2 kinds of Mitzvahs

G-d gave us 2 types of Mitzvot: Rational ones and irational ones. "You shall not murder" makes sense. On the other hand not mixing milk and meat, hardly makes sense at all. G-d is telling us: Recognize that there's so much more than we can comprehend. On the other hand understand and study what you can and make it personal, so you should love what you're doing.

Your mission

The great Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov taught: "A soul descends into this world and lives 70 - 80 years, just to do a favor for another, physically and especially spiritually". So next time an opportunity to do someone a favor presents itself, remember: this one act might be your entire life's mission.

Fresh Air

I never get tired of fresh air. I walk down the street after being confined in the office and guess what; the air has that miraculous effect on me. It makes me feel alive, yes, alive, that is the word I am looking for. Life, it’s difficult to describe but it has an intoxicating freshness and I never get tired of it.

Gone are the theories that I need to try something new every day, That there must be a never ending quest for originality to live a meaningful and enjoyable life.

I must look for inspiration every day. I must experience life with a new depth every day, but the foundation of life, the air, the water, never change. It should be experienced every day as it were the first time.

When the Jewish people came to the Sinai desert, the Torah describes that event in these words: “on this day they came to the Sinai Desert”. Rashi comments that the words “this day” in the present tense, teach us that every day the words of torah must be as a new experience as if we are hearing these words for the first time.

Belief?

Believing doesn't always mean blind faith. That's why Jews don't just believe that G-d gave us the Torah. We know it happened. Think about it this way; millions of people worldwide are telling the same story, with the same date and the same details. And some of us have not had any contact, with each other, for centuries.

Don't Pray, Sing.

Have you ever tried to read the same article every day? Believe me even the best written and most profound combination of words will bore you if you read it every day for many years.

So what were the “members of the great assembly” thinking when they instituted a liturgy for prayer to be read and reread three times a day?

The answer may be found in the name of the first part of the morning prayers. The name the sages chose for a section of psalms proclaiming the greatness of G-d is “Verses of Song”.

Now a song is very different. You can sing the same song you sang yesterday and still enjoy it today. Somehow the song stirs your soul every time you sing it as if you never heard it before. It touches you in a way that is deeper then words. when you tune in to that part of your soul there is an unlimited amount of inspiration.

Every time you raise your voice in song you allow your soul to express itself, and your soul never gets bored of the mundane, it never gets tired of living the moment. We get tired and bored when we don’t let the soul express it’s natural energy and life.

So next time I will pray, I will think of it as a song. I will allow my soul to sing, and express itself, to do what it wants to do most. As we say in the prayer “therefore my soul shall sing to you, and not be silent. L-rd my G-d I will praise you forever”.

Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld

We were by the Ohel, Reb Yisroel, Levi Gopin and I. And he told us the following story:
When he was in the community council, he had a connection to the Rebbetzin and lehavdil connections with officials. One day he gets a call from (Rabbi Krinsky ?) on behalf of the Rebbetzin. She got a bill for social security or maybe some type of insurance and she didn't know what it's about. So Reb Yisroel gets on the phone with the offices in NY asking what this charge is all about. They answered all puzzled. The Rebbetzin has been getting this bill since she was 65 without a complaint.
Reb Yisroel relays the information back to Rabbi Krinsky. And soon after gets a call, the Rebbetzin wants to know what the bill is about. This time Reb Yisroel gets in touch with supervisors with the same results. And the Rebbetzin is still not satisfied.
Finally he calls Washington DC. They say they really don't see what she doesn't understand. She's been paying it for years. But they'll look into it anyway and they'll call back in a few days. Meanwhile Chof Bais Shevat happened and the Rebbetzin had passed away. When Reb Yisroel gets the call back he said it's to late she passed away and it seems she knew she wouldn't need whatever it was she was paying for.
Later that week Reb Yisroel goes to be menachem avel the Rebbe. As he passes the Rebbe he says he can't hold himself in and tells the Rebbe the story and how amazed he is that the Rebbetzin knew she wouldn't need it anymore.
The Rebbe answered: Nu, I've seen greater things from her!

A thought

If the Jews would have stayed up all night, on the night before Shavuos, don't you think we would anyway stay up all night to commemorate it?

Thinking about the Rebbe

Yud Shevat is coming up. Known among Chassidim as Rosh Hashanah for Hiskashrus. So maybe we should think about the Rebbe.

The thing is, how do I think about the Rebbe? What exactly am I supposed to be thinking? The Rebbe's Torah? Greatness? Miracles? Ahavas Yisrael?

