Rabbi Mendy's Blog - Chabad Chai

How Does G-d Expect Me to Be Happy, With All of This?

Friday, August 28, 2026 - 5:04 PM

It’s so hard to be happy right now. Everything seems overwhelming and difficult. There is so much pain and suffering wherever we look, so much uncertainty about what tomorrow will bring. How can I possibly control my feelings when I can’t control what is happening around me? Sometimes it can feel as though being Jewish means carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. Should being Jewish mean being miserable? What am I supposed to do?

A surprising answer lies in this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo. In describing a time of tremendous difficulty for the Jewish people, the Torah says, “Because you did not serve G-d with joy and gladness of heart.” At first glance, it seems almost unfair. These are people facing real challenges and real suffering. How can the Torah demand that they be joyful? Aren’t our emotions simply a reaction to what is happening around us?

The Torah is teaching us that while we cannot always control what happens around us, we have far more control over what happens within us than we realize. Our thoughts deeply influence and even birth our emotions, and we can choose where to direct those thoughts. We can focus endlessly on everything wrong, everything we are missing, and everything we fear might happen. Or we can focus on G-d’s blessings, the gift of life, our families, our community, our Torah, the Mitzvot we are privileged to perform, and the knowledge that even in moments we do not understand, G-d is with us and our lives have meaning and purpose.

In fact, joy is not an optional extra in Jewish life; it is an integral part of it. Being Jewish means recognizing that we were placed in this world with a mission: to transform darkness into light and make this world a home for G-d. That is challenging work, and misery doesn’t give us the strength to accomplish it. Joy does. Joy energizes us. It gives us the confidence to move forward when the world tells us to retreat, the strength to lift others when they are struggling, and the enthusiasm to continue bringing goodness, holiness and light into a world that desperately needs it.

So this week, let’s take control of where we allow our minds to go. When the darkness feels overwhelming, consciously focus on a blessing in your life. Thank G-d for it. Learn some Torah, do another Mitzvah, help someone who needs you, and remind yourself of the incredible privilege of being a Jew with a Divine mission. We may not be able to control everything happening around us, but we can choose what fills our minds and hearts. Choose faith. Choose gratitude. Choose purpose. Choose joy, and then take that joy and use it to illuminate the world.

You Can’t Fight Darkness Without Clarity; Try This

Friday, August 21, 2026 - 4:59 PM

We live in a world that seems to have lost its clarity. Once simple things are suddenly complicated. Truth is blurred, values are vague, and the lines between right and wrong are increasingly difficult to see. We are told that everything depends on perspective, that every truth is relative, and that nothing can be stated with certainty. But if we cannot distinguish light from darkness, how can we possibly illuminate the darkness? If we cannot tell left from right and right from wrong, how can we guide a world that so desperately needs direction?

The answer lies in this week's Torah portion, Ki Seitzei, which opens with the words, "When you go out to war upon your enemy." The Torah does not simply say against your enemy, but al oyvecha, upon, or above, your enemy. Before we can win the battles around us, we must know where we stand. We must rise above the confusion and gain clarity about who we are, what we believe, and what we are fighting for. When we enter the struggle uncertain of our own identity, the battle is already half lost.

This is true not only on a battlefield, but in every challenge we face. The world constantly pressures us to question our values, compromise our convictions, and redefine ourselves according to the latest trend. Torah tells us to begin from a different place. Don't allow the world to define you. Stand above the noise. Remember that you are a Jew, connected to thousands of years of faith, Torah, and Mitzvot. Know what you stand for before the world tells you what you should stand for.

And then the Torah continues with a remarkable promise: "And G-d will deliver your enemies into your hands." When we have clarity, we gain strength. When we know who we are, we are no longer intimidated by every shifting wind around us. We can engage the world without being swallowed by it. We can confront darkness without becoming confused by it. And ultimately, with G-d's help, we can be victorious, not merely surviving the world around us, but transforming it.

So this week, let us reclaim clarity. Choose one area of Jewish life where the noise of the world has created uncertainty, and replace that uncertainty with a clear commitment. Add a Mitzvah. Study some Torah. Strengthen your Shabbat, your Tefillin, your Mezuzah, your Kosher observance, or an act of kindness. Know who you are and what you stand for. When we rise above the confusion, stand firmly on the eternal truths of Torah, and resist society's false filter, Hashem promises that the darkness can be overcome and that, together, we can bring greater light, goodness, and holiness into our world.

When the World Storms Around Us, Ask Yourself This

Friday, August 14, 2026 - 3:50 PM

Last week, I began addressing one of the great challenges of our time: how do we live in the world without allowing the world to define us? How do we resist the pull of society when its values run contrary to our own, without slowly surrendering the identity that has sustained us for generations? And when the winds of hatred begin to swirl around us, as they have so many times throughout our history, how do we remain strong without bending until we break?

