ESSAYS| 2017

ESSAYSss| English

Wanting Desire

By Mushka Silberberg, Chicago, IL

Essays 2017 / Finalists

MyLife Essay Contest 2017   Introduction Pulling oneself out of bed at the command of the six a.m. alarm clock is never easy. Most people want to be successful and productive, but when the daily grind hits, many cannot gather the motivation to actually do what they must. While they understand the negative results of

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How to Kick Bad Habits to the Curb

By Rivkah Shanowitz, Montreal, QC

Essays 2017 / Finalists

MyLife Essay Contest 2017   Preface What  is  a  habit?  A  habit  is  a  routine  behaviour  that  is  followed  regularly   to  the  point  that  it  becomes  involuntary.  This  behaviour  then  gets   stored  in  the  Basal  Ganglia,  the  sub  conscious [1]. There  are  many  pop-­psychology  books  today  that  deal  with  overcoming   habits.  Luckily

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The Dynamics of Happiness

By Rafi Chemel, Toronto, ON

Essays 2017 / Finalists

MyLife Essay Contest 2017 Introduction The current age seems to be fraught with a strange paradox. On the one hand, never before has there been such an abundance of material wealth, prosperity, technological development and medical breakthrough. To put it simply, life is better than it has ever been. Yet simultaneously, the rate of depression

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Why We Need a Break

By David LIchtenstadter, Brooklyn, NY

Essays 2017 / Finalists

MyLife Essay Contest 2017 We all love to relax and to be entertained in the time that we know that life has real meaning and we have serious goals to achieve. So it is intriguing why we have the urge for these acts and to know if they are at all permissible. In today’s day

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Committing to Your Purpose in a World of Cheap Substitutes

By No'a Bat Miri, Milford, CT

Essays 2017 / Finalists

MyLife Essays Contest 2017 Many parents loathe the day their little one discovers the word “why.” It’s not simply that children can be quite indefatigable in their exploitation of this subtle weapon that bothers a parent, but the thought that this is where her failure begins: after feeding, cleaning, and giving all of the other

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The Heart of the Matter

By Gale Levin, New Haven, CT

Essays 2017 / Finalists

MyLife Essay Contest 2017 It is a basic tenet in Judaism that everything in the physical world is a reflection of the spiritual world. This makes sense since G-d looked to the Torah as a blueprint to create the world. (Midrash Beraishis Rabbah 1:1) So, in order to understand the workings of our soul, it

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Chassidus: Not Just a Problem Solver

By Moishe Kaltmann, Brooklyn, NY

Essays 2017

MyLife Essay Contest 2017   As Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai lay on his deathbed, surrounded by his students, he moaned and cried out.[1] “There lies before me two roads, one to heaven and the other to hell… and I do not know on which one they will take me!” Such a story needs explanation. Rabbi

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From Hardship to Happiness

By Chanie Volovick, Long Beach, CA

Essays 2017

MyLife Essay Contest 2017 We live in a world where tragedies occur regularly, both to us individually and in the world at large. Poverty, crime and crisis are a sad reality. In our personal lives, we deal with numerous challenges, including financial struggles, relationship and family issues, etc. Simultaneously – and naturally so – we

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Crowning the Queen

By Rachel Diamond, Bet Shemesh, IL

Essays 2017

MyLife Essay Contest 2017 We are taught in Mishlei (3,6) :“You should know G-d in all of your ways”. In knowing G-d in all of our ways, what is the essential way of the woman? According to the Hallel liturgy, her way is to be the foundation of the home and moreover, happy, as the

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Trust

By Motty Shochet, London, UK

Essays 2017

MyLife Essay Contest 2017   Introduction This article will present a fundamental concept in Chassidus that is relevant for all challenges, but in particular it is applied when dealing with fears, worries and anxieties. The concept of ‘trust’ is discussed in pre-Chassidic works. This article will focus on the definitions and novelties as it is

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