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Karma Came Quickly

By / Mikeitz, Torah Portion

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ We saw last week that Yosef’s karma came quickly: everything that he reported to his father about his brothers came back to him. He shared how his brothers were eating flesh cut off from a living animal, and his brothers sold him, cutting him off from the family. He told Yakov how the brothers treated the sons of the handmaids with contempt and called them slaves, and then “Yosef was sold for a slave.” Because he shared with his father that his brothers were acting immorally, Yosef’s “master’s wife cast her eyes upon him,” and he landed in prison in Egypt for two years. In this week’s parashah, the same karma befalls the brothers: they are accused of …

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The Three Sided Story

By / Torah Portion, Vayeishev

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ Blessings don’t come easily in this world. Everything of great value comes through hardship. Even peace itself comes from being diligent in bittul (self-transcendence), choosing how to navigate our reactions. The deeper and more meaningful a relationship is the better the chances are of having difficult elements to work through. If you want to go deep in a relationship, there will be work to get through so that each person feels that they are being heard and loved in the way that they need. It’s similar in relationships between parents and children: the amount of love a parent feels for their child is indescribable, but it comes from a constant giving of one’s emotional and physical faculties. In …

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Where Soul Meets Body

By / Torah Portion, Vayishlach

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ We all have encountered Esavs in our lives, whether as a part of ourselves or manifested in various people we encounter. Yakov demonstrates through these parshiot the various ways to overcome Esav and the yetzer hara (evil inclination) he represents. In last week’s parashah, we see Yakov asking only for food and clothing. He’s a picture of the simple tzadik, “ish tam, yoshev ohalim” (a righteous man sitting in tents, learning Torah).  At this stage of his life, he was fearful of Lavan and Esav and would flee and run from his troubles. But in this week’s parashah of Vayishlach, we see a more mature Yakov: he has accumulated material wealth because he knows how to spiritualize it, …

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What Happens To A Dream Deferred?

By / Torah Portion, Vayeitzei

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ So much of emunah (faith) and connectedness revolve around sleep and dreams, at least for me. In moments of faithlessness and doubt, I sometimes get overwhelmed with anxiety and find it hard to sleep– thoughts are racing through my head, and I find it hard not to think of things from every angle. It’s a cycle that is sometimes tough to quiet, at least enough to slip into slumber. Dreams, too, however far out, are often connected to the state each of us are in at that time. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic approach to oneirology (the scientific study of dreams) is that they are partially drawn from experiences and stimuli in the waking world. He says that dreams are …

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Your Other Side

By / Toldot, Torah Portion

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ It seems that in almost every moment of our lives we are caught between two choices: the easier or more selfish choice and something a bit harder, a selfless choice. Sometimes safek (doubt) blurs the lines between the two, but often, if we tap into emunah (faith) and our gut, we know which is the one for us. Every action affects every other action. The fact that it takes so long to break a habit shows that every single action has ramifications beyond it. That’s why it says in Pirkei Avot, the reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah, because if doing good begets doing good, one can take action to stay in perpetual goodness, or God forbid, …

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The Future is Female

By / Chayei Sarah, Torah Portion

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ The Talmud teaches that “In the merit of righteous women, our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt”. Redemption is intrinsically related to women, malchut (sovereignty), and the Divine feminine dimension.  I mentioned in my dvar on parashat Lech-Lecha that when I think of my mother, I think of tzedakah and chessed, words that are hard to translate because they capture the real depths of words like ‘generous’, ‘giving’, ‘loving’, and ‘kindness’. My mom embodied and exemplified these qualities to an angelic degree: so full of life, love, warmth, and light, at every turn, every single moment. Being around that inspired me to be more loving, more giving, more full of a zest for each moment in life. As I read …

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Greetings From The Edge Of The World

By / Torah Portion, Vayeira

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ I wrote this last year when I was going through a tough week, and I was hearing from so many others that they too were going through a lot of difficulties. It makes us realize how each of us are our own complex universes and each universe is affected by the other. It’s why spreading joy and light is such an important part of life, as each person has the ability to ignite the other person’s light and positive outlook, or God forbid, diminish it. As it is written in the holy Zohar: “If, from down here below, a person shows a luminous countenance, in the same way does a luminous Countenance shine upon him from Above, and …

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Go To Yourself

By / Lech-Lecha, Torah Portion

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ Most of us find it challenging to truly go inward. With life’s endless stream of distractions, our desire to be loved and to fit in (in whatever ways that manifests) keep us focused outward. Abraham, the father of the Jewish tradition, discovered the Truth by searching what it meant to be his true self and the responsibilities that come with being one’s true self, while those around him had fallen to worshipping desires and false idols. As we see from this Parashah, sometimes to go further in, you have to go further out.  וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃  God said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from …

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Found A World So New

By / Noach, Torah Portion

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. ________________________________________________________ This week is the famous story of Noach and the flood. The entire generation had fallen to the Sitra Achra (the Other Side) and Hashem calls Noach righteous and perfect. Noach built an ark and then rain fell for 40 days. Hundreds of days later, after a dove was sent out and returned with an olive branch in its mouth, Noach knew redemption had come and it was time to fully move forward. This story represents something that everyone faces at one point or another in their lives: Becoming the hero of our own story, building an ark, and filling ourselves up with the hope of redemption. It is up to each of us to strengthen ourselves continually …

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Just Keep Me Where The Light Is

By / Bereishit, Torah Portion

The Dvar/article below is also available as a Podcast, simply click any of the following options: Apple, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud,  &/or Youtube. _____________________________________________________________ This parashah of Bereishit, especially the first aliyah, contains almost all of the mind-blowing kabbalistic concepts of the Light of Infinite in it. When Hashem said, Let There Be Light…. And It Was Good, it clues us into the purpose of Creation– to reveal light and goodness in this world.  “And God said, let there be light, and there was light.” This was the first utterance (‘vayomer’/’and God said’) by which Hashem created the world and the first of its creations. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his Likkutei Sichot, asks why light would be created before anything else, as light has no value in and of itself; its usefulness depends on the existence of other things, which are illuminated …

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