Radical Torah Judaism

From my vantage point here in Jerusalem, I see the Jewish people and how much compassion they truly have, so much in some cases, that they are more worried about harming those who would harm us than they are about their own safety. In other cases, people (sometimes of even greater sensitivity) have been driven to call for harsh and bloody action out of desperation at the level of suffering of all those stuck helplessly in the middle of the confusion.

The state of Israel has lost direction, lost Jewish identity, they still claim to have it, but they aren't even sure what Jewish Identity is.

Jewish Identity is Torah. 

Rabi Akiva explained it in the Talmud, Jews without Torah are like fish without water. 

It's time that we had a Jewish response to the worldwide terror campaign that threatens to engulf us all.

This isn't a new idea, it's too simple for it to be a new idea. Let's just try and approach it with new fervor, new dedication, new devotion. 

It's time to combat "terror cells" with "Torah cells."

The terror infrastructure is a model of survivability, it's impossible to stop a grassroots movement that spreads anonymously through a large and growing population.

Find a friend, a chevruta, or a couple and start your own Torah cell. Learn regularly and with as much focus and fervor as you can muster. Create prayer cells, tehillim cells, mitzwah cells. Whatever you can wherever you can. Know that this is your mission.

The intent and focus of your learning: to connect to HaShem. 

Learn in order to do, to teach, and to uphold. So that whenever you do a mitzwah, it should be informed by that learning, you should connect through that learning, through that mitzwah, back to its source, HaShem. Mitzvot aren't rituals, they're actions.

Whenever you pray, let your learning inform your prayers, connect through the learning, the prayers back to the source, HaShem. Prayer isn't reciting words from a book, it's speaking to God.

1. Start a Torah cell today. Then spread the fire. Each cell member should start another cell, so that every person is a member of two cells, the cell they were invited to and the cell they create. 
2. Don't overdo it. Just two cells. Devote your time and energy to your learning in those two cells.
3. Create daily and weekly learning schedules, simple schedules you can stick to, and stick to them.
4. Anything you learn feel free to spread through blogs, email, wikis, twitter, pass the Torahs down and up the cells.
5. Let's unite and connect all of Am Yisrael in Torah.
6. Pass this on.

feeding the body to the soul

The anniversary of the passing of the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch, is celebrated on the 24th of Tevet. The Alter Rebbe used to say that in the world to come, "the soul will be nourished from the body." There will be a reversal of nature: the essential (the soul) will become incidental while what was once incidental (the body) will become essential. This is the real secret of "Joseph is still alive": the od of Joseph (which is in each Jew) will live eternally, while the soul (the aspect of "I will praise G-d while I live") will receive its principal vitality from the body which will live forever. [Rav Yitzchak Ginsburg - http://www.inner.org/times/tevet/tevet59.htm]

Has anyone seen the source for this teaching of the body nourishing the soul in the world to come? I know the Tanya discusses the 248 limbs being clothed in the 250 columns of light from Keter, and he mentions the mitzwoth (these same 250 columns of light) as the clothing of the soul in Gan Eden, but he also says there that davka the Torah we learn is the food of the Neshamah in Gan Eden. (all that can be found in iggrot kodesh - second to last section of tanya)

From the title of the post we can learn another teaching, since we're here, we might as well learn somehting right? 

Rebbe Nachman teaches (and we've mentioned it in the past) that "The land that eats her inhabitants" teaches a very deep lesson: That when we live in Israel, it consumes us and makes us into part of herself, just as the body consumes food and turns it into (flesh/bone/blood/etc) part of the body. In the same sense we can say that when we live for the sake of our soul, our body is consumed by and turned into part of the soul.

This can be substantiated by the teaching in Tikkunei Zohar that the angel in charge of the days of the week, (His 'nickname' is Mat -- we don't pronounce the names of angels with the exception of the four main ones Michael, Gavriel, Refael, and Uriel) is the body of Chanoch, which he turned into a holy angel through his divine service.

of sound and noise

It is possible to sit right next to someone you care about, carry on an entire  conversation with them, and never once stop thinking about what you are missing on TV right now.

