Parasha Insights
Let Your Light Shine
We are facing an enemy as savage, voracious, and heartless as the Nazis. Yet sometimes, you would never know it from the way we speak about this war. During World War II, we did not call the Nazi stormtroopers “freedom fighters.” We did not call the Gestapo “militants.” We did not explain the Nazis’ rise to power by blaming the Jews. And we certainly did not apologize for fighting back. There was moral clarity. We knew who the enemy was. We knew what evil looked like. And we knew that only victory over that evil could bring peace. Yet in 2014, when Israel fought to stop rockets raining down on its cities and destroy tunnels built to murder Israeli civilians, something extraordinary happened. A wave …
When We Come Together, Miracles Happen
A Jewish man passing through Texas for a few days on business checked into a rooming house in a very frontier town.
He dressed himself in western attire and went into the only saloon in town. He was surrounded by men in cowboy clothes,
wearing six-shooters and looking very gruff. He ordered a beer. While sipping his beer and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, the biggest,
burliest, scroungiest-looking specimen walks in and proclaims, "Ah, I hear there is a Jew in here!" The Jewish man cringes, says nothing.
"Ah know you're in here and you better speak up," says the western man.
The Jewish man knows that sooner or later he would have to face up to him and accept the consequences of being Jewish, esp…
Gratitude Is Never Just About Me
A little girl asked her mother for two dollars to give to an old lady in the park. Her mother was touched by the child's kindness and gave her the required sum.
"There you are, my dear," said the mother. "I guess she is too old to work?" "Oh no," came the reply. "She sells ice cream."
The Torah commands in this week's Torah portion the Mitzvah of Bikkurim, the First Fruits, only after the entire Land of Israel had been conquered and divided among all the tribes.
Why? If I have my land, my fruit, and my blessings, why should my gratitude wait until everyone else has their portion?
The Rebbe offers a powerful answer.
Because Judaism teaches that true gratitude is never just about what I…
The Power to Begin Again
In a military class, the professor asked the students, “What is the difference between an engagement and a battle?”
No one in the group answered. The professor was frustrated. “Didn’t anyone read the material in the book?” he thundered.
Finally, one guy said that he knew the answer.
“An engagement is the thing that came before marriage,” he said, “while the battle is what followed it.”
There once was a kid named Ben who was rebellious from the day he was born.
At his Brit Milah, he had a spiked haircut, and when the mohel came toward him with that scary-looking knife, Ben refused to cry!
By five, he was spelling dirty words with his Alpha-Bet cereal. By ten, he was …
Are You the Master of Your Mind?
A follower of Rabbi Meir of Premishlan once complained to him about a man who had started a competing business. “He is depriving me of my livelihood!” cried the chassid. “You must tell him to close his shop!”
Said Rabbi Meir: “Have you ever noticed how a horse behaves when he is led to a water hole? He begins to paw angrily at the water with his hooves; only when the water is well-muddied does he begin to drink. Why does the horse act this way?”
“I don’t know,” said the chassid. “Why?”
“Because the horse sees his reflection in the water and thinks that another horse has come to drink his water. So he kicks and paws until he has ‘chased away’ the o…
What is the Jewish secret of hope?
Judaism teaches that history is not random. It has a beginning, "In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth," and it has a destination: "On that day, G-d will be One and His Name One."
The world is moving from chaos to order, from fragmentation to unity. There is a Divine Author guiding history toward redemption.
This does not erase pain or tragedy. But it means we never give up. We refuse both despair and false hope. We are not searching for temporary fixes or fashionable ideologies that eventually collapse. We are searching for truth, nothing but the truth.
The Torah is not merely an ancient book; it is G-d's blueprint for healing the human soul and, ultimately, the world. R…
The DNA SECRET Of The Jewish Soul
- Imagine celebrating your 40th wedding anniversary, and your wife stands up to make a toast.
- “Don't think for one moment that I married you because you're handsome, kind, thoughtful, romantic, intelligent, hardworking, honest, funny, or compassionate.”
- You're beginning to sweat...
- “No. I married you because every other guy I met was even worse!”
- And just when you're trying to process that, she adds:
- “Now that I've gotten that off my chest... let's go celebrate. I'm still in love with you!”
- “I'm not so sure I'm still in love with YOU!”
- Yet, believe it or not, this is almost exactly how this week's Torah portion Ei…
Can You Love G-d Without Loving People?
This week's Torah portion is Vaetchanan and Shabbat Nachamu, which has in it the Ten Commandments and the Shma prayer.
Of all the moments in Jewish history, none is more sacred than the giving of the Ten Commandments. It was the moment Heaven touched earth,
when G-d revealed His will to humanity. Yet the Torah records something surprising. The greatest moral code ever given was not written on gold, silver,
or parchment. It was engraved on two ordinary stones.
Because everything else changes. Stone endures. Civilizations rise and fall, cultures redefine morality, governments rewrite laws, but the Torah remains as solid and unchanging as the rock upon which it was engraved.
