Lubavitcher Rebbe

At the age of 17, I had a formal education more comparable to a third grader. I lacked the opportunity to function as an informed, educated young adult.

Yesterday was proclaimed National Education and Sharing Day in tribute to the late Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Schneerson's birthday. It baffles me that the Chabad movement has inspired such an observance.

In the time it takes for the brain's signals to pass through the neck's constricted channel, Jewish mystics identify that the transference of a thought into its physical interpretation occurs.

While one must not tar all ultra-Orthodox Jews with the brush of intolerance, the fact is that the antagonism displayed by haredim toward other Jews is becoming ever more extreme. It was not always thus.

In constant struggle against malevolent forces who seek to defeat him, Jacob gives birth to a new concept of religion: not the subservient man of the spirit, but the rebellious man of faith.

"In the silence of our souls we can hear what the Rebbe would be saying to us now: 'You think you've done enough? There is always more of the mountain to climb.'"

There is a reason why men of repute continue to visit Rabbi Menachem Schneerson's grave. It is not merely for a spiritual or religious boost; they sense that his wisdom can help shape a better world.

My holiday is the 28th of Sivan, because that's the day 70 years ago we were given a chance for spiritual survival down here on the bottom half of the plane.

The notion of an infinite chasm between you and G-d is simply not true. It is not a vertical relationship of G-d up there and you down here, but a horizontal one. Your own soul is G-dly.

What more is there to say about the Lubavitcher Rebbe 16 years after his passing that has not already been said? I was pondering that question as I walked the streets of my boyhood town of Miami Beach over Passover.

Does Jewish tradition allow for the possibility that the Messiah might never know he (or she?) was Messianic?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe brought about the greatest Jewish spiritual revolution of all time, and by the time he died he had almost single-handedly reversed the tide of two centuries of Jewish assimilation.