In the early days of the automobile, if someone wanted to start his engine, he inserted the hand crank and turned it forcefully. Although he probably did not understand what was actually going on under the hood when he turned the crank, i.e. he did not understand the physical mechanism that connected his action in...
How do we ensure that in spite of aging physically, we never really get old? R' Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk was one of the early leaders in the Chasidic movement. He was the primary talmid of R' Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch. And after the Maggid’s passing, R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder...
R' Yochanan said (Megillah 31a): כׇּל מָקוֹם שֶׁאַתָּה מוֹצֵא גְּבוּרָתוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אַתָּה מוֹצֵא עִנְוְותָנוּתוֹ (Every place where you find [mention of] the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, you find [mention of] His humility). That may sound rather surprising. After all, we tend to think of the Master of creation...
It is a well known principle in the Torah that a Jew must imitate his Creator. The Rambam codifies this in Sefer ha-Mitzvot (Mitzvot Aseh 8): היא שצונו להדמות בו יתעלה כפי היכולת (It is that He commanded us to imitate Him, may He be exalted, according to our ability). It is also taught in...
We discovered from our last article entitled Learning to Shoot Straight that perfect, whole tefillah is acquired through personal purity and tzedakah, i.e. the giving of charity.Therefore, if we want to remove the impediments that inhibit or limit our tefillot, we should learn how to purify ourselves and how to reduce our craving for money....
In last week’s article, we explained how tefillah [תפילה, prayer] is Mashiach’s fundamental weapon for defeating the forces of the Sitra Achra. By extension, we learned that this is also the weapon that each and every one of us must use to defeat the forces of evil in our lives. We ended that article by...
How does Mashiach fight his wars? And by extension, how should we fight our battles? It is taught (Likutei Moharan 2:1): אִיתָא בְּסִפְרָא דִּצְנִיעוּתָא מִנּוּקְבָא דְּפַרְדַּשְׂקָא מָשַׁךְ רוּחָא דְּחַיֵּי לִמְשִׁיחָא כִּי עִקַּר כְּלֵי זֵינוֹ שֶׁל מָשִׁיחַ הוּא הַתְּפִלָּה שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת חֹטֶם כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב וּתְהִלָּתִי אֶחֱטָם לָךְ וּמִשָּׁם עִקַּר חִיּוּתוֹ וְכָל מִלְחַמְתּוֹ שֶׁיַּעֲשֶׂה וְכָל הַכְּבִישׁוֹת שֶׁיִּכְבֹּשׁ...
A couple of weeks ago, we were having a conversation at the Shabbat table that centered on the question, If you had the opportunity to go back in time to when you were 18 years old and live your life over again, but with the advantage that you would be able to retain all of...
R' Abahu said (Berachot 34b): מָקוֹם שֶׁבַּעֲלֵי תְשׁוּבָה עוֹמְדִין צַדִּיקִים גְּמוּרִים אֵינָם עוֹמְדִין שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר שָׁלוֹם שָׁלוֹם לָרָחוֹק וְלַקָּרוֹב לָרָחוֹק בְּרֵישָׁא וַהֲדַר לַקָּרוֹב (In the place ba’alei teshuvah stand, complete tzaddikim cannot stand, as it says [Yeshayah 57:19], ‘Shalom, shalom to him who is far away and to him who is near’, ‘to him who is...
As is known, the first three berachot of the Shemoneh Esreh form a set which relate the praise of Hashem for His three fundamental attributes of chesed (love, giving and kindness), gevurah (justice, strictness and self-restraint) and tiferet (beauty, harmony, truth, mercy and holiness). It is also known that these three berachot correspond to the...
The second berachah of the Shemoneh Esreh, the one that praises G‑d for His attribute of gevurah [strictness, judgment, self-restraint, etc.], opens with these words: אַתָּה גִבּוֹר לְעוֹלָם אֲדֹנָ‑י מְחַיֶּה מֵתִים אַתָּה רַב לְהוֹשִׁיעַ...מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶסֶד מְחַיֵּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים (You are always mighty, Adon-ai, You resurrect the dead, abundant to effect salvation, You sustain...
The time was early February 1981. The location was the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. President Ronald Reagan asked William Casey, the newly-appointed Director of the CIA, what he considered was his primary role as head of that agency. Barbara Honegger, assistant to the...