Chabad Rebbes

Introduction Once, a prominent Rosh Yeshivah from the Lithuanian Torah community and the Rebbe Rashab worked together on a number of projects for the communal welfare of the Jewish people. In the course of their work together, the esteem with which they h...

Introduction There is a paradoxical dimension to the laws of tzaraas. The identification of tzaraas blemishes on a person, a garment, or a building must be made by a scholar trained in this field of knowledge, who was “instructed by his master and is thor...

The preceding section of the Book of Leviticus discussed the laws of ritual defilement imparted by dead animals. In this section, the Torah proceeds to the laws of defilement associated with human beings. It first discusses the defilement that automatical...

The names of the Torah readings were chosen not because they are the first — or close to the first — words of the Torah reading, but because they convey the theme of the Torah reading as a whole. It appears difficult to resolve this concept with the name ...

The Rebbe tells of two sages traveling in a coach on a mission to help Jews in a distant community. They were speaking words of Torah and as such, they were accompanied by angels. The horses, on the other hand, were going to their destination to receive t...

Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XII, p. 70ff. I. On the verse,Vayikra 12:2. “When a woman gives seed and gives birth to a male,” our Sages comment:Niddah 31a. “When a woman gives seed first, she will give birth to a male. When a man gives seed first, she will give ...

The previous Sidra, Shemini, contained the laws of ritual cleanliness and purity as applied to animals. This week’s Sidra applies the same concepts to men and women. In the Midrash, Rav Simlai draws an analogy between the fact that animals were created be...

The Torah portions of Tazria and Metzora deal to a very large extent with the laws of nega’im, a condition of impurity (not found nowadays) affecting people, their clothing and their dwellings, that came about as a result of an individual’s spiritual fail...

At the beginning of the Torah portion Tazria, we read: “When a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy….”.Vayikra 12:1. In terms of man’s spiritual service, “When a woman conceives” refers to a spiritual service aroused from below, rather than one that e...

The Torah portion of Tazria deals with the laws of spiritual purity and impurity as they relate to man. Rashi,Vayikra 12:2. quoting the Midrash,Beginning of Tazria. states: “R. Simla’i said, ‘Just as man’s creation came after the creation of all animals, ...