https://www.chabad.org/1076877

R Ben Tzion Krasnianski

Why the desire to win world, the lower world built on competition ,unearned rewards in this world are received as though they are cheap or cheapened, the satisfaction comes in the earning and that is why this lowest of worlds contains the greatest essence of G-d who must be diligently sought with the result of an earned reward. That is why this world is the holiest of all the worlds. Essence of G-d more holy in this world because it is hidden from us to find and the Jew is to take nothing at face value in the act of finding--Negative energy of darkness ,the harnessing of which brings it back home to G-d.

Learning & Values Kabbalah, Chassidism and Jewish Mysticism The Tanya Concepts & Themes

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Man as Verb

The truth about the Tanya

By Tzvi Freeman

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?

43 Comments

Juice

By Yanki Tauber

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?"

4 Comments

Spiritual Warrior

By Jay Litvin

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?

28 Comments

“My Name is . . . and I am a Human Being”

The Jewish idea of perfection

By Shais Taub

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

13 Comments

The Physical World According to Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

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.

11 Comments

G-d in the Talmud

By Tzvi Freeman

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?

13 Comments

Spicy Food

By Yanki Tauber

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...

2 Comments

How One Word Changed the World

By Baruch Epstein

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.

12 Comments

What Is a Rebbe?

By Yanki Tauber

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?

12 Comments

Accessing the Hidden Love

By Rochel Holzkenner

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.

7 Comments

The Abnormality of Jewish Life

By Yaakov Brawer

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

4 Comments

The Longer Shorter Way

Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

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

13 Comments

Dealing with the Psychological Scars of Childhood

By Tzvi Freeman

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

121 Comments

The Unbearable Heaviness of Being

By Yanki Tauber

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?

4 Comments

The Removable Self

By Yanki Tauber

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.

7 Comments

The Flame

By Yanki Tauber

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

6 Comments

Faith and Reason

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi’s Synthesis of Two Never-Intersecting Planes

By Yanki Tauber

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

3 Comments

Da'at

The Knowing I

By Tzvi Freeman

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"

12 Comments

Mind Over Heart?

By Tzvi Freeman

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

22 Comments

Talking to Himself

By Tzvi Freeman

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

1 Comment

How to Criticize and Other Thoughts On Love

By Tzvi Freeman; based on chapter 32 of Tanya

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

5 Comments

G-d Playing Peek-A-Boo

By Tzvi Freeman

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...

5 Comments

Am I a Hypocrite?

By Yisrael Pinson

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?

10 Comments

World of Thought

By Tzvi Freeman

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?

17 Comments

Chassid in Wonderland

By Naftali Silberberg

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

6 Comments

Judaism and the Art of Eating

By Yisrael Rice

1 Comment

The Bubble

By Tzvi Freeman

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?

By Tzvi Freeman

By Yaakov Brawer

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!"

3 Comments