Soul & Mystical
Have you ever burst into tears for no apparent reason? That is your soul calling out to you, saying hello.
Wait, does Judaism even believe in such things? I thought they were Far-Eastern ideas and New Age concepts. Isn’t the Torah about ritual and performance – do this, do not do that? The Hebrew school I went to never mentioned a soul, and it certainly wasn’t a mystical experience. What does my soul even look like? How do I know when I’ve seen it? How may I touch the mysteries of mysticism?
The Dust of History
The cosmic struggle to reconcile spirit and matter are captured in the story of Jacob and Esau and the battle between these two opposing forces.
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Vayeitzei: Before the Battle
Jacob’s descent to Charan and subsequent struggles in Laban’s household represent our own difficulties in this world, and indicate the necessity of bringing light to the darkest places.
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Toldot: The Power of Human Exertion
Who fully grasps a concept, one who immediately comprehends it, or one who must struggle to understand it? Part five of Samech Vov discusses this question, and examines the value of human exertion.
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Chaya Sarah: Tattoos
Man can transcend seemingly permanent scars or wounds – both physical and psychological – and access the inner recesses of his soul.
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Vayeira: The True You
This world often conveys the message that everyone is damaged at the core. Part four of Samech Vov discusses the essence of the soul and how each one is, in fact, at perfect peace.
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Back To The Roots
Today our challenge is to rise above our finite mortality, our flaws and subjectivity, and embrace G-d on G-d’s terms.
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Noach: The Power of a Mitzvah
Doing a Mitzvah can be the difference between a life of enslavement in a finite bottle, or freeing your finite being by becoming a piece of finite infinity.
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Can A Maskil Dance?
The ultimate purpose, is not to be smart and profound, but to be G-dly. Being sensitive and refined is not an end in itself but to be G-dly.
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Simchat Torah: Rise Up
The most adverse conditions throughout history have resulted in some of the greatest achievements in Jewish scholarship.
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Balak: The Secret to Immortality
In one verse in Parshat Balak “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the seed of Israel?” the prophet Balaam tells us the secret of immortality
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