Chizuk

How old will be you be in seven years if you don’t go to medical school (or fulfill any other ambition)? – Pauline Phillips (“Dear Abby”) Abigail Van Buren, who penned the long-running “Dear Abby” advice columns from 1956 until her death in 2013, was actually a Jewish wom...

One of the greatest successes of the 12-Step program is in teaching addicts how to surrender instead of fighting against desires that they feel ‘powerless’ over. How can we all apply this to our struggles, regardless of if we're addicts or not? What does surrender really ...

So many dear friends (mostly bochurim, but some marrieds too) are crying and miserable. They had worked so hard, b'ezras Hashem reached major milestones, and had attained real menuchas hanefesh. They had set up practical gedarim​, filters, guidelines, accountability. They...

“The Eyes of Hashem your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Devarim 11:12). When trouble in the world causes people’s parnassah to decline, people make every effort to protect and stimulate their livelihoods. G-d fearing Jews,...

In recent weeks I've been thinking about something I saw in one of Rabbi Noach Weinberg’s books where he speaks about reaching our goals. He says that the most common reason we don’t reach our goals is because it feels “heavy”, “painful” or “hard”, and therefore we don’t ...

YOUTH MUST BE TAUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF SIN In our days, there are various groups seeking to force extreme liberal and leftist ideologies upon everyone, to try to justify every sinner, claiming that people are born with negative tendencies which are immutable and therefore ...

Q: How should a person know when to enjoy this world and on the other hand when to be a porush, an abstainer, from this world? A: And the answer is, whatever is good for your health you should use and enjoy in this world. If you like to eat bread and butter and it’s also ...

If lust offered real happiness, would Hashem ask of His children to give up something really wonderful and precious? But it’s not that the Satan offers us something good and Hashem just offers us something better. The Satan was simply given the power to fool us. He is jus...

A member wrote to us today: Today is hod shebeyesod in the sefira count. I won't pretend I understand what that really means. But it resonated for me, on my simple level. Yesod refers to building the foundation of our lives: kedushas habris. And Hod is hodaah, expressing ...

Rav Sholom Shwadron used to give a parable. He would paint a picture of neshamos, departed souls from the Next World, allowed to come back down for one hour, just one hour. He described the scene, how they would cherish each minute, fully aware of what each mitzvah in Thi...