Remembering Rebbetzin Chana: Jewish Feminine Role Model

Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, a feminine role model of Jewish activism and proponent of Jewish scholarship, mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and wife of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, is being remembered today, on her 50th yahrzeit.

Story: Yom Kippur with Boris

For many years, Rabbi Col. Fishel Jacobs has served as Chabad’s emissary to Israel’s prisons, where he visits incarcerated Jews and provides them with refreshments, words of encouragement and the opportunity to perform several Mitzvos. The following is an excerpt from his soon-to-be-released memoir, titled Coffee Melts Bars, in which he recounts a Yom Kippur encounter with a hulking middle-aged Russian-Jewish convict named Boris.

Laws and Customs: Rosh Hashanah and the Aseres Yemei Teshuva

Rabbi Shmuel Lesches, Maggid Shiur in Yeshiva Gedola of Melbourne, Australia, has compiled a guide to the laws of Rosh Hashanah and the Ten Days of Teshuva, Blowing Shofar and Tzom Gedalia for the benefit of the wider Lubavitch community.

Update: Guide from Crown Heights Badatz Added.

Laws and Customs: Week of Selichos

Rabbi Shmuel Lesches, Magid Shiur in the Yeshiva Gedola of Melbourne, Australia, has compiled a guide to the laws and customs of Selichos, Eruv Tavshlin and Pruzbul for the benefit of the wider Lubavitch community.

United We Stand: Can Individuality and Unity Coexist?

“Unity,” what a beautiful thing. Its virtuous qualities are echoed by politicians and clergymen as well as leaders, activists and ordinary folk of all ilk and class. The word conjures up fuzzy images of an idyllic state of existence – a world in which there is no strife – where humanity is bound by a single objective and a single mind and heart.

8:00pm: Mechanical Judaism, Making Elul Count, Lip Service, Green with Envy

This week’s edition of MyLife: Chassidus Applied with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Episode 34, will air tonight, Sunday, here on CrownHeights.info beginning at 8:00pm. This week, Rabbi Jacobson will address the topics of: Mechanical Judaism, making Elul count, lip service, green with envy and intrusive smart phones (pt. 2).

84 Years Later: Rebbe’s Vision for ‘Complete Tanya’ Begins to Materialize

Chabad Chasidim and students of Tanya are rejoicing this week with the release of the first chapter (19) of The Complete Tanya. This new edition of Tanya, published by the Kehot Publication Society, presents the Tanya text surrounded by three elements: a concise commentary by the Rebbe, references and glossaries, and an anthology of commentaries by the Rebbes of Chabad.

Gratitude Is Good for the Soul; and the Body Too

“Do not all men desire happiness?” This rhetorical question was posed by Socrates to his students. The response was unanimous: “There is no one who does not!”

Remembering Reb Moshe Katsenelenbogen, 83, OBM

Moshe Katsenelenbogen, or Reb Maishke, as he was later known, was born on the 11th of Nissan in 1931 in Gzhatsk, in the former Soviet Union, to Rabbi Michoel and Sarah Katsenelenbogen, the youngest of five children.