Halacha, Hashkafa and Parenting
How to Judge Someone Favorably Without Being Naive
A class on the mitzvah of dan l'kaf zechus, balancing firm guidance with gentleness in raising children, and a story about using tefillin to reach a simple soldier.
Honoring Parents: Money, Names, and the Limits of Kavod
A halachic survey of kavod av v'eim: who must pay to feed a father, when honoring a parent causes real financial loss, and whether maaser sheni or maaser ani funds can be used to support him.
Why We Stand (and Don't) for Scholars, Elders, and Rabbis
Examines the halachos of standing for parents, elders, and Torah scholars -- including why we don't stand for every talmid chacham, Rabbi Yochanan's view on honoring non-Jews, and the Rebbe's own practice.
What Does Real Teshuva Actually Require?
Explores fast-day customs like ashes on the head, the meaning of the elder's rebuke before a fast, and why true teshuva requires actively returning stolen goods, not just fasting.
Embarrassment as Punishment -- and Why You Shouldn't Feel Ashamed
Explores embarrassment as a form of spiritual consequence, the Shulchan Aruch's emphasis on not feeling shame, and halachos of doing business on Chol HaMoed.
The Rules of Placing Someone in Cherem
Halachos of cherem -- confiscating possessions, the Rambam's cases, and a story of a rav's market ban -- plus a discussion on how to handle Baal Shem Tov quotations editorially.
Why We Say 'Bli Neder' Instead of Making Vows
Explores why Chazal discourage making nedarim even for mitzvos, the healing power attributed to the sun, and the story of a nazir who regretted ever taking his vow.
The Mitzvah of Visiting the Sick -- And When Not To
Halachos of bikur cholim: why there's no limit on who should visit whom, Rava's advice on when to hide an illness, and the cases where visiting is actually discouraged.
How to Properly Visit Someone Who's Sick
Explores the deeper meaning of comforting the sick, why Rabbi Yosef forgot his learning during an illness, and the halachic guidelines for how long a visitor should stay.
Can You Listen to a Bracha Over the Phone?
Covers halachos of a non-Jewish barber, whether answering amen over a phone or video call counts, and a Talmudic tale about a fly discovered in food.
The Danger of Too Much Fear in the Home
Rav Chisda's warning about excessive fear at home leading to real aveiros, illustrated by stories of halachic scrupulousness from Reb Eliezer Silver and Rav Chaim Brisker.
A Mother-in-Law's Oil, and the Fire Between Husband and Wife
A short piece on the halachic relationship between a mother-in-law and son-in-law, framed through a cautionary story and the metaphor of fire in marriage.
A Mother-in-Law's Oil, and the Fire Between Husband and Wife
A short piece on the halachic relationship between a mother-in-law and son-in-law, framed through a cautionary story, the metaphor of fire in marriage, and a note on Adam's unusual sacrifice.
Can You Eat Fish and Meat at the Same Meal?
A thorough halacha class on the Gemara's warning against cooking or eating fish and meat together -- washing between courses, the OU's fish labeling, and whether a shared fryer is a problem.
Can You Eat Fish and Meat at the Same Meal?
A thorough halacha class on the Gemara's warning against cooking or eating fish and meat together -- washing between courses, the OU's fish labeling, and whether a shared fryer is a problem.
Does a Gentile-Cooked Knife Need Kashering?
A short halacha discussion on whether the prohibition of bishul akum (gentile-cooked food) applies to a servant, and the Rebbe's reasoning for the practical conclusion.
A Woman's Vow, and the Danger of Breaking One
Covers the Shaar Hakollel's special vidui prayers, the halachic foundations of terumah and maaser, and a case study of a sick woman seeking release from a vow she can't fulfill.
Why You Must Learn Before You Can Teach
Explores the two-part mitzvah of learning and teaching Torah, why every act of study requires bitul, and the lesson of not celebrating a Torah opponent's downfall.
How Lashon Hara Shows Up in the Body
Explores the severe consequences of nivul peh (foul speech) and lashon hara, including the hadrokon affliction the Gemara links to these sins.
How Lashon Hara Shows Up in the Body
Explores the severe consequences of nivul peh (foul speech) and lashon hara, and the mysterious phrase 'a hand stretched out' describing a reversed decree.
Can You Wear Tefillin Leather Into a Sanctified Room?
A short halacha piece on the Rebbe's instruction for buttoning a garment, and whether tefillin leather needs to be covered before entering a room of kedusha.
Why the Alter Rebbe Polished His Shoes Before a Trip
A grab-bag of customs: the Alter Rebbe's travel practices, restrictions on naming children, avoiding non-Jewish customs like tying shoelaces a certain way, and the origin of the l'chaim toast.
Where Does the Custom of Wearing a Yarmulke Come From?
A language-focused class tracing Hebrew and Aramaic word origins, the Targum, Friday-night besamim customs, and the halachic status and history of the yarmulke.
Why a Torah Scholar Shouldn't Wear Patched Shoes
Explores the dignity expected of a talmid chacham in appearance, the reliable-recognition test (teviyas ayin) for returning lost items, and which produce may be eaten plain on Yom Kippur eve.
Why You Shouldn't Sleep Alone
A short piece on minyan attendance, giving charity as a way to influence one's fortune, and the halachic concern about sleeping alone (Lilith).
