to the midday sun. A single created being is batel within the infinite creative energy of its Creator. And, as we learn in this chapter, some leftover trace of bad could be batel beneath the good that fills the chambers of a human heart.In other words—and this is what is crucial to this chapter—bitul doesn’t necessarily mean that something objectively ceases to exist. It means only that its existence has no significance in the context being discussed.Bitul is a crucial concept in Chabad thought. See What
The cardinal sins of Torah demanded only 70 years of exile, while hatred takes almost 2000 years!
It’s G-d’s world. Everything He gives is good, the sweetest good.But it is often a good far too great for us to understand. We imagine it is not good, because that’s the only way to make sense of it with our small minds.Yet the truth is, He gives us all the good we can handle. If we could take more, He would give us that as well.Trust Him. Trust is the capacity to embrace blessings larger than your mind can hold.Tanya, Igeret HaKodesh 11.
In my quest to understand the large language models currently spinning our world around, I recalled a discussion on the topic of human language the Rebbe delivered in 1957 and the brilliant way our teacher, Rabbi Yoel Kahan, delivered it to us.As I reread it and examined the sources provided, it seemed to me that many of today’s most pertinent questions are addressed right here: What is the difference between a machine talking and a human speaking? Can there be intelligence without a soul? What is the relationship between language and intelligence? Can a machine be alive?I’ve blended some of the source material into the original text, restructured some of the sections, and added explanation where necessary. Otherwise, here are the thoughts of the Rebbe from 70 years ago illuminating our world today:The Four Voices of Our WorldEverything that exists in our world, from the earth beneath your feet to this p
Miri and Meni embark on an after-bedtime journey through the universe to discover that there is only G-d.
Ask those questions. Eat bitter herbs. Swallow matzah. Drink another cup of wine. And ask the questions that come from the bottom of your heart.
The meaning of your life is a story:A divine soul, a breath of G‑d, becomes embodied within meat, bones, and an animal soul that obscure her light and threaten to extinguish it.Yet, nevertheless, she refines and uplifts this body, this animal soul, and even her share of the world.That is the meaning of your life, of every life, and of everything that is.Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, Maamar Bati Legani 5710.
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 8.It’s Not YouEngaging in forbidden relations and eating forbidden foods are called assur because these activities are tied down to the completely tamei kelipot.But when it comes to forbidden foods, these are called assur not only because of what you do and how you do it, but from another perspective, as well.Because, even if someone ate some forbidden food unknowingly—eating it for a higher purpose, to use that meal’s energy to serve G‑d,and even if he actually carried that out—he spoke Torah and said his prayers with the energy of that meal,nevertheless,
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 8.IntroductionThey say you can’t read the label from inside the jar. All the time you live and breathe from within a flask of sinews and veins, you can’t know who you are, where you are, or why you came here. One day, when you leave these earthly bounds to soar back to your true place, you will glance back, if but for a moment. And all these things you learn now in this book will be clear before you, a vivid reality.You will know who you are—a divine soul. You will see where you were—in a hostile world that challenged you at every turn. And you will see what you attained in this world—because only in such a world could you grasp that which is unattainable even in the highest heavens, a moment of embracing G‑d in your hands, and He embracing you in His, a moment of teshuvah and good deeds.Why must y
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 7.All these forces, souls, and soul-clothing just listed are of the three completely tamei kelipot that contain no good at all.But then there are those of a kelipah that does have some good—kelipat nogah. They are:The vitalizing, animalistic soul within a Jew, the soul that is from the side of kelipah and invested within your blood, as mentioned earlier. Chapter one.The souls of kosher animals, birds, and fish that are permissible for eating.The sustaining force and life-energy of all inorganic substances
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 7.IntroductionAnimal TrainingIf you were to purchase an exotic pet, you would likely do your research beforehand. You would want to know its needs, its habits, and, in particular, the hazards it brings. You would also want to know how to train this pet, what tricks it could do, and whatever other benefits it might bring you.In the last chapter, you discovered you already have a very exotic pet, a human animal soul. You learned the basics of her psychology—the dynamic of mind and emotions, and how those are expressed through her clothing. You learned that her energy is of the kelipah sort, which tells you that she is innately self-centered. And that her natural clothing is very much about herself—anything under the sun that pleases her, stuff that has nothing to do with anything divine. And th
Kabbalat ol (קבלת עול, “accepting the yoke”) is part of a longer phrase meaning “accepting the yoke of the dominion of heaven.”Why would you want to do that? Don’t you have enough yokes around your neck as is?But when you take on the yoke of heaven, you throw off every other yoke. You fear no one, subject yourself to no one, and have no yoke other than that of your Creator. In that sense, kabbalat ol is the ultimate rebellion.When you say the Shema Yisrael each morning and night, you are accepting that yoke and throwing off all others. Mishnah Berachot 2:2. You’re declaring that there’s only one true authority, the One who sustains all existence at every moment and gives life to every living thing, the One who breathes within the essence of your soul.You are not driven by the demands of work or the ever-changing winds of popular opinion, by the urge of the moment or the cravings of your belly, by so
“Be of the students of Aaron,” Hillel taught. “Love all people and bring them close to Torah.” Aaron was beloved to the people because he loved them all. In that way, he held the Children of Israel together as a single family.Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, known by the name of his collection of halachic responsa, Tzemach Tzedek, represented the Jews of the Russian Empire in government affairs during the rule of Nicholas I, a ruthless anti-Semite. He bought land to establish entire communities for Jews who had been displaced by government restrictions. He put himself and his family in mortal danger many times by standing up against the government regulation of Jewish practice, all the while saving thousands of Jewish children abducted by the army. He brought leaders of Jewish movements that had been in conflict to work together with mutual respect for the sake of the entire community.
David was a shepherd boy who composed beautiful songs and became King of Israel. Through his Book of Psalms, he taught us to speak to G-d from the heart, like a child to a parent, like a close friend, one that will never leave you, as though He were your heart itself. He gave every Jew that opportunity of inner closeness with G-d.Rabbi Shalom Dovber, known as the Rebbe Rashab, served the Jews of Russia at a time when young men were abandoning yeshivah to join the Bolshevik party. So he offered these young men a revolutionary yeshivah, one in which boys at the age of 15 would begin a study of the inner soul of Torah, and learn to serve G-d with all their heart through deeply focused meditation and prayer.
While Jacob lived with his father and grandfather, he sat in his tent and studied and contemplated the divine wisdom of the Torah. When he ran from there to save his life from his brother, he fled to the yeshivah of Shem and Ever. When he dwelt with Laban for 20 years, he sat in the field with the sheep reviewing and contemplating Torah wisdom. When he was forced to go down to Egypt, he sent his son Judah ahead of him, to establish a place for Torah learning.The life of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, known as the Alter Rebbe, was also all about Torah. He demonstrated how everything the Baal Shem Tov taught was deeply grounded in Torah traditions. At the request of his teacher, the Maggid, he composed a new edition of the Code of Jewish Law that made the knowledge of halachah much more accessible. He authored the Tanya, and taught thousands of teachings, called maamarim, to teach every Jew how to serve G-d with love and joy as the Baal Shem Tov had envisioned. And he
Although his father had made many journeys to publicize his teachings, Isaac never left the Land of Israel. People came to him, and he brought out the best in them, as one who digs wells to find living waters within the earth.The Maggid of Mezritch did the same. Learned tzadikim came to him from many lands. He showed them that they were true leaders of the people. He planted them all across the Jewish settlements of Eastern Europe, and that way secured the light of the Baal Shem Tov firmly within the hearts of the Jewish people.
