Pain &amp; Suffering

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for a short lesson on how to transcend a painful past.

How to Turn Around a Negative Experience

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Don’t ignore it. Don’t get get depressed by it. Instead, grow through it.

Leave Your Past Behind

Video •MLC TV • 4 Comments

How can you leave your past behind? You must have a vision for the future. Without a vision for the future, you will gravitate toward the things that controlled you in the past.

Psychological Damage from Trauma and How to Rebuild

Theme: The Dark Side
No matter what type of trauma you have endured your soul has extraordinary resilience and powerful resources to help you rebuild yourself.

The Only Way Out Is Through

Strong means that at the moments of your deepest shame and discomfort, whether it is at work or in your personal life, you stick with it and solve the problem. Do not give up. The only way out is through.

How to Have a Breakthrough

There are two initial steps to changing the big personal problems that follow you through life.

Abuse, Betrayal and Protecting Our Children

Rabbi Simon Jacobson addresses one of the most critical issues of our time: Sexual abuse. How to deal with the deep wounds, including the breach of trust and betrayal resulting from being violated, especially at the hands of a trusted leader and authority.

Lessons Learned: Where Chassidic Philosophy and Modern Psychology Meet

Join a fascinating discussion with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Devorah Kamman, and Eli Nash to explore where Chassidic Philosophy and modern psychology meet.

Coping with Mental Health Challenges Through the Lens of Chassidic Philosophy

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Join a frank discussion about coping with mental health challenges with Rabbi Simon Jacobson and Eli Nash.

Dealing with Loss and Failure, Part 4

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The Chassidic Approach to Dealing with Failure. Part 4: How to Help Others Deal with Failure.

Dealing with Loss and Failure, Part 3

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The Chassidic Approach to Dealing with Failure. Part 3: How to Not be Your Own Worst Enemy.

Dealing with Loss and Failure, Part 1

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The Chassidic Approach to Dealing with Failure. Part 1: The Psychological Approach.

Dealing with Loss and Failure, Part 2

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The Chassidic Approach to Dealing with Failure. Part 2: The Spiritual Dynamics.

9/11 All Over Again?

Join Rabbi Jacobson to reflect, remember and honor 9/11, while discovering how we can grow from such pain and destruction.

Mind Over Matter

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for a fascinating discussion on how our mind can truly affect our reality. The way we think can alter the way we live.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Why is there so much suffering in the world? How do we deal with emotional, spiritual, and psychological pain? Why does G-d sometimes allow righteous people to suffer such extreme pain?

Celebrating Vulnerability: The Source of Indestructible Strength

Is there anything positive about vulnerability? Would you be surprised to learn that vulnerability is actually — and counter intuitively — the secret to indestructibility?

Rise From the Ashes

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Please join Rabbi Jacobson in this special Tisha B’Av program, and discover how this saddest day of the year paradoxically contains the secret to the most fundamental truths in life: How to rebuild trust after betrayal and regain hope after loss.

Are You Judgmental?

Why is it so easy for a person to judge another? Who gave us that right? Judgmentalism is a product of shallow and superficial attitudes. Coming in touch with your core essence builds your self-esteem, which in turn helps you see the core essence of others, allowing you to see them in a positive light.

Stronger in the Broken Places: 3 Ways to Build Resilience

Build resilience and rebound from a place of being broken with these three steps by Rabbi Simon Jacobson.

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.

Quarantined and Addicted: How Can I Break Free?

Questions & Answers •Video •MLC TV • 0 Comments

Discover how the root of addiction is driven by the need for love and connection. Human beings crave attachment. When we lack healthy attachments, we turn to unhealthy ones. Learn how to transform the dysfunction into the functional; how to gain relief of emptiness and demons by redirecting and channeling cravings toward transcendent goals.

Jewish Spirituality & Recovery from Addiction

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Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for a talk on Jewish spirituality and the road to recovery from addiction.

Do You Live a Life of Quiet Desperation?

Staying in our comfort zones leads to what Thoreau called “lives of quiet desperation.” “Quiet desperation” is when we begin to resign ourselves to the circumstances of our lives.

How to Come Back from the Dark Side

Theme: The Dark Side
Discover the enormous power contained in the “dark side” — like that of a “black hole” — and how to harness it for the good.

