Refusing to Endorse Books

Exploring the Rebbe's attitude toward "Yira Tata", a baseline fear of G-d that is usually associated with accepting the yoke of heaven and a fundamental fear of sin.In Chassidus, where our focus is often love and awe of G-d, is there room for this baseline fear? And in the month of Elul, when the King is in the field smiling at us, is Yira Tata still important?

Letters, Sichos, and stories from our Rabbeim on the power of Tehillim, covering three major points: 1) The history behind the Previous Rebbe's decree that psalms should be read after prayers and in Tehillim Groups. 2) The power of Tehillim as the ultimate Segulah for all of our needs. 3) The importance of dedicating Rosh Hashanah not to idle conversation or even Torah study, but the non-stop saying of psalms.

While exploring letters from the Rebbe that describe Segulos for good eyesight and spiritual cures for vision loss, we also discuss the Rebbe's position on contact lenses. And, as a bonus, we demonstrate from primary sources, photographs, and paintings that a least four Chabad Rabbeim wore glasses.

The Rebbe's campaign against family planning. In these letters, the Rebbe describes family planning, birth control, and the choice to space out children as a destructive ideology that undermines the foundations of the Jewish home and completely misunderstands what a gift children are. While allowing room for individual cases in which it is dangerous for the mother to get pregnant, the Rebbe pushes back against the trend to limit or delay having children for any other reason.

The importance of tznius is often expressed to women, but less so to men. The Rebbe explains the importance of modesty, and emphasizes that its rules apply to men just as women. Bonus: A deep-dive into the Rebbe's position on men wearing shorts.

The Rebbe emphasizes the importance of a Bas Mitzvah, and often explains it in the same light as a Bar Mitzvah. But when it comes to Bas Mitzvah parties, the Rebbe is less enthusiastic.

The Rebbe refuses to issue approbations to books in many letters, routinely citing "the custom of the Rebbe's house" or lack of time to properly review the manuscript. This Shiur looks at a sample of those letters and provides a few guesses as to why our Rabbeim have the custom not to provide Haskamos, even when they clearly approve of the book being published.

This episode traces one of the most fascinating textual controversies in the history of Sifrei Torah through ancient manuscripts, famous Torah scrolls, and the words of the Alter Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab, the Friediker Rebbe, and the Rebbe.

The Rebbe's approach to space exploration, with specific attention to how his letters and Sichos addressed religious objections to the Moon landing in 1969, from those who suspected that it would contradict verses and prayers implying that the moon is unreachble, to those who worried that scientific achievements of this caliber who engender hubris. In characteristic form, the Rebbe not only solves the "problem" of the moon landing, but turns it into a lesson in the service of G-d.

The Rebbe sees no issue with the idea of extraterrestrials (and maybe even UFOs), but provides three important guidelines for how we are to think about life on other planets.