Articles in Life Is Beautiful
Happy Birthday
Tetzaveh: The Gift of a Birthday
Moses’ birthday was on the seventh of Adar. The Shabbat before Purim is almost always in the week of Moses’ birthday so let’s use this opportunity to discuss what it means to be born. Many think of birth as the beginning of our story, but …
You Are Good
The Chanukah lights broadcast a simple message: you are good. Sometimes we think that if we lose our job, our relationships fail, we succumb to addiction, or are plagued by obsessions, if we are afflicted by doubts and insecurity, if we are sensitive and easily hurt, if we are manipulative …
Noach: Believe in Yourself
Believe in yourself is a common mantra these days, but it is sadly not as common in real life. Though we live in an age of unprecedented success and prosperity, too many people are mired in misery, insecurity, and negative self concepts.
Though every child has a reach through social media …
Loving talk
Loving talk is not only G-d’s preferred language; it is built into the very fabric of creation.
“In the beginning, G-d created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was astonishingly empty . . . And G-d said, let there be light. G-d saw that the light was good and …
A Life of Seasons
When I lived in California people complained that they missed the seasons. I always wondered about that. Having come from the East Coast, I often told them that if they were looking seasons, I could tell them exactly where to find it. They came to California for sunshine so why …
Fasting And Passover
What do the seventeenth of Tamuz, the ninth of Av, and the first day of Passover have in common? They always fall on the same day of the week.
How does that make any sense? The first day of Passover represents the redemption of our ancestors from Egypt that sparked their …
The Whip
The whip is usually an instrument of punishment, but it can also be a gift. Teachers of old used the whip to administer corporeal punishment. However, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, once wrote about a teacher that was beloved by his students. This teacher never used the …
My Business With G-d
Every morning before I don my talit, I contemplate my business for the day. By tradition, I separate out each of the thirty-two strings that constitute the tzitzit—fringes on my talit. The purpose is to ensure that they are not entangled or knotted and that they are all intact. However, …
