ב"ה
The fatalist maintains that things are the way they are, and that nothing
that anyone does really makes a difference; so there is reason neither for
exultation nor for despair. The activist, on the other hand, believes himself to
be the master of his fate. So he exults over his achievements and despairs when
things do not go the way he's planned, believing the latter to be the result of
his failure to make happen what he wanted should happen.The Jew is neither and both.
Exodus 21:1-24:18 Torah Reading for Week of February 18-24, 2001 
If my ox gores your ox and kills it, how much do I have to pay? It depends. Did
it gore your ox in my yard, in your yard, or on the street? Was this the first time it's doing this, or has it gored other oxen before?Is this what G-d and Moses were talking about on top of Mount Sinai? The Parshah in a Nutshell Full Parshah summary with commentary More on the Parshah from the Chassidic Masters
It may seem odd that I am writing such a detailed letter. But I have noticed that it’s been very hard for people to talk about this, so I decided to step forward on my own and tell this story. A person does not come into this world without a purpose. We believe that each individual is here to fulfill a mission. I will not have my Zalman remembered as a baby who lived for four weeks and died. I would therefore like to relate a few stories about our experiences during his short life.
I think of my mother at the weirdest times. Once I was in the back seat of a
taxi. My thirteen-year-old student was crying in the front seat. Anesthesia does
wear off.Mrs. Vodofsky is the secretary at a nearby metal factory. She has red hair that lights up her face. She tells us to sit. “Would you like something to eat?” We sit around the small table sipping and whispering jokes about men who snore. In Kharkov, you can fit a lot of people into a small room, providing they all smile.
The Torah's laws governing the the different levels of responsibility to
which the "Four Guardians" are held, address some of life's most
central questions. Whose life is it, anyway? Do we possess an inherent right to
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" or must we earn these
things? What are our responsibilities towards our Creator and the rewards we
might anticipate in reciprocation, and what, if at all, is the correlation the
responsibilities and the rewards? Is it enough to "do our best" and
expect life's blessings to flow to us, or is reward measured by achievement?
To what extent does human knowledge and expression shape the reality which it observes and defines? In the writings and talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe we find a fascinating convergence of traditional Jewish mysticism, Halachah and quantum physics, providing a comprehensive description of the function of the human being within the cosmic creative process.
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