Essays

I'll let you in on a little surprise: Who says that yourself is the real you? Maybe the real you is not a subject, not an object, but a verb? Maybe the real you is to be found not in who you are but in those things you need to do?

Two cows, they were, sharing a paddock on the same farm...

Imagine, a couple gets married, and the man says to his new wife, "Would you make me something to eat, please? I'll be right back." She begins preparing. The guy comes back 3300 years later, walks into the house, up to the table, straight to his favorite chair, sits down and tastes the soup that is on the table. The soup is cold

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the essence of Jewish mysticism

Which is loftier--spirit or matter? the soul or the body? The teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, founder of Chabad chassidism, extol the first over the second, and then second over the first, offering a unique and life-altering vision of reality

Once upon a time, time was round. Then somehow, we straightened it out, put an arrow on the end and took it for a ride. Now let me tell you how it happened...

Imagine asking a Jew, "Did you ever eat on Yom Kippur?" and he answers, "I felt hungry in my stomach."

Thank G‑d for atheists. If not for their scorn, how shallow our god would be!

When G-d created Adam, at the moment Adam opened his eyes, what was his psychological profile? He had no Oedipus complex because he had no mother. He didn't have a birth trauma, because he wasn't born. He had no sibling rivalry... What was this man like?

Actually there are two hearts: the outer heart, forever chasing whatever looks good to it and barking at whatever looks like a threat; and an inner heart, where the fire of the soul burns in serene simplicity

We all yearn for the intimate touch of another soul. So why are we forever repelling love with our anger and criticism?

Parallel universes, supernatural phenomena, and a world where good always prevails. Is this Grimm's fairy tales, or a chassidic text?

Some things are so very astounding that the casually passing mind refuses to notice the wonder.

Are you really happy, or just resigned to your lot? I'd love to meet the person who'd honestly say, "My fantasy life? I'm living it! I can't imagine a thing I'd want to change!"

The Torah's account of the petition presented to Moses by the daughters of Zelophehad is relevant both to women seeking Halachic support for change, and to the rabbis who are ruling on their questions

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi added to a Scriptural verse a one-word modifier that revolutionized the way we think about ourselves and our lives: mamash.

The physical realm as the "shadow" of the spiritual; the mitzvot as physical "symbols" that manipulate spiritual realities; matter as thye most compact form of energy; prayer as the language of the soul and the minyan as the "critical mass" that unleashes its power

First the elephant's trunk is threaded through the eyelet, then his head, followed by his entire huge body. Imagine dreaming such a dream!

If life is full of meaning, why am I spending it hustling other people for their money?

My guru says I must first surrender my ego in order to proceed with his five day, ten-step path to total enlightenment. Personally, I find my ego quite useful, even neccessary. What do you think? Are egos really as bad as they are made out to be?

The very core of reality is G-d's shattered dream, waiting for us to pick up the pieces

G-d creates from "Nothing" because nothingness, ayin, actually means absolute, infinite possibility. And as a beings created in the image of G-d, we, too, can create "something from nothing"

"Leave your land, your birthplace and your father's house, and go to the land I will show you." These words are among the most consequential in the history of mankind

Are you you smart, stupid, graceful, clumsy, bold, wimpy, articulate, shy? Whatever your answers, they will limit and define you as certainly as if they were a cage made out of concrete and steel

Doing good without believing in reward is the flip side of doing good only for reward: in the one case, good is constrained to the metaphysical; in the other, it is limited to a crass physical expression...

Ever wondered where that instant inspiration comes from? Where does that spontaneous urge of faith stem from? What truly is the essence of our soul?

To serve or not to serve is not the question, and it is not the choice. Every character serves the author. The choice is only about how you serve--directly, playing the good guy, or indirectly, playing the villain

It is important to realize that the Kabbalah is more about losing ourselves than about finding, becoming more other-centered and less ego-centered. The literal translation of the word Kabbalah is 'that which is received.'

I often speak of the Torah as a unifying document with an all-encompassing and harmonizing perspective on reality. There seems much that contradicts this in the Torah. So does the Torah indeed advocate separateness as a value?

