What Compels Us to Speak Lashon Hara?

Once we understand the purpose of speech, we can begin to comprehend just how abhorrent lashon hara truly is. Lashon hara takes the very tool of connection – speech – and uses it to disconnect people from each other.

Forget Your Past

In our sacred literature, we find that G-d gave us the power to forget so we can always appreciate the Torah just as we did the first time we learned it (Kohelet Rabbah 1:34).

Rabbi Sacks (zt’l): Pereishit: The Art of Listening

...we can now understand the story of the first sin: It is all about appearances, shame, vision, and the eye. 

What Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah Teaches Us Today

Simchat Torah was born when Jews had lost everything else, but they never lost their capacity to rejoice.

United In Body And Spirit

As is the policy with kidney donations in Israel, if the two are not previously acquainted the donor and recipient don’t meet each other until after the procedure.

The Deeper Purpose Of Torah Wisdom

Every single thing that we see and experience in the physical world stems from the spiritual root – the transcendent dimension of Torah.

Revealing The Secret

...the word sod expanded in Rabbinic Hebrew to refer to any sort of restricted or confidential information to which only a select few are privy. Hence, the word sod came to mean secret.

The Beautiful Citron

In Modern Hebrew, the term hadar was redefined to refer to the entire citrus genus. This includes all sorts of citrus fruits, like oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, tangerines, pomelos, kumquats, mandarins, clementines, and more.

A Meaningful Sukkos

Like solders, they marched off! When the job was finished, I took out my wallet to pay the children. Irina stopped me.

Reject The Philosopher In Your Heart

While the non-Jewish world may need to engage in philosophical speculation in order to root out bad ideas, Rebbe Nachman assures us we need not do this.

Hakhel Letter From The Rebbe

As we see from experience that a person can lift and carry a much larger load when another person helps him lift it.

Mirrors And Windows: The Secret Of Schach

The spiritual concept of beauty, and its relevance to marriage, is central to the connection we aim to develop through the process of Succos.

The Universality Of Sukkot

Speaking of the three pilgrimage festivals – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot – Deuteronomy speaks of “joy.” But it does not do so equally.

How Yom Kippur Changes Us

What have you achieved this past year with the help of God, and what would you like to achieve with His help next year?
The Soul of Israel: Yom Kippur - Renewed and Awake

Yom Kippur in a Nutshell

How does Yom Kippur help us focus on the future and on making a change?

The ‘Stolen’ Lulav

Shlomo rushed off to pay the seller and return home happily with his prize...only to find that the stall was empty. Obviously the lulav seller had packed up and gone home as yom tov was fast approaching.

The Yetzer Hara’s Closed Hand

Worldly pleasures are like sunbeams in a dark room. They may actually seem solid, but he who tries to grasp a sunbeam finds nothing in his hand. The same is true of all worldly desires.

Yom Kippur: Flying Amongst Angels

As we approach Yom Kippur, we recognize that it is unquestionably one of the most important days of the year. And yet, in many ways, it is a mystery.

Torah As Song

The decisive points of the narrative alone are emphasized, what lies between is non-existent; time and place are undefined and call for interpretation...

So Much Is Beyond Our Understanding

There weren't many people out that night because of the weather but Rabbi Palach continued to approach whoever he saw and asked the same question, offering the same warm invitation to come hear a Torah class.

The Year Of Hakhel

Nowadays, there is no Jewish king, and there is no Beis HaMikdash. But the essence of this mitzvah, gathering together with fellow Jews for Torah study and inspiration, is something each and every one of us can do.

The History Of Machloket (Part I)

How did debate emerge? According to the Geonim, every detail of every law was given at Sinai. Debate emerged from the forgetting of those details. Talmudic analysis is an attempt to retrieve that which was forgotten.

Why Judaism?

Choose life. No religion, no civilization, has insisted so strenuously and consistently that we can choose.

Rosh Hashana: The Three Stages Of Teshuva

At root, all of Klal Yisrael is one, an interconnected self. Each of our individual neshamos are part of a bigger whole, like individual cells that make up a single human body.

One Small Step

The more you want to serve G-d, the more the Evil Inclination strives against you (Likutey Moharan I, 72). If you realize this, you can fight him with strategy (Proverbs 20:18, 24:6) and continually defeat him. With G-d’s help, you will be worthy of emerging victorious.

The Shofar’s Horn

When monies are invested into a potential endeavor, the undertaking can go in one of two possible directions – the principal can be lost, or it can produce profit.

A Family Built On Ideals

Miriam married at 31, and she and Shlomo had seven kids, including a set of twins. But Miriam wanted more children – not hers, other people’s. She wanted a house full of unwanted children.

Chai Elul: Birth Of The Baal Shem Tov

Today, Chai Elul, one can fill one’s buckets generously.

An ‘A’ For Effort

When a person wants to pray, they encounter many distractions. Still, they should give themselves over entirely to the task, exerting every effort to pray properly.

Lashon Hara: The Ultimate Corruption of Speech

There is a common misconception that lashon hara refers only to sharing false information about another person. People claim that if something is true, however, there is nothing wrong with sharing it.

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