Moses brought us to Mount Sinai and gave us the Torah, with all the explanations and education he could provide in 40 years. He could have simply found out from G-d what He wanted and transmitted the instructions. But instead, he did all he could to bring us face-to-face with G-d. He wanted us to have the experience of making the Torah our own by opening it wider through analysis and discussion.Rabbi Dov Ber, known as the Mittler Rebbe, took the teachings of his father, the Alter Rebbe, and showed people how to open them wider. He took a few words his father taught and expanded them in so many ways so that we could digest them all and make those teachings real in our lives.
Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave and ended up ruling the land. How did he do it? Because wherever he was, whether in a slave’s chains, in his master’s house, or even in a dungeon, he took charge of the situation, because he knew G-d was with him.Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, known as “the Maharash,” had to deal with a Czarist policy of deflecting revolution by inciting violence against Jews. He summed up his strategy in one simple teaching. “The world,” he said, says that if you can’t work through a problem, you’ll have to find a way to leap over it. I say, to begin with, just leap over it.” In other words, when you know G-d is with you, take charge without fear.
On Sukkot, the Baal Shem Tov would exclaim, “Where is the celebration? Every Sukkot, in the Temple, they would celebrate for seven days, non-stop. Rabban Gamliel would juggle torches, and their eyes never saw sleep. How could it be that we’ve been sleeping all these hundreds of years? Wake up, you sleeping people! Wake up from your slumber!”You see, since the Temple was destroyed, it’s like the entire Jewish people fell into a deep sleep. When you’re sleeping, you’re still alive, breathing, digesting, pumping blood. But your eyes don’t see, your ears don’t hear, and your mind doesn’t understand anything—it just dreams crazy dreams.That’s how we have been since the Temple was destroyed. In the Temple, we saw open miracles. We felt we were standing in G‑d’s presence. We understood clearly that there is a G‑d in the world and He is everywhere—within all things and beyond all things at the same time.So losing the Temple is not just losing a nice building. It’
The Zohar tells us that each night a party of seven special Ushpizin—Aramaic for “guests”—come to our Sukkah, each night led by a different member of the party. The order is: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, David.Who are the Ushpizin, really?They are the modalities with which G‑d created the world.When G‑d created the world, on the first day He created with Kindness. On the second day, He created with Judgment. On the third, with Beauty. The fourth day was Victory. The fifth was Splendor. The sixth, Connection. And the seventh was Majesty.So that on every Sunday, the modality of Kindness reigns. And on Monday, Judgment reigns. And so the week continues, according to that very first week of creation.The Ushpizin are lofty souls who brought those seven divine modalities of creation into reality in this world during their lifetime. Abraham reflected G‑d’s kindness in the world. Isaac reflected divine judgm
The Talmud tells us that when Hillel the Elder came to celebrate in the Temple on Sukkot, he would say, “If I am here, everyone is here. If I’m not here, no one is here.”Now that’s very strange. The Talmud tells many stories about the extreme humility of Hillel, describing how he had the patience for every person and never saw himself as greater or more important than others. But this statement of his seems quite the opposite!Until we take into account a short passage of the Jerusalem Talmud:Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, “Do you know why it was called ‘The Celebration of the House of Drawing Water?’ Because from there they drew divine inspiration.”Rabbi Jonah said, “The prophet Jonah ben Amitai was one of the holiday pilgrims to the Temple. He walked into the Simchat Beit Hashoeva and the divine spirit rested upon him.”From this we understand that the divine spirit only rests upon a joyous heart. As the verse says, “As soon as the musicia
The whole year long, all the offerings in the Temple were accompanied with wine. Only on Sukkot was water poured on the altar—and then the joy was much greater.What is the connection between water and such great joy?The answer is that wine brings its own joy—and that limits how much joy it can provide. Water doesn’t impose any limits.“Wine,” the Psalmist sings, “gladdens the heart of man.” Wine has intrinsic taste, energy and certain other properties that, when used the right way, can enhance a celebration—some wines more than others.Water is simple and tasteless. That’s why, unless you are thirsty, you don’t say a blessing on drinking plain water.Yet it’s that simplicity of water that allows it to carry an even greater joy. Water doesn’t paint that joy any color or squeeze it into any form. So the celebration that goes along with the pouring of water knows no limits.That’s the difference between the other festivals and Sukkot.
“When someone lowers himself with true humility,” the sages taught, “G‑d raises him up.”Why is that? Because if someone truly has that quality of sincere humility, that person can handle greatness without it getting to his head. David, for example, even when he was a great hero and king of Israel, still danced and sang with joy like a commoner when the Holy Ark was brought to Jerusalem.Or take Hillel the Elder, who was extremely humble. When he came to the Simchat Beit Hashoeva (the Sukkot celebration in the Temple), he declared, “If I am here, everyone is here. If I’m not here, no one is here.” Such extreme haughtiness that would seem to be the opposite of Hillel’s extreme humility.But in truth, quite the contrary. The only reason he could say this is because he was so humble, so it didn’t affect him.Hillel felt the intense divine light in this great celebration and felt like nothing before it. What difference did it make if one nobody was sma
What’s the great joy of Sukkot? It’s the kind of joy you feel when you meet a close friend you haven’t seen in years, and you run to him and hug him tight. The longer you were apart, the tighter the hug, and the greater the joy.You see, on Yom Kippur, we did teshuvah. Because there might have been some time in our past when we put the energy of our holy souls into something or some place where holy souls don’t belong. Then we regretted that, and on Yom Kippur, we returned to G‑d with love, and G‑d accepted us and forgave us for everything. That’s one reason for celebration.But what happens to those wrong things we might have gotten involved with in the past? They return as well. Because everything has some spark of good in it, some purpose for which G‑d created it. Just that some things lose their purpose. It’s like their spark went out, and they became dark and ugly.But when we return to G‑d on Yom Kippur, the good in those things returns as well.
