Do I do what doesn’t feel good, or do I commit only to what feels aligned with my inner truth? We live in a culture that prizes alignment above all else, authenticity, resonance, inner harmony. And yet, I want to make the case for something counterintuitive: the spiritual necessity, and even the holiness, of living unaligned.

Rosh Hashanah is coming. The Rosh Hashanah for Chasidism that is. It is called the Holiday of Holidays in Chabad circles. It commemorates the liberation of the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman from Czarist prison.

We all have parts of ourselves that we love; the pieces that feel easy, smooth, and clear. And then there are the parts we struggle with; the ones we’d rather hide. At times, even from ourselves.

Og was the biblical giant, the king of Bashan, the man whose bed stretched thirteen feet. What many don’t know is that Og was the first antisemite.

When Avraham celebrated Yitzchak’s birth, he invited the world’s leaders. The Midrash tells us that Og stood among them, looked at the eight-day-old baby, tiny and fragile, and sneered:

“This? This little thing is the future? I could crush him with one finger.”

Do you ever want to take a break from yourself? A break from thinking? A break from feeling? The more sensitive you are, the more in touch you are, the smarter you are, the greater the desire to take a break, the greater the need to still the mind.