Why Tefillin Are Tied, Not Buckled
A detailed halacha class on the knots of tefillin and the Rashi/Rambam/Rabbeinu Tam debate over their visibility, plus the halachic limits on tying a gartel bow.
Can a Kohen Marry the Daughter of a Non-Jewish Father?
A halachic debate on a Kohen's marriage eligibility when the mother converted, civil versus halachic marriage status, and the story of Rabbi Korff's intervention in an engagement.
Why You Should Marry Into a Torah Family
Stories and halachic guidance on the value of marrying a daughter of a Kohen or talmid chacham, and the dangers of associating too closely with an am ha'aretz.
Could Anything Good Come From an Am Ha'aretz's Child?
Continues the warning against marrying into a family removed from Torah, a story illustrating an 'upside-down world,' and the Rebbe's preference for learning Chumash with Rashi.
What a Jewish Employer Owes a Departing Worker
A sugya on the mitzvah of ha'anakah (a parting gift for a released servant), whether it applies to today's employees, and how a teacher's extra effort with a struggling student earns its own reward.
Catching Up on a Missed Prayer Addition Before Havdalah
A short halacha piece on completing unfinished prayer work before Havdalah, and making up a missed 'Yaaleh V'yavo' insertion.
Why You Shouldn't Wait for a Better Price
Covers the prohibition of ona'as devarim (hurtful speech through questions), advice to sell promptly rather than hold out, and a story of hidden wealth made from date-beer.
יום עיון במשנתו של הרבי: החידוש של חסידות והדרכה בחינוך ילדים
A Yom Iyun in Yiddish on the Rebbe's teachings, held ahead of the Rebbe's yom hilula: what Chassidus is and what it means to live a Chassidic life (based on the Rebbe's 19 Kislev 5726 sichos), followed by practical guidance in chinuch — not shaming a child, especially in front of others, and when a boy should go away to yeshiva.
Why Chabad Doesn't Say Shalom to the Rebbe
A Yerushalmi-based shiur explaining the minhag, rooted in a Yerushalmi passage, that a talmid does not initiate shalom to his rebbi — tracing it through Chabad practice with the Rebbeim and a story about Rabbi Greenwald. The shiur moves into Dovid Hamelech's patient response to the leitzei hador who mocked him about his death, the parable of Rav Bun bar Chiya's twenty-eight years of Torah outweighing a hundred years of ordinary learning, and Rabbi Zeira's unsettling encounter with a butcher in Eretz Yisrael.
Entering Shul, Leaving Shul, and a Miracle With a Snake
A Yerushalmi Berachot shiur on the halachos of proper preparation for prayer, why the Nevi'im always closed their words with comfort, and the special status of praying in a shul. Includes the Gemara's account of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, bitten by a poisonous snake while davening, who refused to interrupt his tefillah -- and the snake died instead.
Smarts, Yichus, and Why Neither Guarantees a Living
A Yerushalmi Bikkurim shiur stitching together a string of aggados: a brilliant, poor gem-expert who proves that effort and intelligence don't guarantee parnassah, why yichus alone 'is like a zero' with nothing in front of it, the honor shown to the Bikkurim procession, and the halachos of standing for an elder, a Torah scholar, or a king. Closes with a sharp critique of judges who buy their positions with money rather than earn them through Torah.
Beis Din
A practical walkthrough of how a Beis Din actually operates: the Torah source for Jewish courts, who can serve as a dayan, choosing judges through zabla, and what happens when a psak isn't followed. Closes with a short vort connecting Avraham's tree-shaded tent to the mitzvah of sukkah.
Why Today's Kids Won't Just Listen
A parent-education talk at Lubavitch Educational Center, built around the Rebbe's letter to a skeptical educator defending the founding of Tzivos Hashem. Traces today's chinuch struggles to a breakdown in kabbalat ol (acceptance of authority), uses the Tanya's mashal of the ox and yoke to distinguish imposed rules from genuine buy-in, and shows how the Rebbe modeled Tzivos Hashem on the army precisely to solve that problem.
Q&A Holocaust
Addresses the question Rabbi Schapiro says comes up most often from outsiders: how a believing Jew answers the challenge of the Holocaust. Unpacks the Rebbe's point that the question is self-contradictory -- if G-d is as great as the questioner assumes, His reasoning must be beyond human judgment -- then brings the Rebbe's sharper position that the Holocaust cannot be explained as punishment for sin, using Rabbi Akiva's death and the Frierdiker Rebbe's teshuvah calls as the “helmet” that protects rather than causes.
Q&A What Make Music Jewish
A frank Q&A on the halachic status of music: why listening to music at all was restricted after the churban, why a goyishe song is worse for the neshamah than a goyishe book, and the test for when a tzaddik can “take a niggun away from kelipah” -- from Napoleon's March to the Marseillaise at the Rebbe's hakafos. Also tackles the harder, unresolved question of pop singers setting Jewish words to borrowed melodies, and closes with why Shlomo Carlebach's music was rejected in Lubavitch despite his own scholarship.
The Beard
Tracing how shaving the beard went from unthinkable in Lubavitch to a recent, uneasy tolerance, through the Tzemach Tzedek's ruling that it is a Torah-level issur of lo yilbash gever and the Minchas Elazar's support, including a U.S. court case over a drafted Lubavitcher's beard. Turns to the Kabbalistic side, the beard's tie to the Yud-Gimmel Tikkunei Dikna, and closes with a debunking of the invented term chalav stam.