Responding To The Pittsburgh Massacre

Theme: Responding to Tragedy

Join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this somber but candid talk discussing the healthy response to violent acts of hatred.

Why You Should Never Say, “Why Me?”

“Why me?” lands people in a downward spiral of negativity. Learn productive alternatives that allow you to turn your bad experiences and pain into powerful, life-transforming changes.

Is Suicide a Solution? Perspective from Kabbalah

Rabbi Jacobson will offer preemptive methods to help anyone who may be contemplating suicide and will provide empowering tools to those who have family or friends at risk.

You Can Suffer Without Becoming a Sufferer

Your past trauma or negative experiences do not define your future experiences — unless you let them. Suffering is a verb — not a noun. It takes work, but you can go through negative experiences without internalizing them.

Avoiding Passing Our Own Trauma to Our Children

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Discover methods to separate the silver from the dross, to learn from our challenges — to get beyond the ghosts and skeletons in our closets and build powerful, dynamic and wholesome relationships.

Why You Should Make Yourself Uncomfortable

Theme: Use Your Weaknesses for Growth
Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for this short discussion about the connection between adventure, spontaneity, and being uncomfortable. Learn why the discomfort of life’s journey can help lead you toward happiness.

How to Feel Even When You Hurt

The difficult truth is that the only way out of emotional pain is through it. We need to learn how to allow the hurt seep through our beings.

How to Leave Your Past Behind

Discover ways to excise and expunge the toxins of the past and retain the healthy “cells.”

Kabbalah of Crying

Kabbalah teaches that crying is a universal and necessary experience.

Coping With Illness and Difficult Challenges: How to Maintain a Positive Attitude

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Life happens – discover cognitive and emotional skills to successfully deal with any given challenge.

Is It Better Not to Be Born?

Life is painful. Would it be better not to be born?

Are Your Your Worst Enemy?

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The downside of self interest is getting trapped in your comfort zone and your own box. What shakes us up?

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.

Lost Self

A viewer asked: “I feel that I have lost myself after a life-changing event. How can I get back to the old me?

Panic Attacks

The wife in an unstable marriage is suffering from panic outbursts and panic attacks.

A Deep Dark Dread: How a 3758 Year-Old Vision is Shaping the World Today

Rabbi Simon Jacobson lectures on the challenges facing Israel today and their start with G/d’s vision to Abraham close to 4000 years ago.

Betrayed by Religious Leader

How can one cope when he is betrayed by a religious leader? Should he leave religion altogether?

Are you Battle-Weary? Transcending Life’s Struggles

The secret to winning your battles lies not in your fighting skills and strategies, but in your attitude and mindset even before you engage in battle.

Am I Unlovable? Elul Secrets to Finding Love

Whether you are in need of love or are filled with love, learn how Elul opens for us up the wellsprings of love which run endlessly deep.

Sweetening Severities: How to Deal with Difficulties

Get a glimpse at suffering as seen through the eyes of a great mystic.

The Desolate Mountain: When Nothing is Everything. A Pre-Nine Days Workshop

Eye-opening Nine Days Workshop. The mightiest power lays buried in the most unglamorous places. Learn the deceptive nature of material existence.

The Crack In Your Psyche: When Was Dissonance Born?

Is your life fragmented and splintered, with various voices and demands tugging you in different directions? Do you often feel like damaged goods? What can we do about it?

Betrayal and Commitment

Learn how you too can become an unwavering source of trust, one who is trusted and inspires trust — and how living a dedicated life can transform your entire being.

Family Fight Over Inheritance

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

Is This Alcoholic Hopeless?

Spiritual advice for an alcoholic who has “tried everything” but hasn’t gotten sober.

Self-loathing

“What can I do about my low self-esteem and self loathing?”

Ebola, ISIS and Other Global Plagues

Learn lessons from the Great Flood to the modern-day deluges flooding our lives and better understand the key to regaining control of your circumstances.

Avenging Innocent Blood – What Jews Can Teach the World

Discover an approach to life and tragedy, that helps you become part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Can We Achieve Triumph From Tragedy?

Through trials, tribulations and destruction in Jewish history, our nation endured. Discover how difficulties in our lives can spawn unprecedented power.