It's as if you never spoke to them at all, you were never there, they don't even exist.

I'd hazard a guess that a lot of our daily interactions run fairly close to this scenario, whether it be TV we're thinking about, or anything else, even things of great importance.

If we truly love someone, they deserve our full attention, our time. This is such a hard lesson to absorb as a father and a husband. There's so much to do, but it's so much less important than the minutes or hours we spend with those who mean the most to us.

I wouldn't even be able to write this now, if my parents and grandparents hadn't embodied just this throughout my childhood.

The same is true about God.

Prayer is an opporunity to talk to HaShem.

HaShem is above time and space, He's got nowhere to go, He's listening.

We can pray three times a day every day, without our thoughts ever leaving the latest episode of Prison Break.  (Or House, the newest Harry Potter book,  the latest extrapolations of the foremost breakthroughs in modern medicine and cosmology, dinner, deadlines, music, traffic, anything at all other than God.)

Yeah, all this is pretty cliched, it's not new, someone probably pointed it out before---but were you listening then, or thinking about TV?

Either way, it's not the point I intended to make. My point is that this is just the very first step, the beginning of the road.

A Tzaddik isn't someone who invests energy and time in his prayers---that's what everyone is supposed to do!

And what's the next step? When I'm in traffic, cooking, cleaning, working, designing, developing, shopping, eating, building, creating, resting; I'm thinking about God. Everything I'm doing is establishing, growing, my relationship with Him.

It's not about becoming boring and one-dimensional, it's about uncovering deeper dimensions within the mundane. 

Everyone wants God to talk to them. 

Everyone.

But we all think God talks like He's on the telephone, or via SMS. How limited are we when we SMS, email, IM? Don't we sometimes want the closeness and warmth of a physical person looking at us? All those additional channels of stimulus add infinitely to that relationship.

Yet HaShem, who is truly infinite, we expect a phone call. "Yo"

The deepest and most basic teaching of the Baal Shem Tov is that every element of our experience, every stimulus that fires a single neuron, is part of the totality of God's communication with us. 

It's not a phone call, it's an intensely overwhelming experience of the infinite that barely lets us maintain our sanity -- that's why we prefer TV over trying to really connect. That's why we prefer Boing Boing or Wikipedia to trying to visit every page on the web every day.

This is why relationships are so important. This is the secret of relationships. By relating to others, making space for others, being open to others, we create an awareness, a vessel, exactly that which we need to start to relate to and digest the words of God. (which are always being spoken)

spare no expense

Sometimes we go to do a mitzwah, and in the process a number of aggravations arise in the process. In the end we might be tempted to say, "It wasn't worth it. It would have been better if I hadn't bothered." Heaven Forbid!

Sometimes, when we do a particularly powerful mitzwah (even if it seems like a plain simple mitzwah to us)  two things happen: (1) HaShem makes it a little bit harder for us to perform the mitzwah, which makes the mitzwah that much sweeter when we do it anyway; and (2) the Yetzer Hara (the evil urge) makes the performance of the mitzwah extra bitter in the hope that we will regret ever doing the mitzwah. If we regret performing a mitzwah (has v'shalom) it might be taken as if we never did it at all -- just as voicing our regret for an aveirah (a sin) is the essence of teshuvah and erases the deed itself.

Armed with this knowledge, it is important to note than when we set out to do a mitzwah and encounter an obstacle, we must gather additional determination and press onward. And when we feel remorse about the cost (emotional, physical and even monetary) of the mitzwah, it's time to thank HaShem for giving us such an obviously precious mitzwah. If it weren't so precious, the Yetzer Hara wouldn't be trying to undo the mitzwah even after its completion.

the power of true happiness

איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו - ללחום נגד העצבות, אפשר להבין את הפתגם ככה: אזוהי [דרך של] אושר? השמח בחלקו [של חברו] דווקא

 

It is a very big mitzwah to always be happy. 

So, what do we do when our lives seem miserable? Be happy about someone else's life. This is a very big secret to true happiness.

