Home &amp; Family

Love is not a mathematical equation. You may need to temper love with boundaries and discipline, but it’s not as if you can run out of it — because it is unlimited.

Abusive Parents

Video •MLC TV • 3 Comments

“How can I help my abusive father overcome his anger issues?”

Abandonment

Shorts • 1 Comment

Even when it looks like G-d has abandoned you, He is really right beside you, ready to catch you if you fall.

Counting

Weekly Op-Ed • 1 Comment

The Book of Numbers (Bamidbar) and the overall 10 censuses are devoted to the absolute value of counting: the indispensability & worth of each human being.

Special Children

Questions & Answers •Weekly Op-Ed • 34 Comments

An email exchange between Rabbi Jacobson and the mother of a bi-polar son illuminates the concept of special children and their unique strengths.

Are You Loved?

Weekly Op-Ed • 21 Comments

Being loved by family and friends is a valuable source of comfort and support, but true security can only be found in love which stems from the Divine.

Three Steps to a Healthy Home

Your home is meant to be the central oasis of day to day life, a sacred safe space where you can tap in and experience your true inner self, away from the external world. This can only happen when your home is an emotionally healthy space. Here are 3 essential steps to having an emotionally healthy home.

The Education Crisis

Weekly Op-Ed • 47 Comments

Undoubtedly education of the young is the key to preserving spiritual identity. Today, nothing less than a revolution is necessary in our education systems.

The Stranger

Weekly Op-Ed • 16 Comments

We are all “strangers” in this world. We are all “special children.” All in need and deserving of unconditional love.

Childlessness

Weekly Op-Ed • 9 Comments

A reflection of the pain of childnessness and the power to overcome through alternative ways to give birth to new souls.

Sukkot: My Dear Child

Weekly Op-Ed • 21 Comments

As we begin the holiday of Sukkot a letter to my child, my inner child, my essence, after re-emerging a bit on Yom Kippur.

The Value of a Stable Home

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for this short inspiring talk about the precious value of a stable home for the soul of a person.

Moment of Truth

Weekly Op-Ed • 13 Comments

After Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the world changed to one of deception. Now one must look to children to see the deeper truths of life.

Spiritual Parenting

Shorts • 1 Comment

Parents must understand the magnitude of their many responsibilities. Building a true home is a job to be taken seriously — more seriously than the job we go to each day to earn a living. After all, there are many opportunities to make a living, but only one opportunity to build a healthy home.

How to See Your Child in a More Meaningful Way

Look at the child intently and realize: God has given you this gift to nurture and care for, to teach good habits and the difference between right and wrong. Your attitude toward this child and the sensibilities you impart will be crucial to how his life develops and how he influences others. Parenting tips.

The Deeper the Roots, the Greater the Fruits

Shorts • 2 Comments

Trees teach us what the critical components of success in life are: Roots, integrity, and growth.

A Mother’s Tears

Questions & Answers •Weekly Op-Ed • 1 Comment

Rachel exemplifies compassion and enables us to recognize our inherent value by virtue of the fact that every single person was created in the Divine Image.

How To Create An Oasis In Your Life

One of the healthiest things you can do to find balance and harmony is to build a spiritual oasis in your life. The following suggestions can help you to grow solid spiritual roots — on a daily basis, at home — that you can always return to.

Elitism: Are We All Created Equal?

Weekly Op-Ed • 4 Comments

Parshat Pinchas helps unravel the yichus dilemma – illuminating the balance between elitism & the masses; individuality and responsible leadership.

Adam and Eve: The Very First Couple

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

Lessons on relationships: the good, the bad, the ugly – and the divine.

“Build for Me a Home”: Creating Space for the Transcendent in Your Mundane Life

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson and discover how to spark an emotional revolution from within.

Back to School. Back to Normal?

Join Rabbi Jacobson as he addresses, in his disarming and inimitable way, our current disruptions. Instead of reacting to the symptoms with short term solutions, learn how to turn this challenge into an opportunity.

The Kabbalah of Human Connection: 5 Steps to Enhance Your Relationships

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson and discover how true connections are forged in our souls. Travel on a fascinating journey into the five dimensions of your soul, reflecting five levels of connection, and learn how to build deeper bonds on each of these levels.

The Key to a Healthy Parent Child Relationship

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

You must love, educate and guide your children based on who THEY are, not who YOU are.

How to Raise Happy Children: What is the Nature of a Child?

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

How do we raise healthy, wholesome children? What can we do to assure that our children will grow up in the best possible way? In this first of a three-part new course, How to Raise Happy Children, Rabbi Jacobson addresses the root of it all: what is the true nature of a child.

