ב"ה
THEMES of Featured Chasidic Masters Articles
On Shabbat, one must desire to completely connect to the Divine.
On Shabbat we are commanded to refrain from doing forbidden labors and to sanctify it by making Kiddush on wine, using clean clothes and fresh bedding, eating good food etc. The essence of the day is to elevate even the physical aspects of Shabbat to become spiritual.
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Prayer of the heart comes from a place of pain and suffering; prayer of the mind results from understanding and awe of G-dliness.
Moses pleaded with all his heart to enter the land of Israel. When we reach the highest levels – as did Moses near the end of his life – we pray with the greatest humility, without consideration of our station or merit. We plead not because we think we deserve an answer, but because we request a gift from Above.
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Intermediate
Moses asked that G-d shine like the sun upon the Jewish People.
Although Moses was denied entry into the Land of Israel, he
wished to impart to his people a higher perspective and asked permission of G-d to at least see the Land and thereby bestow that vision upon it. Even after being told that Joshua would lead them into
the Land, he still wished to enter the Land and see it for this purpose.
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The Rebbe shed a tear and then replied, "In whom do you expect me to believe after Auschwitz? In man?"
Without belief in G-d, we cannot objectively define any behavior as good or evil. No one can objectively claim that gassing a mother and her children is any more evil than killing a mouse. When the vision of the sacred dies in the soul of a person, he or she is capable of becoming a servant of the devil.
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"Whoever repeats the Shema Yisrael [verse more than once when praying] should be silenced."
This includes a person who repeated the Shema prayer because he had an untoward thought the first time. But had he known that even in that untoward thought he could have found G‑d, he would not have had repeated the verse. |
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