If you can look at your friend's life and see that things are going well for them, and you can take true joy in this, you can vanquish any depression, any sadness.

When we truly understand that our friends' and family's wellbeing is as important as our own, we can be happy even when our own lives are difficult.

[If the reverse is true, heaven forbid, we can't let our friends' or family's suffering get in the way of our happiness, because our own sadness could hinder our ability to help them in their time of need.]

brighter than the eye can see

What makes Hannukah and Purim different from Shabbat and the other Yom Tovs on which we don't do melachah? (very very loosely translated: 'work') 

According to the Tzemah Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his book Derech Mitzwotecha explaining about the mitzwah of Hannukah candles, the light that is revealed on Hannukah and Purim is so powerful and from such a high place that we cannot readily receive it. 

We awaken the revelation of the light with the performance of the mitzwah, but the light itself is beyond us. Since it is beyond us, we can't mistakenly transmit it to the dark side, to the elements of creation that utterly lack holiness.

By contrast, on Shabbath (and Yom Tov) the light brought down is specifically meant to be received, and when we create (through our mitzwah observance) the appropriate vessels we do receive enlightenment. It is for this reason that we don't do melachah, we don't involve ourselves with anything lacking inherent holiness. If we were to be involved in the mundane with such a level of enlightenment, then we would be channeling all of this divine influx directly to the unholy forces, the dark side. For this reason (among others) HaShem commanded us to abstain from worldly concerns on Shabbat and Yom Tov.

On Hannukah, where we ourselves cannot receive this tremendous light, there's no need to abstain from worldly matters, there's no danger of us transmitting any of the divine illumination to the other side.

There are two areas of specific interest to women on Hannukah: 

1. A wife who lights the Hannukah candles in the home completes the mitzwah for her husband--even against his will. This means that if the husband is away from home and he intends to light the candles himself, purposely intending not to be included in the lighting his wife will perform in the home, he is still included in her lighting, and has no need or mitzwah to light the candles himself. To me this is interesting because there aren't many mitzwoth at all that can be fulfilled for someone in direct contradiction to their own intent or desire, completely against their will. The reason in our case is because the mitzwah rests primarily on the home, not on the individual (wherever they might be) and women and men are both obligated to light Hannukah candles.
2. While there is no mitzwah not to perform melachah as we mentioned already, there is a custom (and Jewish customs are like Torah) for women to abstain from melachah during the half hour or so that the candles are supposed to be lit. I wanted to suggest that this implies that even though, in general, the light of Hannukah is beyond our perception, women are able to attain a certain level of connection with this light, and consequently they aren't supposed to work during the time of candle lighting.

into the darkness

Most people have a natural fear of darkness.

This grows to encompass any and all unknowns, that's what darkness inherently is. 

Hannukah is about illuminating the darkness. Yavan, the Greek empire, was called "darkness" by Chazal. Their persecution was an attempt to extinguish the light of Torah in the world and replace it with their own empty or dark culture.

But, Matityahu and his children plunged into the darkness clinging to the light of Torah, and as we are taught in Hassidut, a small amount of light illuminates a far greater darkness.

The novelty of this idea, the idea of Hannukah where rather than fearing the darkness we confront it head on, even seek it out, was adopted as the banner of Hassidut. This is why Hassidim (especially Chabad) refer to this time of year as the Rosh HaShanah of Hassidut. The Chabad Hassidim celebrated with a great feast the same day their Rebbe was taken into Russian custody. What did they celebrate? His eventual release, his certain conquest over the darkness. On the 19th of Kislev they celebrated an even greater celebration when the Rebbe was released.

So too, in Hassidut, we take great joy in the approach of Hannukah, even in the depth of the darkness that always comes before it. But this joy cannot even be compared to the celebration of the arrival of Hannukah.

