Human Being, The

"Go to the craftsman who made me," said the man, "and say to him: How ugly is the vessel which you have made!"

For most of my life, I never saw crying as an expected, positive, and even necessary part of life—not to mention something one would ever do in front of other people. I always thought crying was, well, shameful. At best, a sign of weakness and deficiency;...

Why must everything be so difficult? Couldn't G-d have designed our lives so that we wouldn't need to encounter disappointments, challenges and toil every step of the way?

“It’s just not the same anymore without him . . .” She bows her head. I nod in agreement, but inside I’m singing.

It was the perfect apartment and the purchase was almost completed when the shekel dropped steeply against the dollar. Aleksander Guravich was suddenly obliged to come up with an additional forty thousand NIS. He didn't know where to turn.

I place one foot in front of the other, and I walk forward into an uncertain future that contains moments of both pleasure and pain. This act takes courage...

How does one reach out to others, to give and to receive, if the very act of waking in the morning causes the pain of realizing one has loved and lost?

I bought the paints, the brushes, a book, some canvases, and the table easel, went home and cleared off the dining room table and set everything up. There it sat for about two weeks. I walked by it. I peered at it. I arranged it. I examined it...

My number on the transplant list has jumped from seventh to fourth! The phone can ring at any time. The "call" can be in an hour, a day, a week or a month. I can't sleep. And I am not afraid...

An artist relates his personal encounters with the Rebbe, beginning from the age of 15