What does water have to do with joy? Wine, we understand. But water?But that’s just the point: Even the water is celebrating here!You see, wine represents understanding. Wine, it says in David’s psalms, makes people happy. The same with understanding. When you work hard to understand something, and you finally get it, you smile.But you never really get all of it. The most you can understand is only what can fit within a human mind. The real truth as it truly is, that remains beyond us.Water represents that kind of truth. Water has no color, no form, no way to grasp it. Water represents the wisdom that is beyond understanding.But on Sukkot, in the Temple, that wisdom, in its deepest, purest sense, came out into the open, accessible to all. If understanding brings joy, imagine what joy that wisdom brought when it burst into our world.That’s why all those who came walked away with a spirit of divine inspiration. They soaked up that
In Abraham’s time, people wanted bigger idols, more idols, and more expensive idols. As for the original Creator, whoever heard about Him figured He was just too awesome and removed to deal with. Abraham went against the stream and taught that the one Creator of Heaven and Earth could be found anywhere by anybody and at any time.In the Baal Shem Tov’s time, the trend for Jewish preachers was to get Jews to obey G-d out of fear of punishment. The Baal Shem Tov went against the stream and taught that every Jew could connect to G-d with love and joy, because He’s found everywhere, speaking to us in every detail of our lives.
t just cry for America, for a society that feels that violence is the needed solution to undesired speech. Do something about it. Help us all heal.Humanity, the ancient Jewish sages taught, is a single being. America is a vital limb of that being. And each of us is a vital, living cell of that body. The more the blood circulates and the neurons connect, the healthier is the entire body of all humanity and all its parts.But when we cease to hear one another out, when you could take a bullet for engaging in dialogue, then the circ
Tanya is personal. Tanya is intimate. More than a book, Tanya is my book. Tanya empowers me to see the world by enabling me to see myself. Rabbi Tzvi Freeman opens up about opening Tanya for the first time—and how it opened himself up for the first time to his core essence, the soul of the world, his connection to Torah and Mitzvos, and his bond with G-d.
There’s an essential difference between kosher foods and non-kosher. And your body knows that difference.
Click here for a printable PDF of Chapter 6.IntroductionRabbi Schneur Zalman has described the fundamentals of your divine soul: her origin and her essential bond with that origin, her mind and emotions and how they interface with each other, the modes of clothing in which she invests herself so that she can reach beyond herself, and the specific clothes she wears—Torah and its mitzvahs.Now he returns to the primal soul, the one he introduced in chapter one, a kind of counter-soul to this divine soul. The contrast is stark and harsh.The key word here is continuity. The divine soul begins in oneness with her origin. Even as she descends to become a particular soul of a particular member of the Jewish whole, she remains intimately and wondrously connected to that essence. Her emotions flow organically from the contemplations of her min
In moments like this, all eyes are towards Israel. We pray for our brothers and sisters, for their safety and for peace in the entire region.
The most precious nuggets of wisdom are those that can fire up your engines when you’re all burned out. Or get you back up and running when you’ve sunk through the pavement.Like this one:The master of the Kabbalah, the Arizal, taught that all of history is the story of the moon, how she waxes and wanes in her attempt to shine.Until, one day, she will be full.Wait. Isn’t the moon full every month?You are the moon. You want to shine. So you make your way to the limelight. You shine, magnificently.But that’s not you shining. At any moment, the spotlight could move away. And you will be dark again. Like the moon.You want to shine. So you stick to all that your teachers taught you, all the wisdom you have gained in life. And you shine.But that’s not you shining. It’s your teachers’ light. It’s the script that life has
Increasingly, our Ask-the-Rabbi team has been fielding concerns around the brutal massacre that occurred last Simchat Torah. How will we commemorate it? How can we dance, sing, and celebrate with the memory of what took place on that day? Isn’t that what the Yizkor memorial ceremony is about? Should we all say Yizkor?Some of these, at least in part, are halachic questions. We can shoot out an answer for those. But for all them, there needs to be some room for discussion. The gamut of subjective human experience has to be taken into account. Each of us experiences life differently, so that celebration and mourning have different meanings to different people.At any rate, I don’t think that’s our job as rabbis—simply to act as Q&A input-output devices. Rather, it’s to facilitate learning and understanding and to bring us all to a deeper realization of what it means to be a JewSo let’s look at how Jews have dealt
The classic work of chassidic thought known as Tanya is principally a guide to meditation and prayer. It’s a treasure of knowledge concerning the dynamics of human intelligence. Most significantly, it shows you how to use these dynamics for internal change.Here’s a fascinating insight from the third chapter with some elucidation. Of course, this is all according to my feeble understanding, tapping into the many discussions in Chabad teachings that touch on the subject, as well as the explanations given me by my teachers.The Ability of WhatnessThe intelligence of the thinking soul, the faculty that enables her to conceive any idea, i
The Zohar on the Ten Sefirot elucidated according to Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi
What is the definition of Judaism? What are the basic Jewish beliefs? How Did Judaism Begin? Who are the Jews?
On the Absurdity of Engaging the EssenceIn 2009, Elliot Wolfson published his commentary on the Rebbe’s thought, Open Secret. Now, in 2024, Yosef Bronstein has published Engaging the Essence: the Torah Philosophy of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. It seems a consensus is forming: The only approach to the Rebbe’s thought is through a juxtaposition of opposites, an utter paradox. Can a secret be open and remain a secret? Can the essence, which stands beyond all grasp, ever be engaged?In Chabad thought, the answer is no. Just as the unknowable cannot be known, so the Essence cannot be engaged.Just as the unknowable cannot be known, so the Essence cannot be engaged.“Imagine,” wrote the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, “someone would say, ‘That idea is so deep, I can’t touch it with my hands.’ We would laugh at the absurdity.”You don’t touch ideas with your hands. “Deep” is only metaphorical.
Enjoy this collection of pithy teachings, curated to help you appreciate the cosmic shift that occurred at Sinai.
A pervasive theme in kabbalistic literature Pri Etz Chaim, Shaar Vidui, section 8. Cited extensively. and chassidic thought See, for example: Be’er Mayim Chayim, Vayikra 21:1. Kedushat Halevi, Bamidbar, Korach 6. Likutei Torah, Nitzavim. is that all the souls of Israel form a single body. What about the rest of the world? Genesis tells us we are all the offspring of one primal human being. And the Zohar describes the Jewish People as “the heart of the nations”#--which implies there are arms, legs, a head, etc., and those aren’t us. Nevertheless, even love has its priorities. More on this at Because We’re All One. It makes a lot of sense. How else could the Torah command you to “love the other guy as yourself” Leviticus 19:18. if the other guy is not yourself?The Torah goes so far as to deman
Can you believe you have the truth, be ready to give your life for it, and nevertheless leave space for others?
There’s a strategy for handling crazy challenges like this. It’s called flying higher. Even if you’re a guest, your upbeat mood and friendliness can reset the scene.
The Hagagadah is alive, and nothing that’s alive can be made to fit into neat parcels of sensible data. But there's some leads.
Jews feel that Western liberalism has abandoned them. This has happened before. This is what the Purim story can teach us.
There are long lives with little meaning. And there are short lives that never cease to shine.
“G-d” is a relatively new European word of Proto-Germanic origin. In Hebrew, quite a few titles are used, each with a different meaning according to the circumstance.
Tommy‘s basketball coach shows him that hatred and anger gets him nowhere, but seeing the spark inside another person could change the world.