To learn a little bit more about darkness and light, we can look at the daily cycle. As the sun passes noon and begins to fall, we already know that night is imminent, it's coming no matter what. When night falls it gets darker and darker until in the depths of the darkness, midnight, we know even if we cannot see it that the night has already begun its approach to morning. At the very moment of midnight, there is a Jewish custom to awaken and mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple.  The end of the text which is read at Tikkun Hatzot, as the custom is called, takes heart at the promised return of the Temple in the end of days.

Hannukah, as we mentioned in the past, (and as discussed in the Bnei Yissachar) represents the same time of Tikkun Hatzot in the yearly cycle. At the darkest point of the year, as the year begins to head in the inevitable direction of summer, yet the light of summer is still invisible, at that very time, we light the Hannukah candles in comemoration both of the desecration of the Holy Temple, and our triumph over the forces of darkness which led to the Holy Temple's re-dedication.

Today is the day before Hannukah, where the world is at its darkest. Today we need to rejoice with great and redoubled faith, for just as we know with absolute certainty that tonight the illumination of Hannukah will shine out on the world, so too, we know that HaShem will redeem His people from the darkness of this extended exile.

Hassidut and Hannukah unite together to teach us that in our day and age, a time that parallels the second to last plague of the 10 plagues that befell Egypt, that of Darkness, we need to head feerlessly into the belly of the darkness and therein draw down the light of Torah, illuminating the whole world with utter faith. 

[It is an interesting aside to note that after the plague of darkness, the Jews approached their Egyptian neighbors to borrow vessels with which to serve HaShem in the desert. The Torah says that the Jews found favor (חן) in the eyes of the Egyptians, the very same letters that are at the root of the word חנוכה - Hannukah.]

beautiful women

Why are women generally more beautiful than men?

The Tzemach Tzedek explains in his Derech Mitzwotecha, while explaining the mitzwah of lighting the Hannukah Candles, that the mitzwah is meant to bring down a tremendous influx of light from Hochmah all the way to Malchut. He explains that while all the of the middot receive of this light, Malchut receives the most because it is the direct interface with the klippoth, the dark side, so it needs the excess light to drive away the darkness. [Since men represent yesod, and women malchut] Because women receive this greater surplus of light, they generally shine with more beauty.

the shame of poverty

Last night during my Hevruta on Notzer Hesed, I was able to gain a much clearer insight into something I had learned in the past in the Pri Ha'aretz, something that seems to happen a lot.

The Pri Ha'aretz teaches that every single absence that is noticeable in the world is an instance where the Shechinah was forced into exile. She is in exile in the lack. When we pray for her return to her rightful place, then all of that which is lacking in the world will collectively vanish with the restoration of her true status.

It's a difficult concept to picture, but it does illustrate the connection that is often made that we should pray for the well-being (completion) of the Shechinah, rather than for our own personal needs.

Still, I want to bring it down to a level that's a little more within our grasp. Even if it will be a very esoteric grasp, we'll try to get some kind of grasp on the abstract metaphysics of the issue.

The Shechinah, in a sense, represents the revelation of Godliness in the world. Godliness permeates all of existence, but in the default state of this world it is hidden from sight. Any revellation of Godliness is a manifestation we call the Shechinah. 

[One question that arises here is that if we see two different people whose lives are both a revellation of Godliness, this doesn't imply there are two Shechinahs, rather the Tanya explains that it is like sunlight shining through two windows in one room.]

Now, the nature of the Shechinah is that she has nothing of her own. (לית לה מגרמא כלום) And what we refer to as Godliness (that which is hidden) is the source of all the Shechinah's emanations.

Normally, the ideal state of existence is the unification of the Shechinah with the Holy One Blessed be He. Now we aren't talking about two separate entities no matter how it may sound, we are simply talking about uniting the Revelation of Godliness, with the Hidden Godliness; it's all just God. (אין עוד מלבדו - there is none other than He) What this means in more practical or dynamic terms is that the revelation of Godliness is not missing from the world. Whenever a lack of Godliness becomes apparent, the Shechinah (its revelation) is said to be in exile. Because any need or emptiness is a function of the attribute of the Shechinah, of having nothing of her own.

