At the root of so many people’s questions, doubts, insecurities and fears, lies this niggling question:
Am I normal?
And it shows up in a variety of permutations:
Is this normal?
My history?
My family?
My thoughts, feelings, relationships?
And buried even deeper than that for many is the alternative:
“Am I abnormal? Dysfunctional? Crazy?&r …
Do you believe that the happenings of your life are determined by external factors or by your own efforts? In the 1950’s psychologist Julian Rotter began exploring how people related to such questions and developed a construct called locus of control. People who endorse an internal locus of control believe the events of their lives are generally determined by their own abilities and actions, while those with an external locus of …
The Gemara quotes a verse from Proverbs 20:27:
The soul of man is the lamp of the LORD Revealing all his inmost parts.
נֵ֣ר יְ֭הוָה נִשְׁמַ֣ת אָדָ֑ם חֹ֝פֵ֗שׂ כָּל־חַדְרֵי־בָֽטֶן׃
Rashi on Tanach explains this verse as follows :
נר ה' נשמת אדם. הנשמה שבקרבו מעידה עליו בדין
On the future day of reckoning after a person passes away his soul records all his …
Let us examine the well-known principle of אֵין מוּקְדָּם וּמְאוּחָר בַּתּוֹרָה, that the Torah is not written in chronological order. As many deep Jewish matters that we are first introduced to at a young age, we often accept them without thinking about their broader philosophical implications.
The Gemara asks: If so, let the Torah write first that which occurred in the first month and then let it wri …
The Gemara explains that those three times the word rishon is mentioned with regard to the Festivals are necessary for that which the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught. As the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: In reward for the three times the word rishon is stated with regard to the Festivals observed by the Jewish people, they were entitled to three matters also referred to as rishon: To eradicate the descendants of Esau, to the construction of th …
The Gemara relates: A certain man would regularly say whenever involved in conflict: Adjudicate my case [dunu dini]. The Sages said: Learn from it that he descends from the tribe of Dan, as it is written: “Dan will judge [yadin] his people like one of the tribes of Israel” (Genesis 49:16). He expressed himself that way due to his lineage. The Gemara relates a similar incident: A certain man would regularly walk and say: The bushes on …
