A Unique Approach for Seeing Yourself and the World in the Light of Torah
Rosh Hashanah and Breaking the Power of Imagination Good things come in threes: three patriarchs (Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov), three mochin [spiritual brains] (chochmah, binah and da’at), three kinds of seichel [intellect] (potential, actualized and acquired), three lower aspects of … Continued
Having Our Prayers and Requests Accepted It is taught (Chullin 60b): רבי שמעון בן פזי רמי כתיב “ויעש אלקים את שני המאורות הגדולים” וכתיב “את המאור…הגדול ואת המאור הקטן” אמרה ירח לפני הקב”ה רבש”ע אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד … Continued
Making One’s Prayers a Delight to Hashem In Chullin 60b, Rav Asi reconciles an apparent contradiction in the account of creation regarding when the grasses grew from the ground (see Bereshit 1:12 and Bereshit 2:5 for specifics). He answered as … Continued
Yaakov’s Encounter with the Ministering Angel of Esav After Yaakov Avinu conducted his family and possessions across the river when returning to what would eventually become known as Eretz Yisrael, we read the following in the Torah (Bereshit 32:25): וַיִּוָּתֵר … Continued
Likutei Moharan 20 and Swords of Iron After Yaakov Avinu left Lavan, he went, as the expression goes, from the frying pan into the fire. His destiny was to come face to face with his brother Esav. Knowing that this … Continued
A number of months ago, a friend of mine asked me why some people (such as ‘yours truly’) clap from time to time during davening, even during Shemoneh Esreh itself. At the time, I didn’t give him much of an … Continued
We discovered from our last article entitled Learning to Shoot Straight that perfect, whole tefillah is acquired through personal purity and tzedakah, i.e. the giving of charity.Therefore, if we want to remove the impediments that inhibit or limit our tefillot, … Continued
In last week’s article, we explained how tefillah [תפילה, prayer] is Mashiach’s fundamental weapon for defeating the forces of the Sitra Achra. By extension, we learned that this is also the weapon that each and every one of us must … Continued
How does Mashiach fight his wars? And by extension, how should we fight our battles? It is taught (Likutei Moharan 2:1): אִיתָא בְּסִפְרָא דִּצְנִיעוּתָא מִנּוּקְבָא דְּפַרְדַּשְׂקָא מָשַׁךְ רוּחָא דְּחַיֵּי לִמְשִׁיחָא כִּי עִקַּר כְּלֵי זֵינוֹ שֶׁל מָשִׁיחַ הוּא הַתְּפִלָּה שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת … Continued
When you hear the word teshuvah, what do you think about? Perhaps the first ideas to come to mind are that it means to repent or to return to Hashem and His ways. We could add the notion of moving … Continued