In honor of 24 Teves, the 204th Yartzeit of the Alter Rebbe, this past Sunday, the Meaningful Life Center launched its third annual MyLife: Chassidus Applied Essay Contest. Receiving over 1,000 submissions during its first two years, the revolutionary initiative has blossomed into a movement, energizing and incentivizing Jews the world over to apply concepts and methodologies of Chabad Chassidus to contemporary life.
Sponsored by an anonymous benefactor, the contest—open to ages 15 and up—encourages people of diverse perspectives, ages, and backgrounds to tap the well of Chassidic teaching and craft essays that clearly distill its valuable, accessible tools for navigating life’s challenges—and living a happy, successful, meaningful life.
The grand prize winner will receive $10,000; the second-place winner $3,600, and the third-place winner $1,000.
The number and creativity of submissions and the diversity of applicants over the past two years have demonstrated the contest’s universal scope and its power to engage all sectors of the community. Contestants have included a 84 year old woman and a young girl who was too young to officially participate. The first-prize winners of the past two seasons were a yeshivah bochur from Florida, and a shlucha—and mother of six—from Jerusalem.
“MLC is dedicated to bringing Chassidus to life—and revealing Chassidus as the blueprint to life,” says Rabbi Simon Jacobson, director of the Meaningful Life Center. “Our Rebbeim spent their lives teaching us Chassidus and gifted us hundreds of volumes of treasures. To study them is to discover our spiritual DNA, and the building blocks of existence. They are the world’s best secret—until now. We hope that this contest serves as one more step toward the fulfillment of the mission of our Rebbeim: to spread the wellsprings of Chassidus and, by doing so, usher in the coming of Moshiach.”
All essays will be judged blindly (the judges will not know the identity of the entrant when reading submissions) by a panel of distinguished Torah scholars, using guidelines outlined on the Meaningful Life Center’s website (www.meaningfullife.com/contest). Winning entries will be announced on or around Sunday, April 2 (6 Nissan) and publicized on MLC’s website and social media pages.
Past years’ winning essays (and finalists) can be viewed at www.meaningfullife.com/mylife.
To view contest rules and to submit an essay, visit www.meaningfullife.com/contest. All submissions are due by 11:59pm on February 26, 2017.
Contact: Sruli Baron, [email protected]
When reading the essays, I have a slight feeling that my essay will definitely not be even in the top forty! How do I get into the mode and where can I find information?
I am going to start writing tonight! Thank you Rabbi Jacobson and the Meaningful Life Center for giving us this gift.