All Classes

You Can't Just Tell an Addict to Stop. You're Asking Them to Die.





This Chabad Chassidic discourse is the ultimate manual for healing trauma, addiction, and emotional pain.

This is the third of a series of classes on the Maamar (discourse) Yafeh Sha'ah Achas (מאמר יפה שעה אחת) by the Miteler Rebbe, published in Maamarei Admur Haemtzarei (מאמרי אדמו"ר האמצעי קונטריסים).

The class was presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson on Thursday, 2 Kislev, 5787, November 12, 2026.

Why would an intelligent, decent, loving person risk destroying their marriage, family, reputation, finances, and everything they cherish for a few moments of pleasure? Why can food, money, sexuality, or other compulsive behaviors become so overwhelmingly powerful that even the most devastating consequences cannot stop us?

In this extraordinary Chassidus class, the Mitteler Rebbe takes us beneath the surface of addiction and exposes its deepest psychological and spiritual roots. The real issue is not simply the food, the money, or the sexual gratification. It is that somewhere along the journey of life, we have learned to associate certain experiences, substances, behaviors, or relationships with our very sense of being alive. They have become our oxygen, our emotional ventilator, our source of vitality. Without them, we feel as though we are suffocating. Telling someone to simply abandon the addiction may feel to that person like demanding that they pull the plug on their own life-support system. What appears to outsiders as irrational self-destruction may be experienced internally as a desperate struggle for survival.

But here the Mitteler Rebbe offers a revolutionary path toward healing. If our deepest cravings are attempts to access life, energy, connection, and vitality, then merely fighting the craving will never address the full depth of the struggle. We must discover what our souls are actually seeking, understand the wounds and narratives that convinced us our life depends on something outside ourselves, and learn to reconnect with the authentic source of life within. We need to rewrite the story of what makes us feel alive. The goal is not merely to remove an addictive behavior, but to discover a source of vitality so genuine, profound, and nourishing that we no longer need to depend on destructive substitutes to feel that we exist.

This is not about shame, punishment, or simply demanding more willpower. It is about rediscovering your soul, reclaiming your life force, and realizing that the life you've been desperately searching for has been within you all along.









View Source Sheets: https://portal.theyeshiva.net/api/source-sheets/10028

You're Not Sick; You Just Never Felt Your Own Energy





What if the greatest high you will ever experience is not found in a substance, a relationship, an achievement, or an extraordinary experience—but in your own soul?

What if you could learn to generate your own energy, feel deeply alive from within, and experience a joy and vitality that do not depend on the world around you?

In this revolutionary Chassidus class, we explore one of the most extraordinary teachings about the human psyche: the secret of loving Hashem "with all your heart" is learning how to live continuously connected to your own deepest Divine energy. When you are rooted in your authentic self, you reclaim your agency. You stop outsourcing your aliveness to other people, experiences, accomplishments, or external stimulation. You discover an infinite reservoir of vitality, passion, connection, and love already pulsating within your soul.

And here lies the magnificent paradox: the more deeply you inhabit your own soul, the more profoundly you become connected to everything and everyone. When you touch the deepest truth of your being, you discover that you are not separate from the universe, because at the deepest level, all existence emerges from one Divine reality.

This is why the greatest "addicts" in the world are the tzaddikim! They have discovered the ultimate source of ecstasy. They are passionately, relentlessly connected to the Divine energy of life itself. They do not need to escape themselves to experience transcendence; they find transcendence by coming home to themselves. This class offers a radical new understanding of love, addiction, freedom, spirituality, and the extraordinary possibility of becoming fully alive through the infinite energy of your own soul.

This is the second of a series of classes on the Maamar (discourse) Yafeh Sha'ah Achas (מאמר יפה שעה אחת) by the Miteler Rebbe, published in Maamarei Admur Haemtzarei (מאמרי אדמו"ר האמצעי קונטריסים).

This class was presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson on Wednesday, 1 Kislev, 5787, November 11, 2026.









View Source Sheets: https://portal.theyeshiva.net/api/source-sheets/10026

Why Did Rivka Want to Deceive Her Husband? A Revolutionary Interpretation to the Perplexing Story





Why would Rivka, one of the great matriarchs of the Jewish people, instruct her beloved son Yaakov to deceive his father Yitzchak? Did she really believe that Yitzchak would not recognize the difference between his two sons? In this fascinating women's class on Parshas Toldos, we explore an extraordinary interpretation presented by Rabbi David Fohrman, suggesting that Rivka's intentions were far deeper than they initially appear. Perhaps Rivka was not asking Yaakov to become Esav, but rather challenging him to discover something about himself that he had never recognized. Yaakov was gentle, spiritual, introspective, a dweller of tents. Esav was bold, aggressive, confident, a man of action. But Rivka understood that Yaakov could not fulfill his extraordinary destiny if he remained confined to only one dimension of his personality. He needed to discover that within his own soul lay the courage, assertiveness, strength, and capacity to engage the world that he associated with his brother. The goal was not to abandon his authentic self, but to uncover its full depth and power. And this brings us to one of the most haunting and transformative questions in the entire Torah: "מִי אַתָּה בְּנִי?" — "Who are you, my son?" This is not merely Yitzchak's question to Yaakov. It is the question life asks every single one of us. Who are you, my daughter? Beneath your fears, defenses, insecurities, expectations, wounds, and the identities you developed to survive, who are you really? Every journey we travel, every relationship we encounter, every disappointment, every betrayal, every triumph, and every moment of confusion can become part of a sacred process of discovery. Sometimes life challenges us precisely because we have become identified with only a fragment of ourselves. We think we know who we are, but Hashem sees infinitely more. Our struggles may be calling forth dimensions of our soul that have remained dormant for decades. The purpose of our journey is not to become somebody else. It is to finally discover the person we have always been, in the deepest recesses of our being. Perhaps the most important question we can ever answer is not "What have I accomplished?" or "What have I endured?" but "Who am I, really?"

This class was presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson on Tuesday, Parshas Toldos, 30 Cheshvan, 5787, November 10, 2026.









View Source Sheets: https://portal.theyeshiva.net/api/source-sheets/10025

Every Destructive Pattern Once Helped You Survive. How to Uncover Its Origins, Heal the Wound, and Become Free





This Chabad Chassidic discourse is the ultimate manual for healing trauma, addiction, and emotional pain.

This is the first of a series of classes on the Maamar (discourse) Yafeh Sha'ah Achas (מאמר יפה שעה אחת) by the Miteler Rebbe, published in Maamarei Admur Haemtzarei (מאמרי אדמו"ר האמצעי קונטריסים).

The class by Rabbi YY Jacobson was presented on Monday, Parshas Toldos, 29 Cheshvan, 5787, November 9, 2026.









View Source Sheets: https://portal.theyeshiva.net/api/source-sheets/10024

You Can't Fake Shabbos: The Way We Eat, Pray and Live All Week Determines Whether Shabbos Becomes an Escape -- or a Revelation





This class is the second and final in a series on the Maamar Yegaleh Lan Taamei, presented by the Alter Rebbe on Shabbos Tetzaveh, 5567 (1807), published in Torah Or Parshas Chayei Sarah.




This class was presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson on Thursday, Parshas Chaye Sarah, 25 Cheshvan, 5787, November 5, 2026.



View Source Sheets: https://portal.theyeshiva.net/api/source-sheets/10023