Mishnaic Sages

Fusing the Material with the Spiritual Lag BaOmer commemorates the passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, one of the foremost sages of the Talmud and author of the Zohar, the primary text of the Kabbalah. Rabbi Shimon’s knowledge extended from the exoteric, ...

Why Didn’t the Disciples Emulate Their Teacher? One reason we celebrate Lag BaOmer is that an epidemic which caused the death of 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples ceased on that day.Meiri on Yevamos 62b; Shulchan Aruch HaRav 493:5. Our Sages relateYevamos...

Two thousand years after all the sages of Israel, both the pessimists and the optimists, agreed that man was a failed experiment, the Rebbe re-opened the question...

The following letter was written to Rabbi Chayim Dovber Ginsburg, an active Rabbi in Vancouver, B.C. [Beginning of Shvat, 5703] In the margins of your last letter, you cited the statements of the tractate Sofrim (2:5) that the custom is to continue to add...

The Talmud tells us that 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died because “they did not treat one another with respect.” But the plague ended on Lag BaOmer, which means they had remedied their actions and began to treat each other with the appropriate level of...

Sarah, the first Jewish mother, is a shining example of the great power that every woman has over her family and our entire nation. It was Sarah who insisted that Isaac, not Ishmael, continue Abraham’s progeny. It was she who raised Isaac in his formative...

Judaism does not believe in freedom of speech. There are certain ways of speaking about other people that are forbidden or discouraged. This heightened sensitivity to language is based on a profound respect for its power. Ultimately, words matter. Kabbala...

R’ Yochanan ben Zakkai, a great Talmudic Sage and leader, once sent his students out into the world to ascertain the best advice for living a righteous and fulfilling life. When his student R. Eliezer ben Horkenus returned from his travels, he reported: “...

We need G-d’s mercy so that the redemption actually arrives. Then, on the Second Passover, we can discuss whether we need to offer the Passover offering, and how exactly to go about doing so properly.

There are two approaches to Judaism, increasing the good or decreasing the bad. On Chanukah, and particularly on the fifth night of Chanukah, we emphasize the former by adding an extra light on each new day.