Emuna Beams

Like all of Rebbe Nachman's tales, "The Clever One and the Simple One" is a kaleidoscope. Superficially, it's a guide to success and happiness. On a deeper level, it signifies the battle between simple emuna and intellectual sophistication. Today's lesson introduces us to our two protagonists.

Who doesn't yearn for a stress-free life? Is it possible? As we see today, when one border becomes quiet, another border flares up. Even if someone tries to avoid the war in Israel, they'll encounter antisemitism in France, the UK, Canada and the USA. There's no escaping. But we can cope, even be happy. We only need to learn a bit of spiritual anatomy…

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.

Despite the cryptic inferences in this story as in all of Rebbe Nachman's tales, we can understand on a personal level. This tale maps our individual journey of searching and finding Hashem.

Only seven short weeks prior, the People of Israel were still slaves in Egypt. But now, they willingly accepted a different type of servitude, accepting the yoke of the Torah and its commandments. They had no idea of what to expect. Three Hebrew words changed the course of history. The greatest sound and light show that the universe ever saw was about to begin…

For peaceful interpersonal relationships, we all must avoid projecting our own weaknesses, insecurity and character flaws on others. Those who see their own faults in their fellow humans look at the world through spiritually-smudged lenses. As such, they arrive at quick judgments and sorely mistaken conclusions, both of which destroy relationships, as we learn today.

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.

How can a Jew possibly survive a world full of tyrant kings, inquisitions, pogroms and worse? Rebbe Nachman's tale provides the unexpected answer, which is also a template of world events, past and present…

In our fourth and concluding lesson in the Book of Ruth, we see the roundabout measures that Hashem takes, within the apparent framework of nature, to fool the Evil Inclination and bring Moshiach.

The discovery of vaccines shows that there's no discrepancy between science and Torah. Since the Torah is the Almighty's blueprint for creating the world, all the true scientific knowledge is in the Torah. Many of our sages, such as the Gaon of Vilna, the Shatzer Rov of London and the Chazon Ish were mathematical and scientific geniuses...

Let's see how the Lost Princess describes our own journey in life. If we look carefully, each of us can see ourselves and our particular challenge in life mirrored in this story...

Who would believe that a chance encounter between one of ancient Israel's most esteemed noblemen and an impoverished foreign convert would change the course of history? Welcome to Chapter Two of The Book of Ruth…