This year Chanukah starts Thursday night, 10th December. There are many events happening which you can be a part of. THE MIRACLE OF CHANUKAH Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights, ” celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods. The Hebrew word Chanukah means “dedication, ” and is thus named because it celebrates the […]

By Tzvi Freeman Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer was known as the Baal Shem Tov—meaning, “The Master of the Good Name.” Love, awe, wonder and joy were his themes, and he set the hearts and souls of all who came in contact with him afire. As a young orphan, as a member of a circle of wandering, hidden tzadikim, he studied the […]

By Tzvi Freeman The Experience I woke up late on the day of the Ten Commandments. Look, stuff happens. When I finally jolted out of bed and ran towards the scene, I met someone coming from there. “Hey, I missed it!” I said. “What went on?” I’ll bet you’re thinking he told me something like, “G‑d said He’s G‑d, no […]

By Tzvi Freeman When I took this job at Chabad.org Ask-The-Rabbi, I didn’t realize I was supposed to be G‑d’s defense attorney. But for whatever reason, people intuitively see religion as a comfort pillow, a set of answers to questions that will set everything alright so that they can go on living within a stable, explicable world knowing that some […]

By Tzvi Freeman The Infinite Leak I’m writing this to alert you that there’s a leak in the system. By the time you read this, it may already be stopped. That’s what happened last year, and the year before, and every other year since this phenomenon began. This year, we’re hoping the leak never gets plugged. In fact, it needs […]