So, now that we kind of understand that idea. We understand perhaps the smallest part of what it means to say the Shechinah is in exile. (If we were delving into this discussion with the aid of describing and explaining the sefirot, some of the points might be more accessible, but others might be more confusing, so we will leave the matter of sefirot aside from this post. For those who would like to see a little bit of the connection, suffice it to say that Malchut which is also called the Shechinah is the vessel within which all of creation (revelation of Godliness) occurs.)

Now, having some basic framework from which to work with, lets try and take another step: When we sin, we cause the Godliness that was invested in that sin to become deeply hidden. We cause less revellation of Godliness in the world, we cause the exile of the Shechinah. The Shechinah, now in exile, is pained or suffers because her poverty, her lack of anything of her own, is revealed to everyone through this apparent lack of Godliness.

When we pray for the sake of the completion of the Shechinah, for the union of the Shechinah with The Holy One Blessed Be He, it is the same as saying we are praying for Godliness to be openly revealed in the whole world. In this way, the Shechinah no longer lacks for anything, she is no longer in exile, she no longer suffers the embarrassment of 'abject poverty.'

When we pray in this way, it not only addresses all of our own needs and lacks but those of all the world, for every need in the world is merely an expression of the Shechinah's having nothing of her own.

sweetness

טעמו וראו כי טוב ה' - עיקר חסידות הוא לטעום מתיקות עריבות ידודות נועם השם שנבלע בתוך האלוקות של כל נברא. זוהי גילוי ודביקות הנשמה באלוקות אשר טבוע בכל נברא. כל עוד שבחינת העולם מבדיל בין הנשמה לאלוקות אז אי אפשר לטעום המתיקות

What's the essence of Hassidut?

To me, the deepest lesson of the Ba'al Shem Tov (or BeShT for short) is the sweetness that is revealed within all things. It can be most easily found and tasted in the Torah of Hassidut, but the underlying lesson is "go out and learn," that same sweetness underlies all of creation. It is the sweetness of cleaving to the Godliness that infuses all things and imbues them with life.

In the BeShT's famous letter to his brother-in-law R' Gershon KiTov, Moshiah tells him in Gan Eden that he (Moshiah) will not arrive until all the world can perform the spiritual unifications of the Ba'al Shem Tov. To me this doesn't mean arcane intentions or mnemonics, rather the simple joy of revealing the sweetness of Godliness in all things. 

Don't misunderstand, this is no small task, in practice it may be harder than teaching everyone (and I mean everyone) the unifications (yichudim) of the Mekubalim. 

I bring up this topic in recognition of Yud Tet Kislev the Rosh HaShanah of Hassidut.

טעמו וראו כי טוב השם - taste and see that HaShem is good.

the greatest expectations: no expectations.

Many things in life are affected by our initial expectations. When we go into an experience with an open mind, expecting nothing in particular other than to be surprised, the surprise is often a positive one.

In this way, your every meal can be delicious, almost every experience a positive one. This is actually a major secret of being happy with one's lot in life. If we don't look at what others have, and based on this form expectations, then we can very easily enjoy whatever it is that we receive.

The Mei Shiloah explains that this was Yaakov Avinu's midah, that he had no desires for anything other than what was his, he didn't feel a lack of anything. This was the meaning behind איש תם יושב אוהלים - a simple tent-dweller.

Rebbe Nachman takes this idea in a slightly different direction and explains that just as HaShem creates us new every day, we need to interact with HaShem and the world with this knowledge. Every day we should serve HaShem anew, with whatever is given to us in this day. This is the extreme version of the idea of being unexpecting. Not only don't we have expectations about our life, but every day is itself a new surprise.

Rebbe Nachman basically explains that this is the secret to staying young at any age, and judging from the elderly people that I've met, the happiest seem to have arrived at a similar understanding to that of Rebbe Nachman.

don't disengage

There's a difference between being small in deed and small in thought. Humility is about accomplishing a lot, and not letting it go to my/your head.

False humility is about 'not doing' in order to avoid the nagging thought that you are great. Denying yourself opportunities, most of all mitzwoth, is self-abuse not humility.

