The Alter Rebbe teaches that when hatred rises in a person’s mind towards another, or jealousy or anger or a grudge, one should immediately remove this thought from the mind and should not entertain it. On the contrary, the person should prevail over their emotions, treating this person with kindness and showing an abundance of love. Not only shoul

The Zohar says that “Someone who gets angry is like one who worships idols.”9 Here Chazal (our Sages) stress that anger stems from lack of faith in the oneness and goodness of all, so it’s as if an angry person is siding with idol worship or the evil inclination.

The Talmud teaches that a person is led down the path that he chooses to follow.1 If we believe everything is for the good, then reality becomes good for us, but if a person only sees “bad,” then they are treated accordingly with this lack of emunah (faith), resulting in “bad” manifesting more and more.

Hashem’s main purpose in the creation of the world is chesed, but without gevurah, we would be robots or slaves. The relationship we have is not that of master and slave; it is of a parent and a child. We are meant, by our own free will, to serve the Holy One, much like a child who wants to give to or help their parents. Imagine a parent carrying a

Love is a choice, and an action. In this way, the commandment, “And you shall love” manifests through all the ways in which we perform acts of love in the world.

It’s written in Talmud Brachot, “Let my soul be like earth to everyone.”15 Everyone treads on the earth and destroys it to an extent; yet the earth remains in its humble state and continues to provide nourishment, food, drink, gold, silver and precious stones. Rabbeinu teaches that in the case of the enemy that may oppose us or treat us poorly, we

a true tzaddik has a greater yetzer hara than everyone else, and the consequences of their choices are, therefore, much greater. In this instance, we see that Moshe, who lived his entire life righteously, lost the Promised Land with just one moment of anger.

our task and indeed our purpose is to spiritualize reality by bringing light into our own darkness (prati), and by doing so, to bring light into the world (klali).

Joseph B. Soloveitchik teaches in The Lonely Man of Faith, “‘I will speak that I may find relief’; for there is a redemptive quality for an agitated mind in the spoken word, and a tormented soul finds peace in confessing.”