Lurking beneath a scholar’s cloak on our best college campuses, the same raw hatred that Hitler’s professors rationalized persists. This time, sane academics must speak up and take action.
The signature metaphor in Tanya to describe all human activity, popping up in some form or another on almost every page, is clothing. Life, according to Tanya, is less about who you are and more about what you wear.
The abbreviation, often appearing after the names of those who have been murdered, stands for Hashem yikom damam—may G-d avenge their blood.
Instead of sweating over what everyone is thinking of you, spend that energy just being a nice guy.
Abraham constructed a ladder up to G-d. A ladder of insight and enlightenment. Then G-d pulled the ladder out from under him.
There are those who say there is a war in a faraway land called Israel. They are mistaken.There is a war against every Jewish woman, man, and child wherever in the world they may be.The peddlers of terror do not hate Israel because they wish to liberate humanity.They do not murder children in their mother’s arms because they wish to make commerce over their borders. They have a border with Egypt, closed for decades, yet not a missile fires in that direction.They hate Jews because they have been taught to hate Jews. That hatred is their oppressor as much as it is ours.Hatred is not a bullet. It is not a meme. Hatred is a spiritual illness.A War of the So
This is how we have survived. This is how Jews have illuminated the world over many millennia. With simchah, with utter confidence in G‑d, and a solid belief in our amazing people.
Within each of us is a breath of the divine, a neshamah. Everything else is created by speech. She is created by breath and by thought. Everything else is obsessed with being just what it is. But the neshamah hears the music of creation and yearns for it to be heard.
Just as we invoke the existence of a force of gravity to explain things falling and an electromagnetic force to explain a host of otherwise very mysterious phenomena, so we invoke the existence of a soul-force to explain our inner experience of being alive, conscious, and self-directed.
A scientist bet a philosopher that we would uncover the mechanism of consciousness in the brain. He lost. As a student of Chabad, I'm hoping he will win this time around. Here's why.
In advance of the anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing, Tzvi Freeman shares the twists and turns of his path from Vancouver to Brooklyn.
If everything is about love, who needs fear? Watch a candid discussion between love and fear, each arguing their virtue, and ultimately discovering how they can work in tandem. (Video produced by JLI’s Rosh Chodesh Society)
This question is more ancient than the sequoias and so is its answer, but it’s usually framed in terms unfamiliar to 21st-century minds. It’s essentially a simple idea, only requiring an open mind and some imagination.It’s important to ask this question, because it brings us to a proper understanding of what we mean when we say, “G‑d. ”It’s also a fruitful question, because by answering it we end up with many more very juicy questions. Most significantly: "Why is there anything at all?" And: “If that’s what we mean by 'G‑d,' how can there be any relationship between Him and us?”Hang in there, and we’ll touch as many bases as we can in one brief article. For more, click the embedded links.Is This Question a Question? Let’s start with an astonishing phenomenon. Perhaps the greatest enigma of the human brain is that it is capable of comprehending anything at all about the nature of the universe a
If you're going to bring the ultimate divine wisdom into the world, why are shattered souls the channel for its reception?
Unlock the spiritual profoundness of Passover with these powerful mystical meditations.
Wherever your soul has taken you, there must be something of profound value that you uncovered there.
Purim tells a story of the victory of life. Halloween contains an awful lot of the opposite.
There are 248 “do this” mitzvahs in the Torah (and 365 “don’t do this” mitzvahs). Counting in chronological order, number 247, the second-to-last mitzvah that Moses delivers to the Jewish people, is the mitzvah of Hakhel: Assemble the people once in seven years and relive the giving of the Torah. (Read about how that is done here.)But why? What is it about this particular mitzvah that requires it be given on the last day of Moses’ life?Is it because it’s a mitzvah you can only do in the Land of Israel?There are plenty of agricultural mitzvahs that can only be performed in the Land of Israel. That didn’t stop Moses from instructing the people in them long before.Well, you’ll say, this is different. It’s a commemoration of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. As long as they are in the wilderness of Sinai, hearing Torah from Moses, removed from the mundane activities of seeding, harvesting and pr
Here are some of the greatest and most persistent myths about Judaism and the Jewish people. How many of them are new to you?
How on earth does a parchment scroll with Hebrew inscriptions increase your personal safety? Here is how the great rabbis understood it.
You bathed in the honey-sweet, divine glow that saturates every one of the endless strata of gardens of Eden, each with its particular flavor of light, its own taste of ecstasy. Bliss unlimited. And then you got the call.
You found a cavern amidst the geothermal stream. It was warm. It was good. In some distant, fleeting way, it reminded you of the bliss of your garden above. Oh, how you yearned to return there.
You are Jacob. In Jacob’s vow is the entire meaning of your life:“If G‑d will be with me and protect me on this journey that I am making and provide me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return to my father's house in peace—then G‑d will be my G‑d, and this stone that I have set as a monument will be the House of G‑d…” (Genesis 28:20)Your journey is from Be’er Sheva to Haran, from the wellspring of all souls down into this formidable world. Yet you never truly leave your place; G‑d is always with you, shielding your soul.He provides you bread—the wisdom of the Torah that you digest and assimilate in this world. He provides you clothing—the mitzvahs within which you invest your entire being.So that in both these ways, you bring His light to shine in places where it has never shone before.But your principal mission is to return in peace. In the divine paths of Tor
From a letter to one who had fallen into extreme debt, could find no way out, and become depressed (paraphrased for clarity): Your spirits are down, and so your confidence in G‑d is weakened. But that spirit of confidence in G‑d—that is the measuring rod of all things. As much confidence you have, that is how much your health, your livelihood, and all such concerns are tied up with the Creator. Keep that bond tight and strong, and you couldn’t possibly be lacking any good. How do you do that? Only by working hard on yourself when challenges such as these come along. Real confidence means that even when all natural means have been exhausted, you are perfectly confident, beyond any doubt, that everything is going to be 100% good, visibly and obvious to all—a good livelihood, good health, everything. For G‑d, the natural order poses no obstacle. After all, there’s no such notion as “lacking something” above. As G‑d
You are G‑d’s sewing needle. Your mitzvahs are His thread. Now you can understand all these journeys of your life: You are pulling a thread, stitching together the confusion of this world into a single, meaningful story of wisdom and divine truth. Out of chaos, a beautiful patchwork of many colors. The world resists your mitzvahs. But you are a needle, firm and sharp to pierce through every challenge. A needle has an opposite side as well: An opening, an empty space. You, too, behind your will of steel must lie an openness, a sense of awe, wonder, and humility through which a long, divine thread can enter. Indeed, you will find that the fabric of the world also has its openings, its soft spots, and inherent beauty through which the thread of divine consciousness is meant to pass. Be a sewing needle. Be tough. Be humble. You are stitching together a beautiful, multicolored world.
