Emuna

Here's how to save lives (including your own) in 90 seconds:

Ein Od Milvado - there is no one but Him. Hashem is everything. We need not look anywhere else for anything we need in material or spiritual abundance and salvation. For anyone who yearns for inner peace, Hashem is your one-stop shopping address. Today's lesson teaches us the first of the 13 Principles of Emuna.

Why bother learning emuna? Why bother searching for truth at all? What difference does either make? Modern society says, "Let me enjoy my life and don't bother me with the details." The problem with that type of attitude is that a life oriented toward appetite – fulfillment and material enjoyment - never attains what it seeks, let alone lasting happiness and fulfillment.

No other creation in the universe has the attribute of free choice, for no other creation has a Divine soul, a human soul and an animal soul. By learning the anatomy of free choice, we see how the human can rise higher than an angel or lower than a beast of burden.

This amazing 2-minute message reflects the simple conclusion of an IDF infantry soldier in Gaza. The question, "Do we know what we're fighting for" helps us reassess our priorites in life.

With all the difficult news in the world, it's about time that we hear something encouraging. Here are seven minutes of hope and great news, information that will help you to see all your heart's wishes fulfilled for the very best.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that being happy always is a tremendous mitzvah. Therefore, each of us must make every effort to avoid sadness and depression at all costs. What's more, the core cause of all illness is a breakdown of one's joy. Passover is a fantastic opportunity to recover our joy, and therefore our health.

In our concluding lesson of Torah 55, we learn a beautiful upward spiral. The more we enhance emuna, the better we pray. The better we pray, the closer we get to Hashem. The closer we get to Hashem, the more we become purified. That way, even a person outside the Land of Israel can attain the aspect of the Land of Israel, which is a special holiness.

Welcome to our 4-part series on the story of Passover. This series of lessons aspires to give us a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Passover holiday. The more the story of Passover becomes alive in our hearts, the more meaningful our observance and celebration of the holiday, especially Seder night. Our first lesson presents the series of events that led up to Passover, and specifically, how the Israelites became slaves in Egypt.

At times like this, when we are all walking around with hearts that are shattered into smithereens, we face a major challenge to our emuna. The evil inclination yells in our ears, "How can Hashem allow something so cruel, so barbaric and so sadistic as the murder of Shiri Bibas and her two angelic red-headed sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 3-year-old Kfir? Why do such unspeakable atrocities happen to such pure, good and innocent people? Let's get some answers and try to make sense of the insanity that's going on all around us.

"The Holy One, blessed be He, showed David the destruction both of the first Temple and of the second Temple" (Tractate Gittin 57b). David, in his holy spirit of prophecy, laments the destruction of our Holy Temple even before its time. He implores us not to forget Jerusalem ever, not even for a moment.

All of heaven, earth and the world beyond cannot contain Hashem's glory. Yet, in His love for Zion, Hashem chose to make it the eternal dwelling for His Divine Presence. As such, all blessings flow forth from Zion, the place of His Holy Temple.