As a young boy, a fire broke out in the home of the Maggid of Mezeritch. After safely evacuating, he stood with his mother, watching the flames consume their home. His mother began to cry. The young boy tried to comfort her. “I’m not crying over the...
There’s a story told about Reb Simcha Bunim of Pshischa, in which he told his students the following directive. One must be constantly aware of and fear the influence of the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. To illustrate, he said, imagine the yetzer hara is...
There’s an intriguing halacha in Meseches Baba Basra which teaches that when two individuals have a dispute over the ownership of a particular item, a boat, the solution is, “kol d’alim gvar.” Whoever is stronger wins. This seems...
 There’s a story told about Kurt Vonnegut who met the novelist Joseph Heller at a party hosted by a wealthy hedge fund manager. Vonnegut pointed out that their wealthy host made more money in one day than Heller would ever make from his best selling novel Catch...
The Rebbe Rayatz once said at a farbrengen that it’s impossible to have a proper comprehension of Chassidus, the inner mystical dimension of Torah, if one does not have a chush in Naginah, a sensitivity to song. Now Rabbi Chatche Faigen, the legendary...
There’s a story told with one of the esteemed disciples of the Alter Rebbe. It was towards the end of a lengthy private audience in which he had discussed his service of Hashem in great detail. His learning, his davening, his spiritual character. The Alter Rebbe...
