ב"ה
THEMES of Featured Chasidic Masters Articles
The life-giving power of Torah can only be actualized if learned for the sake of connecting to G-d.
"And He fed you the manna...to teach you that not on bread alone does man live, but on what issues forth from the mouth of the L-rd does man live...."
Rain represents divine beneficence that descends in response to human deed; in contrast, dew represents divine beneficence that stems from a place where human deed is irrelevant. The manna, which arrived from heaven without any human effort, is therefore associated with dew and arrived in the desert with a layer of dew above and below it. |
Beginner
Prayer unites emotion with action.
Prayer is called "the service of the heart" and not the service of the lips because it requires the mouth, not just the meditations of the heart. Combining the external service together with internal intention becomes an offering before G-d and makes a person a receptacle for receiving His goodness.
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Kabbalah teaches that the spiritual life-force in food is what gives a person vitality.
When a person takes a fruit or other kosher food and makes a blessing over it
with concentration, making mention of the name of type of
the food, he arouses the vitality that went into the creation of that food,
as everything was created through its name.
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Advanced
The Land of Israel is known as "the land of G-d's desire"
Rabbi Schneur Zalman wrote many letters in order to rouse Jewry to contribute generously to charity in general and in particular for the sake of settling the Holy Land. He declares that charity should be given every year with even more vitality and in greater volume than previously.
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Intermediate
"… not from bread alone does man live, but by everything that comes from the
mouth of G‑d."
We live not by the food itself, but by the G‑dly sparks inside the food. Humans, even though we are higher than the food we eat, live from the spirituality in the food when it is returned to its source above us. |
