Concepts in Chassidic Philosophy

What is your objective? What will make all the sweat, strained muscles and endless hours in the gym worthwhile?

Deep, deep down lays the soul's oil well. When tapped, it has the ability to provide ample fuel and illumination for the entire world. But what happens when the oil isn't properly channeled? When the oil rig explodes?

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

Where have I heard the numbers 9/11 before? Then it comes to me. In Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest Kabbalistic text, a cryptic phrase states: Ten sefirot of nothingness; ten and not nine, ten and not eleven . . .

The range is huge. From doctors and nurses to liquor shops and computer stores.

I could not have foreseen was that I literally would be sitting alone in a world that has plunged us all into isolation.

Here in Illinois, coupled with the disgust, is an inverse sense of pride at the history of our elected officials' audacity. The upshot is: "That's the way it was, is and forever will be; we might as well laugh at it."

Logically, such an apparently senseless tragedy should lead us further away from belief in the Providence and Oneness of a good, loving and omnipresent G-d. Yet it has had the opposite effect. Why?

The war in Iran began in spectacular fashion. Just a few weeks ago, a joint American-Israeli attack on Iran’s military capabilities and leadership was launched in the late hours of the morning, neutralizing dozens of dangerous enemies of the Jewish people...

There are so many people who might never before have exercised such a degree of holding back for the sake of another.