Tazria
Birth is a pure soul descending into an impure earth to purify the world.
The laws of purity and impurity may be summed up like this: the closer an experience is to the Source, the purer it is; the more distant, the more impure it gets. Birth is separating a soul from its natural habitat; no simple task. A mother immerses in pools of purity; offerings are brought. Male children are circumcised on the eighth day. When a spiritual flaw manifests upon a physical canvas, it is called “tzaraat.” Then the diagnostic expert is called in, the Kohen, proclaiming it pure or impure. One with “tzaraat” must remain outside of the camp; clothing with “tzaraat” must be destroyed.
The Secret to Giving Birth
Are You A Loner?
Enter into the innermost recesses of our unique, often lonely souls and discover how to transform loneliness into a positive form of singularity.
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Moon Walk: Lunar Insights into the Psyche
The new moon teaches us the way to find redemption in our lives and relationships. Learn to recognize the moonlight in your soul and in the soul of others.
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Learn how to incorporate techniques to improve the way you feel for others. Discover how this can radically improve your situation and the world at large.
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Displaced Persons
An excerpt from a letter by the Rebbe exploring the question of who we truly are beneath the surface.
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His Daughter’s Son
The story of the Tzemach Tzedek’s unexpected ascension to leadership of the Chabad community.
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Forty Nine Days Between Passover and Shavuot
From Passover to Shavuot, we conduct a daily count of the days and weeks in reenactment of the forty-nine-day process of self-refinement which our ancestors underwent from their exodus from Egypt on the first day of Passover to the revelation at Sinai on Shavuot.
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The Runaway Soul
How tzaraat is related to Chassidic teaching that the human soul is driven by two contrary forces: the drive to “run” or escape (ratzo), and the drive to settle (shov).
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G-d on the Moon
The moon’s greatness—her capacity to receive—is born of a sense of diminution and insufficiency.
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Forty Nine Days
Counting the Omer: Each of these days becomes a component of our reborn selves, as we internalize the freedom obtained at the Exodus as the essence of our commitment to G-d as His chosen people.
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Tazria: Bad Religious Experiences Part 2
With the breakdown of authority, it is absolutely critical to ensure that each of us “own” our choices; that the path of faith become your path, not someone else’s.
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Tazria-Metzora: Greater Expectations
Though things seem chaotic and confusing we have the ability to sort everything and find clarity bringing us to greater results than we could’ve imagined.
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Tazria-Metzora: Divine Containers
The world increasingly witnesses a union of form and function and spirit and matter. This concept is examined through the lens of kabbalah and Chassidus.
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Tazria: Divine Wrath
Understanding the apparent abundance of violence and anger in the Torah requires one to gain deeper insight into its literal and symbolic dimensions.
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Tazriah: The River Euphrates
The Euphrates River has seen the rise and fall of man many times over, and plays a significant role in the ultimate redemption.
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