Dear Friends,
We expect so much of ourselves, and of G-d and of the world, and it crushes us when things don’t work out. The invitation to hate oneself seems to be extended to us everyday. And yet, what is our success rate supposed to be? In baseball, if someone get a hit one out of every three times at bat they go straight into the Hall of Fame. That’s a whole different set of expectations. With dating you can go on one hundred wrong dates and still marry your soul mate. Deeper still is the question of balancing when is it me accomplishing something in the world, and when is it G-d? After all, doesn’t everything come from Him? And if that’s the case, how can I ever feel good about myself if it’s just Him doing it? What is my role? If I ascribe too much to myself it’s ego! Too little and it’s poor self esteem! How do I balance these things? In this talk, we go into a several step program on how to do it with love!
Dear Friends,
When we enter into Shabbos, we literally transport ourselves into another dimension. It is simultaneously both the journey and the destination — transcendence itself. In this week’s talk, we explore the two names of Shabbos, to try and unlock the mystery of why it is so much more than just another day of the week.
Dear Friends,
The question is, are you fighting a battle you’ve already won? So many of us find ourselves addicted to struggle. We can’t take “yes” for an answer! Sometimes we have to work hard to achieve, other times we have to recognize that we can’t have it all, no matter what the guy holding the beer bottle with the nice tan in the commercial is saying. The key is knowing when to strive, and when to be samay’ach b’chelco, happy with our lot. We look at Korach, the spies, and ourselves, to try to map out some of the keys to human nature and figure out what is normal.
Spiritual Anatomy - Understanding Ourselves from the Inside Out [45:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Dear Friends,
Four amazing “coincidences” happened to me this week. I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around this subject for quite a while now and bring you fresh info from the never ending search to decode life.
PS – Here is the link I promise in the talk. It’s another incredible story.
A real miracle or the doing of extraordinary people?
Dear Friends,
We all desperately want to be happy. But how? In this week’s talk we lay out a detailed program for success in this most crucial area of life.
Dear Friends,
Best Friend? So many of us think of Hashem as either our Father, or our King or our Master — but Best Friend? Is that even a possibility? Where in the Torah does it say that? Well, I’ll tell you! In Mishle 27:10 it says, “Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your father”. Our Rabbis teach us that this friend refers to Hashem! The question is how do we make that all important first step?
Dear Friends,
The world is being created over and over and over again — every single nano-second. The implications of this are vast! G-d is His abundant mercy is giving us tremendous opportunities. How does this work and how can we benefit from it? In this talk, we take a look.
Dear Friends,
Is there anyone in the history of the world who was like Abraham our father? Through his sincere exploration of the world he came to the conclusion that there can only be One G-d. And G-d responded by revealing himself and the Torah to him. Awesome beyond awesome! This talk is a compendium of teachings that we can learn from his greatness in order to emulate them and achieve success in our own lives.
Anyone who’s lost a parent, or any loved one, goes through the inevitable process of wondering whether they’ve been abandoned by G-d.
Part of an answer comes in the words of consolation we say to someone in mourning. “May G-d console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”
Interestingly, the Hebrew word used for G-d here, HaMakom, literally means “The Place.” May “The Place” reach out to console us. There are many different names for God in Jewish prayer and Torah, each of them opening our eyes to a different aspect of His light and reality. But the name HaMakom, “The Place”- or perhaps better, “The Omnipresent One” – is rarely used. Why this special name at this most sensitive time? Continue reading »