Maybe this: What is my connection to the Rebbe? What is it of the Rebbe that talks to me? Because I know I have a story. A story to tell about The Rebbe. And about Chabad and Chassidus and Yiddishkeit. My story. I chose to be frum and a chassid. But why? Why did I choose it? When was the last time I thought about it?

This year Yud Shevat means to me, to rip open my heart and look inside. Find out why I care about the Rebbe and what's my story.

I find it hard to go there and even harder to get there. What do I ask myself? How do I get in touch with that part of me, that's a burning flame? I know it's there. And this year I pray that I be able to come in touch with it.

HAAMONAS ELOKUS Chapter 6

The Arizal describes the origin of the creation as follows:
“The light was contracted and only a trace (mark) was left, afterwards he drew down a thin (vector) line”.
The vessels of the ten SEFIROT are from the trace and the lights of the SEFIROT are from the line.

Major questions:
If he does not have any corporal characteristics than how can you say he contracted himself? (It’s like saying that 1+1=2 will be contracted and it does not exist in this room).
The prophet states that the creation does not cause a change, and the contraction is a great change.

Based on the previous discussion it can be understood for the creation is from the ray anf the ray was contracted not his essence.

What happened to the light that was contracted? It returned and was included in it’s source.
An analogy: when a person cannot see the power to see returns to and is included in the soul, but it still exits it just does not have any expression.

The concept of contraction is fundamentally different then the normal order of transmitting which is called “cause and effect”. For the existence that is created after the contraction does not have comparison to the existence before the contraction. (i.e. the Ten SEFIROT cannot be compared in any way to the infinite light that shined before the contraction).

However – (watch out for the paradox) the SEFIROT are G-dly, it is His wisdom and His Kindness etc.
This is the meaning of the word ATZILUT – G-d emanating from himself (in contrast to “creation” which is a separate entity).

WHY I DONT WANT TO BE A WRITER

Why I don’t want to be a writer.

I don’t want to be a writer. No, not because I don’t respect the written word, nor do I think that its time has past in the generation of electronic communication.

I certainly don’t want to write about feelings. Not my own nor anyone else’s.
I look at the page and I say sorry this does not capture what I am feeling.

(ok, I am not talking about world class writers, or divinely inspires writers like king David’s verse “If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget. Let my tongue cleave to my palate if I will not remember you, if I will not bring to mind Jerusalem during my greatest joy” – can anybody have said it better? – before its beauty was diminished in translation).

I think people resent having their feelings defined. Because feelings run very deep and are unlimited in the way we feel them – when you love it’s without bounds when you hate you hate completely.

But there is a beuty in describing feelings in words. And it’s a paradox, because you are forced to define something that to you is unlimited.

This reminds me of the Chasidic explanation of the term “OR” – light. The ray of the luminary is limited it is insignificant compared to when it is in the luminary. Yet it is “MEEIN” it is of the same quality as the luminary. So it is a limited expression of something unlimited.

LIGHT

There are two groups of believers.

The emotionally oriented believers like to feel that G-d has a personal relationship with every individual, and He takes interest in every detail of their lives.

The intellectually oriented believers think that’s ridiculous. G-d is to great to worry about us. It would be degrading to describe G-d as having a relationship with us.

When these groups interact with each other, the conversation goes something like this:

“What kind of G-d is He, if He has nothing to do other then worry about what you eat for lunch?”

And the response: “What is the point of believing in G-d if He does not care about you?”

What is the correct approach?

Let’s look at the way the Kabbalists describe the life force that creates the world, and we will learn about the relationship between G-d and the world.

The term the Kabbalist use is “Light”. Now light is an interesting phenomenon. It is only a ray of the luminary. It has nothing of itself; therefore it cannot exist independently of the luminary.

On the other hand it is an extension of and has great similarities to the luminary. Just look at the ray and you will learn something about the luminary. For the ray of the sun, the moon, and a candle are very different, and you can see the differences just by looking at the ray.

That is how the Kabbalists explain the idea that G-d is not changed by the creation, and by the Ten SEFIROT – attributes that He emanates from himself. For the SEFIROT are a ray of Him they are not His essence and they therefore do not change Him.

On the other hand they are “ME-EIN” – similar and are of the same quality and therefore the ray carries the power of creation that only G-d possesses.

Going back to the conversation in the beginning of this post. The “light” of G-d interacts with the world – it's only a ray compared to His essence. However do not make the mistake that G-d’s essence is removed, for the ray is the expression and carries His essence.