Parasha Thought: Raw Thoughts on the Toulouse Massacre

Sholom Aleichem. Some raw thoughts on the Toulouse massacre…

I thought to not start this column with “Sholom Aleichem” because the Jewish People are in an international state of mourning and to mourners one doesn’t extend this greeting. Nazi-like cruelty has been visited upon our people. It is disturbing to read how the murderer perpetrated his evil in cold blood and with an extra effort to make sure his victim didn’t live. One wants to ignore this. It is just too much to bear. But is our discomfort reason enough to make the pain of our brothers and sisters into a mere statistic?

Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: The Funeral

In this 24th installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes the funeral of her husband, Reb Levik, who had succumbed to his illness while still in exile.

Parasha Thought: A Precious Neshama

There is a new arrival in Gan Eden this Shabbat. Every week for four years I have ended this Dvar Torah with a prayer to G-d Almighty for the complete restoration to robust good health of a sweet Jewish child named Aliza Schwab. The doctors were smug and certain in their dire predictions four years ago. “A matter of hours,” was what her courageous parents were told again and again. But she prevailed, a sweet child against the world of darkness.

How Lubavitchers Inspired the Vizhnitzer Rebbe in 1994

I remember the Vizhnitzer Rebbe’s travels to Ukraine in the month of Av, 1994. Together with 700 of his Chassidim, he prayed at the gravesites of many Tzadikim buried in the region, when he arrived in Berdichev a few days before Tisha B’av.

Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: Final hours

In this 23rd installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes her husband, Reb Levik‘s final days and hours before his passing.

Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: Emotional Suffering

In this 22nd installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes how her husband, Reb Levik‘s condition began to deteriorate just as he was becoming the established leader of the Jewish community in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. This took a tremendous toll on his emotional health as well.

A Deeper Look at the Life of Chabad’s Founding Father

Historian Immanuel Etkes has blazed a trail through the forest of Hasidic writings and biographical scholarship about the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, and produced a new sort of biography that gives a full picture of this spiritual giant and charismatic leader. The following is a review of his work by David Assaf:

Acclaimed Physicist Bridged Religion and Science

Physicist Cyril Domb, whose advancement of theoretical physics led to new understandings of everyday phenomena, passed away last week at the age of 91. A mathematical prodigy, he also was an accomplished Talmudic scholar and authored dozens of articles on the interplay between the Torah and science, in addition to several Jewish scholarly works.

Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: Shaalos from the Haftorah

In this 21st installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes how agents of the NKVD (secret police) would infiltrate the synagogues disguised as pious Jews, and try to gather incriminating information on their unsuspecting fellows.

Remembering Rabbi Yisroel Shimon Kalmanson, 98

Rabbi Yisroel Shimon Kalmanson was born on Tu B’shvat, 5674 (1914) to his parents R’ Shneur Zalman and Menucha. He grew up in Vitebsk, White Russia. As a boy he was brought to learn in Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in a town near Vitebsk.

Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: An Inexhaustible Fountain

In this 20th installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes how her husband Reb Levik, although already weak and frail from illness, would “come back to life” when he received fellow Jewish visitors.

How to Teach Your Child to Become a Mentch

Do you want to teach your child to become a Mentch? Why can a few positive words be so uplifting to a child a word? When and how should we bestow praise? A new series presented by Rabbi Nochem Kaplan can show you how.

Is Yoga a Rocky Road to Idolatry?

Is T.M. and yoga the Path to enlightenment? Or a rocky road to idol worship? CrownHeights.info and the Avner Institute presents a letter to Doctor Yehuda Landes, wanting to open a holistic center for fellow Jews, where the Rebbe’s response reveals remarkable insight – not only as to the need for proper guidance, but the use of “alternate therapies” within a Torah framework.

Rebbetzin Chana’s Memoirs: The Rav and the Writer

In this 19th installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana reminisces about an episode with a Jewish writer named Markish, which took place while they were living in Dnepropetrovsk.