Are You Lost in a Wilderness? – Dealing with a Hostile World

Uncover deeper strengths and resources in the barreness of this often difficult life. Discover deeper friendships in what seems to be an unfriendly world.

The Roots of Addiction: The First Case of Alcoholism

Discover the secret of living the most balanced and transcendent life! Explore ways how to replace unhealthy addictions and obsessions with positive ones.

Nothing is as Whole as a Broken Heart

Discover how our cracks are the pathways to our greatest achievements and how utilizing trials and tribulations can reveal the deepest form of light.

Lonely Man

Moses left us a legacy of facing our deepest questions and coming back stronger from it. He had faith even when there seemed to be no basis for it.

The Talking Donkey

Weekly Op-Ed • 23 Comments

The talking donkey in Parshat Balak reveals a phenomenon new to modern psychology— listening to our body’s voice, which carries messages, memories & power.

42 Journeys Part 3

Weekly Op-Ed • 2 Comments

How will we use the inspiration we gain from nature’s beauty? Will it be a temporary joy that only affects you, or will it have a perpetual effect and inspire you to bring beauty to others?

How to Free Yourself from Your Problems

Are you so “stuck” that you’ve stopped trying to get rid of your problems and have given up? Have your problems caused you to lose respect for yourself? There is a four-part path to freedom from your problem or problems.

42 Journeys Part 2

Around 70% of the Torah is occupied with the 42 journeys of the Jewish people through the wilderness. The Baal Shem Tov explains that the forty-two journeys in the wilderness – from Egypt to Israel – mirror forty-two journeys or phases that each person experiences throughout life.

The Stranger

Weekly Op-Ed • 18 Comments

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

The Pariah

Weekly Op-Ed • 16 Comments

At times, we all experience existential loneliness. The feeling of “not belonging,” that we are alone, different and isolated, without a sense of camaraderie and community.

How to Handle Loneliness

Shorts • 11 Comments

When loneliness has already got you down, here is how to muster up the strength to transcend it.

Eight Steps to Breaking Bad Habits

List • 1 Comment

The following eight steps, based on ancient knowledge of harnessing the true power of your mind, can help you to move beyond your bad habits. If you can pick up a habit, you can break it.

Back to the Tzimtzum

Weekly Op-Ed • 9 Comments

The reality that we live with seems harsh because the world was created dark, but everything in this world has a higher purpose that we can’t see.

The New Moon

Weekly Op-Ed • 20 Comments

When G/d points out to Moses the new moon in Parshat Bo, He really shows him the threshold between evil and good and the birth from darkness to light.

Our Response to Tragedy

The response to a gruesome attack, is to channel all our outrage and fury into a spiritual eruption of building an even stronger holy land, both physically and spiritually.

Ki Tovo: To You My Heart Speaks

Essays • 3 Comments

The month of Elul is a month of love and compassion. In this time how does prayer help us to face and respond to pain and suffering?

Child Abuse

Weekly Op-Ed • 15 Comments

Abuse is only possible because there is a climate, an environment, a breeding ground as it were, that allows abuse to fester and thrive. That breeding ground is the utter ignorance and lack of appreciation of the fundamental sanctity of sexuality.

A Strategy to Deal With Toxic People

List • 7 Comments

This is how to respond to negativity in a healthy way.

Comfort My People

Left with no one else to blame, the child erroneously sees himself as the culprit. And this self-loathing and sense of inadequacy further erodes the child’s confidence. It’s not your fault. Don’t allow yourself to be invalidated. You have all the strength necessary to pick up the pieces and rebuild your life.

Where is G-d When I Cry?

Essays •List • 4 Comments

There is such darkness in this world, such unbearable pain, such untold suffering. Where is G-d in all of this?

Abandonment

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

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.

Why It Is Good That Life Is a Struggle

Shorts • 6 Comments

As much as we may prefer an “easy” life, and no matter how “perfect” other people’s lives look, the truth about life is that it is a struggle — and that’s healthy.

Joy and Depression

Questions & Answers •Weekly Op-Ed • 6 Comments

We have the power and ability to bring true and lasting joy into our lives, despite all circumstances.

