Editorial & Commentary

The Rebbe's emissaries followed his directives, while wondering about the sudden urgency... That afternoon, the threat of horrific terror against Israel was averted...

A sense of history provides context to help us better deal with the present, tools to understand ourselves and others. Understanding our national past strengthens pride and provides a sense of the mystery of transcendence about our role in the universe. People haven’t changed, and in many ways we face the same challenges that have been faced for thousands of years...

I held up the heavy rusted tail, and presented it to the sixth grade class. It was in excellent condition with all its fins, and with the screw still attached at the end...

It doesn't add up. Why do the candidates expend so much time, money and effort on a seemingly trivial contest when substantially more consequential races are on the horizon?

An exhaustive inquiry reveals that of late many baseball players have made use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. But I refuse to be inspired by this news story...

The debate over stem cell research raised serious and fundamental ethical, moral and theological dilemmas, which cut across the social conscience and tore at the very heart of mankind's longing to heal...

Why did they find it so very difficult to accept the guidance of a mystic brother, yet so easy to be subservient to a foreign Pharaoh?

Apparently, the politicians handling the Israeli-Palestinian Middle East conflict seem to have an unhealthy affinity for the role of the rabbinate...

Barry Bonds hit his 757th, Matt Cain his first, but Rabbi Langer hit the most spectacular home run of the evening...

What they didn't tell us that you're not necessarily entitled to happiness--your right is merely to pursue it...

That question probably crossed the minds of millions of Americans as they scrambled to meet the tax-filing deadline last week...

The ironic side of the “Iraq Debate” is that it actually demonstrates how much we do agree on basic principles...

Listening to and reading all the predictions and prognostications of Global Warming can be downright depressing. Will we be saying goodbye to our world sometime soon?

Left or Right? Each one seems to be presenting arguments with a valid core. Let us examine the Torah's perspective on the issues being debated.

Should the death of a child be a strong enough motivator for change? Or does it require a lawsuit?

Among evil dictators, Saddam stands unique in his preoccupation with his own power and glory. Is it far fetched to assume that he actually was the last manifestation of Nebuchadnezzar?

Gerald Ford's presidency offers a valuable lesson in maintaining successful interpersonal relationships, and offers a vivid demonstration of the presence of G-d's hand in times of need.

Apparently, some reporters and news editors already "knew" that the rabbi is against the trees, and nothing--not even their own reportage--was going to change the way they present the story

Imagine the invading Greek army entering the Holy Temple where gold, silver and precious stones were everywhere to be found, and searching for the... oil!

It has been said that negative campaigning is "as American as Mississippi mud." So is there anything we can do about it?

Plucking a child out of his or her native environment is very traumatizing for the child. But sometimes the child's very life depends on it. Here's what you can do to ease the transition...

As a member of the Jewish people I say, "Pluto, we feel your pain..."

Israel will fight back until Hamas and Hezbollah accept a cease fire, at least for the time being. Yet that is exactly what we must fear...

Finding the middle ground between military force and pacific diplomacy

Matisyahu, who will be celebrating the Passover seders this year with his family at a college campus Chabad House, speaks about what Passover means to him, and the influence of Chassidic philosophy on his music, his daily life and his inner self

On the rare occasions when we are swayed by an "opinion piece" on a controversial issue, more often than not it's not by the arguments made, but by who is making them

When something consistently reoccurs in our world--a particular weather pattern, a bottle-nosed dolphin migrating habit, a quirk of human behavior--we call it "nature." Apparently, the Jews-in-the-news phenomenon is a force of nature...

It's hard for us to comprehend that there are people who are merciless and get joy out of murder. Innately, we refuse to see that we are being tricked, preferring to believe that our enemies want peace, as we do...

"Why should we pray for him?" one community member responded to my e-mail. "Have you already forgotten what he did to our brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip?"

They built a barricade to protect themselves from the deadly gasses, they donned their oxygen tanks, and they waited and waited and waited...

Our mission and purpose may be hidden, perhaps, even, never fully revealed; yet a simple action--or inaction--on our part has the power to change the world

Is he a liberal or a conservative? What's her position on issue X? ... Or should we be asking an entirely different set of questions?

We strap a rocket on our back. A fiery blast of passion frees us of earth's seemingly irresistible gravity. Yet the fulfillment of our mission depends on a successful landing...

The borderless war by terrorism is a new phenomenon, but its roots are age-old: an ideology of discontent that causes people to be disgusted by, and ultimately hate, cultures different than theirs.

Many of us are not quite sure how to react towards terrorists who have no qualms about killing huge amounts of people. Should we be angry with them or should we feel sorry for them?

It's been like trying to get to the Golden Gate Bridge using a map of Lower Manhattan. The problem has nothing to do with traffic jams or poor driving; it has everything to do with using the wrong map

In a rare show of bipartisan initiative, both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid have been approached to help resolve 'Filibustering Rabbi' issue on Long Island.

Reflections on the place of G-d in American society

A leading role model for pro-Israel activism actually lived long before the founding of modern State of Israel

If we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit that laser-guided missiles and Abrams tanks are more lethal killing machines than a masked man with a butcher knife. So what is it about these anachronistic beheadings that offends us so much?

Some would say that we were living in a fool's paradise. Certainly others have known all along that the world is not a safe place. We beg to differ: it is not we who live in a fool's paradise, it is they who live in a fool's hell

The world is the ball and you and I are the players. Our aim is to get the world to its goal. There will be people trying to prevent us from doing so. Don't let that stop you...