The answer lies in this week's Torah portion, Shoftim, in one word: roots.

In discussing the laws of war, the Torah tells us, "Ki ha'adam etz hasadeh" "for man is like a tree of the field." A tree can appear strong because of what we see above the ground: its trunk, its branches, its height. But its true strength lies beneath the surface; the deeper and stronger its roots, the more it can withstand. When the winds come, a tree with shallow roots may look impressive, but it is vulnerable. A tree with deep roots can sway and bend, yet remain firmly planted.

The same is true of us. Our strength does not come from isolating ourselves from every wind that blows around us. It comes from knowing where we are rooted. Our roots are Torah and mitzvot. They are Shabbat, tefillah, Torah study, acts of chesed, and the values that have shaped Jewish life for thousands of years. Every mitzvah pushes those roots a little deeper. Every moment of Torah strengthens our connection to something greater and more enduring than the pressures of the moment.

Even if you're not yet familiar with Torah and Mitzvot, don't stress because you've already got deep roots connecting you to Avraham and Sarah, to Moshe and Miriam, and to generations of Jews who faced storms far more powerful than anything we can imagine and nevertheless remained standing. They carried their identity through exile, persecution, uncertainty, and hatred because they knew who they were and where they came from. We draw strength from those same roots. The world around us may storm, society may pressure us to bend, and hatred may try to shake our confidence, but a Jew deeply rooted in Torah, mitzvot, and the strength of our ancestors stands stable and secure.

So this week, let us each ask ourselves a simple question: How deep are my roots? And then let us do something to deepen them. Learn a little more Torah. Take on one mitzvah with greater care. Make Shabbat more meaningful. Strengthen a Jewish practice in your home and share it with your children. Connect more deeply to our people and our past. We cannot control the strength or direction of the winds around us. But we can control how deeply we plant our roots. And when our roots run deep, we will have the strength not merely to survive the storm, but to stand tall through it as a beacon light to the whole world.

Don’t Buy What the World Is Selling; When You Can Buy This

Friday, August 7, 2026 - 4:44 PM

The world is seeking to influence us at every turn. Every minute of the day, we are bombarded by thousands of messages telling us what matters, what success looks like, and what will finally make us happy. Again and again, we are sold the same promise: accumulate more, experience more, own more, and somehow you will become more. Yet so often, after chasing that promise, we discover that it was a sham. The new purchase gets old. The excitement fades. The next thing quickly becomes the thing we need. So how do we maintain our perspective? How do we resist the temptation to buy into this drug of materialism and live for something more?

The answer lies in this week's Torah portion Re'eh, which gives us the answer in its very first word: Re'eh - See. "See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse." Hashem is teaching us that the battle for a meaningful life begins with how we see the world. The world wants us to look around and allow society to define what is valuable. Torah asks us to look deeper and ask a completely different question: What does Hashem want from me? What is the purpose for which I was given this moment, this opportunity, this relationship, this blessing? Torah does not merely give us rules for navigating reality. Torah teaches us how to see reality, how to define it.

And when we begin defining our lives by what Hashem wants, something remarkable happens: the physical world stops controlling us and starts serving us. Judaism does not ask us to reject the material world. Hashem created it and asks us to elevate it. Money can become tzedakah. A home can become a place of hospitality, connection, and elevation. Food can become a bracha and a Shabbat table. A business can become a vehicle for honesty and integrity. Our talents can become instruments for helping another human being. Instead of asking, "What can this world give me?" we begin asking, "What can I do with what Hashem has given me?" That shift changes everything.

This is the blessing of Re'eh. When Hashem's will becomes the lens through which we see our lives, we are no longer forced to accept the world's definition of success. We can create a different reality. We can build families rooted in holiness, communities rooted in responsibility, businesses rooted in integrity, and lives rooted in purpose. And this vision is not only about making ourselves more spiritual. Our mission is to make the world itself more Divine — a world in which every person is treated as someone created in the image of Hashem, where generosity replaces selfishness, meaning replaces emptiness, and what we have matters less than what we do with it.

This week, Re'eh - look. Look at the messages competing for your attention, and then choose which voice will define your life. Before your next purchase, decision, conversation, or opportunity, ask one simple question: What does Hashem want from me right now? Then act on the answer. Use one possession for a mitzvah. Use one blessing to lift someone else. Bring more kindness, holiness, generosity, and purpose into one corner of your world. We do not have to live in the reality the world is selling us. Hashem has given us the Torah so that we can create something greater: a world shaped by His G-d's will, and made more Divine through the choices each of us makes every single day. It's time we all start seeing this simple truth and living our best life as our Creator intended.