Essays

True love is love of your inner self, that inner mysterious beauty that can never be soiled or blemished.

It’s your brain, after all, and it's still the most sophisticated device we know of. Why shouldn’t you be the exclusive user?

I'll let you in on a little surprise: Who says that yourself is the real you? Maybe the real you is not a subject, not an object, but a verb? Maybe the real you is to be found not in who you are but in those things you need to do?

It's as if you would ask the Creator, a billion times a second, "Seeing what's become of it, would you do it all over again?"

I find this battle terrifying, because I have no idea where it will lead. It forces me to confront the plaguing question: if I truly let G‑d in, what will He do to me once He is there? Who will I be?

Imagine asking a Jew, “Did you ever eat on Yom Kippur?” and he answers, “I felt hungry in my stomach.”

Which is loftier—spirit or matter? The soul or the body? The teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chassidism, extol the first over the second, and then the second over the first, offering a unique and life-altering vision of reality.

In what way are the laws of the Talmud "the wisdom and will of G-d"? What's so "wise" about the how to divide a garment that two people are fighting over? Why G-d would "will" the procedures for buying a donkey?

One day about 200 years ago there was a fire in hell. The whole place burned down. It was bound to happen, with those infernal fires burning night and day and the old devils getting careless over the years...

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi added to a Scriptural verse a one-word modifier that revolutionized the way we think about ourselves and our lives: mamash.

A fundamental principle of the Jewish faith is that there are no “intermediaries” between G‑d and His world; our relationship with Him is not facilitated by any third party. So what is the role of a rabbi, a rebbe—indeed, a Moses—in Judaism?

Why was the Tanya so novel? Who was the Rebbe's target audience and what was his objective for them? Looking no further than the Tanya's title page we read the Rebbe's self-stated mission statement spelled out lucidly.

People intuitively equate "normal" with good. In fact, normal is very bad. A person achieves normalcy when the molecules that comprised his being are in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment, which is to say he is dust

As the most direct and simple line between two points, it is misleadingly the surest way to town; but in truth, the "direct approach" is a dead end

Repression or sublimation? What is the Torah perspective on how to deal with deep-seated feelings of anger, sadness and anxiety?

So I don't exist. Or I don't exist and do exist at the same time. So what? I still have to get up in the morning, I still have to deal with my credit card balance, my mother-in-law, and this guy whose elbow is crushing my ribs on this crowded subway car. It might make interesting reading, but in the final analysis, what difference does it make?

Man is the only truly clothed creature—a creature who attires him- or herself not only for warmth and protection, but to alter, enhance, even transform, his very identity.

We can sit and gaze at it for hours. What is it about a burning flame that captures our imagination?

The fact that you cannot rationally understand something is no reason not to study it.

Why do we become a bar mitzvah at adolescence? Because something dramatic happens to our minds at this time: A sort of awakening, a consciousness, a realization that "I exist"

The mind may be great at solving puzzles, but it's an incompetent idiot when it comes to real life. Wouldn't we much rather be run by the vivacious, freedom-loving heart? Nevertheless, it is the mind that's our conduit for the soul

On the outside, it speaks the language of humankind; on the inside is depth without end. Grasp either end and you have nothing. Grasp both and you have G-d Himself

Criticizing another person is not out of the question. It's just that there are a few conditions to attend to before you start...

If He had made the world a complete and utter mystery, we would have no path to know Him. But if all would fit together like a neat and tidy grandfather clock, we would not know that there is anything more to know...

I ask myself: Am I a hypocrite? Who is the real me? How can a mouth that just uttered angry words to a fellow switch over to read G-d's praises?

Why did the Creator have to speak in order to create? Wouldn’t it be so much more wonderful if we were all just a thought?

Parallel universes, supernatural phenomena, and a world where good always prevails. Is this Grimm's fairy tales, or a chassidic text?

How is it that a G-d who is capable of creating an entire universe, time, space and laws of nature included, can’t get His own creatures to fall in line?

She scrutinized me for a few moments and suddenly her face lit up with the wonder of discovery. Her eyes grew wide and she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! there are two of you!"

How do we identify the internal switches that operate the source of all actions, and do we have the mechanism to manipulate and control them?

I sinned and repented—now what?