Although every day should be a day of thanksgiving to God, nevertheless, since today is considered a thanksgiving holiday, where we sit down and take time to actually thank God for His blessings , it is a good holiday to observe.  Thankfulness, gratefulness, is a very important part of life. If we are unable to appreciate our blessings , we can never be truly happy.

Today is the special and auspicious day of Yud Tes Kislev, when the first Chabad Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, was freed from Russian prison, indicating Heavenly permission was granted to disseminate the teachings of Chassidus, the inner part of Torah, without limitations. The Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya, innovating the teachings of Chabad Chassidus.

It is very sad that America runs on money.  Americans put money first and all other values second. People judge their self worth based on how much money they have. Would it not be much better to value one’s self worth based on having good character traits, how many people one helps, how large and good a family one has…..but in America, none of that is looked up to the way it should be.

Now, just before the coming of Moshiach, the whole world is a big test.  We are all challenged with a society that is filled with darkness,confusion, immorality, wrong ideas and lack of clarity.   But as we read the story of Avraham Avinu in the Torah, we see how Avraham lived at a time where there was only idolatry .   He was one man against the entire world!

This week’s Torah portion is Noach. This is the perfect time to again publicize the sheva mitzvahs Bnei Noach (Noachide laws).

The following 7 commandments (sheva mitzvahs Bnei Noach) were given to Noah by God for all humankind to keep. The Jewish nation was given 613 commandments at the time of the giving of the Torah but the non Jewish nations have the following 7 Noachide laws to keep in order to insure that they will be righteous, moral people:

God created man in His image. This means many things. But we know, as Chassidus teaches, the Kingdom of earth reflects the kingdom of Heaven.   The fact that we have a desire to connect and marry, is because God has the same desire albeit in a somewhat different way. He created us, the Jewish nation, to be His wife. Does God really desire companionship?

Why is it so many of us build our self esteem around food?  Or we tend to build an identity around food? “I am vegan”, “I am vegetarian”, “I eat paleo”, “I am gluten free”, “I am fat so I feel ugly”, or “I am skinny, I feel so beautiful”. 

A major problem in society today is that we lack “kabbolos ol”, meaning accepting the yoke of Torah without questioning and simply because these are the commandments of the Creator. People today try to justify being lax in many areas, somehow imagining that we have the right or option to decide what things we want to observe and what things we do not.  This is because people no longer have that attitude of subservience, humility and kabbolos ol that characterized previous generations.

There is a danger lurking in almost every home these days which is wreaking havoc on families, children, relationships etc.  This danger is social media!  Yes, I know it has many benefits to it and if used correctly, it can certainly be useful . In fact, when Moshiach comes I am sure it will get announced around the world in about two seconds due to social media!

Feeling like you are nothing can be either positive or negative.

The negative concept is when you feel you are good for nothing and basically useless.  Nobody wants to feel like they are nothing or worth nothing.