Chabad Rebbes

Introduction When interpreting our description of G‑d as being “abundant in forgiveness,” The Shemoneh Esreh prayers. Who pardons our sins despite our habitual relapses, the Alter Rebbe writes, Tanya, Iggeres HaTeshuvah, ch. 11. “Forgiveness is [an expres...

Introduction The terms “secret” and “mystery” are often used regarding mystical knowledge. The implication is that even when some measure of understanding can be gained, the essential concept remains fundamentally beyond the realm of human understanding.T...

Introduction Would you ever do something that you do not at all understand and for which you – or others – cannot find a good reason? This question lies at the core of our relationship with the category of mitzvos described as chukim. There are mitzvos th...

The sixth section of the Book of Numbers opens with the law (or “rule,” chukat, in Hebrew) governing the process of purification from the state of ritual defilement that a person contracts through contact with a human corpse. After this, the Torah’s narra...

This week’s Torah reading contains a miraculous narrative: For the tenth time, the Jewish people complained to Moses about their conditions in the desert. G‑d heard their grumblings and sent fiery serpents that wounded the people and caused many to die. W...

This Torah portionis often read near Yud-Beis Tammuz, the anniversary of the release of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn from exile in Communist Russia. Throughout the first decade of Communist rule and especially, after Stali...

Two chassidim and a secular Jew named Bernhardt were part of a hard labor unit which was forced to accompany the German troops in their retreat through Hungary before the rapidly advancing Russian army at the close of World War II. At this point, the Germ...

Chukat begins with an account of the Red Heifer, a strange practice whose object was the purification of those who had become contaminated through contact with the dead. The heifer was burned, and its ashes, mixed with water, sprinkled on those who had be...

The Torah portion of Chukas begins with the laws of the Parah Adumah, the Red Heifer, whose ashes were used to ritually purify a person who had come in contact with a dead body. Bamidbar, ch. 19. The Rambam states in Yad HaChazakah, Laws of Parah Adumah C...

On the 12th of Tammuz 5687 (1927), the day the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe was liberated from Communist prison, having been incarcerated for practicing Judaism under the most trying circumstances, he delivered a discourseTitled “Havayah Li BeOzroi.” Printe...