When you value human beings, you avoid speaking about their faults at all costs. As G-d did with Esau. As Isaac aged, his eyesight weakened. (Genesis 27:1) This was in order that Jacob would be able to take the blessings of Esau. (Rashi) This is puzzling. If G‑d wanted Jacob to receive Isaac’s blessings, He could have simply revealed to Isaac that Esau was wicked. Especially since Isaac already had reason to believe something was up with Esau. He knew that Esau had wives who offered incense to idols. He knew that mention of G‑d was not part of Esau’s mode of speech. So all G-d needed to do was to fill Isaac in on the whole story. But G‑d didn’t want to speak badly about Esau. We call this lashon hara—speaking badly of another person even when what you say is true. Now consider this: For the sake of wicked Esau, G‑d declined to speak unkind word
There are those who say that before we do any mitzvah, we must first understand why it needs to be done. Why else were we given a mind? There are others who say we must just obey with simple faith. How else can we bond with One who is entirely beyond our understanding? Abraham did both. He began with absolute faith, even when it was impossible to make sense of what he had been told to do. Yet he would not leave until his questions were answered and he had been given a way to understand. “Don’t do a thing to the young man, for now I know that you are a G‑d fearing person.” (Genesis 22:12) Abraham said to G‑d, “Let me present my case. First You told me that my descendants will be from Isaac. Then You told me to take him for an offering. Now You say I mustn’t do a thing to him…” (Rashi, citing Midrash) That makes sense. Matters that are beyond our understanding can never be fit neatly
How to listen to the voice of your own heart—advice from a meditation of the Alter Rebbe.
Fix a time each day to study the words of inner Torah and ponder who G‑d is, what an awesome universe He has made, who you really are, and what is the relationship between your soul and the One Above.
“Be simple with G‑d.” (Deuteronomy 18:13) Walk through life alongside Him in simple innocence. Stay confident in His plans for you. Let go of trying to foresee the future and just accept whatever happens with all your heart. Then you can rest assured that you will belong to Him and ultimately receive all the goodness He has promised you. Based on Rashi, as explained in Likutei Sichot vol. 14, p.
Hear, O Israel! You are about to go to battle with your enemy. Don’t let your hearts be frail. Do not fear, nor panic, nor be in dread of them. (Deuteronomy 20:3) In the midst of battle, it is forbidden to entertain thoughts that frighten you. (Maimonides) The same applies in every troubling situation. (Rabbeinu Yona of Gerona) How can you live without fear? By refusing to think those thoughts that frighten you. Because wherever your mind travels, your heart will follow. Wherever it is focused, emotions will grow and flourish. And when the channels of your mind change their course, even the most substantial fear will quickly wither and return to the earth from which it sprang, to be replaced by fresh emotions newly born. If your emotions are children, your thoughts are the parents that gave birth to them; if they are the pla
Beyond Blessings See that I am giving to you today a blessing and a curse. (Deuteronomy 11:26) G‑d gives blessings. But how is it conceivable that G‑d gives curses? Isn't this the whole notion of our faith in a Creator—that therefore life is essentially purposeful and good? Rather, at every moment, an endless current of divine creative energy streams into our world from the fountain of all delight and pleasure, sustaining all existence, providing life and sentience to all beings. That is good, the ultimate good. At times, that energy comes measured and filtered to suit our world. So we perceive its goodness immediately and openly. But at other times it comes below as it is above, from a place where goodness is understood on an infinitely higher and deeper plane than in our mundane and shallow world. And so, like a mighty river of raw, unbridled energy
See that I am giving to you today a blessing and a curse. (Deuteronomy 11:26) Why “see?” Blessings and curses are not seen. They are heard or understood. Rather, it means to see with a vision that is not swayed by the illusions of physical sensation. It means to see beyond this moment now. Beyond the hard, prickly shell of your pain and sorrows. Beyond your restrictive concept of self. Beyond ego or expectation. See with the spark of G‑d within you and you will discover the spark of divine light within each of your troubles. Look yet deeper, and you will see within every challenge unimaginable blessings. Even those things you take to be a curse—step back, close your eyes, and see deep within them G‑d's outstretched arm drawing you towards Him in embrace. Torat Menachem, vol. 34, pg. 237 ff.
Take these words of Mine to your hearts and to your souls…teach them to your children so that this will be what they speak about, when you are sitting at home, walking on your way, lying down to rest, and arising from your sleep. (Deuteronomy 11:18-19) The simple meaning of this instruction is as follows: You must teach your children Torah. Not as a burden, but as a love; so that they will cherish Torah wisdom, share it, and speak about it at every time of day, in every circumstance. Until it becomes the defining activity of their lives. And to accomplish this, you too must be engaged, heart and soul, in your children's education the entire day. Not only at home, when you are in your own space, but even when you're off at work or in other circumstances you do not control, this is what should preoccupy your mind. So that when you lie down to rest after a long, hard day, the concern won't go a
…walk in all His ways… (Deuteronomy 11:22) He is compassionate; so you too should have compassion. He provides life and kindness to His creatures; you should do the same. (Rashi) What about speech? G‑d's speech is not an artifact of vocal chords or a mouth. His words are packets of divine energy, articulations of His essence and being. G‑d speaks and an entire universe comes into being. How can you be like G‑d in your speech? You can speak from your heart. Because, as our sages taught, words that come from your heart enter the hearts of others. And once there, they have their effect, so that the heart they have entered cannot help but be moved. Speak from your heart and your words will become a reality. A whole new universe might come to be. Igrot Kodesh vol.
The core of a Jew is wrapped up in the six words of the Sh'ma Israel. Very roughly, and at great compromise to the richness of each word, it says, "A Jew must contemplate: G‑d—who is our G‑d—that G‑d is One." Meaning: Not simply that there is only one G‑d, but that this oneness of G‑d is such that nothing—not the heavens, not the earth, and not even all the vast wonders they contain—nothing at all exists outside the perfect Oneness that transcends and encompasses all things. But then, it only takes two Hebrew words to say that G‑d is one. Why do we need six? Because at this point you must turn your ear inward. And from there you will hear that this Oneness is not a knowledge you learned from your teachers, discerned from your observations, or intuited out of your sense of wonder. No—this sense of Oneness is yours because it is the furnace that burns within the powerhouse of your soul, the oxygen that breathes within every facet of
Where did the Rebbe's radically new strategy come from? Was it smart psychology or something else?
It’s always fascinated me how our machines enable us to push the envelope of being human. So perhaps, instead of throwing ourselves on the pavement before the onslaught of the monster tanks of AI invading human territory, we should acknowledge these systems for what they are—dumb machines built to be nothing more than tools in our hands, like hammers and plows. Then can we reap their real value—their power to allow us to discover what it means to be human. Here’s the latest: Whether you are a professional communicator, such as a writer or art director, or just anybody trying to make a point on social media, you are likely perpetually scrambling for just the right illustration to get across your idea. So we should all be elated to find that two major firms are closing in on a hi-tech, on-demand, solution. It's called text-to-image generation, with Imagen from Google and DALL-E 2 from OpenAI stirring up a flurry of oohs and aahs th
I am G‑d, your G‑d who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your G‑d…Do not steal. Do not kill. Do not covet. Why did G‑d begin the delivery of Torah at Sinai with these words? And at the moment of the greatest revelation in history, why is the message such an anticlimax—simple, obvious morals such as don’t steal, don't kill, don't covet. Shouldn't divine wisdom be exclusively far beyond such matters? And why the thunder and lightning? Shouldn't spiritual wisdom enter the world in a spiritual, peaceful way? No. Because this is G‑d's way of telling us that from this point on, everything will be turned on its head. Abraham, Noah, Methuselah, Adam…they all knew the wisdom of Torah. But where was Torah before Sinai? Torah was with an enlightened soul sitting beneath a tamarisk contemplating wisdom, communing with the oneness of the universe. And where is Torah after Sinai? Torah is with a h
True love is love of your inner self, that inner mysterious beauty that can never be soiled or blemished.
