Tzvi Freeman

1 week ago | chabad.org | Tzvi Freeman

Prayer is a form of madness. Tell me that it is rational to talk to the Force of Being as though this were your closest confidant. Tell me that it is not absurd to plead with this force to adjust reality more to your liking—as though you know better how to run the universe. Prayer, like love, is mostly about losing yourself A philosopher cannot pray—unless he loses his mind. A pragmatist does not pray until he loses control.

2 weeks ago | chabad.org | Tzvi Freeman

Be Hole Consider the common association between Jews and bagels for breakfast. Myself, I’m a quinoa-and-avocado man. Nevertheless, mentally constructing a scene in which I invite my Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or Daoist friends to drop by for breakfast, my paranoid Jewish soul hears them translating, “That means bagels and cream cheese.” What does chewy bread with a hole in the middle have to do with being Jewish? And with Jewish breakfast in particular?

1 month ago | chabad.org | Tzvi Freeman

There’s a dark side to G‑d. No one wants to talk about it. Philosophers and mystics alike are fond of pondering G‑d’s oneness, perfectness, goodness, omniscience, amazingness, and all around sweetness and wonderfulness. War, disease, school classrooms and the view from the New Jersey Turnpike get blamed on us human beings and the corruptive quality of dumb matter. There’s something here we are deliberately avoiding. I began to wonder: Who made dumb matter to begin with? Who crafted the human ego?

1 month ago | chabad.org | Tzvi Freeman

People the world over have different ways to talk about G‑d. At some point, the Kabbalists began calling G‑d “The Infinite Light.” For example: Know that before the emanations were emanated and the creations were created, there was a supernal, simple light filling all of existence. There was no vacant space . . . rather, all was filled with that simple, endless light. There was no beginning and no end; rather, all was one simple light, with a single equivalence.

1 month ago | chabad.org | Yehuda Altein |Menachem Posner |Yehuda Shurpin |Tzvi Freeman

13 Facts About the Jews of GibraltarBy Yehuda AlteinGibraltar’s Jews are known for their widespread observance of Jewish law, maintaining strong traditions amid broader assimilation. Infinite Light Made SimpleBy Tzvi FreemanHow could there be light before there is anything at all? What would it illuminate, if nothing yet exists? Where would it radiate, if space is yet to be invented? What is its frequency, considering that time has yet to begin?