Explaining Corruption to Children

Weekly Op-Ed • 13 Comments

When the day comes that our children are old enough to be confused by the dissonance around us, and they approach us with their questions, here are some words that we can offer.

When No is Greater than Yes

Weekly Op-Ed • 4 Comments

Avoiding the wrong thing is better than doing the right thing; protecting is better than serving (Samech Vav) as seen in Parshat Naso and the wilderness.

The Secret Language of Teenagers

The language barrier between adults/parents and teens can be just as confusing and bewildering as two people meeting from different countries. Join Rabbi Jacobson to decipher the secret language of teens and learn how to properly communicate.

Home Alone: A Thanksgiving in Quarantine

Develop a new understanding and respect for the power of gratitude and giving thanks, elevating the way you live your life, and transforming your very being and your relationships.

Finding the Balance: Panel Discussion on Recovery from Sex and Love Addiction

What are the components that lead to a balanced recovery from Sex and Love addiction, or any other addictive disorder? Addiction does not occur in a vacuum, and our panelists will explore how recovery can fill the various voids created by acting out on sex and love addiction.

Collateral Damage: Exploring the Devastating Impact an Addict has on Their Loved Ones

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for an honest discussion about addiction and its many victims.

Triggered Emotions: Advice for Holiday Family Time

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

Whether you grew up in as nurturing home or in a challenging home, this time of year can help you grow your love and self-esteem, and build strong immunity to unhealthy forces in your life. You have tremendous resources, and it’s time to access and express them.

Three Ways Babies Are More Evolved Than We Are

List • 0 Comments

While it is true that babies lack self-control and the intellectual faculties necessary to control their own behavior, babies have a lot to teach us aldults. Babies, in a few ways, are more evolved than we are.

How to Create Sacred Space

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

Many of us see ourselves as “victims” of time and space — always trying to beat the clock and maneuver the places we occupy. Can we learn to control space and time instead of them controlling us?

Yom Kippur: Your Inner Child

Weekly Op-Ed • 14 Comments

Once a year on Yom Kippur, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies. In the same vein, each person should enter his own holy of holies.

Children Are Not Born Arrogant

Arrogance is an acquired trait — one that impressionable children often pick up from their parents and adults around them, as well as from friends and other societal influences.

How to Build a Marriage That Defies the Odds

Video •MLC TV • 2 Comments

How many of today’s marriages are healthy and successful? What even defines success in marriage? Is it simply two people getting along, or is there more to it? While failed marriages can be difficult to measure, current statistics show up to a 50% divorce rate. And that does not take into account dysfunctional marriages and emotionally divorced couples who remain only technically married.

Yom Kippur: Why the High Priest Went Home

Essays • 1 Comment

Seven days before Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol (“High Priest”) is removed from his home to his chamber in the Holy Temple. Learn about the significance of home in relation to Yom Kippur.

Hope in the Abyss

Weekly Op-Ed • 2 Comments

A Few Personal Parting Words to My Friend and Colleague: Elie Wiesel

The Third Partner In Your Life

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

Join Rabbi Jacobson as he delves into the fray, and discover that the secret to a healthy and lasting relationship is the “third partner.” Without this “invisible” partner no relationship can truly thrive and perpetuate.

How to Keep Calm Under Pressure: The Secret to Serenity

Discover the secret of finding inner calm and serenity even in the most trying of circumstances.

Can You Change a Narcissist?

Video •MLC TV • 4 Comments

Join Rabbi Jacobson in this important lecture, as he dissects the deeper roots of narcissism and offers a surprising new approach to treating this condition based on seeing the human psyche in a new light.

How to Deal With People You Don’t Trust

Can a relationship be mended after it has been fractured? What things can we do to engender and build trust in our lives?

How to Host Your First Passover Seder (or Your First Great One)

Discover in this program methods and tips to creating an unforgettable experience, which will empower all with sustainable tools to free themselves emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

Massacre in San Bernardino

Weekly Op-Ed •December 3rd, 2015• 2 Comments

What can we do about the massacre in San Bernardino? Joseph’s clash with his brothers teaches us how to repair and heal the world. We must begin by repairing ourselves and integrating faith in our actions.

Reclaiming Femininity in Adulthood

Questions & Answers • 0 Comments

A combined cognitive and behavioral approach to recovering one’s femininity after suffering at the hands of a dominant father.

Your Concentration & Focused Attention = The Best Gift You Can Give Your Children

Rabbi Simon Jacobson discusses why focused attention is a better gift than any trip or toy you could buy your child.

Respectful Honesty, Even When it Hurts

Questions & Answers • 0 Comments

Balancing sensitivity, respect, and blunt honesty, is not simple, but it is important and can be done.

