THEMES of Featured Chasidic Masters Articles

From Pesach to Shavuot our souls undergo three preparations for receiving the Torah. During the revelation on Pesach, we break through our spiritual boundaries and receive energy to purify ourselves. When counting the Omer, we concentrate on refining our characters and elevating coarse physicality into holy vitality, readying ourselves to be humble before the Torah, the words of G-d, on Shavuot.

In the Torah vision of marriage, oneness is not achieved by the obliteration of the weaker partner, nor are the two partners in conflict with each other. Rather, otherness of their spouse is an opportunity for each of them to grow beyond their egos and touch the truth to be found in the other.

Pesach was a time of an incredible undeserved outpouring of kindness and beneficence from G-d. The period of the Omer, a defined measurement, represents constraint of the flow of chesed, rendering one's divine service into a balance of love and fear (great awe) of G-d.

Every miracle that G-d performs leaves an indelible impression on the world. The miracles during the Exodus from Egypt, at the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, and the bestowing of the manna in the desert all left us with a spiritual treasure that can be accessed even in our lives and especially on the holidays that commemorate these events.

When the holy Sanctuary was completed, Aaron’s two elder sons, deeply spiritual individuals, were drawn to enter the holiest sanctum on earth to bask in the ecstasy of the Temple’s pure spirit. But they erred in allowing their self-indulgent spiritual passion override their primary task to transform the world and therefore were consumed by its fire.