This week on Street Farbrengen, Zacharya pushes back on something Reuven brought to the farbrengen that many may feel but rarely say out loud: Is the Rebbe the mission?

We go straight for the jugular:

 What happens when the Rebbe — or “being Lubavitch” — quietly becomes the goal instead of the path?

 When wearing the right slogan, screaming the right lines, doing Chitas and Rambam, or learning the maamar becomes the destination… but nothing actually shifts inside — not my emotions, not my inner world, not my sense of self-agency?

Have we, without saying it, made the Rebbe into the one who is supposed to “do it for us,” and in the process stepped out of our own shlichus?

In this farbrengen, we sit with the uncomfortable questions:

• What’s the difference between following the Rebbe and making the Rebbe the mission?
• How do you live with real bittul without becoming emotionally powerless or “a nothing”?
• Why does Chassidus insist that dirah b’tachtonim happens inside you — not instead of you?

If you’ve ever felt inspired by a sicha or maamar and then watched the fire evaporate by the next morning…
 or if you’ve secretly wondered:

 “Am I a chossid — or just a cheerleader with pom-poms?”
— this episode is for you.

As we approach our 100th episode, Zacharia and Reuven turn the mic inward — to the Chabad community itself.

We began nearly a year ago, with a simple question: Has Chabad’s leadership been living with unspoken post-traumatic stress since Gimmel Tammuz?

Now, a powerful anonymous letter has surfaced  - in response to the recent suicide  of a young man — one that accuses Chabad of a generation gap so deep that it’s left some young people unseen, unheard, and in pain. 

In this week’s Farbrengen, we confront that gap head-on:

What happens when a movement’s system overtakes its mission?
When the name of the game becomes survival, instead of soul?
Through stories of heartbreak, honesty, and hope, Reuven and Zacharia wrestle with the hard questions:

Have we confused the Rebbe with the mission?

Can Dirah Betachtonim still speak to a 17-year-old bochur struggling to belong?

Join this raw, soul-stirring conversation — where the system meets the soul, and the mission comes home again.

Opening the Windows and Doors

This Week’s Street Farbrengen

When Chassidus stays in the head, it turns into philosophy. The mind is dazzled, but the heart and soul remain hungry.

Prayer, seen through the lens of dirah betachtonim—making a dwelling place for G-d—means inviting Him into the tachtonim: the world of distraction, anxiety, and daily pressure. The dirah, the dwelling, is built when we let G-d speak into that very place. Instead of escaping emotion, we bring it inside—like Noach bringing the animals into the teivah—so the words of tefillah can hold our fear, worry, and overwhelm, slowly refining them into love and awe.

What is bitachon—trust? Real trust doesn’t make you do less; it frees you to do more. Like an actor who can improvise because he knows the story so well, when you live inside G-d’s script for creation, you move with courage. Mayim rabim—financial strain, uncertainty, all the noise—becomes uplift. Not by waiting for miracles, but by letting trust energize the next call, the clearer plan, the kinder response.

That’s when Chassidus stops being an idea and becomes weather—changing your emotional climate long after you close the siddur.

What’s one “animal” you’ll bring into your tefillah this week?

“Hey friends, welcome back to Street Farbrengen. We’re in that first quiet week after the many holidays of the Tishrei month, stepping into Mar-Cheshvan, where the calendar goes from fireworks to ordinary but Dynamic . 

And a real question hits: did anything actually change? Is my sigh of relief for the  return to the same old rhythm an indication of an answer of "No"! ? 

In this episode we unpack teshuvah in the context of —fantasy vs. dream, narrative vs. goal, and how having a clear kavana turns routine into avodah. We talk Shabbos Bereishis as a promotional reset button, Dirah Betachtonim as a living goal, and what it means to be the chooser—moment by moment. If you wondered, ‘Did I accomplish anything over Tishrei?’—you’re in the right farbrengen.”

At Starbucks this week, Reuven’s daily journaling yanked him back 50 years—to a 3 AM café in Vancouver, same pen, same seeker. From Vancouver nights to the Rebbe’s court: am I the “same guy,” or did I just change what I’m looking at? What if that’s exactly what Selichos is—teshuvah not as self-replacement, but re-aiming the lens. Hear the convo on Street Farbrengen.

Americana glorifies the lone cowboy, the self-made man, the myth of total independence. 

But what happens when the Rebbe redefines independence — not as isolation, but as a deeper kind of freedom within Jewish life? In this farbrengen, we wrestle with the tension between American individualism and the hidden power of Chai Elul. 

Can you be truly independent… while still connected to something outside and higher?

In this week’s Street Farbrengen, Reuven shares a gripping “Hasidic geneiva” Yechidus story that an elder chossid confided to him—how, at his brother’s bar mitzvah, he slipped the Rebbe a three-page letter about a toxic mashpia, his confusion, and the urge to leave yeshiva. The Rebbe’s response was razor-clear: in Lubavitch there are always two mashpiim—find the one you connect with; then “forget the past—have Kabbalas Ol—and your job is to learn.” From there, the conversation dives into Elul: what it really means to drop the victim narrative, choose responsibility, and serve with authentic joy—echoed through the Baal Shem Tov’s “kukarikoo” tale and Dr. Edith Eger’s insight that we are not prisoners of our past. A raw, timely exploration of exchanging gvul for bli-gvul—limits for boundlessness—and how Kabbalas Ol can cut the tether to yesterday so we can actually show up today.

There”s an old joke about  the man shipwrecked on a deserted island who builds the shul he goes   to and the   shul he'd never step into"?

But what happens when both of those shuls live inside the same room, or in the same heart and mind?? 

In this episode, we dive into the “two shuls within one shul” phenomenon—where some come to daven and others come to schmooze, and the tension it creates in Chabad communities worldwide.

Why does this culture of tolerance exist? Is it compassion, or just avoidance? And most importantly, what does it mean for our children, our values, and the future of our davening?

From practical solutions—like creating quiet spaces or forming grassroots leadership—to deep questions of Chassidus about emes, values, and Elul’s demand for authenticity, this farbrengen doesn’t just point out the problem. It asks: what do we really stand for in shul, and what are we teaching the next generation?

The awesome and wonderful month of Elul begs participation. It asks for something new from you.

A " cheshbon hanefesh” 

What is it, this "tally of self?

Street Farbrengen looks at the control and chaos of making good for a full year by peering into the self from the past year

Are We Living Our Spirituality Dynamically?

In this week’s episode of Streetfarbrengen we dive into a thought-provoking question sparked by a morning shul conversation: Do we live our spirituality symbolically, practically, or dynamically? Using the famous Talmudic scenes of Rabbi Akiva at the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, we explore how two different moments — seeing the Temple’s ruins from afar and witnessing a fox emerge from the Holy of Holies — reveal distinct ways of experiencing reality. Is spirituality just an abstract picture, or an unfolding event we actively connect to? And how can that shift change the way we approach our faith, memory, and lived experience today?