Chabad Rebbes

Why does the Prophet Elisha tell the distraught woman to collect empty pitchers and fill them with oil?

Throughout the 1950s, the Jewish world was still smarting from the wounds of the Holocaust. In those trying years, the Rebbe cultivated a forward-looking orientation, focusing on Jewish youth and how to groom them to take leadership roles in promoting Jew...

What is better: establishing a bond with G‑d based on your knowledge, understanding, and will, or accepting such a bond with simple faith, without considering one’s own will or thought?

Martyrdom has, unfortunately, been a feature of the Jews’ Divine service over the course of history. However, on the surface, this phenomenon is not unique to our people. Many others have sacrificed their lives for their faiths, ideals, and values. Is the...

The fourth section of the Book of Genesis continues the chronicle of Abraham. The name of this section (Vayeira, “He appeared”) is its first word, describing G-d’s revelation to Abraham after his circumcision. This revelation is followed by the visit of t...

The Torah reading of the present week describes the hospitality of our Patriarch Abraham, how he would provide wayfarers with food, drink, and lodging in desert regions. Moreover, not only did he provide them with their needs, he did so in a gracious and ...

One day, while on shlichus in Bangkok, Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz was riding in a taxi stuck in heavy Bangkok traffic. Calculating that it would take less time to walk to his destination, Chezki paid the fare and got out. As he was walking down the street, a w...

Reb Binyamin Kletzker was one of the followers of the Alter Rebbe. He was both a very successful timber merchant in Russia and a mystic who was known to meditate for hours on end. Once after laboring over his annual budget and arriving at the bottom line ...

"And Avraham planted an eshel in Beersheva and he proclaimed the name of the L‑rd, G‑d of the world."Bereishis 21:33. The maamar entitled VaYitah Eshel delivered on Shabbos Parshas Vayeira, 5698,Sefer HaMaamarim 5698, p. 105ff. 50 years ago, focuses on th...

In this Sidra, we read of G-d’s appearance to Abraham after his circumcision. But why was his circumcision so great an act as to merit such a reward? This is the question that the Rebbe answers, and explains in depth the special relationship between the J...