8:00pm: Healthy Outlets for Teenage Boys
This week’s edition of MyLife: Chassidus Applied with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Episode 97, will air tonight, Sunday, here on CrownHeights.info, beginning at 8:00pm. This week Rabbi Jacobson will address the topics: Women of the Wall; Healthy Outlets for Teenage Boys; Tzniyus; Finding Your Life’s Purpose; Hair.
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As normal teenagers, we all struggle to curb our passions and seem to spend inordinate amounts of energy trying to refocus ourselves away from inappropriate thoughts. In farbrengens, we have shared with each other our struggles with these desires. What does G-d want from a healthy 18-year-old male with raging hormones? Is it possible that we should be getting married now as some other Chassidic groups do? What advice can you give us?
What would the Chassidishe approach be to “Women of the Wall”? I was recently asked my opinion by a Jewish, non-observant woman who shared her resentment, frustration and sincere desire to pray at the Kotel in the way she believes – with kippah, tallis and reading from the Torah. How should I respond?
I am the type of person who needs step by step instructions on how to get things done. I have read many of your articles about purpose in life, but for me, they seem abstract, as I need specific, outlined, “do step 1,2,3…” Can you help?
These are among the topics that will be addressed in this week’s 97th episode of My Life: Chassidus Applied. Additionally, Rabbi Jacobson will continue discussing the Chassidic perspective on hair and overall issues of modesty.
Rabbi Jacobson will also review the following essays submitted in last year’s MyLife: Chassidus Applied contest: “Developing Trust in Hashem” by Michoel Lozenik; “Enhancing Your Home with Sacred Silliness” by Chaim Karp; “Finding Balance: A Contemporary Paradigm” by Avraham Arieh Trugman. These and other essays can be read online at meaningfullife.com/essays.
And finally, the Chassidus question of the week: I was fascinated by your presentation on how Chassidus explains the concept of hair, and its implications in our lives. Frankly, this was the first time I ever heard such a cohesive and dignified approach to this important issue, and helped me appreciate why the Rebbe places so much emphasis on sheitels and the blessings they bring.
However, in reviewing the sources you cited I came upon an apparent contradiction: Likkutei Levi Yitzchak (Chayei Sarah p. 39) writes, that an unmarried woman’s hair leaves room for yenikas hachitzonim (the gleaning of energy by negative forces). While the Rebbe’s 5717 letter you cited (Igros Kodesh vol. 15 p. 415) states that it does not. Can you please reconcile the two?
This hour-long dose of insights is meant to inform, inspire and empower us by applying the teachings of Chassidus to help us face practical and emotional challenges and difficulties in our personal lives and relationships. To have your question addressed, please submit it at www.appliedchassidus.com.
The topics in this Sunday’s hour-long broadcast will include:
- Chassidus Applied to Chof Dalet Teves and Vaeirah
- Healthy Outlets for Teenage Boys
- Tznius
- Hair contn’d
- Chassidic approach to “Women of the Wall”
- How to find purpose in life
- Tzimtzum (follow-up)
- Do time and space exist in the higher worlds? (follow-up)
- Chassidus Question: Contradiction about unmarried women’s hair
- MyLife Essays: Developing Trust in Hashem, Enhancing Your Home with Sacred Silliness, Finding Balance: A Contemporary Paradigm
MyLife: Chassidus Applied addresses questions that many people are afraid to ask and others are afraid to answer. When asked about the sensitive topics he has been addressing, Rabbi Simon Jacobson commented, “I understand that the stakes are high and great care has to be taken when speaking openly, but the silence and lack of clarity on matters plaguing the community can no longer go unaddressed. The stakes of not providing answers are even higher.”
The on-going series has provoked a significant reaction from the community, with thousands of people viewing each live broadcast and hundreds of questions pouring in week after week. At the root of every question and personal challenge tackled by the series is the overarching question: Does Judaism have the answers to my personal dilemmas?
In inimitable “Jacobson-fashion”, the broadcast answers people’s questions in simple, clear language while being heavily sourced. Each episode is jam-packed with eye-opening advice from the Rebbeim, gleaned from uncovering surprising gems in their letters, sichos and maamorim that address our personal issues with disarming relevance. Simultaneously, Rabbi Jacobson is able to crystallize a concept quickly, succinctly, and poignantly for any level of listener.
All episodes are immediately available for viewing in the MLC’s archive and can be downloaded as MP3’s for listening on the go.
Questions may be submitted anonymously at chassidusapplied.com.
