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The flip side of sleep and dreams is the one-sixtieth of death, and the flip side of faith is doubt which begins a vicious cycle of anxiety and brings us further from faith and peace. Many have been taught and can certainly feel that Shabbat is one-sixtieth of the World to Come, that is why the world to come is referred to as kulo Shabbat. When we keep Shabbat fully, when we pause on interfering with creation and meditate on creation itself, we can lessen our anxiety, we can tap into oneness, we can doubt less because we can feel and be mindful of that the Source of Creation is in charge, that we can only push ourselves to a point and then let fate free us from our worries. Shabbat is a time in space that we could feel …

Vanquishing Fears (number: massei) Continue Reading

The majority of us have the best of intentions, but life sometimes gets in the way. Even when we fully promise and believe that we are going to help a friend out, there are times that, in the end, it doesn’t work out how we had hoped. It’s these promises said with such love and enthusiasm that give us hope and make us feel that we aren’t alone. The flip side is when empty promises leave us feeling misled, helpless, or stranded. People shouldn’t commit to things they don’t actually have time for. Language is powerful. Indeed, as we covered 3 weeks ago in the Torah portion – Chukat, we learn from Hashem (God) that words create worlds. In the beginning, Hashem spoke existence into being. It is the same with each of us, speech is a way to connect …

Don’t Play No Games That I Can’t Win (number: matot) Continue Reading

There is so much epic wisdom around our falls and our elevation, but it’s far too much to post here, so I thought I would share the first & last paragraph of my latest Dvar/article, “How To Levitate After Every Fall.” First paragraph -> There’s one kind of religious thought, which now feels antiquated, that teaches that a person should never fall into sin and that only in the purest state can they reach unification with the Divine and all the blessings that come with it. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov was controversial in his time and had many that railed against him because he shined a light on the profound spiritual elevation one can reach because of our fallen moments. Last paragraph -> One of the central lessons of Likutei Moharan is the Azamra, confronting these dinim, the judgments you …

How To Levitate After Every Fall (number: pinchas) Continue Reading

If at every moment you can choose the path that you want to pursue, as the Talmud states, Hashem will help you towards the path of your choosing, then you have to ensure that you’re in alignment & on a path of positivity! We shouldn’t ever look at ourselves as fully bad or fully good, cuz that can color how we approach the future & more often than not, in a negative way. If we realize that at any given moment we have the power for bad or the power for good, then we can begin to be present, let go of the weight of our past decisions & choose good, choose positivity in the very moment that we find ourselves in. Teshuva (return) is powerful, the idea that at the moment a person comes to the realization that they …

The Other Side (number: balak) Continue Reading

“The best fighter is never angry.” ― Lao Tzu The main problem with hitting the rock, which was born from a moment of imperfect faith by Moshe, was that it was an act of force. Moshe’s sin was in the moment of questioning, & the anger seeped in in that one tiny moment. The Maharal teaches: where there is complete faith, there is no room for anger, for there is great joy. What Korach didn’t understand when he rebelled against Moshe in last week’s parashah was that each person has their own spiritual level. In fact, a true tzaddik has a greater yetzer hara than everyone else, & the consequences of their choices are, therefore, much greater. In this instance, we see that Moshe, who lived his entire life righteously, lost the Promised Land with just one moment of anger. …

How To Never Get Angry (numbers: chukat) Continue Reading

The concept of doing something Lishmah (for its sake) is a key concept in both living in alignment with oneself and living in alignment with our Source. It’s the inner spiritual work, when done with the physical performance of a mitzvah, that sanctifies our outer being. The Zohar stresses that ahavah (love) and yirah (fear) are the two main ingredients needed for Torah and mitzvot to affect their ultimate purpose. Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev teaches in Kedushat Levi that Korach didn’t think that Torah could assume the trappings of this world. It was at that moment that the earth “opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korach’s people and all their possessions.” Levi Yitzchok explains that it was as if the earth was saying, “If you are unwilling to sanctify me through your deeds and to …

Revolt vs. Redemption (numbers: korach) Continue Reading

As Big Sean raps on Justin Bieber’s album, “Believe”, “the grass ain’t always greener on the other side. It’s green where you water it.” It’s like this with anything— our relationship with our partner, with life, & just the same or even more so with our Source, the Light of Infinite. We need to open our eyes & align with the present & have that presence manifest concretely. The verses below contain so much wisdom on how to open our eyes, through tzitzit, and how to elevate oneself to Divine consciousness. “Speak to the Israelites & have them make tassels on the corners of their garments for all generations….” We’re commanded to perform the ritual of tzitzit: to see them, and, in seeing, to remember Hashem’s commandments and, in seeing & remembering, to keep them. It’s their being “in sight” …

Out of Sight, Out of Mind (numbers: shlach) Continue Reading

The truth is we all will fall time & again. The secret is to not view it negatively. Because life is only truly negative if we don’t use our fall toward elevation. If falling back pushes us forward, it’s a powerful tool towards transcendence. Just living, in & of itself, presents challenges, & each challenge is an opportunity to get it right the next time. If we can greet hate with love, our life can change; if we don’t, we tend to stay stuck in a cycle that doesn’t feel aligned. As Mac Miller so eloquently sang on ‘Hurt Feelings’, “You been going through it, I just go around it.” This touches on the concept of the Maharash’s: l’chatchila ariber, he would say, “The world says that if you cannot crawl under an obstacle, try to leap over it. However, …

The Secret To Never Falling (numbers: behaalotecha) Continue Reading

King Solomon writes in Mishlei that whatever a person pictures in their mind has the power to happen. Our power to draw down blessings is tied into the faith that colors our beings as vessels to receive. The law of attraction is simple yet profound— positive thoughts bring positivity into a person’s life. And since the opposite is also true, it’s that much more important to paint the pictures that rest in our subconscious with positive brush strokes. It’s wild to think that only about 3% of our brain processes are conscious (our thoughts, ideas, understanding, and our decisions), while the other 97% is used for subconscious and automatic functions. Our habits and beliefs also fall under the 97%, which kabbalistically is tied to our Nefesh HaBehemit (our Animal soul), and illustrates how powerful our subconscious mind is. The 3% …

The Secret to Blessings (numbers: naso) Continue Reading

We all have a Nefesh Elokit (part of God) in us, we just need to transcend the layers of doubt and unlock the powerful truth and redemption that awaits. It’s written in a Mishnah, “Every human being is unique, and every human being is a copy of the prototype human being (Adam)…therefore, every human being must say, ‘For my sake the world was created.’” The same Mishnah teaches, “that every life is like an entire universe.” It’s when our soul enters our body that this becomes true. A body without a soul is similar to any other, but when the awareness of the soul as part of the body is recognized by an individual, we can begin to live out our purpose – our potential to be an entire universe becomes apparent. To use the body, the finite, to spiritualize …

The Colour of Humility (numbers: bamidbar) Continue Reading