Shabbat is a time of peace and transcendence. It’s a time when the profanity of the week evaporates and palpable holiness envelopes the day. One who is sensitive can sense that time is fundamentally different on Shabbat. It might operate according to the same speed as the weekday, but it has an entirely different character. …
Depression is really the combination of stagnation and despair. You’re in a place of pain and it seems your situation is inescapable. And because the demon of depression is more of an existential angst as opposed to a purely mental stress, I think its prescription is slightly different than anxiety. Anxiety is a feeling of …
Early on in my life, I was compelled to develop the ability to take criticism semi-graciously. Why? Because growing up I was always surrounded by a lot of women, and there is something about the nature of a woman which creates this insatiable desire to fix a man. It’s actually remarkable, men don’t really care …
Generally, we look at the Torah as a commentary to life. But what is just as true, but not as widely recognized, that our life serves as commentary to the Torah. We can read the Torah many times over, understand the words but be at loss at its meaning. The Torah can be saying only …
I went today to Rav Chaim’s funeral. I was amongst over 750,000 people there. My left leg has been hurting me but I was determined to go. I walked miles to get to the funeral. At a certain point, I began limping, and after I just couldn’t walk anymore, I sat down on some steps …
On the Passing of Rav Chaim & The Evolutionary Process Read More »
Passover is the formation and creation of the Jewish people. In effect, we celebrate our birth as a nation. I had a very interesting encounter recently that gave a whole new meaning to my Passover. I was dead asleep on an intercontinental flight and my stewardess woke me up. Why? She wanted to inform me …
I have a love for the drama of ideas; and nothing moves me, transforms me, and defines me like the study of wisdom. Rav Noach said that what pleasure is to the body is what wisdom is to the soul. I read anything and everything, especially, literature that reflects truth, conveys depth, and has the …
”It was meant to be” or “there is a reason for everything” are not expressions that are suppose to make you passive. On the contrary, they make you introspective and active, and let you know that no matter how much the hurt, no matter how great the loss, your pain is not in vain. That …
Relationships are beautiful connections we establish, internalize, and ultimately become; they are, par excellence, the most expansive and life-enhancing endeavor a human being can ever undertake. I am not trying to be dramatic or romantic, but it is what it is. The human connection is the most majestical, magical, sublime experience. It bonds, creates, forms, …
This is a very interesting article: https://www.theatlantic.com/…/social-media…/629369/. It was written by Jonathan Haidt, a world-renown psychologist who has a professorship at NYU. His article, which he is developing its thesis into a forthcoming book, ventures to supply an explanation of the profound societal malaise plaguing America. You can read it for yourself and draw your …