The Lonely G-d

Weekly Op-Ed • 16 Comments

The next time you feel all alone, remember two things: You are not alone; your loneliness is shared by every soul and by G-d Himself. Every essence is fundamentally alone.

Learning From Your Body’s Sensations

Shorts • 4 Comments

Feeling pain or other sensations in your body are opportunities to challenge the way you look at life. They can bring you to the edges of life, allowing you to view it from a new, revealing angle.

How to Relieve Your Emotional Pain

The following three steps, which come from the 4000-year-old tradition of Kabbalah, are a sure way to not only relieve emotional pain, but to become a better person through it.

The Seven Weeks of Comfort

By digging deeper into the 2437 year-old system of the Seven Weeks of Comfort we can discover the secrets of how to deal with all forms of loss and suffering; how to move from destruction to consolation to renewal – the mystery of eternity that has held us together through centuries of upheaval.

What to Do When Things Fall Apart

Shorts •List • 4 Comments

When things fall apart there are three initial steps you can take to start restoring security and order to your life.

Your Choice: Light or Darkness

Theme: The Dark Side
Psychologically speaking, we need to achieve two things in dispelling the darkness in our own psyches and lives.

Untrained Addiction: Five Steps to Break Addiction

List • 0 Comments

This article on five steps to break addiction is not meant to replace a program of recovery. If you are an addict, please seek help from an established recovery center, recovery group, or therapist.

To Intervene or Not to Intervene

Weekly Op-Ed • 45 Comments

The same question can be asked about every form of inappropriate behavior that we may witness: What is the right thing to do – to intervene or not?

Messenger or Matchmaker

Weekly Op-Ed • 3 Comments

Ultimate commitment is when an independent thinker chooses to dedicate himself to a cause greater than himself, to be a messenger and extension of it.

The Power Of Human Touch

Weekly Op-Ed • 2 Comments

The destruction of the second temple was caused by baseless hatred. Can we begin to repair this through the power of the human touch?

42 Journeys Part 6

Whenever you feel disconnected or lost you are going through this journey. An aimless life is a desolate one. Nothing is being built; every effort ends up going nowhere.

42 Journeys Part 5

Weekly Op-Ed • 0 Comments

There will be consequential times – due to excessive circumstances (a death, a major change, a transition) when everything we believe in will be on the line. We then have the choice: Will we sanctify G-d’s name or not?

How to Fake It Till You Make It

Three steps will get you into a better head space.

Coping with Grief

Americans have been coping with loss and grief for some time now during the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has cut American life expectancy the largest amount in 40 years and made infectious disease the leading cause of death for the first time in a century. Families who have lost loved ones have had to postpone memorial gatherings, leaving many to cope with their losses in isolation.

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.

The Difference Between Self-Compassion and Self-Pity

Shorts • 2 Comments

Appropriate self-compassion is a healthy dose of self-respect and love, combined with a healthy dose of productive self-critique, balanced out by seeing yourself honestly.

The Stutterer

Weekly Op-Ed • 10 Comments

In Parshat Shmot, Moses is revealed to be the first stutterer. Yet, he overcomes this challenge to become G/d’s communication channel to the world.

When You Can’t Turn Back the Clock

Theme: You Cannot Turn Back the Clock

What can you do when you have regrets but cannot turn back the clock?

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.

How to Find Your Inner Strength

Every one of us has inner strengths, far beyond what we are aware of. The extent to which your inner strength is buried within you effects your access to it, yet with the right effort you can discover these powers.

Protect Our Children

Weekly Op-Ed • 9 Comments

Parents, educators, anyone who cares – wake up! Our children are at stake. Our future is at stake. Is that not more important than our own petty comfort zones?

Listen to Your Body

Weekly Op-Ed •July 6th, 2017• 2 Comments

What is most fascinating about this concept is that usually we associate awareness with the soul. Yet, Jewish mysticism teaches that the body too was created by G-d. It therefore contains unique Divine energy of its own. Indeed, the body carries enormous power stemming from the Essence of G-d, which in some ways is superior even to the energy of the soul!

So What if You Are Bad at Sports

This Soul Workout is dedicated to everyone who was picked last for kickball on the playground.

