Chabad Rebbes

Introduction He was not the typical chassid. A well-mannered, refined English gentleman who for many years did not wear a full beard, Reb Zalmon Jaffe did not fit the conventional image of a chassid. Nevertheless, as documented in his memoirs (http://www....

Introduction Commenting on the opening verse of this week’s parshah, Devarim 32:1. “Give ear, O heavens… hear, O earth,” the Sifri states, “Since Moshe was close to the heavens, he said, ‘Give ear, O heavens,’ [using a term that implies closeness], and be...

Introduction The Sifri interprets the verse, Devarim 32:1. “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth,” as teaching that Moshe appointed heaven and earth as witnesses regarding the Jews’ observance of the Torah and its mi...

The tenth section of the Book of Deuteronomy is composed almost entirely of the Poem of Testimony that G d taught Moses and instructed him to teach the Jewish people. In it, G d bids the Jewish people to hearken (Ha’azinu, in Hebrew) to His words as He re...

This parshah comprises the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. 32 is numerically equivalent to the term לב, meaning “heart,” alluding to the role of Haazinu as the heart of the Book of Deuteronomy. Just as the vitality of the entire body is totally d...

The Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe of Chabad, was raised by his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe. Once the Alter Rebbe told him: “I want to give you all the Torah knowledge I possess as a present.” The Tzemach Tzedek declined, saying that he preferred to gai...

It is said that the AriZal (Rabbi Isaac Luria), the mystic luminary upon whose teachings so much of our understanding of the Kabbalah is based, was more familiar with the passageways of heaven than the streets of Safed, the town in Israel where he lived. ...

Which path is the Jew to follow? Is he to strive towards heaven and keep himself aloof from worldly events? Or is he, like Isaiah, to find his spiritual home in the things of the earth?

Rashi explains the phrase “He found them in a desert region,”Devarim 32:10. to mean that G-d found the Jewish people to be “faithful to Him in the desert, for they took upon themselves His Torah, kingdom and yoke.” Why does Rashi specify three things with...

The Rambam statesHilchos Teshuvah 2:6. that although teshuvah , repentance, is always efficacious, it is even more so during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, the 10-day period of repentance that begins with Rosh HaShanah and concludes with Yom Kippur. For the v...