ב"ה
THEMES of Featured Chasidic Masters Articles
Beginner
Jewish spiritual masters teach we should never get stuck in our own definitions of G-d.
"You will eat the very old [grain], and you will remove the old to make way for the new."
Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avrutsh (who passed away in Safed in 1841) teaches that in the beginning of one's spiritual journey, one initially feels very close to "the very old" G-d; that he grasps His depth, His truth, His grace. Paradoxically, it is precisely when the feeling of "I have G-d" withers away and is replaced by the sense of a void that you are actually closest to Him. |
"Walking in G-d's ways" implies an intimate connection to the Creator.
"If you will walk in [the ways of] My chukot."
In His love and concern for us, G-d is pleading with us, so to speak, "if only you would take the above ideas to heart! If only the direction in which you are going, the way in which you walk, the areas in which you seek to grow and develop, were 'in My statutes,' i.e. the way of the Torah and of holiness!" |
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The revealed world is a mirror image of spiritual realities.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe expalins that by integrating the Torah into our beings, by bringing it down and allowing it to reach even the most mundane facet of our lives, we "elevate" the Torah back to its primordial form, as it was before it "fell" into its present material milieu.
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Intermediate
A person should always strive to go on the median path, with the right balance, between pride and humility.
"Moses" represents knowledge and balance. The verse: "G-d spoke to Moses from Mount Sinai saying...." teaches us that one must employ one's knowledge and sense of balance when estimating his abilities, not to be drawn by the evil inclination either to pride ("Mount") or to false humility ("Sinai").
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Beginner
Why did the Sages bless his son in cryptic language that only Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai could decipher?!
This week’s Biblical Torah portion enumerates forty-nine (!) curses that will befall those that transgress the law. But why would G-d want to curse His own children?! Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that these "curses" are "in truth, nothing but blessings," blessings in disguise.
On an ostensible level – the conscious, revealed dimension – they appear as curses. But in an even deeper dimension – in the unconscious, hidden dimension – the inner workings of these apparent "curses" are nothing but profound blessings, so profound that they can only be expressed in a concealed and disguised fashion. |
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