Living Torah Archives

How many times does every parent ask him or herself: “Am I giving my child the very best that’s out there?” Here, the Rebbe argues that “the best” is not just wishful thinking, it’s an obligation.

The Alter Rebbe offers a parable illustrating G-d’s closeness to every Jew during the month of Elul

The verse commands: “You shall surely rebuke your fellow.” Nevertheless, one must deliver the rebuke joyfully, good-naturedly, and gently.

The windows in the Temple were designed to be narrow on the inside and wide on the outside, representing the fact that its purpose is to shine outward and share the light with the rest of the world. The goblets in the Temple Menorah also symbolize this idea.

At the conclusion of a farbrengen, the Rebbe hands a small bottle of vodka to Rabbi Dovid Raskin, and instructs him to use its contents toward a farbrengen in Crown Heights, and to have some of it sent to camp Gan Yisroel for a farbrengen there as well.

A Jew is instructed to give rebuke, as the verse commands: “You shall surely rebuke your fellow.” Nevertheless, you can deliver the rebuke joyfully, good-naturedly, and gently.

Parents are never satisfied to provide their children with the minimum, or even the average. For their own needs a father or mother might settle for less, but for their children they want only the greatest and the best they can provide. If this is so with food and clothing, which are quite temporary, how much more so when it comes to a child’s spiritual education, which impacts the rest of his or her entire life.

The Talmud in Tractate Megillah relates: “Rabbi Eliezer says we do not read Ezekiel 16 publicly, for it recounts the undesirable behavior of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. In practice, we do not follow Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion. Why, then, did the Talmud record this?

The Rebbe explains the best way to rebuke a fellow who is seemingly guilty of sin.

Many manuscripts of Maimonides’ Commentary to the Mishna show an illustration of the Holy Menorah in which each decorative goblet on the Menorah’s branches face upward. But Maimonides’ own handwritten sketch of the Menorah shows the exact opposite: They face downward.

The first Chabad Rebbe offers a parable illustrating G-d’s closeness of every individual during the Hebrew month of Elul.

The Lubavitcher Rebbes were emphatic that children be taught the Hebrew letters and vowels separately, and only afterwards how to pronounce them together — for example, to recite: "Kumatz-Alef — Uh". Each individual letter, vowel and sound was given at Sinai, and therefore, each must be articulated in its own right.