Chabad Rebbes

Ephraim and Menashe can be seen as prototypes for two types of Jews,. Menashe is the Jew for whom “his father’s house,” the old country, is a reality, while Ephraim knows only “the land of my oppression,” the new land into which he was born and in whose c...

The Baal HaTurim states that the best years of the life of Yaakov were spent in Egypt. Yaakov was a man whose entire life was focused on holiness. How could his best years have been those that he spent in Egypt, a place of impurity and spiritual darkness?

Imagine if the Jews who lived through the Holocaust or the Khmelnitsky pogroms had learned that Mashiach would not come in their time. What would they have felt?

The twelfth and final section of the Book of Genesis chronicles the last period in the life of Jacob and the succession of his son Joseph. Jacob lived (Vaichi, “and he lived” in Hebrew) the last 17 years of his life in Egypt. Besides devoting himself to t...

This week’s Torah reading contains the traditional blessing that parents give their sons in Jewish homes: “May G‑d make you as Ephraim and Menasheh.” Why particularly this blessing? Jacob had gone down to Egypt where his son Joseph was viceroy. There he s...

The widow of renowned sculptor Jacques Lifchitz came for a private audience with the Rebbe shortly after her husband’s sudden passing. In the course of the meeting, she mentioned that her husband had been working on a massive sculpture of a phoenix (a myt...

A young man from an observant home was presented with many challenges as he tried to integrate himself into American life. His encounters with the chassidim and the philosophy of Lubavitch helped him overcome these hurdles. Once, at a private meeting with...

Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XV, p. 432ff. I. This week’s Torah reading relates that when Yosef presented his two sons, Ephraim and Menasheh, before Yaakov for him to bless them, Yaakov placed his right hand on Ephraim and his left hand on Menasheh. When Yosef s...

We read in our Sidra that Jacob twice called his sons to gather round him and listen to his blessings and prophecies. The Rabbis infer that these were two separate events, though they followed each other closely in time. What he said on the second occasio...

The Torah portion Vayechi begins by saying:Bereishis 47:28. “And Yaakov lived.” Why does it begin in this manner when the entire portion deals with Yaakov’s demise and the events surrounding it? Additionally, since the title of a Torah portion relates to ...