<span style="color: rgb(47, 76, 90); font-family: Signika; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">This class was presented on Thursday, 21 Sivan, 5784, Parshas Shlach, June 27, 2024, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

What if Hashem Was Not Triggered by a Fit of Rage to Annihilate His People?

Likkutei Sichos Shlach #2

The Incredible Divine Love to Every Jewish Soul

<span style="color: rgb(47, 76, 90); font-family: Signika; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">This class was presented on Tuesday, 19 Sivan, 5784, Parshas Shlach, June 25, 2024, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

All of Life Is a Story of Three Acts: The Void, the Search for Attachment, and the Ways I Connect

Shlach Women's Class

What We Do With Our Loneliness: Why Rachav Married Yehoshua

<span style="color: rgb(47, 76, 90); font-family: Signika; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">This text-based class on Likkutei Sichos vol. 23 Shlach was presented on Monday, 18 Sivan, 5784, Parshas Shlach, June 24, 2024, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Something very disturbing emerges during the story of the spies. When G-d tells Moses He will annihilate the entire nation, Moshe argues that this will cause the Egyptians to claim that G-d was incapable of bringing the people into the Promised Land. Could Moses not find any other rationale to influence G-d not to annihilate an entire nation of some three million people, men, women, and children, save the fact that it won&rsquo;t look good for the neighbors?!
Moshe should have said: &ldquo;These are Your creatures, which you created. These are Your children, Your nation, which You have taken out of Egypt and chosen as Your people! Have compassion for them!&rdquo; This is exactly what he said at a previous disaster when the nation constructed the Golden Calf, and G-d wanted to annihilate them.
At the Fabrengen of Shabbos Parshas Shlach 5740 (1980), published in Likkutei Sichos vol. 23 Shlach, the Lubavitcher Rebbe offered a paradigm shift in understanding rewards and punishments in the Torah.

How Are We to Understand the Punishments in the Torah?

Likkutei Sichos Shlach #1

Why Doesn’t Moshe Protest the Annihilation of 3 Million Jews?!

This class was&nbsp;presented on Tuesday, Parshas Shlach, 24&nbsp;Sivan, 5783, June 13, 2023, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

How Do I Lose Touch With Reality? When I Ignore the Inner Rhythm

Women's Class Parshas Shlach

Where Is Paradise? Why Women Don't Grasp the Sin of the Spies

This class was presented at Ohr Chaim Shul in Monsey, NY, on Sunday Parshas Shlach, 20 Sivan, 5775, June 7, 2015.
The Jews are poised to enter the ancient land of Canaan. Finally, the journey that began with the Exodus and stopped at Sinai is to reach its final destination. Moses will lead them and usher in a new dawn for civilization. Moses sends twelve spies, handpicked from the best and brightest men of the nation, to bring back a report on the land and strategic military information. But then disaster strikes. Ten of the spies return with a terrifying report: The cities are fortified, the people are mighty. Even the produce is fearful. The people panic, and refuse to continue. They are ultimately punished to spend the next forty years in the desert, and only their children will enter Israel, under the leadership of Joshua.
Many interpretations are offered to explain the grave mistake of the spies -- how such great men could make such a terrible and costly mistake. The Talmud says they questioned G-d&rsquo;s abilities. The Zohar says they were afraid of losing their status as leaders if they entered the Promised Land. Both explanations seem absurd. They have witnessed the greatest miracles of mankind; and would they really jeopardize the future of the entire nation because of their craving for power?! The most remarkable of all the commentators on the episode of the spies was Rabbi Schnuer Zalman of Liadi. His insight turns the conventional understanding of the spies upside down. They were, in his view, not afraid of defeat. They were afraid of victory. What they said to the people was one thing, but what led them to say it was another entirely. We come to discover why the day of their death, 17 Elul, is a day of mourning in Jewish law; why the concept of a Minyan is derived from the spies. We also gain an understanding of the mitzvos following the story of the spies, the mitzvah of wine libations, Chalah and Tzitzis.

They Were Not Afraid of Defeat; They Were Afraid of Victory

Class Shlach

The Noble Sin of the Spies: Craving a Heavenly Life

This weekly women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Shlach, 21 Sivan, 5781, June 1, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson&#39;s home in Monsey, NY.

How do we understand&nbsp;Moshe&#39;s strange argument to Hashem:&nbsp;Don&rsquo;t kill Your children because of what the neighbors will say?!&nbsp; And why didn&rsquo;t repentance work after the story of the spies?&nbsp;

The class is based on Sefas Emes and a talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Perhaps G-d was not punishing the Jews, only help them confront their reality.

Why Didn’t Repentance Work for the Spies? Why Did Moshe Argue Not to Kill Jews Only Because of the Neighbors?

Women's Class Shlach

If You Believe You Can't, You Really Can't

This women&#39;s class was presented Tuesday,&nbsp;Parshas Shlach, 24&nbsp;Sivan, 5780, June 16, 2020, streaming live from Rabbi Jacobson&#39;s home in Monsey, NY.

There is a sequel to the story of the spies, recorded in the second chapter of the book of Joshua, and it is read in the haftorah of Shelach. 39 years after the first episode with the spies, Joshua&mdash;the successor of Moses, and one of the original 12 spies sent by Moses&mdash;sent his own two spies to scout the land of Canaan. This time, though, the mission ended in success. They returned to the people with an optimistic message, encouraging and empowering the people to reach their destination.

What was the difference? Moses was the greatest prophet and leader of Israel. Yet his spies failed miserably. Joshua was a disciple of Moses, and not on the same level of his master. Yet his spies were successful. Why?

It is all captured by one strange word employed in this narrative: Cheresh.

What does it take to be sent on a mission, a risky mission, and remain focused, optimistic, confident and faithful? It takes&mdash;Joshua intimated&mdash;two qualities: 1. You must be an earthenware vessel. 2. You need to be deaf. &nbsp;

What do you do when you go to a family event and always come home in a bad mood? What do you do when you have a life&#39;s dream and people call you insane? What do you do when you are plagued by fear or other debilitating emotions? What do you do when criticism kills you?

Why Were Joshua's Spies Successful, Unlike Moses' Spies? Can You Own Your Energy & Suspend Your Ego/Insecurity?

Two Secrets to Fulfill Your Life's Mission

This class was presented on Sunday Shlach, 16 Sivan 5777, June 11, 2017, at Ohr Chaim, Monsey, New York

In the Divine Space, We Are Indivisible, Even As We Are Distinct

Sunday Morning Shlach/Tzafnas Paanach

Are Jews a Spiritual Mixture Or a Chemical Compound?

Ten Spies Obsessed with Love. But Sometimes Love Is a Sin

But Sometimes Love Is a Sin

Ten Spies Obsessed with Love

This class was&nbsp;presented on Tuesday, Parshas Shlach, 22&nbsp;Sivan, 5782, June 21, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

You’re Not a Grasshopper; You’re an Angel

Women's Shlach Class

What Most People Don’t Get About Trauma

This women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Shlach, 22&nbsp;Sivan, 5779, June 25, 2019 at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY

A Different Reading on the Story of the Spies

Don't Be Afraid of Success

This lecture by Rabbi YY Jacobson was presented on Sunday, 3 Av, 5778, July 15, 2018, for the Chazaq organization, in Queens, NY.

The Incredible Story of How Child Bed Fever Stopped Killing Mothers

Lecture Chazaq Queens

The Destructive Power Of Fear

This text-based class on Likkutei Sichos vol. 23 Shlach explains how the spies can fall so lowly.

Can the Human Mind Be Objective? -- Likkutei Sichos Shlach

How the Spies Erred So Badly

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