Indeed, they should. Today, schools do not teach children how to be happy. Instead, they demonstrate that dullness, obedience, and the suppression of happiness are normal conditions. But the real slogan of education should be: “We must teach children to…
Rosh Hashanah (the “beginning” or “head” of “the year”) is the Jewish New Year, celebrated on the 1st of Tishrei (September-October) each year. As with all Jewish holidays, understanding its complete meaning requires understanding the law of root and branch by…
Although the Jewish people make up only 0.2% of all humanity, the profound impact of Jews on the world and the overwhelming attention we generate are undeniable. Jewish relevance then is not found in our numbers but in the quality…
It is a natural phenomenon that is happening more and more today. Many people live ordinary lives, work, and they might be passionate about their job and career, or about other aspects of their lives, and then they suddenly become…
One of my students told me a story about a soldier’s mother who could not pay her electricity bills. The mother was disabled, lived on a small pension, and could not cover the cost until her pension money arrived. On…
No. Our “self” comes from the desire to receive. We can feel shame if we fulfill it only for ourselves alone, since in that action we are opposite to the upper force of love, bestowal, and connection that created and…
Both types of shame correspond to the desire to receive that surfaces within us. Spiritual shame is when we begin to feel the opposition in our desire, i.e., the opposition to the spiritual desire. We build spiritual shame in the…
When Isaac Newton died in 1727, his relatives inherited his vast collection of manuscripts and expected they would be highly valuable. Buyers and scholars from Cambridge, the British Museum, and various church representatives examined them. However, many were surprised or…
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, a philosopher and diplomat, once wrote that there are two ways to be happy: either diminish our wants or augment our means, and the wise person will do both…
We are in the midst of a global crisis. But the word “crisis” doesn’t deserve a bad reputation. In English, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary, crisis is “the turning point for better or worse in an acute disease or fever”…
Researchers who analyzed over 6,000 movie scripts discovered that films following a “man in a hole” emotional trajectory, which are marked by a sharp fall in fortunes followed by a rise, tend to generate the highest box office revenues. This U-shaped pattern…
While feelings of betrayal or abandonment seem impossible to bear, we must rise to a level of understanding where we see that all people around us are like puppets, controlled by the governing force of nature. They act the way…