Suicidal Thoughts

Stories • 0 Comments

The words I read in Toward a Meaningful Life pierced through me and opened up a world of new possibilities and serene peace.

The Dislocated Hip

Weekly Op-Ed • 6 Comments

By remembering Jacob’s wound we sensitize ourselves to the fact that mindless immersion in material existence touches a nerve which leaves us wounded.

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.

Arise and Shine

Weekly Op-Ed • 19 Comments

Of all abuses’ devastating effects the most damaging of all is the violation of human dignity. Causing deep shame, abuse demoralizes the human spirit and strips a person of his G-d-given birthright – the sense of self-value and self-esteem.

Five Roots of Trauma Revisited

Using the concepts of The Five Roots of Trauma, this article looks at the five tragic events that took place on the 17th of Tammuz..

The Five Roots of Trauma

Weekly Op-Ed • 18 Comments

The three weeks between the first attack on the Holy Temple and the final destruction are a time concentrate on healing by addressing the root of the issue.

Hope in the Abyss

Weekly Op-Ed • 2 Comments

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

The Kabbalah of Curses

Questions & Answers •Weekly Op-Ed • 1 Comment

The 49 curses listed in the Torah portion of Bechukosei evokes an interesting question: what possible benefit can be found in these curses?

Rebuilding Life After Trauma: A Six-Step Plan

List • 6 Comments

Repair your own life; help to repair the lives of others; strive to champion the entities which supply dignity and purpose to you and to the world.

The Laugh

The wisdom of Rabbi Avika teaches us that even through hardships there is space for joy and laughter and during the nine days of mourning in Av we remember.

Hope Amid Cancer & Divorce

Stories • 1 Comment

“Your site helped me to keep my focus on gratitude and the goodness of our Creator and my purpose in this life. You helped me to pull myself together…”

Helping a Drug Addicted Relative

Questions & Answers • 1 Comment

What you can, should, and should not do practically for a loved one who is causing self-harm through substance abuse.

The Path to Recovery from Childhood Abuse

Questions & Answers • 2 Comments

The dependable soul-centered path to recovery from life-shattering childhood abuse.

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.

Simchat Torah: Through Water and Fire

Weekly Op-Ed •October 1st, 2015• 6 Comments

The joy and the tears all dissolved into one transcendent dance; a dance that captured the essence of joy and pain, ecstasy and agony – the indestructible core of life itself.

50 Reasons Why Your Life Matters

List • 54 Comments

Sometimes it seems like our lives don’t matter. Whether you are in the depths of depression or have survived an assault on who you are, or even if you are just having a really bad day, sometimes it seems like, “My life doesn’t matter.” However: That thought is wrong. Your life does matter.

Cholent: The Purpose of Exile

Essays •Stories • 0 Comments

The purpose of exile as explained through the metaphor of cholent, a stew eaten on the Jewish Sabbath. What cholent teaches us about the meaning of exile.

Purim: Joy on Demand?

Questions & Answers • 0 Comments

Purim is a day of joyous abandon that transcends conventional boundaries. It is a day when a window opens up that allows us deep inside of ourselves.

Productive Grieving

Transcripts/Sources •Level: Advanced • 0 Comments

The Rebbe offers guidance on the most productive way to grieve, and explains how it is both therapeutic for the bereaved and productive for the soul of the departed.

The Paradox of Pain

From Parshat Maasei & the period of the 3 Weeks we learn not to view difficulty as a wholly negative experience, but as the greatest facilitator of growth.

THE REBBE : The Ache in my Heart

While I continue to experience the Rebbe as a very active, involved part of my life, still, I miss the flesh & blood connection.

Bitter Knowledge

Insightful words by the Rebbe Maharash: “In truth, we could be rid of the oppressors of Israel. But the Jewish people prefer the bitter medicine”.

The “Impossible” Dream

Caleb’s role in the tragic story of The 12 Spies in Parshat Shelach.

Land and See

One of the greatest tragedies of Jewish history was the debacle of “The Spies” in Parshat Shelach. The spies failed their mission: it all came down to sight

Reeh: Boundaries

This week’s Torah portion deals with blessings and curses. In the face of world tragedies, how does the Torah explain the reconciliation of both?

