Body & Soul

A sunny day gets even better with a cool set of shades. So does life.

You think I'm a dumb hamburger with eyeballs. You think I'm filled with self-serving, egoistic, narcissistic stuffings, a real me-bag. But I know a truth that you don't...

The most spiritual battle in Jewish history

I understand that fasting on Yom Kippur is supposed to make me focus on my soul rather than my body. But by around lunch time I am so hungry that for the rest of the day all I can think about is food. Doesn't this defeat the purpose?

Why do we fast on Yom Kippur? A common perception is that it’s to de-emphasize our physicality on the most spiritual day of the year. According to chassidic teaching, the very opposite is the case.

It used to be that the soul fought with the body, until one conquered the other with force. Then the Baal Shem Tov came and taught a new path: The body, too, could come to appreciate those things the soul desires. In the place of self-torture and ...

An excerpt from the first "public letter" issued by the Rebbe

We're in this world. It seems real to us, but it's really an ingenious charade designed to make us think that it's real, act as if it's real, and thus allow it to feed on our vitality (didn't I see this in a movie somewhere?)

You can light thousands of candles from one flame without losing the slightest amount of its light; but put thousands of candles in a room, and there will still be a single light...

Hedonism and ascetics are two sides of this same Hellenic coin: when the soul (flame) meets the body (wick), either the flame gutters out, or it consumes the wick leaving only formless soot behind...