The Isbitz-Radzin Institute Concepts in Chassidic and Kabbalistic Commentary

Im Buch Ester steht geschrieben: „Bei den Juden war Licht und Fröhlichkeit und Freude und Ehre.“ Die Midraschim, oder auch Predigten des Talmud, verschaffen uns einen Einblick in diesen Vers...

» Read more

We read in the scroll of Ester, “The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honour.” The Midrashim, or homilies of the Talmud, provide us with an inside look at this verse...

» Read more

Chasidic Discourse, or “derashot” go deep into the inner meaning of the texts of the Bible and the Talmud. Below we find a prime example of Chassidic “drash” on the subject of Chanuka in the words of one of the recognized geniouses among the Chassidic Rebbes, Mordechai Yosef of Isbitsa. His explanations serve to reveal the messianic illuminations and their obsidian glow within in the well known laws of Chanuka and verses from the Psalms. Such “derashot” are focus-points for meditation which leads the open hearted into worlds of light they only dreamed of.

» Read more

What is the connection between Sabbath Observance, the Torah, and health? Below we will discover not just hints at health and healing in the Bible, in particular, mental health, but the health benefits hinted at in the practice and study of the Torah. The assumption is that there is a spiritual source to physical wellbeing. If you do not believe that health has anything to do with a man’s inner world or spirit, or that the teachings the Torah are the root and source of the spiritual live of the Jews and many among the nations of the world, then there may be little point in continuing to read this blog. Still, for a non-believer, it may be of academic interest. We must begin with some key background information...


The 67th Psalm written in the form of the Menorah


» Read more

This is Chassidus. Chassidus is movement of Orthodox Judaism that sought to renew the service of God so as to include the simple, even illiterate Jews of the Eighteenth Century. At such a time, only the scholars, the Talmudists were considered beloved of God and actually able to serve Him through their study of the Talmud and the performance of the Commandments as codified in the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish Law. There are two critiques about Rabbi Eliyahu, The Vilna Gaon, a firey and holy man, a Genious, totally absorbed in the service of God through intellectual study and clarification of the minutaie of Jewish law...

» Read more

Dear friends. The chassidic writings do not exist in a vacuum. They are a response to a history of Bibilical Commentary going back to Sinai. So in order to know why the writings of the Chassidic masters, such as Rav Mordechai Yosef of Isbits, were such a novel conception (a "chiddush", in Hebrew) you need to develop the patience to study the classical commentaries, such as, with our example below, Rashi, Ramban, and Rabeynu BaChayei. Then your yield from the Masters of Chassidus will be all the richer...

» Read more