This is such a hard concept for me to internalize. I know that so many things have no intrinsic value, and instinctively I want to cut them out and become an ascetic.

At every turn I need to remind myself that no, the more you engage the world, the more you involve yourself in the world, the more potential you have to bring about holiness.

Engaging isn't easier, it's more of a challenge; but the alternative, pulling back, only limits you.

the tzaddik's fork

There are two different paths tzaddikim can take, both of them derive from divine da'ath. Da'ath, knowledge, splits into hesed (giving) and gevurah. (holding back)

The path of hesed which is open to the tzaddik involves jumping into the thick of existence and destroying your ego through recognizing and experiencing great Ahavat Yisrael. Knowing that you yourself are nothing and that everyone around you is priceless. This may sound hard and depressing but it isn't simply because everything and everyone around you is so sweet and precious, it causes infectious happiness.

The path of gevurah, which is meant for other tzaddikim is an even higher path but it is found in tremendous worldly suffering. Through subjecting oneself to deep physical hardship and attaching oneself solely to the spiritual one's spiritual joy and accomplishments are practically unbounded. This path, the Komarna explains is frought with a number of dangers, most notably depression.

The Komarna Rebbe describes a few Tzaddikim who represented the first category, foremost among them, the Baal Shem Tov.

There is a story about the two brothers, Reb Zusha and Reb Elimelech:

R' Zusia and his brother R' Elimelech had an ongoing dispute on what should one base his service of God. R' Zusha maintained that one should first reflect upon his own lowliness which would in turn cause him to appreciate God's eminence. R' Elimelech held that by contemplating God's eminence, he would come to realize his own insignificance. Since neither brother could sway the other, they went to the  Maggid of Mezeritch for a judgment as to whom was correct. "You are both correct, explained the Maggid, both paths are valuable. But the one who begins with himself is safer . . . one can't fall from the ground".[from: http://www.judaicaplus.com/Tzadikim/tz_viewer.cfm?page=zusha.htm]

This story sort of highlights the two paths. Reb Zusha was a (to my mind) proponent of the path of hesed, and Reb Elimelech of gevurah. I think the story points out the relative safety of Reb Zusha's path, the path of hesed, over the path of gevurah. In terms of impact and accomplishment though, Reb Zusha insisted that Reb Elimelech (the younger brother) was the greater of the two.

the wool over little old me

The Komarna Rebbe explains in Netiv Mitzwotecha (Netiv haTorah, 1:3) that hubris, ga'avah is the worst form of sin because only ga'avah can drive all of the holiness of your actions entirely into the dark side. 

Contrasting this, humility is the highest form of offering. 

Beware false humility though--when it comes to serving HaShem we should never question whether we are adequate to the task, instead we must push forward with great confidence and energy.

a new focus

כדי לבטל את רצונות היצר אפשר לעקוב אותו במחשבה פשוטה. שילוב חיי אם אני, להקדים את מקור חייך להאני הישות שלך מביא ביטול מוחלט מאני לאין: חאיניי - עיטוף האני בחיי נפשך מגלה עצם ביטולו

One of the most basic ways to work on ego is to remind yourself that you are nothing next to your soul which is literally a piece of Godliness. (חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש) The Tanya discusses this in the context of awakening divine mercy for your poor soul that has been distanced from her home (the source from which she was hewn) in heaven.

A simple idea to focus on is this: the ego, the I, is אני in hebrew. The goal is to turn the ego, the אני, into אין, into the hebrew word for nothing. This seems simple as אין and אני have the same hebrew letters, aleph yud nun. So, we should be able to just rearrange our awareness and that's it, presto! no more ego. 

Unfortunately it's not so simple. But, when we start to think of our soul, of the source of our life-force, we can represent it with the word חיי. This is the life-force we pray for when we ask HaShem for בני חיי ומזוני - offspring, life, and sustenance. The life component encompasses many things, including really the other two. So, when we focus on our soul as the root of our life-force,  חיי, we can unite it with our ego, אני, and accomplish fascinating results.

