Chodesh Cheshvan- From the Bnai Yissasschar
The rains flooded Eretz Yisrael this week and a rainbow framed the Yerushalayim sky Wednesday afternoon- all on schedule in Parshas Noach. The month of Cheshvan- what is in store for us? Listen here.
Shiurim In USA and England/ New Har Nof Shiur- Torah and Healing
BSD
With Hashem’s loving grace and help, I will be in the New York area for Chanuka. Please contact me if you would like a shiur in your community. You can email me at KolRena@Yahoo.com and I will post my schedule here on this website.
I will be making a stop in London and will be giving a shiur to all my Neve Brits- contact me for details…
Finally, I am happy to announce that our series Torah and Healing which was so successful a few years ago is being re-opened. Classes begin this Sunday, Nov 2 at Hakablan 30 apartment 11 in Har Nof, Yerushalayim IHK.
First class is from 9-10 and the second is from 10-11.
Please register by either email or phone 052 7611 508. Class size is limited.
Blessings for a healthy, safe and enlightening winter !!!
HOSHANAS
BSD
HOSHANA-HELP US, HASHEM…
Tefilla is the ability to go into the essence of who we are and be there. In that place, is our soul, and in that place, we sense the closeness of The Creator.
The great prophets, judges and Torah scholars set up the Siddur as a guidebook in to our self. Often, we simple people don’t have the tools to dive deeply inward- we are afraid, unaccustomed, or clueless as to how to find our inner soul. The Siddur helps us in a step by step process inward.
I just want to focus for now on the past 6 weeks of Jewish life- from Elul, we have been saying Selichot, and during Sukkot we say the Hoshanot. Many of the Selichot and all of the Hoshanot prayers are in alphabetical order. Many other Tefillot on the Siddur and in Tehillim are written alphabetically. The Gemara tells us that this is to show the importance and beloved status of these Tefillot.
The Creator, may He be always blessed, created the entire creation using the Hebrew alphabet. Kabbalists know the shape, sound, energy, color, rhythm, movement and power of each letter of the Aleph Bait. These Mekubalim know and understand the mystery of the Aleph Bait. They invested much time, effort and prayer into setting up the system for us, simple Jews, to utilize the power of the 22 letters of the Aleph Bait in our Tefillot.
There is great spiritual power in the words of the Hoshanot. They can soften our hearts, open our hearts and cleanse our hearts.
Sometimes, with our very own hands, mind or free choice, we can bring destruction to ourselves. Our personal world can be a mess, and we blame ourselves. Rebbe Nachman says that if a person believes that they can destroy, then they must also believe that they can repair. By saying the Tefillot in the order of the AlephBait, we take the creative power of the 22 Hebrew letters and use that to repair our inner world. The same ability to harm, which came from the 22 primordial letters, is transformed into creative, protective and healing. We also have permission to compose our own personal Tefillot.
Make up your own alphabetized, personalized Tefilla- and may you succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
One of the gifts of Sukkot- Hoshana!!
May HKBH bring our Geula quickly and with Rachamim.
YOM KIPPUR 5769
BSD
TZOM GEDALYA, YOM KIPPUR AND FASTING
Traditionally, Jews fast on the day after Rosh Hashana. There are historic-Halachic reasons that we all know- Gedalya, the last governor of Israel was murdered on Rosh Hashana and this act of treason ended Jewish political leadership in Israel for 1900 years.
Yet, every year, on Tzom Gedalya, I think that there must be a deeper reason our Rabbis initiated this fast day. As you all know, Chazal did not inundate Klal Yisrael with fast days. Tradition tells us that Dovid Hamelech fasted often, and that he testified that his fasting ‘killed’ his Yetzer Hara. We know that out great grandparents would often fast Mondays and Thursdays as a Segula for needed Yeshuot. Nevertheless, the Baal Shem Tov taught that in our generation (and that was 300 years ago!), our bodies are weakened, and overmuch voluntary fasting is not the way to spiritually uplift the masses.
However, when we do fast, when we are encouraged and commanded to fast, Chazal describe it as an Ait Ratzon, a time of favor and grace, a time of Divine love. Why is this?
We all know that a person is made of body and soul. A Jew has a Divine soul. A Chelek Eloka Mamash. A Light of Hashem.
But we live in bodies, in a physical world. Mitzrayim. Boundaried and bordered and limited by bodies. The soul is limitless, the body limited.
Which do we really identify with- our soul or our body?
Do we feel timeless, or bound in time?
Do we feel all powerful, or handicapped?
Do we feel love from Hashem always, or do we run after love of people?
Do we realize that we have the answer within to all of our problems, or do we look outwards, to others or other things for relief?
A fast day is hard for most people. We are addicted to food, coffee, and to the feeling that a full stomach is good and satisfying.
The stomach growls and we rush to attend to its needs.
On a fast day, we are freed from food. It sounds funny, to be free from food. I ‘feel’ freer when I can eat, when I am not restricted. Yet, that is not freedom. It’s a mistaken, habitual feeling. But it’s the feeling of a body, not a soul.
The soul is more accessible when the body is not made primary.
True, this is not the way that most people can live, but on a day when Chazal handpicked as a fast day, when Hashem Himself agrees to make it a day of favor and love for us, on such a day, we are freed for a few hours to remember the ultimate gift that we Jews possess. A soul. A heavenly soul. A source of life that is eternal and unlimited.
It sounds strange and perhaps fanatic. Yet, to identify yourself primarily as a soul that is only using the vehicle of a body to get its work done is a basic Torah idea. We have been Galus educated and economically directed to identify our ‘selves’ as a body. This is Mitzrayim education. Torah education tells us that we are each a perfect soul. Neshama Shenatata Bi Tehora Hi. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai teaches that the Neshama is never touched at all by sin. Never. Only the body, the outer layer, the external is dirtied by sin. The real you is pure and spiritual.
Fast days get a Jew in touch with the real part of us- the Neshama. It is not just about reigning in the body, correcting the body, minimizing comfort of the body for kaparat avonot- for atonement of physical sins.
The idea is to make us realize, every once in a while, that we are really just souls…
May your soul shine out over your limited body. Then, both will be happy.
SHANA TOVA
BSD
MAY YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS BE SIGNED, SEALED AND SWEETENED FOR A GOOD, HEALTHY AND SWEET YEAR.
MAY YOU BEGIN TO LIVE WITH THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF YOUR NESHAMA, AND EXPERIENCE PERSONAL AND NATIONAL GEULA THIS YEAR OF SIMANIM TOVIM!
WITH BLESSINGS AND LOVE
MORAH ROCHEL