- Myth: Nobody goes to a Kabbalah class expecting to actually understand anything. Truth: Kabbalah is about the human mind grasping the ungraspable. As in every discipline, we’re never able to grasp everything. Physicists admit they don’t grasp what reality really is. Mathematicians puzzle over what numbers really are. Kabbalists embrace the mystery of G‑d’s oneness while at the same time demystifying as much as the human mind is capable of grasping. In the words of R. Schneur Zalman, we need to bring the divine as close as possible to the human mind, even though it can never truly fit. The Chabad school provides potent metaphor for the divine back-end of the universe from elements of the human psyche. Will and desire become metaphors for the Infinite Light. Human consciousness and personality provides us insight into the sefirot and emanations. Articulate thought and speech provides metaphor for the act of creation. The truth
Within you is a divine person nested within a human, rational person, nested within a human beast. What does a perfect, divine soul have to gain from nesting within a visceral body, refining and taming a human beast? Everything. The stubborn defiance of your inner animal is a gold mine for the soul. The energy of your divine soul is ordered, harmonized and contained. The energy of that beast within you is raw and wild. Lift that crude animal power even slightly from its earthly pod and a reservoir of unbounded energy from above reciprocates, rushing downward to fill the channels of the divine soul. A harmony of opposites ensues, as though a fierce storm has been harnessed by the turbines of your soul, as though all the diverse forces of order and chaos of the creation have come together in a single magnificent symphony. It is the song of the One who transcends order and chaos, energy and containment, finite and
You are three people, one nested within the other. You are a divine person. Nested within a rational person. Nested within an animal person. The divine person within you is drawn upward, like the flame of a candle, towards the spiritual and the divine. It has no interest in any worldly pleasures—unless it can find within them some transcendent meaning. The animal person within you is drawn downward, towards eating and drinking and all forms of bodily pleasure. It has no interest in anything it can’t enjoy right now. The rational person within you moves in both directions. It flies upward towards fascinating ideas, seeing ahead, taking the big picture into account. But it remains tied up with its ego, and so is easily seduced, even hijacked, by the animal. From its deeply nested position, your divine person can’t even breathe without the consent of the animal person. But the animal has no interest in divine people
Hillel would say, “Be of the disciples of Aaron. Love peace. Chase after peace. Love every person that G‑d created, and draw them to Torah.” —Mishnah Avot Hillel the Elder is speaking about those who are so distant from G‑d and His service that their only redeeming quality is that they are G‑d’s creation. And he tells us that we must pull such people in with thick cords of love. Perhaps, just maybe, we will bring them closer to Torah and G‑d. And if not—we still have not lost the mitzvah of love. —Tanya, chapter 32. Why does Hillel put an agenda to love? Why can’t we love our fellow human beings simply because they were all created with the image of G‑d embedded within them? Give them your love, your attention, your kindness in every way—including teaching them Torah. Yet Hillel seems to tell us that we must love solely in order to draw these people to G‑d and Torah! But, no, in truth Hillel is telling us t
The Baal Shem Tov insisted that when you do a favor for another, there must be no strings attached and no expectations. Of course, you want this person to become a better person, a more spiritual person, to fulfill the purpose for which this soul came to earth by learning Torah and doing mitzvahs. And of course doing someone a favor is the best way to get that happening. But when you do a favor, it has to be just for the sake of doing a favor. Unconditional love. And that is the only way that love can have its effect. —Likutei Sichot, vol.1, pg. 261. Ibid vol. 17, pg. 222.
Here's a thought that can pick you up, and even has the power to pick up the whole world.
In denial, we humans are the oblivious jackhammer at the symphony, pounding away at the foundations of our environment, ripping the very fibers of the cosmic order.
Another thing about your kosher inner animal: Having a split hoof means it points in two directions at once. That's important. Because if you want your animal to shine, never let it go in just one direction. It has to go to the right—to reach out to others and pull them close. And at the same time, it has to go to the left—not to compromise when integrity is at risk. For example, if you want to help someone find their path in Torah and life, it has to be with love. But if the love bends the Torah, in the end, there's neither Torah nor love. That's the path to truth: Always go in two opposite directions at once. Likutei Sichot vol. 1, pg. 222.
Any animal that has a cloven hoof that is completely split into double hooves, and which brings up its cud —that one you may eat. (Leviticus 11:3) All of us have an animal inside. We have a divine soul, as well, a breath of G‑d within. But a divine soul is too unearthly to manage a physical body; to do so, it has to invest itself and engage with the world from within an animalistic soul. Only that this inner animal, to serve its purpose, must remain a kosher animal. The first thing a kosher animal needs is hooves. Hooves are like built-in shoes for animals—they lift them just a little above the earth. Your animal, as well, needs to stay just a little above the earth. When you eat, pause for a moment beforehand. Say a blessing on your food, loud and clear. That way, rather than falling into your food, you lift your food up. When you talk with other people, raise the c
The second thing a kosher inner animal requires is a split in its hooves—all the way through, down to the ground. . There's got to be some light shining where your feet touch the ground. Which means: When you look at the earth, and all the earthly things you're involved in, don't just see earth. See light. See the divine spark within the earth, the light shining on the jewels between your toes. Look carefully and ponder and you will find them there. As King Solomon wrote in his Song of Songs, "G‑d is peeking through the cracks." Likutei Sichot vol. 1, pg. 222.
If you want your inner animal to stay kosher, chew your cud well. Don't let the stuff growing on the ground enter into your life without multiple ruminations. First, ask, "Do I need to do this for my purpose in life?" Then, once that question is answered, "What is its place and how should I use it?" This is the path to a meaningful, uncluttered life. Rather than the earth pulling you down, you lift it up. Likutei Sichot vol. 1, pg. 222.
Your mind is like a bird. Let it be and it will fly out any window into the great blue sky. The Torah doesn't provide any signs to determine if a bird is kosher. It just provides us a list of birds that we must not eat--most of them predators. Over the ages, much confusion has arisen concerning the identity of those forbidden birds. So the rule is, before eating some new bird, you need to ask a master kosher bird-trapper if he has received a tradition about this bird. That's another way our minds are like birds. A non-kosher inner animal is easy to spot. But there's no known way for a mind to determine whether it hasn't just flown out the kosher window and into the absurd. Unless you have a teacher, a master of catching birds and bringing them back home. One who holds the keys to all the accumulated wisdom of millennia. And you have the humility to just ask.
