Re’eh
Some people see what the world shows them. The blessed ones see what the world conceals.
Blessings and curses can be equated with vision and blindness; opening one’s eyes is the former, closing them is the latter. When we enter the Land we must build a Temple, a pure sanctuary where the Holy Presence is most at home. There we come to come close. False visionaries – read: true blindness – must be destroyed, as must fake gods. Kosher is assigned. The Mitzvoth, connections, of tithing, dedicating, giving, and supporting are locked in, as are the sabbatical year and the three holy pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
The Times of Our Lives
To the physicist it is the fourth dimension, to the mystic it is the first creation. To most of us, time is simply a faceless tyrant, an abstract dimension.
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What’s in a Name?
The Hebrew word vayikra, “and he called,” used by the Torah to describe Adam’s calling the name of every creature displays the significance of naming…
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The Rich Partner
In this miraculous story the request of one man is directly answered after he requests of G-d to uphold His duties.
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Evil: Two Translations
The Torah unequivocally states: “See, I am giving you today the blessing and the curse”. Theologians and philosophers have oft debated the dichotomy of this
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Does evil come from G-d?
Philosophers and theologians of all ages have asked: Does evil come from G-d? If G-d is the essence of good, can there be evil in His work?
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Kindred Kindness
Why is the chassidah an impure bird? “Because she does kindness with her compatriots,” explained Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk.
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A Business Proposal
I thought that the Rebbe was dispensing business advice, but he must have seen that there is something there, in Siberia, that I must achieve—some part of my mission in life that must be played out in the frozen east.
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