Toldot
Yes We Can Change!
Dear Friend,
Can we change ourselves?
The Torah offers a fascinating insight into human nature and the power G‑d gives us to make something out of ourselves.
This week, in Toldot, we read about the birth of Esau and Jacob. The twin brothers are both born with incredible potential. One turns out good; the other, not so well.
Chassidic teachings expound on the fact that Esau was endowed with a soul that was potentially loftier than Jacob’s. Thus, he had the possibility to be spiritually greater than his brother. Together with this lofty soul, he was given an equally high drive to reject doing good. (Free will, anyone?) Granted, he did not have it easy. Yet he did have the power to overcome the negative forces within him (and even managed to do just that in his youth).
We cannot control the events that occur in our lives, but how we react to them is up to us. We can throw up our hands in defeat and give up, or take what we were given and make it shine.
The day will yet come when the Esaus of the world will shine. May it be now.
Chani Benjaminson,
responder for Ask the Rabbi @ Chabad.org
My question is: my parents aren’t religious; we never kept kosher or any of the festivals. Why all of a sudden are they so Jewish when it comes to whom I marry?
I recently had occasion to pray in a Sephardic synagogue, and they kept the Torahs in some kind of ornamental cylindrical case with the scroll in the upright position. Then, when it came time to read the Torah, they simply set it on a flat table and cracked open the case.
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.
A condensation of the weekly Torah portion alongside select commentaries culled from the Midrash, Talmud, Chassidic masters, and the broad corpus of Jewish scholarship.
In those days of famine there wasn’t much, and you could barely discern the little dabs of butter in the cracks of the dark bread, but for our malnourished bodies, beginning the day with some buttered bread was revitalizing.
“One of us is a thief! My lord, I’d like for you to have each of us swear that he didn’t steal the money. That way we’ll find out which of us is the thief!”
I rang the bell, and my big brother opened the door. “Daddy’s dead.” I screamed, “You’re lying, you’re lying!”
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A firsthand glimpse of the literary yield of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Chabad Rebbe.
A warm welcome in wintry Wasilla from the entire community
It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days G‑d made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.
Perhaps a person will say,
“I cannot fathom an infinite Creator, so why should I attempt to do so?”
“And why should I attempt to awaken my heart to show Him love? What can the love of this puny creature provide Him?”
“So I will just serve Him in complete surrender, doing that which is to be done, connecting to a wil...