Then the Midrash tells us something astonish…
Words That Build, Not Break
Morris had passed away. His attorney gathered the family to read his last will.
"To my beloved wife Esther, I leave our home, 150 acres of land, and one million dollars.
To my son Barry, I leave my Lexus and my new Jaguar.
To my daughter Shirley, I leave my yacht and $250,000.
And to my brother-in-law Aaron, who always insisted that health is better than wealth... I leave my treadmill."
The opening verse in Torah portion Devarim is a highlight reel of the Jewish people's darkest moments, the times they doubted G-d, complained against Him, and betrayed His trust.
Yet notice how Moses delivers his rebuke. Instead of listing their sins explicitly, he simply mentions a series of place names:
Why Can Criticism Hurt So Much?
- It is funny, but it raises a serious question.
- Why do compliments make us feel so good, while criticism can hurt so much?
- And what happens when the criticism is directed not only at us personally, but at the Jewish people and Israel?
- This Shabbat we read the portions of Matot and Masei and conclude the book of Bamidbar.
- The Jewish people stood at one of the greatest moments in their history.
- After forty years in the wilderness, they were finally preparing to enter the Promised Land.
- But before crossing the Jordan River, the tribes of Reuven and Gad, who possessed enormous flocks, approached Moshe with an unexpected request.
- The fertile land on the eastern side of the Jordan was ideal for their livestock, and they asked permis…
Why America's 250th Anniversary Is Also a Jewish Story
This Shabbat is unlike any other.
As America celebrates its 250th birthday , the Jewish people begin the solemn period of the Three Weeks , beginning with the Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz —the day Jerusalem's walls were breached, leading to the destruction of both Holy Temples.
One day celebrates the birth of a nation.
The other reminds us never to forget our eternal home.
No nation has given the Jewish people greater freedom, opportunity, and security than the United States of America. Millions of Jews arrived on these shores with little more than hope, and America welcomed them with liberty and dignity. For that, we owe this great country a profound debt of gratitude.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe often spoke about America's …
The Power of Believing in Others
There was once a rabbi who dedicated his life to teaching the importance of loving children.
One day, he saw children playing near freshly poured concrete outside his home. Their little footprints were damaging the work, and he became upset and began reprimanding them.
A congregant was surprised and asked, “Rabbi, how can this be? You have spent your entire life teaching love and patience with children.”
The rabbi smiled and replied: “You must understand, I love children in the abstract, but not always in the concrete.”
We laugh because the story reveals a deep truth: it is easy to love an ideal. The real test is when life becomes complicated.
This week’s Parshah, Chukat and B…
No Brother or Sister Left Behind
- Four Catholic mothers and a Jewish mother were having coffee together.
- The first said, “My son is a priest. People call him ‘Father.’”
- The second said, “My son is a bishop. They call him ‘Your Grace.’”
- The third said, “My son is a cardinal. They call him ‘Your Eminence.’”
- The fourth smiled and said, “My son is the Pope. People call him ‘Your Holiness.’”
- They all turned to the Jewish mother.
- She replied, “My son is argumentative, confrontational, self-centered, impossible, and irrational. When he walks into a room, people say, ‘Oh my G-d!’”
- The joke is funny because it contains a deeper truth. Jews have never…
The Five Languages of Love
- A man once turned to a couple and said, “You two are very negative.”
- They replied, “Yes! But remember, two negatives make a positive.”
- We laugh, but there is a deeper truth. Every relationship has its own language. The challenge is not only to love, but also to know how the other person receives love.
- A famous marriage counselor, Dr. Gary Chapman, discovered that people express and experience love in five different ways:
- Words of affirmation. Quality time. Giving gifts. Acts of service. Physical touch.
- Two people may truly love each other, yet still feel distant because they are speaking different languages.
- The fascinating truth is that the Torah revealed this idea thousands of year…
The People Who Changed The World!
- One Yom Kippur, in the middle of Musaf, the rabbi suddenly fell to the floor beside the bimah and cried:
- “O G-d! Before You, I am nothing!”
- The chazzan was so inspired that he immediately threw himself to the ground and cried:
- “O G-d! Before You, I am nothing!”
- A moment later, Saul Blumenthal jumped from the back row, prostrated himself in the aisle, and shouted:
- “O G-d! Before You, I am nothing!”
- The chazzan nudged the rabbi and whispered:
- “Look who thinks he's nothing.”
- The joke is funny because it exposes a painful truth: sometimes even humility can become a source of pride.
- A man was promoted to Vice President of his company. The title went straight to his head. He bragged…
- Let Your Light Shine
- When We Come Together, Miracles Happen
- Gratitude Is Never Just About Me
- The Power to Begin Again
- Are You the Master of Your Mind?
- What is the Jewish secret of hope?
- The DNA SECRET Of The Jewish Soul
- Can You Love G-d Without Loving People?
- Words That Build, Not Break
- Why Can Criticism Hurt So Much?
- Why America's 250th Anniversary Is Also a Jewish Story