On Purim, it’s a mitzvah to hear the story of Esther read from a scroll—called a “megillah”—both by day and by night. The Talmud tells us, “If you read the story backwards, you haven’t read the story.” (Megillah 2a.) Of course, that means you have to read the story in the order it’s written. But the Baal Shem Tov gave a deeper meaning to the words of our sages: If you read the story of Esther and of her people, of the rise of Haman and his own self-destruction, of secret heroes and hidden miracles… …if you read all this as though it was all a backstory —something that occurred a long time ago and now provides only historical context —you haven’t read the story. Because Jews have never had the luxury to retell this story as something we have put behind us. A Jew looks around and discovers: We are standing in the middle of the story of Purim right now.
The word Purim is from the Persian word pur, a means of gambling. Because Haman believed that all of life is a gamble. G‑d threw a roll of dice, he said, and the world was made. Another roll—good was chosen to be good and bad to be evil. So Haman threw his own dice and gambled that this time evil would win and good would be defeated. And when he saw the results, he was convinced that he had won the game. Haman was right about one thing: G‑d is beyond this world. Beyond all things. He has no need for a world, or for anything at all to exist. He can choose as He wills. He was wrong about another: G‑d doesn't decide by a roll of dice. He chooses with His very self, the essence of His being. So that within this choice to have a world, His very essence is invested. And within those things He chose as good, He is found. And within those things He chose as evil, He
A little more love and caring between you and another Jew will generate more compassion and empathy in the entire world.
One of the 613 mitzvahs of the Torah is to erase the memory of Amalek. We even have a Torah reading designated once a year, on the Shabbat before Purim, for us to fulfill this mitzvah as a community. But since Sennacherib, king of Ancient Assyria, forcibly displaced all the tribes of the Middle East, it is impossible to identify an Amalekite. How does the mitzvah remain relevant today? It is relevant because every mitzvah has both a physical and a spiritual manifestation. The physical side of this mitzvah does not currently apply, but the spiritual side is alive and well. And since the mitzvah to fight Amalek is not a once-in-a-lifetime mitzvah, or even a once-in-a-year mitzvah, but a daily responsibility, it is a constant battle from which we cannot rest. Amalek was the nation that met the Jewish people as they broke out of their bondage in Egypt through miracles and wonders, as they charged with all the fire and enthusiasm of a freshly
Remember that which Amalek did to you on the way as you were leaving Egypt. He met you on the way…(Deut. 25:17-18) “He met you…” (אשר קרך) can also be read as “He made you cold.” “…on the way…” Just as you are getting somewhere, just as you are making your exodus towards a life in the promised land filled with the beauty of Torah and celebrating your Jewish soul…just then, a cold voice speaks from inside. A voice with a thousand cogent reasons why it’s foolish to be excited and you need to just cool down. It says: You're a rational person. When you hear G‑d’s voice from within the fire on the mountain, determine what makes sense to you and what does not. Don't allow anything into your heart that doesn't fit into the neat little boxes of your established way of thinking. Already, you are back to slavery in an Egypt of your own mind. Amalek, you see, was a great-grandchild of Abraham.
We are all articles of a holy tabernacle. One is a menorah, another a golden table, another an altar, another a different sort of holy device. And we all are vital parts of a single whole in a way quite similar to those articles. As these articles were being made, each had no significance and sanctity of its own. They were simply details required for a tabernacle as prescribed from Above. Yet, once all the parts were assembled and counted, they each gained an intrinsic significance, each with its own particular sanctity. So too with each of us. Some say that each of us is nothing more than our contribution to the whole. Others say it is the individual that counts—it’s just that we’re even more potent when we come together. But look deeply, and you will see that as individuals, each of us can do nothing, and as a whole, each of us can accomplish everything. For as much as the individual is helple
The letters of a Torah scroll only have meaning and sanctity as parts of the whole. And yet, if a single letter is missing, or even if a single letter is not entirely surrounded by its own empty space, the sanctity of the entire Torah is compromised. So too, it’s your differences that make you essential. Because the same essential core that bonds your community as one is the same essential core that declares that you must be who G‑d made you to be and no one else. Likutei Sichot vol. 21, p. 258.
There are no weak people, no people who are a burden on society. Certainly no worthless people. There are only many different kinds of people, each with their own, unique contribution. And that is good. Because endless diversity is a sign of a deep, underlying unity. And unity is strength. —the Rebbe Likutei Sichot vol. 21, p. 258.
They will give half a shekel in holy shekels, which is twenty gerah to a shekel, half a shekel. (Exodus 30:13) If a shekel is twenty gerah, and you have to give half, the simplest thing to say is, “Give ten gerah.” Why the need to emphasize again and again that this is only a half? And indeed, a half shekel is also called a beka. Even simpler would be to say ”Give one beka.” But if you want to reconnect to G‑d, the first thing you need to know is that, as long as you are disconnected, you are only half a being. Because you have a divine soul, and a divine soul comprises ten divine powers within a human form. And above, there are ten divine powers of G‑d by which He relates to us and directs our world. Your ten receive from His ten, and His ten shine in this world through your ten. So that a divine soul below without G‑d above is only half a being. Only
Once a year, every Jew would give half a shekel for the Temple. It was such a central event, there’s an entire tractate of the Talmud discussing its laws. It’s called “Shekalim.” But nobody gave a whole shekel. You weren’t allowed. Everyone had to give the same one half. So why is the tractate called “Shekalim?” Because the point was not that you should come and give a half shekel. Rather, it was that you should feel you are incomplete until another Jew gives another half shekel. And every Jew should feel incomplete until everyone has given their small and equal contribution of half a shekel. Because none of us are complete without the other, and each of us fills in that which the other is missing. Pekudei 5741, Sichot Kodesh 61-62.
When G‑d told Moses that every Jew must give enough to clean up the spiritual damage caused by the golden calf affair, Moses was concerned. “A person will have to give all he has to clean himself up!” he said. But G‑d said, “Not a hundred silver pieces, not fifty, and not even thirty—but just one half a shekel must they each give.” (Midrash) When you’ve failed and you want to clean up your mess, very often the job looks far too big. In this case, Moses imagined that the smallest amount it would take was thirty silver pieces. That was the value of a Hebrew servant. And with the golden calf, the Jewish people had abused their role as servants of G‑d. So G‑d told Moses, no, just half a shekel. Which is one sixtieth of that. Because sixty is the tipping point. When something falls into a quantity sixty times its size, hal
How long will you people keep walking on two sides of the fence? If G‑d is G‑d, follow Him. And if the Baal is G‑d, follow him! (Elijah in Kings I 18:21) This is shocking. How could Elijah even suggest to the people such an option, that people should abandon the true G‑d altogether and worship exclusively the false god? Isn’t it better they should have even some truth in their lives, even if the rest is a lie? But no. It may be a worse sin to commit entirely to a false god, but there is far more hope for such a person than for one who tries to walk on both sides of the fence. Someone walking both sides of the fence shows that he’s not interested in the truth. If truth doesn’t matter, what will it help to show him truth? Not so someone who is committed entirely to what he believes to be true. Once shown his error, he might now turn his life around and be yet more committed to the one true G‑d.