The Blow

Stories • 2 Comments

A miraculous medical recovery with a blessing from the Rebbe.

Veatchanan: A New Religion

This week’s Torah chapter opens up with Moses’ begging G-d to allow him into the Promised Land. This article explores the personality of the first zionist..

The Intimate Estrangement

Linking G-d’s bond with the Jews as a marriage with the ten haftarot called “the Three of Rebuke and the Seven of Consolation” in explaining the galut/exile.

The Bottom of the Barrel

One of the great Chassidic masters teaches us about sadness and where the pieces of a broken heart should lie.

A Matter Of Perspective

Stories • 0 Comments

There was never enough to eat in Reb Zusha’s home, and his family was beset with all sorts of afflictions and illnesses. Yet the man was forever good-humored and cheerful, and constantly expressing his gratitude to the Almighty for all His kindness.

Steadfast Faith in the Face of Tragedy

Transcripts/Sources •Level: Advanced • 0 Comments

The question of “why do the righteous suffer?” was asked by Moses – emphasizes the Rebbe; but it did not – in any way – affect his simple faith in G-d.

Thoughts to Comfort the Bereaved

Transcripts/Sources • 0 Comments

The Rebbe offers two parallel meditations from which those who are bereaved — who mourn for a dear departed, can take profound comfort.

Toldot: Our Response to Tragedy

Weekly Op-Ed •November 20th, 2014• 6 Comments

The Jewish response to a gruesome attack, is to channel all our outrage and fury into a spiritual eruption of building an even stronger Jerusalem, both physically and spiritually.

Ki Teitzei: Childhood Innocence and Blood

Weekly Op-Ed •September 5th, 2014• 2 Comments

Beheading of Steven Sotloff: At times like this don’t you just want to curl back up into your fetal-like childhood innocence? An essay on staying innocent in a psychotic world.

Reeh: ISIS Beheadings and Clarity

Weekly Op-Ed •August 22nd, 2014• 10 Comments

The horrifying ISIS beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley, while Israel is entangled in its war against Hamas terror: Where should the Western world go now?

Devarim: When Will We Stop Crying?

Weekly Op-Ed •July 30th, 2014• 0 Comments

Nothing can vanquish Israel’s existence. All these challenges have exposed an indestructible resilience.

Light That Dispels Darkness: Why Do Good and Evil Exist?

Essays • 3 Comments

We all struggle to fathom how a good and righteous G-d could allow so much suffering and could permit such atrocities in the world. An obvious question inevitably arises: Why did G-d create evil, and how can we reconcile it with His goodness? In other words, why do good and evil exist?

A Matter of Perspective

A frightful pauper, there was never enough to eat in Reb Zusha’s home, and his family was beset with all sorts of afflictions and illnesses. Yet the man was forever good-humored and cheerful, and constantly expressing his gratitude to the Almighty for all His kindness. It was a matter of perspective.

A Waste of Time

Quotes • 0 Comments

Time is now the most precious of resources, its every moment an asset that must be utilized to the utmost. There is no time for depression.

Bringing Light to the Darkest Places

Transcripts/Sources • 0 Comments

Even in the darkest moments there is light somewhere. A discussion with Simon Jacobson about reaching depressed people and finding light in dark places.

How Can a Good G-d Allow So Much Pain

Transcripts/Sources • 0 Comments

Why do bad things happen to good people? How can God allow or do painful things? An open discussion on these tough questions.

Rising From the Ashes

There is a secret world in which your first tablets were never broken. We each possess a tiny corner in our soul which forever remains invincible and pure. A look at the personal meaning of the shattered tablets.

The Wheel

Essays •Level: Beginner • 0 Comments

The cosmic wheel: When one is on the lowest point of the wheel whichever direction it turns you will ascend. Since we have hit rock bottom it is now time to go upwards.

Thank You for Giving Me Back My Life

Essays •Stories • 0 Comments

A moving letter of a survivor of childhood abuse who found out that her life is meaningful. Example of spirituality helping with overcoming child abuse.

Depression & Mental Illness

Transcripts/Sources • 1 Comment

The author of the best-selling “Toward a Meaningful Life” discusses the spiritual roots and solutions for depression in an open forum.

Good Grief