ChabadLife.TV Street Farbrengen

A Chassid overhears a Chabad farbrengen discussing the deepest mysteries of G-dliness. Fascinated, he thinks, “If talking about G-d is so wonderful, imagine actually talking to Him!” So he heads off to Breslov! The joke stings. Can we become so absorbed in understanding G-d that we forget to look for Him? From the Rebbe Rashab’s childhood cry, “Why doesn’t G-d appear to me?” to the Mitteler Rebbe’s startling teaching about finding G-d in the pressures of earning a living, we explore the diffe...

Riots in the streets. Hostility toward Jews. The world is restless. Are we? There is a holy unrest: refuse to accept chaos and golus as the world’s natural condition. Reuven ponders: “Perhaps I’m comfortable with my anxiety. It gives me permission to stay stuck in the very situations I claim I want to escape! Do I mistake worry for movement, feeling troubled let’s me feel I am doing something—without actually changing? Parshas Noach offers an unexpected perspecti...

What if the past isn't really behind us, and the future isn't something we have to wait for? With Tishrei behind us and the ordinary pressures of life returning, Reuven and Zacharia explore a radical idea in Chassidus: We are not simply moving through time. We have the power to live beyond its limitations. Beginning with the blessings of Shabbos Mevarchim and the meaning of Shabbos Bereishis, the conversation challenges our habit of seeing life as a series of disconnected moments. What does i...

On the night of his birthday, Zacharia asks Reuven what he'd tell his 20-year-old self. Turning the question around Reuven says he's hearing what that 18-year-old, hitchhiking across Canada and drawing through the night at a Vancouver diner, been telling him? The conversation moves from there. Dr. Edith Eger's line about being pushed by pain or pulled by dreams. Why people who feel stuck often can't name what they used to love. Dr. Twerski calling a twelve-step meeting the most spiritua...

Are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the days in between about becoming worthy? Isn't this what "better through regret" means? In this post-Rosh Hashanah farbrengen, Reuven and Zacharia wrestle with a radical idea: creation itself doesn't have a reason. Blowing the shofar, which changes everything, makes no sense — it is a gezeiras hakasuv, a decree. Don't explain it, understand it, or find meaning in it — simply accept the no rhyme or reason. Why? This begins our relationship with Hash...