Living Torah Archive

According to Jewish tort law, the first three times an ox gores another animal, the owner pays only half damages, for he cannot be expected to foresee and control the ox’s sudden rage. After three times, the owner must pay full damages, for the animal’s violent nature has been established and the owner should have taken proper precautions. Maimonides rules, however, that if a violent ox is sold or given as a gift to a new owner, the ox is given a fresh clean slate. More

According to Jewish tort law, the first three times an ox gores another animal, the owner pays only half damages, for he cannot be expected to foresee and control the ox’s sudden rage. After three times, the owner must pay full damages, for the animal’s violent nature has been established and the owner should have taken proper precautions. Maimonides rules, however, that if a violent ox is sold or given as a gift to a new owner, the ox is given a fresh clean slate.

The explanation: An animal responds to the way it is treated by its owner. The ox may have behaved violently under the first owner due to the way it was cared for or corralled. Under the new owner, however, the animal’s behavior is yet to be determined.

The life lesson: If even an animal is given a clean slate due to the new environment and circumstances in its life, how much more so does a person have the ability, each and every new day, to “tame” the past, leave it behind, and march forth as a new person into the first day of the rest of his or her life.

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Chasidim sing the Russian version of “Who knows one?”

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter visits the Rebbe. As brother of Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter, the Gerer Rebbe who established the daily study cycle of the Jerusalem Talmud, the Rebbe discusses the importance of publicizing the success of this study movement, to inspire others.

During the Yom Kippur War, Reb Efraim Mol was stationed at Israel’s southern border with Sinai, when intelligence came in about a possible imminent chemical attack by the Egyptians. Ordered to shave his beard in preparation to don a gask mask, Efraim convinced his superiors to allow him to consult the Rebbe first.

The brain and heart are equally central to the body’s health and homeostasis. Nevertheless, each has its own function. Similarly, man and woman are equal in importance and in their contribution to Jewish life and continuity. But they have different roles. More

The brain and heart are equally central to the body’s health and homeostasis. Nevertheless, each has its own function. Similarly, man and woman are equal in importance and in their contribution to Jewish life and continuity. But they have different roles.

There are many mitzvahs which both man and woman are obligated in; these mitzvahs are like the blood which both brain and heart need equally. But in order for the man to fulfill his unique mission, and for the woman to fulfill hers, each must be free of certain responsibilities that the other has. This is why certain mitzvahs are given only to men, and others are given only to women.

At the same time, neither is “missing out” on the benefit of the other’s mitzvahs, for, as the Arizal explains, when one of them fulfills their unique obligation, it’s considered as having been fulfilled by both of them.

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At the conclusion of the Afternoon Prayers on the 3rd yahrzeit of his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the Rebbe recites mishnayos and kaddish at his home on President Street, followed by the distribution of dollars.

A doctor of the Rebbe’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, and a household attendant of hers, visit the Rebbe after her passing.

As an Israeli college student studying in London, England, Mrs. Orah Jurawel befriended a local Chabad family. When she subsequently traveled to visit New York, they asked her for a small favor: to deliver a gift to the Rebbe’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. (1974)

When the Jewish people was surrounded by the Egyptians at the sea, four opinions were voiced on how to respond: 1) Jump into the sea – better to give one’s life in sanctification of G-d’s Name than to transgress His will; 2) Return to Egypt – perhaps they had not completed their spiritual mission there; 3) take up arms and fight – for to extinguish their own lives or return to Egypt would both transgress G-d’s will; 4) Pray to G-d. More

When the Jewish people was surrounded by the Egyptians at the sea, four opinions were voiced on how to respond: 1) Jump into the sea – better to give one’s life in sanctification of G-d’s Name than to transgress His will; 2) Return to Egypt – perhaps they had not completed their spiritual mission there; 3) take up arms and fight – for to extinguish their own lives or return to Egypt would both transgress G-d’s will; 4) Pray to G-d.

All four approaches, however, were wrong: “The L-rd said to Moses, ‘Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to travel onward’” – march into the sea and it will split for you!

“Everything that is found on dry land is also found in the sea” – but from the surface you can’t see anything in the ocean, because it’s all covered by water. Similarly, G-d’s miracles are all around us, but when one looks no deeper than the surface of the natural order, he cannot see the miracles. As soon as you take the dive into the depths of G-dly reality, however, you immediately see miracles happening all around you; you see G-d’s own hand orchestrating your deliverance.

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Chasidim sing a lively nigun.

“With Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of the Trees, upon us, gather your students together for a farbrengen, give them good fruits, and share with them good words.”

Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman is a recipient of the Israel Prize, his country’s highest honor. In 1985, his daughter developed a severe eye condition that confounded all the experts... The Rebbe’s diagnosis: “Check the mezuzahs.”

One time, my father-in-law, the Rebbe, was scheduled to travel from Leningrad to Moscow on secret business concerning his underground network. Such a journey was fraught with peril, especially because his movements were closely monitored by the communist authorities. More

One time, my father-in-law, the Rebbe, was scheduled to travel from Leningrad to Moscow on secret business concerning his underground network. Such a journey was fraught with peril, especially because his movements were closely monitored by the communist authorities.

But when I entered his room shortly before his departure, I found him sitting in a state of utter calm, as if nothing urgent were on the horizon. When I expressed my amazement, the Rebbe explained: “You cannot add time to the day, but you can utilize the time you do have ‘successfully.’” When one is fully engaged in the moment – not distracted by that which came before, or that which will come after – then he is truly living and is able to utilize life’s potential to its fullest.

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The Rebbe leads the Evening Prayers on the 15th yahrzeit of his father-in-law and predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch.

“To bring Moshiach cannot be achieved by one person alone. It must be accomplished through the collective effort of all Jews together.” “As an additional aid to finding his soulmate, your brother should study the laws of daily living in the Code of Jewish Law.”

Rabbi Herschel Feigelstock, an elder Chasid of the Montreal Lubavitcher community, recalls details of the Previous Rebbe’s funeral in the winter of 1950 and instructions he received from the Rebbe concerning the mourning and the visitation to the Previous Rebbe’s resting place.

Historically, Jews treated their wisdom in a vastly different way from other nations. In Egypt, for example, knowledge and scientific progress were the exclusive domain of an intellectual elite. The masses obeyed them with blind action. By contrast, immediately when the Jewish people became a nation, G-d’s first action was to give the Torah to all the Jews, of all generations, equally. More

Historically, Jews treated their wisdom in a vastly different way from other nations. In Egypt, for example, knowledge and scientific progress were the exclusive domain of an intellectual elite. The masses obeyed them with blind action. By contrast, immediately when the Jewish people became a nation, G-d’s first action was to give the Torah to all the Jews, of all generations, equally.

In this vein, when it comes to the spiritual wealth G-d grants a person through Torah, one must share it – and share it generously – in a way that permeates one’s entire environment. Jewish law mandates that anyone who has the ability and the knowledge is obligated to teach Torah to every person he can reach. This includes teaching through action, for when one behaves appropriately in one’s daily life, he or she becomes a role model – a teaching – to the world around them.

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Kiddush Levana behind the Rebbe’s house on President Street.

“When G-d sees a person using his earnings to increase in giving charity, He blesses that person with even more, expecting him to give even more. May G-d give you more, and may you give more.”

Rabbi Benjamin Blech is a world-renowned Modern Orthodox author and lecturer, and a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University in New York. One day, he received a surprising phone call from Chabad world headquarters...