The New Nothing New ways of thinking require new sets of words. For most thinkers. Here’s an exception: Every chapter of R. Schneur Zalman’s classic work known as Tanya provides a distinctly new way of thinking about life, purpose, and the world about us. Yet R. Schneur Zalman chose to retain the old words, just revealing in them a deeper meaning. The word bittul is a case in point. Bittul plays a central role in R. Schneur Zalman’s writings. It’s a crucial concept in explaining how existence as we know it is always relative and never absolute, and why a good life depends on seeing and truly feeling how that applies to you. Bittul makes the difference between choosing to dwell in a fractured universe where each fragment makes a whole lot of noise, or choosing true life in a harmonious universe, where the parts find their greatness within a wondrously greater whole. But to do tha
In the entire parshah of Tetzaveh, the name of Moses is not mentioned once. At the same time, the entire parshah consists of G‑d speaking directly to Moses, telling him, “You shall do this” and “You shall do that.” It is all a reflection of a deep, inner tension within Moses himself. Indeed, within every true teacher. Moses, being the ultimate teacher, was a man of dual allegiances. His life was bound up entirely with the Torah that he taught, so that he and the Torah were one. And his life was bound up entirely with the people that he led, nurtured and loved. So when it came to a showdown between Torah and his people—because his people had made a golden calf, and G‑d was about to wipe them out of existence—Moses had to decide who he was at his most essential self. He discovered it was his people. He said, “Forgive them or erase me from the book You have written!” G‑d did both. He forgave the peo
The world was not fit to have gold. So why was it created? For the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple. (Midrash) G‑d should give all of us much wealth and gold. But gold can affect a person’s psyche with delusions of grandeur. So first you must do just as they did with the gold for the Tabernacle: To beat it into thin sheets. Beat out the self-pride and egotism that often comes with gold. And then, cut those sheets yet finer, into fine golden threads. Don’t allow this gold to inflate your sense of self-worth in any way. But don’t throw the gold away. It has purpose. The Torah schoolteachers of our times are priests in G‑d’s holy temple, like Aaron and his descendants. Just as Aaron and his descendants were to be fitted with fine robes of honor and beauty, so our teachers must be paid well so as to live in honor and beauty, sewn from the fine gold G‑d has given us. That is wh
And you, you shall command the children of Israel to bring you pure olive oil, crushed to be a luminary, to rise as an everlasting flame…from evening until morning… (Exodus 27:20-21) “Command” in Hebrew is tzivah, which also means “connect.” Moses was told to connect his people. Connect them to the infinite light of G‑d. Connect them to one another to become a single people. Connect them at an essential soul-level, where they hold a pure source of light. How do you connect them? Bring them to discover within themselves that they have a pure inner oil. Then they will rise and shine. They will shine at night, in a darkness that crushes their bodies and souls, only to bring out a yet finer oil. And they will shine even in the day, crushed to discover that a world of comfort and luxury cannot satisfy their yearnings. The purest of oils. An eternal
The anniversary of Moses’ passing always falls on the week of the parshah of Tetzaveh. And so his name is missing from this parshah. (Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky of Chernobyl, Me’or Eina’im) True, it is the anniversary of his passing, but it is also the anniversary of his birth. Moses was born on the seventh day of Adar and died on the same day 120 years later. And indeed, he is not only missing from the parshah, he is also eminently present in every verse. For every verse is an instruction directly from G‑d to Moses. Only that instead of being called Moses, he is called “you.” “You,” explains the Kli Yekar, means, “the essence of your being.” Which makes sense. Because only the revealed Moses passed away from this world. The hidden, essential Moses never died. Before Moses was given his name, he was hidden by his mother. He was hidden from the world. And throughou
Translator’s Preface Every year, on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, Chabadniks gather around while an appointed person presents a maamar. You can read about the idea of a maamar elsewhere on our site. The particular maamar that’s presented on the tenth of Shvat is a special one. It was prepared by its author, the sixth rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, to be studied on that day, as it was the yartzeit, the day of passing, of his grandmother. As it transpired, that day was also his day of passing. The first rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, explained in a letter that "all the effort of man for which his soul toiled during his lifetime becomes revealed at the time of his passing."Igeret Hakodesh, 27. This maamar, then, must be seen as a summary of the author’s lifetime, as well as
Our job is to find the divine sparks hidden within each person, each object and each event, and let that shine.
This is how the master of the Kabbalah, the Ari, describes the enslavement of Ancient Egypt: It is when the mind is entrapped and cannot speak with the heart. It is when you understand well how you should be and what you could be, but your heart does not hear of it, and runs wild. So nothing changes. You remain a mindless slave to the moment. Indeed, the Hebrew letters that spell Pharaoh are the same as those for the Hebrew word oref, "the back of the neck." Pharaoh stands at the back of your neck and strangles your wisdom. He hijacks your mind so your thoughts are devoted to building pointless structures up to the sky, chasing ephemeral pleasures, wasting time on nonsense, and swelling the ego, not allowing more than a trickle of your higher mind to enter the heart. How will you escape? By bonding yourself to something beyond your own mind and heart. By connecting with an Infinite G‑d. Go
“I am going to deal with you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the big crocodile who sprawls in his channels, who says, ‘My Nile is my own and I have made myself.” (Ezekiel 29:3) We all have a little pharaoh inside. Sprawling through the veins of every human animal is a voice that says, “This world belongs to me and I have created myself.” Resistance is futile. To imagine that you could confront and defeat your own ego is absurd. Domesticate it, yes. It’s inconvenient when your little pharaoh bites people. But a tame crocodile remains a crocodile. Rather, the only strategy is to reframe this little pharaoh. What is this voice inside that says “I,” after all? It is really nothing less than G‑d Himself, the only true “I,” breathing inside you. Only that it has lost its frame, its greater context. And now, it feels as an “I” all its own. Your job then is to reconnect this ego of yours to its higher p
Egypt, in Hebrew, is Mitzra’im—meaning “straits.” A tight, narrow place. Existence, for a human being, is a tight and narrow place. We are children of an infinite Creator. The natural order of time and space is for us a prison. A mitzvah, on the other hand, is an act of transcendence, a reconnection to the Infinite. A mitzvah strikes a permanent rupture in the restrictions of existence. That is your Exodus. With every mitzvah you do, you are shattering the bonds that enslave you to Egypt, just as when Israel left their bondage to become an eternal people, transcending time. Are you no longer human? No longer a part of this world? An angel? A divine thought? No. You remain human, very human. Your mitzvah takes place within time and space, not much unlike any other human activity. But your life is now a commentary on eternity, every moment a moment that is forever. In you, the universe transcends itself.