The first 32 days of the Omer obligate us to curtail joy and joyous occasions. Then comes the 33rd day, 18 Iyar, the anniversary (yahrtzeit) of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai's departure from the physical world. Everything turns completely around with singing, dancing, rejoicing and festive meals. What's… [Read more...]

When newcomers enter in to the service of Hashem, it looks like Hashem is pushing them away. They're hit with all kinds of problems that they never had before?… [Read more...]

King David suffered unspeakable emotional and physical hardships. These included imminent death in captivity on more occasions than one. Prophetically, he felt our pain and wrote these Psalms for us… [Read more...]

The heart has a spiritual self-cleaning mechanism that is capable of cleansing it from all forms of impurity. Rebbe Nachman teaches us how to activate… [Read more...]

Sometimes our troubles are so tormenting that we'd be happy to sprout wings like a dove and just fly away to a place of peace. King David felt exactly like that when he had no rest from enemies, both foreign and domestic. Prophetically, he felt our pain and wrote these Psalms for us… [Read more...]

The closest distance between two points is a straight line. In spirituality, straightness means simplicity and honest innocence. The two traits, which are really one, make a person beautiful. They also create the closest distance between the person and the Creator.… [Read more...]

Confessing one's wrongdoings to the Almighty does more than merely cleansing one's soul. It rejuvenates the spirit. A rejuvenated spirit is a healthy spirit, and a healthy spirit is a happy… [Read more...]

The Gemara teaches us an amazing lesson: before enhanced abundance and joy, there's chaos, both physical and emotional. We are taken out of our comfort zone in order to accustom us to a new and better reality. That's the key to understanding current events. It's also proof that Moshiach is… [Read more...]

Hashem gave a most difficult command to the Israelites. Each family had to slaughter a lamb, which the Egyptians held as their prime deity. This was a dangerous act, where emuna had to prevail over logic and fear. Such dedication to the Almighty triggered the final exodus from Egypt, as we learn in… [Read more...]

With his unprecedented disrespect of the Almighty, Pharaoh was begging for punishment. The punishment came quickly. There were ten different plagues, each a precise measure-for-measure response to the suffering that Pharaoh and the Egyptians meted out to the… [Read more...]

How did a fierce, proud and independent people like the Israelites fall into slavery in Egypt? Why did they have to suffer unspeakable atrocities? Here, in first of our 3-Part "Story of Passover," we gain a deeper appreciation of the Passover holiday and of true… [Read more...]

The Passover Seder night is not an evening of reminiscing about what happen to our nation 3,336 years ago. Like everything else that's Divinely inspired, it's timeless. The Haggadah is about us - today - and much more relevant than the daily news. Our future is where our past is; without our past,… [Read more...]