7 Teachings From the Lubavitcher Rebbe, 26 years after his passing.

‘Well,’ said the Rebbe, ‘I will tell you what you must do and teach others to do. Regard every person – familiar or a stranger, young or old, learned or unlearned, observant or unobservant – as if he or she might be the Messiah, for the Messiah will surely come in disguise. If only we would do this, we would find that, without our realizing it, the

The first version says that the Chofetz Chaim answered, "If a person thinks that income comes from his business, then he might try to pressure customers into buying. People, especially prospective customers, shy away from pressure tactics and those who resort to them. If they'd only trust Hashem for their income, they'd spare themselves and ot

As Jews, we do not follow the majority merely because it is the majority. In age after age, century after century, Jews were prepared to do what the poet Robert Frost immortalised: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.5 It is what makes a nation of leaders.

In other words, the situation itself may be painful or unpleasant, but it will lead to a positive outcome. If we were to know the positive results from the outset, we would decide that it is worth enduring this negative experience for the sake of the positive experience. Rabbi Akiva taught that even when a person does not have such foreknowledge, h