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Loving-Kindness

Dec 06 2017

Good Looks

Children, Loving-Kindness, Relationships
by Chabad Intown

This week's email is dedicated to my father in honor of his 70th Birthday celebrated this week, with wishes for long life, good health and nachas from all his children and grandchildren!   The bond between parent and child is profound and unique. When children are young, a parent experiences intense physical love for their child.   When children grow into young’uns the intense love may evolve into appreciation for the uniqueness of the child; their smarts, their talents, etc.   When they are teenagers…well, it reminds me of the line from Rabbi Bernhard from South...

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Nov 08 2017

Servitude is the Greatest Liberation

Challenges, Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness, Prayer
by Chabad Intown

Do you ever want to take a break from yourself? A break from thinking? A break from feeling? The more sensitive and in touch you are, the smarter you are, the greater the desire to take a break, to greater the need to just still the mind.   Yoga, mindfulness meditation and regular meditation are all helpful to this end. But imagine living the paradox, where you feel and think and still experience peace of mind and heart?!   Meditate on that for a bit :-)!   There is help and it comes from an unlikely Biblical figure...

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Nov 01 2017

The Isaac Well Factor

Challenges, Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness
by Chabad Intown

Discipline, being calculated, stringency are all qualities that we employ in our lives for our personal well-being, as well as those under our purview. Imagine a world where that wasn't the case. We'd eat whatever we want, we'd say whatever is on our mind, we'd all be nomads living unproductive lives.   Conversely, if discipline and calculation rules the day, where is the joy, where is joie de vivre? Is that gloomy world the one that G-d wants?   In fact we need a balance between the two. But which one ought to dominate?   These...

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Sep 06 2017

It’s All In The Smile

Challenges, Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness, New Year, Rebbe, Rebuilding
by Chabad Intown

The Mishna states "receive everyone with a pleasant face". We are being taught in this Mishna the importance of having proper social interactions. You may be in a bad mood but you can always smile to another. Your bad mood is not their problem!   Why is the smile so important? I recently read an essay from the Rebbe with a nuanced comment that addresses this question - perhaps.   There is a parable given by the Alter Rebbe regarding the month of Elul. In the parable the Rebbe says that throughout the year...

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Jul 05 2017

Sensitivity and Today’s Media

Challenges, leader, Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness
by Chabad Intown

Wax on, wax off. Practice makes perfect.   Each year as we study the weekly Torah portion, we inevitably chance upon small or big nuggets that jump out and provide a transformative life lesson.   It's also amazing how they seem to always present themselves right at the time that we as a society or as an individual need to hear that lesson.   Look at today's headlines. Any headlines, any website, any news service. I challenge you to find a website that doesn't have a list of insults and shaming comments about some politician, hollywood...

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Jun 07 2017

Mazal Tov and Let them Rise Up

Challenges, Children, Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness, Rebbe
by Chabad Intown

Sarah Chana Radcliffe, a respected family therapist writes the following: Older kids as well as teens need more space to do things their own way. Parents, on the other hand, want to help their kids do things the best way, the safest way, the rightest way - THEIR way. They often suffer tremendous anxiety in letting go of the reigns. If you feel a strong need to give your older child lots of instructions, remember this: he learned everything you had to offer in his first decade. You did a great...

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Mar 01 2017

Tzedakah from the Soul

Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness, Moses
by Chabad Intown

People have so many layers. Our physical layers are complex enough. For example our skin alone has three layers, epidermis, dermis and hypodermis (I cheated, I googled that). From there we navigate all the other layers until we hit the bone and beyond.   When we get into the psychological makeup it becomes even more complex. It's so complex they have a book dedicated to it. It's called the DSM and has 297 entries!   Once we venture into the spiritual realm and Jewish spiritual personal development we enter into an infinite realm...

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Feb 16 2017

Honor Thy Parents

Children, Loving-Kindness, Relationships
by Chabad Intown

In a discussion last week with some Young Adults regarding the critical components to a happy marriage we identified honor, love and admiration.   How does one honor another? For this we have the commandment from this week's Torah portion; Honor they father and mother.   The Talmud asks what is honor? To clothe, bathe and feed. Actions!   Love, while it is important and the spice of any relationship, since however it is an emotion, it is not always present and is not a constant. Honor on the other hand, since it is an action...

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Jan 11 2017

Apology Therapy

Challenges, Loving-Kindness, Rebuilding
by Chabad Intown

Not sure if such a thing exists, but we find an amazing example of apology and sensitivity in this week's Torah portion.   Jacob is on his death bed. He asks his son Joseph for a kindness. The kindness is that when he passes, he wants Joseph to bury him in Israel in Hebron in the Cave of Machpelah.   He says to him, (I'm paraphrasing), although I didn't do this for your mother, I'm still asking you to do this. The commentators explain that Jacob was saying, "I know you have...

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Jan 05 2017

Happily Ever After

Lifestyle, Loving-Kindness, Relationships
by Chabad Intown

We stand under a Chuppah to indicate that the marriage takes place under the Heavenly Eye of G-d.   We place a ring on the finger to demonstrate the Infinite One's involvement in our union.   We circle the groom 7 times to establish a Divine Protective Wall around the couple.   Why all this G-d Involvement in what should be a simple ceremony to demonstrate the committment of two lovers to each other?   Marriage is the union between two finite people. By definition the finiteness of the two means that I stop here and...

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