Community and Individuality

Most of us like to express our individuality. And yet, when given autonomy, many of us feel a need to belong. How can we reconcile both these needs?

Each sound another timbre, another color, another world. But somehow, they are all one. The players and the instruments, the instruments and the orchestra, the orchestra and the conductor, the conductor and the music, the music and the energy pulsating th...

We are united by a singular cause: to feel good and look good. People walk in with all types of garb that hides their overweight body parts. But once they change into gym clothes, there is nothing to hide and no one is judging one other. We’re all in the ...

Was anything accomplished? Is there any point in agreeing on a goal, if there is no consensus regarding its implementation?

One might have imagined that the Rebbe's standards for, and expectations from, his own followers might have declined, since his outreach extended to people entirely unaffiliated with Judaism.

How often do we bypass our value system, simply because that’s what everyone else does?

He knows we are not angels, because He didn’t create us to be perfect. But He did create us with the ability to connect with others and become better people . . .

This particular neighborhood with a bustling Jewish population has always amazed me. It was an interesting mix of new and old, modern and traditional, big city cosmopolitanism at the same time as small, old shtetl village style.

As a rabbi, I assume you believe that Judaism is THE truth. If so, how do you explain the fact that there are so many other religions, and only a tiny minority of the world's population believes as you do?

Every individual possesses some unique advantage over every other. Each member of the nation has some positive quality that is unique to him or her. Every individual is uniquely needed and indispensable.