Everything has its place in the plan of creation and it is "good."; it becomes "very good" when all the parts are working in unison

Teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah commonly translate as "repentance," "prayer" and "charity." But these English words fail to express the full significance of these concepts, and even convey the very opposite of their true import

This is what compassion does: it simply comes to say hello, with kindness and grace; to be a companion in whatever circumstance presents itself; to banish loneliness, and if not, to accompany the lonely in their solitude

We really should not have to die at all, despite Adam's sin. And G-d, so to speak, is sensitive to this. It "embarrasses" Him...

When opening the door for Elijah, the children gather round to watch the quivering liquid ripple, hoping to detect some sign of its sampling by the visiting prophet. But surely there's more meaning to this cup than a child's imagination

Why does an all-knowing G-d need to test anybody? Shouldn't He know what is in our hearts? And why is Abraham's test of faith "the entire glory of Israel and their merit before their Father in Heaven"?

He was a world-famous figure, I was an anonymous student from 3000 miles away. Quickly it became clear to me that he believed in me more than I believed in myself

That common but feeble excuse, "I couldn't help myself," is not acceptable to anyone sensitive to the message of the tefillin

Miracles are a concession to the human need to see things from a different perspective in order to apprehend what they've already seen. Shavuot is when G-d believes in us enough not to indulge it

It is irrational to believe that an elephant can fit itself through the eye of a needle. But what about the One who brought elephant, needle, size, space and logic itself into existence?

The very substance of the cosmos continually oscillates between a state of being and not-being. This oscillation, say the Chassidic masters, is the primal source of Time

"It is not good," said G-d of the first and only human being, "for man to be alone." As long as man was alone, he could not really be good

These two protocols are now at war, with western civilization (human rights) on one side, and the world of Islam (subjugation of the individual to the supreme will of Allah) on the other. Where does Judaism stand?

The single wicks of the Shabbat candles, exuding calmness, repose and homeliness; the braided torch accompanying the departing queen, lighting the darkness that becomes more marked in her absence...

Ultimately, every answer is, in a sense, a correct answer

If Jews are neither a nation nor a religion, and do not share a common language, culture or ethnicity, what are we?

"It hurts." He bunches his fist over his heart. "Here. A long time. A year, maybe ten. Forever." "Can you put a name to it?" "You know the way a crow does when it's picking at a squirrel that's been run over? Like that. Stabbing."

The pattern is followed in every aspect of existence: there has to be an “emptiness in the middle” in order to move from one state of being to the next...

She scrutinized me for a few moments and suddenly her face lit up with the wonder of discovery. Her eyes grew wide and she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! there are two of you!"

"Moshiach does not want to overwhelm us, because if he were going to overwhelm us, he could have come 100 years ago"

Were there conflicts between my studies in comparative religion and my life as a practicing Jew? I was studying things that seemed very alien to a Jewish philosophy and way of life. I loved teaching about everything from Buddhism to Judaism, from bizarre rituals to esoteric philosophy. I saw the world through the lenses of my studies of the history of religions, sociology and psychology.

From every incident in a person's life, one can acquire profound insight into the service of the Creator. So says the holy Baal Shem Tov. Fortified by this idea, I began my descent in the morgue elevator of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill University

In the 70's, people challenged the concepts of monogamy and fidelity, naively believing that they could be truly caring and faithful to multiple contemporaneous partners. That simplistic innocence has been replaced in the 90's by a hard cynicism...

In the Western mindset, popular cinema, and classic literary masterpieces, everyone either dies or “lives happily ever after.” Life after the goal is reached -- the happily ever after part -- is rarely dealt with. The curtain simply comes down...

Matzah hurriedly chewed on an empty stomach is virtually tasteless; but at the meal's end, especially after a glass or two of wine, it is a feast for the senses...

The phrase "crushing labor" appears repeatedly in the Torah's account of the Egyptian exile and enslavement, in the text of the Haggadah, and in the symbolism of the seder observances. What is crushing labor?

