The Floods of Cheshvan
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The Mabul- the flood on the time of Noach started on the 17th of Cheshvan. How can we deal with the floods in our lives?
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Parshas Vayeira
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How can we pass the tests of Avraham Avinu in our lives? Listen here…
NEW AUDIO SHIURIM ONLINE
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SHALOM FRIENDS
I hope you are enjoying the new audio shiurim that I have posted. Special thanks go to Mrs Anya Khazin who helped me set this up, and to Dr. Michoel Jabbour for setting up the original site.
Let me hear feedback from you about these shiurim. You can also sponsor a shiur in honor or in memory of a loved one.
May this new level of learning bring us closer to Hashem, to each other and to the final Geula!
Perek Shira
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The entire creation sings out songs of praise to Hashem. This is the basic lesson of Perek Shira. You can see the greatness of Hashem in every animal, in every sunset, in every flower. You can ‘hear’ messages by observing birds, the nature of rivers and even in the lowest insects. Learn a lesson from the goose about Mashiach consciousness…
Listen here…
Lech Lecha Emuna-Audio
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Hashem told Avraham Avinu to leave everything he had known and to go to an unknown land. This move up to the Land of Israel by Avraham Avinu and Sara Emainu instilled in every Jew a natural Emuna. We can and must access that Emuna now, during these final days of exile. Listen here for more…
New Audio Shiur- Emuna
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EMUNA IS DEEPLY CONNECTED TO ERETZ YISRAEL, AND THIS YEAR’S SHMITTA GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS A DEEPER LEVEL OF EMUNA, A SHABBOS’DIC EMUNA. LISTEN HERE TO THE SHIUR GIVEN IN TEANECK THIS PAST SUKKOT ON EMUNA
TZADDIK 1
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Tzaddik B’Emunato Yichyeh
The Tzaddik, the righteous person lives from his Emuna, his faith and trust in Hashem
The secret of happiness…how many self help books have been written presenting opinions, manuals, directions on achieving happiness. How many stories have been hatched in minds of authors old and young in the attempt to portray, describe, illuminate or contrast this illusive emotion? Songs, poems, games, gyms, and toys all formed for the same reason- to make their owner happy. Restaurants, amusement parks, theaters, bars and jails filled with people searching for happiness. Governments were formed to keep citizens happy. Serfs slaved to keep their royalty happy. And of course, parents live to keep their children happy.
But how many people do you know who are truly, totally and consistently happy?
The secret of happiness is simple. Simply be connected to the source of happiness. Happiness is but a tool in the arsenal of mankind to keep him and her energized to live life. Some people don’t think they need this particular tool and use other tools to live. Torah teaches us that the tool of happiness is the strongest, most effective and most preferred tool for a person to use to maximize life’s opportunities and blessings.
Ivdu Et Hashem BeSimcha- serve Hashem with happiness, is the advice of Dovid Hamelech in Tehillim. Use this tool and not it’s opposite to get you ahead in life.
Hashem is clearly the root of happiness. He is its source, as He is the source of all things. He teaches us that He wants us to use this tool, this energy, to allow blessings to flow into our lives.
What is happiness then? It is feeling at peace, feeling that all is good, all is planned, all is functioning properly and all is rooted and sourced in Ratzon Hashem. it is being calm and seeing Hashem in all things. it is seeing the Alef in the Beit. It is having Emuna (in Hebrew, this word begins with Alef) and Bitachon (which begins with Beit).
A Tzaddik sees the whole picture of life, even as we see life in its confusing fragments. A Tzaddik is not worried, annoyed or angered, since the entire story is revealed to him. He feels calm, knowing Hashem has a plan. A perfect plan. A plan that no human mind could imagine, let alone create.
There was once a great Tzaddik named Reb Levi Yitzchak ben Sara Sasha from Berdichev. His book- Kedushat Levi- is a treasure chest of wisdom, kabala, down to earth advice and encouragement. Most of all, he was filled with love of Hashem, and as a result of this, love of his fellow man. R Levi Yitzchak was terribly impatient to bring Mashiach in this world, for although he ‘knew’ that there was a time and place for Geula, his love for Hashem couldn’t allow for the Chillul Hashem, the apparent desecration of His Name that exile birthed and sustained. Towards the end of his life, he convened a formal court of law and took witnesses to the fact that he intended, upon his death, to plead strongly before Hashem to bring Geula immediately. He would not take no for an answer and intended to force the Geula, the redemption.
That was two hundred years ago…
They say that after his death, the Kedushat Levi appeared in a dream to someone close to him. He explained that as great as he was in life, and as great as his understanding of Hashem, His ways and wants, still when he came to his heavenly understanding, he saw a different picture. R Levi Yitzchak no longer saw the divisiveness of life in the body. He did not see the pain of this world. He only saw the source of people’s pain, the source of history and the map of the entire plan. And that map and plan was perfect.
The way to be happy is to train yourself to see Hashem in every second of life. You are not really looking for anything else but Hashem. you are only really looking for a way to connect, attach, relate to and communicate with your true soul mate- and that is Hashem.
Everything in this world is a tool to get you to that place. And that place is literally that place you are in right now. For you are in, within, next to and connected in essence to Hashem anyway. It’s only a matter of knowing it, feeling it and living with this awareness.
Emuna is the food of the soul and it is what a Tzaddik lives by and from.
veAmeich Kulam Tzaddikim- and the entire Jewish nation are all Tzaddikim.
The reason a Jew is commanded to attach to a Tzaddik is to help with this attaining of happiness. A Tzaddik is a Jew with a highly refined soul. Sometimes the Tzaddik is born with this soul already revealed. Sometimes the Tzaddik has to work hard to reveal this pure and refined soul. Our history is full of Tzaddikim and the events of their lives. Our attachment to a Tzaddik can be personal and face to face. If we are lucky to have such a person in our lives, then we learn by observing them, by speaking to them, by following their advice. We are graced by their soul and just being in their presence enlivens illuminates and cheers us.
And then, there are the books of the Tzaddikim, full of the same encouragement, direction, love and advice. Each person, group and generation has their own particular Tzaddik. Many are hidden, and yet they do their work to inspire, elevate and help us albeit unbeknownst to us.
To be happy, be a Tzaddik, a little one or a big one. See Hashem in every whisper and cloud, in every day and food.
This then is the secret of a successful marriage of your body and soul which is the secret of happiness.