WHY SHIMON AND LEVI USED SUBTERFUGE

Curiously, Yaakov describes their assault on the city as, “they killed a man,” but that is because all the people of Sh’chem were considered to them as just one man. The odds were actually stacked in their favor: they were two against “a (single) man.” They were not at all fearful of the people of Sh’chem, and so Shimon and Levi did not have to employ such tactics, meting justice upon Sh’chem in a manner that desecrated G-d’s name

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WHEN THE REBBE LEARNED TANYA WITH A STUDENT

Every year, the mashpia R’ Mendel Futerfas would go to the Rebbe for the month of Tishrei. R’ Mendel’s trip on the plane was unlike that of anyone else, for he spent the many hours putting tefillin on with Jewish passengers or in conversations of kiruv and strengthening of Judaism. It did not bother R’ Mendel that his English (and Hebrew) was broken at best. He spoke in the language of the heart and the neshama and in speaking that way, he was able to bridge all chasms

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THE GERRER REBBE’S “FIGHT” FOR THE UNDERGROUND TANYA SHIUR

Yeshivas Kol Torah is a well-known Litvishe yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel. At one time, it was led by the prestigious posek and rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, z”l. It is a yeshiva of high-level learning and has produced many distinguished students who hold important positions in the Torah world

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THE LOST SOUL THAT FOUND THE LIGHT

It is a common enough sight to see R’ Shimi Goldstein sitting “one on one” with a backpacker whose hair has not met a pair of scissors in years, his clothes in tatters, and delving deeply with complete sincerity into the words of the Arizal cited in Tanya, “that even in the truly inanimate like stones, dust and water, there is an aspect of spirit and spiritual life force

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THE MUSICAL CHAVRUSA SESSION AT FIVE IN THE MORNING

Sea Gate is a quiet, gated community on the Atlantic Ocean, at the edge of Brooklyn. The composer, Yossi Green, lives there and nearby lives the king of Jewish music, Mordechai Ben David. The two share not only musical interests but an interest in learning Chassidus

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THE LARGEST TANYA CLASS IN THE WORLD

A family with small children sat in their living room in Bolshava, a small town on the outskirts of Moscow. They all crowded around the small radio receiver that was on at very low volume. The father’s face looked tense and the children were transfixed. A deep voice spoke from the radio and at a certain point, they began hearing singing. The furrowed brow of the father, Rabbi Aharon Chazan, relaxed. His son, Chaim Meir, was focused on the niggun and he hummed it quietly to himself until he got it right.

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THE GREAT “PUNISHMENT” OF THE DAYAN OF VILNA

I visited the home of the Lieders in Shikkun Chabad in Lud to be menachem the family on the loss of their young father, R’ Tzvi.

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THE BINARY TZADDIK

This week we celebrate the 90th wedding anniversary of the Rebbe and Rebbetzin. While a Chassid should celebrate this day every year, when a special anniversary number comes around, that celebration is bigger and stronger.

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THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: TURNING SUPPORTERS INTO SHLUCHIM

It has been seventeen years since Rabbi Shalom Dovber Amram and his wife Bruria began their outreach activities in the picturesque French town of S.-Brice-sous-Forêt. They came to this quiet and sleepy little community, whose Jewish community has doubled in size since their arrival. Once the Chabad House was established, the activities grew and intensified manifold. What is their secret? They transform those newly involved in Chabad into ‘activists’ and even ‘shluchim’ in the service of the king.

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