If a cold and dark world mutes the light of G-d and dulls our minds and hearts, it only accentuates the most basic and essential element of our relationship: the bond between the physical self of man and the quintessential being of G-d

To strain the bounds of galut, but not overstep them; to accept and conform to the will of G-d, while appreciating that it is G-d's desire that we contest His will whenever limits our connection with Him --that is the ultimate art

Do not be deceived by the apparent simplicity. This diagram depicts the conceptual framework underlying all of existence

The fact is, if it's philosophy someone else has also thought it; if it's a legend or myth, some other people have a story with a lot of strong parallels. After all, we're all talking about the same world from within the same bodies... Except for one, very enigmatic story

The calendar is more than a measure of time: it is a cycle that charts our inner life and our relationship with our Creator

How do we identify the internal switches that operate the source of all actions, and do we have the mechanism to manipulate and control them?

If the body is but a temporary and deficient container for the soul, why recompose and revive it?

Where is the world's most ordinary place? A fifteen-days' journey from Jerusalem, in a field on the banks of the Euphrates

How is it that a G-d who is capable of creating an entire universe, time, space and laws of nature included, can’t get His own creatures to fall in line?

They cherished these dresses dearly until, one day, they heard that in America the style was to wear short skirts. Now their dresses no longer seemed so beautiful...

We detect two tendencies of thought on the place of alienation and loneliness in the Jewish analysis of the emotions. To state this contrast is not to formulate an opposition; simply to open another gate...

To an ecologist, nothing is as interesting as the foothills, where two ecosystems meet. An exciting field today is that of "human interface"--the place where people and their machines meet. And then there is the study of chaoplexity--the fascinating border between rigid order and total randomness where things such as amoebas, bond traders, Chabad House rabbis and the like occur...

The transition from an industrial to an information society has had a profound effect on the nature of wealth. When wealth comes from materials, it is hard to deviate from the basic conception that when a piece of the pie is given to somebody else, your share is less. When wealth is equated with knowledge and creativity, the opposite is the case

People intuitively equate "normal" with good. In fact, normal is very bad. A person achieves normalcy when the molecules that comprised his being are in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment, which is to say he is dust

The wick would flare and die. The oil is difficult to ignite at all. But when brought together in the lamp, they produce a steady flame. And so it is in the of the "a lamp of G-d" that is our soul

"All affairs of this world are severe and evil and wicked men prevail." No one who is even minimally acquainted with world history, and marginally aware of current events, is likely to take issue with this statement from Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi's Tanya. Its stark accuracy underlies one of the most disturbing questions in the annals of religious thought. Why should, and how could, the world be this way?

Why does G-d tell you how to get divorced if He believes in marriage?

And [Moses] was there (on Mount Sinai) with G-d forty days and forty nights; bread he did not eat and water he did not drink (Exodus 34:28). Very interesting. Have you ever tried it?

As the most direct and simple line between two points, it is misleadingly the surest way to town; but in truth, the "direct approach" is a dead end

If you’ve ever had this experience, you have unwittingly stumbled upon one of the core spiritual secrets of Creation: a three-fold pattern of vision-breakdown-transformation, or light-darkness-light.

Why is Moshiach so integral to the Jewish belief system? It would certainly be nice to see an end to global suffering, but that is a universal ideal. Why is that a principle of the Jewish faith?

Bell is such a great musician that if you heard him playing his 3.5 million dollar Stradivarius in a subway station at 7:51 a.m. on a cold January morning—you would be frozen to your spot in reverie. Well, you would. But everyone else would walk right by...

The challenge presented by the Soviet gulags and the KGB pale in comparison to the challenge we face in today's Western society.

Prior to the birth of my oldest child, I actually found myself looking forward to this rite of parenthood, waiting to be introduced to diaper changing. At first it was not bad; not much of a challenge. More recently, however, as my son approaches his second birthday, the stench emanating from his diaper is unreal

Why is the Redemption, the moment of our consummate fulfillment, analogous to the moon's rebirth, a moment when it emits only a diminutive and weak crescent of light?