The words have stopped because there's nothing left to be said. There is not yet forgiveness or acceptance for what has been said and done, nor, perhaps, will there ever be. But there is something else -- something that you have never felt before, at least not quite this way

I guess when something is truly right for you, no matter how impractical or out of the ordinary it may seem, you find yourself doing what you are meant to do...

Perhaps this milestone anniversary is not really about the story of Lubavitch. Of course, Lubavitch comprises an important piece of the Rebbe's life. But it may still not be "the" story...

As Israel witnessed this inhumanity in disbelief, we knew that it would be our mission, as the IDF burial unit, to retrieve whatever we could, regardless of the risk involved...

"A relationship with G-d." "Connection with G-d." How many times in the last fifteen years have I written those words! But what do they mean? What do they really mean?

With the spread of terrorism, our children are far too often graphically exposed to the worst of what life and humans offer. What can we do to help them deal with these horrific events?

This isn't a battle between rival ideologies. It's a struggle between two types of force -- one that thrives on order and another that flourishes on chaos. Can order defeat chaos? Can moderation defeat extremism?

The Bible shares only three incidents in Moses' early life: how he intervenes when a non-Jew oppresses a Jew, when two Jews fight, and when non-Jewish men oppress non-Jewish women

First came the false leads. Then came the shrug-off. But the soldiers kept at it, climbing through ditches and spider-holes -- until one final action ended the quest

I feel as if I am on another planet, a different dimension. For the first time in a long time, I truly feel Rosh Hashanah

Somehow it's comforting to think of the little guy zooming around our solar system at 8,000 miles an hour in directions opposite of his intended destination, being zapped by radio signals he was never designed to respond to -- and actually getting things done

Do you know what it is like to bring five kids and a stroller on a Jerusalem bus on a summer evening? Do you know what it is like to have your entire life changed forever in one split second?

Amongst the blackness of tragedy I yearned for some hope and light. I did not have to wait long. In the last few days, I've found myself repeatedly saying: Thank G-d for making me part of this great nation of Israel

Terror can become imbedded in the bone and tissue. It can go right down to the cellular level and be held there, embraced there, entrapped there for a lifetime. What can we do for those who are already its victim?

It's as if you would ask the Creator, a billion times a second, "Seeing what's become of it, would you do it all over again?"

People in New York are speaking about the eerie silence around us. I wonder which is more eerie: the sound of air conditioners and subways or the sound of our souls?

There's actually a clear ruling in Shulchan Aruch, the Torah's "Code of Law." This law does not even speak about the land of Israel -- it applies equally to Jerusalem and to Wellington, New Zealand

Personally, I could fare all right without a genius in my life. Same with the statesman, rock star or superhero -- even without the psychologist. But one thing we all need is meaning. To know what it's all about

It doesn't require physical contact or a long-term relationship. A fleeting encounter, the air of a shared space, suffices for one person to have a profound effect on a fellow human being

The church has recently announced that "G-d is against war, always." The Belgians are the planet's guardians of human rights, and France has decided that Americans have no business crossing oceans to fight other people's wars

"But why did they have to kill each other?" I asked in 3rd grade history class. "Why did they have to go to war? If everyone knew what would happen, why couldn't they all just stay alive?"

Remember those black-and-white WWII photos of heavy hearts, last goodbyes, care packages, crackly radio reports, and that hovering, ominous cloud of uncertainty? With my wife's brother in the 101st Airborne, now I'm it

Jessica lost her life, and two other critically ill people will not be receiving the organs used in the attempt to cure her. What can we learn from this devastating mishap?

A War on Terror means just that: a war not to be terrified by those who want you to be. If you're afraid, they've just won another battle -- and I'm not a loser...

Dr. Gottlieb was on the 32a bus from Gilo that morning, on his way to treat three Down's Syndrome children -- something he did every Tuesday, gratis

The world gets dry statistics about the number who died. But numbers don't tell stories. Numbers don't say what it's like to prepare a meal for one, to do laundry for one, when yesterday you had a husband and two teenaged children

"It takes two to make a fight. So I must deserve this -- after all, I'm not perfect either. I left dishes in the sink and didn't have dinner ready when he came home. Sometimes, I was a little confused after he beat me up and didn't function so well.."

The sorrow was guarded by soldiers dressed for battle, determined that no more grief would strike this village and this family -- at least until the funeral was over

In the movies they're tough guys yelling and screaming at their soldiers. But this platoon sergeant was like a Jewish father watching over his children, making sure they had something to drink and enough tissues to wipe their eyes

Am I ready for the facts of life? Did I ever in my wildest dreams think I would be living through war? That I would be hunted for being a Jew?

The single thing every Jew can do for peace in Israel

If you had a child, an only child, who was too much of a wimp to stand up for his rights, would you smack him in the face and watch him fall to the ground?

The killers are driven by hate, the pundits and politicians by vanity and naiveté; together, they would rip the heart of Israel from its body

People have become so sophisticated that they no longer believe in or understand anything anymore. Basic words, such as "friend", "enemy", "land" and "life" become totally incomprehensible

"Six thousand people applied to appear on the show, and not a single one was Jewish!" She asked me to help her understand this phenomenon. "After all" she noted, "wasn't it the Jews who survived the Holocaust?"

Just about everything imaginable was happening--except for what everyone had predicted would happen

You can't build a lasting building out of half-baked bricks. You can't assemble an accurate timepiece unless each of its gears, springs and balance wheels has first been honed to precision. But people, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, are not bricks