8:00pm: Does Chassidus Ever Expect Us to Sleep Less Than Is Normally Required? Is There a Healthy Need for Ego?

The topics in this week’s 261st episode of the highly acclaimed popular MyLife: Chassidus Applied series, with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, will include:

• Chassidus Applied to Pesach Sheni and Lag B’Omer
• Lessons from Behar
• As an orthodox Jew teaching in a secular school, how do I navigate and draw the line between insistence upon kindness and acceptance of all students in our classroom, and normalizing or condoning behavior that is forbidden by Torah?
• Is there a healthy need for ego?
• Can a sociopath do teshuva?
• Does Chassidus ever expect us to sleep less than is normally required?
• Are there any situations when we can shake hands with someone from the opposite gender?
• Follow-up (episode 260): Moustache; Consciousness
• Chassidus question: Please explain the statement that for certain souls, like Rashbi, there was no churban (destruction of the Beis HaMikdash).
• My Life 2019 essay contest winners: 1. Chassidic Lessons on Growing through Trauma, Aharon Zev Moshel, 18, Melbourne, Australia; 2.מודל א.ב.א. – התשובה החסידית להפרעות החרדה בעולמנו המודרני, Menachem Mendel Dekel, 22, Yokne-am, Israel; אגואיזם – מבעיה אל פתרונה, Levi Wilhelm, 17, Tzfat, Israel

This hour-long dose of insights, broadcast live every Sunday night 8-9PM EST, 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 chassidusapplied.com/ask.

In what has now become a staple in so many people’s lives, 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 MP3s for listening on the go.

Questions may be submitted anonymously at chassidusapplied.com/ask.