Nine Ways To Raise A Moral Baby

Essays • 1 Comment

My biggest priority as a new mom is to raise my baby with personal dignity and respect for others. It translates to teaching my baby morals from day one.

Family Loyalty

A discussion of family loyalty illustrates the idea of forgiveness in Judaism. A story of the Seer of Lublin.

Extreme Sibling Rivalry

Video •MLC TV • 1 Comment

This is what you can do if your children treat each other like enemies. A proven spiritual approach to extreme sibling rivalry.

ADHD

A viewer asked: “Our family doctor has diagnosed our four-year-old son with ADHD and wants to put him on medication. What is your recommended approach to this issue?” Rabbi Jacobson offers an empowering answer.

Infertility

Rabbi Simon Jacobson offers hope to a viewer who is facing infertility as a life issue. An inspiring 3-minute video packed with spiritual knowledge.

Talking Money With Kids

How and when should you talk about money with your children? Rabbi Jacobson offers a spiritually-sound answer.

Chayei Sarah: The First Jewish Mother

This week’s Torah portion is about the first Jewish mother, Sarah: The embodiment of an Aishet Chayil.

Lighting Instructions

The menorah represents man’s potential to “kindle lamps”: to illuminate within his own self, in his fellow man & in the material resources at his disposal.

Family Fight Over Inheritance

“My siblings are tearing our family apart by their fight over an inheritance.”

Special Needs Children

“Why did God make special needs children?”

Balancing Work, Family & Volunteering

“How can I balance work, family & volunteering?”

How to Stop a Bully

“What can we do to control bullying?”

Overpopulation: Is it Ethical to Have Children?

“Is it ethical to have children in this day and age?”

The Young and the Fearless

Even when the elders’ belief is clouded the children’s faith can carry us through difficult times.

The Rebbe on the ’60s

A freely-translated excerpt from a letter the Rebbe wrote in the summer of 1963 to a leading American Rabbi on the teshuva movement especially among youth.

Rebellious Youth

Today’s children are rising up against their elders, but in a positive way.

Life in the River

Thirty-four hundred years after Egyptian slavery, Jewish children are still being forced into the Nile, a material lifestyle.

Father and Son

Despite the fact that they embodied two very different approaches to life, Isaac sensed that everything he is and has derives from Abraham, while Abraham saw in Isaac the fulfillment and realization of his deepest self.

Father and Son: Abraham and Isaac

Despite the fact that Abraham and Isaac embodied different approaches to life, the father and son had a respectful and symbiotic relationship. Learn a quick lesson on parents and children from this Torah story.

Freedom

One cannot be truly free unless one knows who he really is, what he really wants and what he is meant to do. A personal story.

Abraham Departed From Self to Self

Essays • 1 Comment

In his journey of discovery, Abraham departed the “land, birthplace and father’s house” of his native Mesopotamia; but this is not the departure of which we are speaking… Abraham received this call many years after he had renounced the pagan ways of his family and birthplace, recognized G-d, and had a profound impact on his society. Still he is told: Go! Depart from your nature, depart from your habits, depart from your rational self. After rejecting your negative, idolatrous origins, you must now also transcend your positive and gainful past. Reach beyond yourself, albeit a perfected self.

Be Fruitful and Multiply

How did it come about that one’s own child may be perceived as a potential threat to our personal well-being? Let’s look back to the first parents.The story of Adam & Eve illustrates how this idea began, but also offers solutions.

The Importance of Home and Family

Shorts • 14 Comments

When a family shares principles and values, they grow together. The home and family become a foundation for the family’s shared sense of purpose. The ultimate beauty in a home is its emotional and spiritual warmth. There are many ways to beautify your home spiritually.

Sibling Relationships

Sibling relationships can be complicated. Sibling rivalry, power struggles, and other unique issues play into the sibling relationship dynamic.An open discussion on healing your relationships with your siblings.

Thanksgiving: When Home Doesn’t Feel Like Home

Transcripts/Sources • 1 Comment

Millions of people experience dread, anguish, worry, and ambivalence about having to go home for Thanksgiving. Read open advice from Rabbi Jacobson and an assortment of people on how to deal with it.

Abusive Relationships

Can we really get over abusive relationships? Is it a situation that creates a victim forever? Can we free ourselves from abusive situations?

Can Children Survive Parents who Claim to Know the Absolute Truth?

A discussion with Stephen Dubner, author of Turbulent Souls, about growing up in a fundamentalist religious household.

Honoring Parents Who Don’t Seem to Deserve Honor

Transcripts/Sources • 5 Comments

The fifth commandment is to honor your parents. What if they don’t seem to deserve honor? How to deal with the obligation to honor abusive parents.

Teenagers: The Rebellion of Youth