When we connect two ideas in our thoughts, we generally interweave the letters of their composition, called in hebrew a שילוב - shiluv. In the case of אני and חיי when we want the חיי to be the dominant force influencing the אני, we start with the ח from חיי and then take the א from אני and so on, alternately taking one letter from each word. When we combine the whole thing we get:

חאיניי 

In this word we see that while the חיי remains intact surrounding what's in the middle, the middle has changed from אני, from ego to אין, to nothing.

In this way we can see that by focusing on the source of our life-force, on our soul, and its importance, we can overcome our ego in a very natural almost roundabout way.

When we remember our soul, and recognize how our actions either respect our soul, dignifying her, or dishonor her, embarrasing her, we can lose sight of whether our actions are bringing us honor or power or attention or all the other things our ego likes us to focus on.

peels of laughter

When we are helplessly watching another's suffering, knowing that is truly our own as well. From where can we know solace?

How can the sure knowledge that this suffering is HaShem's Will, and is ultimately for our own good, help us at all? When it isn't our bones that are being broken, our skulls that are being bludgeoned? How can we dismiss the pain of someone else?

We can't. 

BUT: the fact that this situation is so beyond our ability to comprehend, so contradictory in any logical realm, can bring us comfort in the surety that HaShem is the only force behind this. 

When all forms of logic break down, we can take comfort in the reality that HaShem must sort out the chaos. If we don't have the tools to function let alone prevail, we know we can rely on HaShem to extricate us from this mess.

Learning this this past week brought me to sudden incredulous and comforting laughter in the midst of bitter tears.

Abba! Abba! Abba!

of sparks and souls

True humility comes from recgonizing the importance of others coupled with one's own insignificance.

In truth, our Neshamoth are all connected, each Neshama is comprised of a unique point as well as parts of all the other Neshamoth that have ever been created.

When we see that such a large part of our own Neshama is actually made up of everyone else's Neshamoth, it should make us aware of how great and important everyone else is.

When we see what an insignificant portion of another person's soul is composed of a little piece of our soul it should make us aware of our own smallness.

Contemplation of this idea can lead to great Ahavat Yisrael.

more to pray about

Last erev Shabbath I gave a short dvar Torah summarised here:

We know from the 13 rules of how to expound Torah (according to Rabi Yishmael), that we can learn about the generality, the klal, from the specific, the prat. 

Today we'll look at a single prat, and from this, learn about everything, the klal.

Just as it's obvious to us that we can never stop praying for our children, that they are always a work in progress, so too it becomes obvious to us that we must always pray for every aspect of our lives and existence.

Think about it for a minute.

Money, clothing, transport, food, health, everything. Even when something is "in the bag" still, it can devaluate, rip, break, rot, fail, or cease to be. When we rest assured that what is in front of our face is "a sure thing," we're forgetting HaShem's constant hand in our lives.

This isn't meant to make you paranoid, just the opposite. 

When you realize that there is no substantive difference between holding something in your hand or not having it all, you can recognize that it all depends solely on HaShem. At this point you can be comforted by the fact that He is infinitely more trustworthy than government, insurance, investment, lifetime warantees, or employment.

HaShem provides us all with everything we need, not medicare, not taxes, not 28-hr [sic] work days. Pray for it.

"So you're telling me not to work?" No!!! Work, but recognize that the work itself is a form of prayer to HaShem, the most basic form of prayer: "I'm doing my part HaShem, from here on out, it's up to you." 

If your work performance is less than "I'm doing my part," well, then that's not really praying is it?

This is the heart and essence of the deepest kabbalistic meditations, yihudim and kawanoth: "I'm doing my part HaShem, from here on out it's up to you." You are entering into a complete and total partnership with HaShem.

This was the legacy left to my father by my grandfather ztz"l, and I'm still learning it to this day.

Everything, whatever it is you are doing right now, has the potential to be a prayer. If it doesn't, then stop doing it. If it isn't then ask yourself why it isn't, or better yet, make it so.