Chabad Rebbes

The Shabbat following Tisha B’Av is known as “Shabbat Nachamu.” The name is taken from the opening word of the week’s haftarah.

To be an idealist you cannot consider the resistance that you may encounter while implementing your dreams. Pure idealism follows the dictates of truth alone. On the other hand, without realistic thinking my dreams would stay in the world of fantasy...

The second section of the Book of Deuteronomy opens as Moses recalls how he pleaded (Va’etchanan, in Hebrew) with G-d to allow him to enter the Land of Israel. Moses tells the rest of the Jewish people that they will soon enter the land without him. Moses...

Early Designations In a Torah reading filled with many important events, e.g., the repetition of the Ten Commandments and the Shema, one small passage is easily overlooked. The Torah relates that at that time, Moses set aside three cities on the eastern s...

This Torah portion is always read on the Shabbos after the fast of Tishah BeAv, the day of tragedy that is the anniversary of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the quashing of Bar Kochbah’s revolt, the exile from Spain, and many other distr...

When R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev returned home from his first visit with the Maggid of Mezeritch, his father-in-law asked him what he had learned. “I learned that G‑d exists,” R. Levi Yitzchak answered. “Is that all?!” replied his father-in-law. “Why e...

Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IX, p. 61ff. I. The TurOrach Chayim, ch. 428. See also Shulchan Aruch and Ramah 428:8, Tosafos Megillah 31b, and Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Tefillah 13:19. states that from Parshas Bereishis until the Seventeenth of Tammuz, “the ...

The 9th of Av is the date on which both Temples were destroyed. Each year, on the subsequent Shabbat, we read as our Haftorah the famous passage of consolation from Isaiah “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.” The Midrash tells us that this is, literally, a...

In speaking of the “Cities of Refuge” — six cities to which those guilty of manslaughter could flee to find safety from a victim’s avengers — the Torah in the section of Vaes’chanan says:Devarim 4:42. “he shall flee to one of these cities and he shall liv...

In the Torah portion Vaes’chanan the commandment of tefillin is conveyed in the following manner: “You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes.”Devarim 6:8. Because the verse begins by saying, “You shal...