Archive for July 2020

This back and forth between Rabbi Shafran and Rav Moshe Weinberger took place in the pages of Mishpacha magazine following their article on the movement toward Chassidus entitled “Meeting the Baal Shem Tov in 2018.” These important letters broaden the conversation by presenting some of the possible challenges to this movement and the counterpoints. A…

The Rebbe of Piacezna, R’ Klonymous Kalman Shapiro, z”ya, was approaching his fortieth birthday: “My heart pounds from my impending fortieth birthday, my entire body shakes from my oncoming declining years. Still, I will try to muster all my strength to commit myself and my life to G-d. Perhaps, perhaps, something will remain. But to what…

A prince once lay dying, and seeing that the doctors could do no more for him, the frantic king sent for a tzaddik known to be a master of medicine. The tzaddik told the king, “There is one cure that might help him. There is a rare precious gem that, if crushed and mixed into…

“And those with understanding hearts walk around and around, tasting, at all times, small droplets from that great sweetness of the Heavenly Delight which illuminates our eternity.” Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook zt”l “On the way to the bar, one also needs a drink.” Chabad Anthem Perhaps the most famous and foundational anecdote in Chassidic lore…

Approximately seven years ago I was approached by a group of individuals who were sincerely agonizing over the state of their commitment to Judaism. Although they had been raised in Orthodox homes and had attended fine yeshivos, they shared in common a general, painful awareness that “something inside had died;” leaving them observant and learned, but…