Articles by Tzvi Freeman

A friend says she doesn't believe G‑d "causes" the consequence, because, she says, "we have free will."

Each man stands between two females: the corporeal woman below to whom he must provide sustenance and affection; and the Shechinah which stands over him to bless him with these so that he may turn around and provide them to the woman of his covenant

Sure, there are all those events that happened, the weather, geography, DNA. But we are the ones to string them together with meaning and direction. There is no story to life, until we tell it...

Tell me that it is rational to talk to the Force of Being as though this were your closest confidant. Tell me that it is not absurd to plead with this force to adjust reality more to your liking...

It's easy to feel like orphans to this cold universe--to the elements, the forces and empty space that shrug indifferently at the drama of being human...

You can hide it enough so it doesn't embarrass you in public. You can pretty it up so that others are not as annoyed with it. You can try to ignore its whelps and howls when it gets out of hand. But can you free yourself of your ego?

Why do we become a bar mitzvah at adolescence? Because something dramatic happens to our minds at this time: A sort of awakening, a consciousness, a realization that "I exist"

The mind may be great at solving puzzles, but it's an incompetent idiot when it comes to real life. Wouldn't we much rather be run by the vivacious, freedom-loving heart? Nevertheless, it is the mind that's our conduit for the soul

These guys are heavily into the divine energy; you could call them spiritual junkies. Face it: the most successful soul here below cannot hope to dance as gracefully as the clumsiest malach...

They asked the Baal Shem Tov: "The Talmud tells us that for every thing G-d forbade, He provided us something permissible. What did He permit that corresponds to the sin of heresy?" Replied the Besht : "Acts of kindness"

There is a certain madness to this idea of talking to G‑d, of saying “You” to the Ground of Reality.... Like the madness of love or of unbounded joy

As in any duality, we must determine which side of the coin is dominant and which secondary: Does progress serve tradition, or does tradition serve progress?

It is truly an impossible discovery: that there is another "I" in this world, one who is not "me," who does not confirm my concept of the world, who is the opposite of me in so many ways and who I can therefore never truly know...

When we would be at odds with G-d and He with us, the two angels would turn away from one another. But when the two of us would be in harmony, the temple priests would open the curtains and show us the two figurines entwined in embrace...

We've been studying his mind all our lives. But we still don't get it... It's a mumble-jumble of scattered fragments, each part playing the other's role in an untamed cacophony of an orchestra tuning up

To an ancient Greek or a Hindu, passive stillness is masculine, activity and motion are feminine. To a Taoist, action is masculine and passiveness is feminine. In other words, if it is a virtue it is masculine. The Jew turns the pyramid on its head

Ego makes a mortal being into an idol. But without it, how can we change the world?

There are those who chase the infinite and find they cannot live. There are those who chase all things finite; their life is not worth living. Redemption is when the infinite is at home within our finite world

Initially, it was natural for man to follow woman. Read the story: What convinced Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge? Nothing -- just that Eve told him to. Then the roles were reversed. A curse, truly, for both of them...

No, I don't mean words that are sung. I mean the words that music speaks: the nuances and motifs of a melody that take the defined boundaries in which we have boxed ourselves, our feelings and our ideas, and transport them to a higher place

The angels were stunned. They looked upon our world of cruelty between man and man, of mortal blindness to the most obvious of truths, and they said, "This place He desires? This He calls a garden of delight? This He wants to make His home?"

"Where are there computers in the Torah?" Without hesitation the Rebbe answered, "Tefillin." The professor was perplexed

On Yom Kippur we embrace. Our harmony is no longer a harmony of "should", but a harmony of "is". All is forgiven. At onement

This, then, is the secret of prayer: The entire world may be ripping apart at the seams, but the beseecher's heart and mouth are at peace as one. And then that peace spreads outward into all things

The Hebrew language has no word for "things", "objects" or "stuff". In Hebrew, all things are dvarim, "words": articulations of the soul, crystallized thoughts

It began and it will end and then it will be no more. Each breath, each tick, each beat of the heart comes only once; none will ever repeat itself precisely. Every instant of life is a raw but precious stone, beckoning...

"Each 'gate' of a Chassidic melody," taught Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch, "must be repeated twice. The first time only traces a form; the second carves deep into the soul..." Reflections for the anuual "Shabbat of Song"

The child naively believes that everything should be fair and honest, that only good should prevail, that there should be no pain or sadness. And the child is right

When you find the Infinite, where will you put it? In your broken vessel? It will not stay. In a new, whole one? It will not fit...

The common conception of how the system works is faulty. People see a career as "making a living." But a career doesn't "make" anything

On the outside, it speaks the language of humankind; on the inside is depth without end. Grasp either end and you have nothing. Grasp both and you have G-d Himself

Criticizing another person is not out of the question. It's just that there are a few conditions to attend to before you start...

Pharaoh, you see, was actually quite intellectually capable; it was just that he was "Monotheistically Challenged"

If He had made the world a complete and utter mystery, we would have no path to know Him. But if all would fit together like a neat and tidy grandfather clock, we would not know that there is anything more to know...

Imprisonment is a fate worse than death, out of which the truly righteous squeeze an elixir more potent than life

In this swamp of confusion, darkness becomes evil, for it entraps the light. When we tug to fissure their bond, an iron resistance opposes us. In the final release, a burst of energy shakes the cosmos....

I would know the life of a predator or a victim, even a worm, or a plant or a rock. I would experience the satisfaction of munching green leaves, the fear of an attacked animal; the choices of the hero, of the villain, or the coward. All would recognize the Me that is within them, and even I would find Myself there. And be surprised. If you’re G-d, you can surprise even yourself

Some folks think of people much as we think of cars on a highway: Each with its own origin and destination, relating to one other only to negotiate lane changes and left-hand turns. But people are not cars

From one, many. This, the Lubavitcher Rebbe points out, is also the common feature of every system of the universe, from the galaxies to the atom, from the human being to the cells of which he is made

When I hear the M word, I feel hot air breathed down my back. Mental flags go up, signaling, "Someone's got an agenda here, and the agenda is to take you over."

The other morning, I woke up to discover a little truth. At least, it seemed like a truth to me, but I wanted to make sure. I figured a good philosopher could help me with that...

I'm glad my kids feel so free. As for me, I'm still a slave and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, never died. I labor for him all week long

Why did the Creator have to speak in order to create? Wouldn't it be so much more wonderful if we were all just a thought?

Perhaps it's one of those forbidden questions. Perhaps it just breaks too many assumptions. But we'll ask it anyway: Have the properties of light changed over the centuries? Has the power of gravity weakened with time? Has matter become less material? When you turn it over a few times and rub it between your fingers, everything in our world turns out to contain something of the infinite...

Joy is an overflowing, an explosion... Embrace the infinite beyond mind and joy will surprise you

We are all prisoners. But we sit on the keys...

At first, there was punishment. Then came a time when there were no prophets to provide due warning. The suffering that occurred then is called "tikun"—healing, repair. But what is it today?