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Wednesday, 26 Adar I, 5784
  |  March 6, 2024

Essay Contest Judges Announced

MyLife: Chassidus Applied Essay Contest has announced their panel of judges; The winner of 10K will be chosen by some of the world’s most distinguished Chassidic scholars. Full Story

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I am a woman
February 11, 2016 12:10 am

The judges should be rabbis not women.

LA MORAH
February 10, 2016 9:26 pm

Women aren’t trained in Chasidus-Sir,you are very mistaken. There always seems to be some reason why we can’t be on this panel or school board or community council.

Calm down everybody.
February 10, 2016 8:42 pm

The reason there aren’t female judges is because the judges do a lot of working together and it wouldn’t be the most tznius to have men and women discussing everything together. Maybe next time the judges will all be women to solve this problem 😉 Anyway, I’m sure the real judges are the wives of the judges…

continuation to 26
February 10, 2016 12:54 pm

hence the inclusion of women in the contest but there aren’t female judges.

Instead of arguing abstractly
February 10, 2016 12:47 pm

Please name three women who in your opinion are on-par with the list of Rabbis and mashpiim who were chosen.
The fact is that like it or not women are not trained in Chassidus and therefore the reality is that there aren’t any women on that level of scholarship.
(This does not mean that potentially a woman cannot understand chasidus just as well as a man).

The Rebbe recommended...
February 10, 2016 5:38 am

… as appropriate learning for women, Ein Yaakov and CHASSIDISHE MAAMORIM.

To 19
February 10, 2016 12:09 am

My own take is this. In general, women tend to be more emotional than logical and therefore their Da’as, or power to connect their understanding or logic to their emotions or to real life situations is also weaker. It’s probably why they can’t be judges or witnesses in a court of law and generally don’t learn gemmara. It’s harder for them to be objective as they get easily affected emotionally. (Although, when it comes to personal issues they may bring brilliant arguments and use logic that even great scholars cannot think up (see hayom yom). But don’t be offended by… Read more »

I second that..
February 9, 2016 11:39 pm

I have just been reading some of last years essays found on the competition website. They are INCREDIBLE! I would absolutely love to read more …I’m convinced that out of 530 or so essays there are a lot more than a handful that can inspire us. Is the purpose of this competition for the writers only or to also influence others? It must be the latter for that is exactly what this generation needs…. for yiddishkiet to be made relevant and that is exactly what this competition is accomplishing … through ordinary people expressing deep ideas in a down to… Read more »

Women superior to men
February 9, 2016 10:36 pm

Not sure what everyone is getting riled up about. The Rebbe stated at numerous occasions that a woman is equally responsible to study Chassidus, and that she is not only equal but in some ways superior to men in understanding and applying Chassidus.
The choice of male judges has nothing to do with this fact. Male judges may be more appropriate for tznius or other reasons, unrelated to the capacity for women to excel and win in this contest.
I just counted and see that 6 out of the top 11 essays in last year’s contest were women.

Relax women
February 9, 2016 10:00 pm

Please
Y the insecurity?
If u would b truly secure and knowledgeable as to what is women’s position in Torah, u wouldn’t leap in offense all the time….stop looking to feel downgraded
And yes, I’m a woman and see nothing offensive that women are not on the panel, and am certain that women have the same chances of winning nonetheless.
Learn, learn,learn and you will be happy and secure with Torahs views on women- as they are very positive.

Female Friend
February 9, 2016 6:40 pm

How did the agenda segue from the essay contest to praising/bashing women’s intellectual prowess?

Can someone please explain
February 9, 2016 6:40 pm

A man recently said this line to me, apparently it’s from Torah: “noshim da’atayhen kalos”, I found it offensive and I’m looking for an expalnation and this seemed like a place I could find one.

to # 14
February 9, 2016 4:54 pm

The more Chasidus the women study the better Akeres Habayis they will be and become

Women
February 9, 2016 4:27 pm

To all those out there who can not comprehend a women learning deep Chassidus, you would be surprised, but the women are the ones who apply Chassidus to their actual lives and struggles. In high school and seminary that is there focus and you can tell by the pnimiusdik way they are mekushar to the rebbe and live their life.

WE NEED IDEAS AND INSPIRATION
February 9, 2016 3:53 pm

I would greatly appreciated it if there would be a link to the essays so that some of us who would be interested, would be able to read them as inspiration and we could take ideas for incorporating these wisdoms into our own lives. Thank you in advance.

to #6
February 9, 2016 12:01 pm

Maybe they were asked, and said no. you never know. Just relax man, everything is ok.

for once and for all
February 9, 2016 11:09 am

The Rebbe said the women’s MAIN goal is to be a ekeres habayis, how many women’s need education on that, today?!

To number 7
February 9, 2016 12:04 am

for example? name women please, at least 3.

Last year's judges
February 8, 2016 11:22 pm

This year’s panel includes all of last years judges (except for Rabbi Eli Silberstein), plus more.

Judges in formation
February 8, 2016 11:20 pm

They explicitly state that more judges will be added. So let’s not jump to conclusions of who will and will not be included as judges. Additionally, it makes sense that some judges may decline from judging if they or their immediate family wnats to submit an essay.

Yossi A
February 8, 2016 8:57 pm

Just wondering!
How does this panel of judges compare to last years?
Yes YY Jacobson was a judge last year.
Who else was last years & who is a new judge.

from Melbourne
February 8, 2016 8:49 pm

Rabbi Dr. Shimon Cowen very impressive!

to # 5
February 8, 2016 8:45 pm

I’m not so sure what you say is correct
why shouldn’t a women learn samech vov if she can handle it?
no contradiction to be a Akeres Habayis, it may just her enhance her perspectives etc.
women may suit the job but it may be because they can’t be judges!

seriously?
February 8, 2016 8:40 pm

why is there not a single woman on the panel? (and for the idiots who will inevitably say “there are no women knowledgeable enough,” please go and educate yourself and meet some of the incredibly learned and intelligent women out there.)

World's fore most authorities
February 8, 2016 8:32 pm

Y not 2 of the biggest Mashpeim & world’s fore most authorities on chassidus today, besides Reb Yoel Kahn, Reb Sholom Charitonow & Reb Nachman Schapiro ? U can’t get bigger than that !!! Y aren’t they on the judging panel ?

Amasing
February 8, 2016 7:38 pm

Very happy about this new project To the previous comments, I beg to differ and say that everyone need to know their place women have many major talents and know how to learn nicely but when we are talking about experts in chassidus you have to go to those which know it best Aditinaly although the Rebbes switch is that women should learn Torah it is not that women should start learning samach vov and deep mamarim like the Rebbe says the main job of a women is to be a עקרת הבית which is a very important task. Everyone… Read more »

agree
February 8, 2016 7:02 pm

I was wondering that too. Many women in chabad history knew chassidus well, such as Rebbetzin Menucha Rochel who was privileged to learn chassiuds from her father …. The women sending in the essays would prefer a female brain to judge her understanding of chassidus, sometimes which the males cannot get to the bottom of their bina yeteira.

to #1
February 8, 2016 6:58 pm

Last year the two third place winners were women. the essays are judged without the authors names being visible to the judges.

Women
February 8, 2016 6:40 pm

How about adding some women to the panel, especially as many women enter (and win)?

Please let a girl win!!!!!!
February 8, 2016 6:31 pm

lets prove girls learn too!

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