Tag: baal shem tov

Video–Sarah, Sarai, Yiska

Sarah is the Matriarch of the Jewish people. Tradition ascribes superiority to her Divine Inspiration over Avraham's.

The Dust of Their Skirmish Reached to the Throne of Glory–Sukkot, 5783

The midrash informs us that the “dust” of Yakov's epic battle with Essav reached to the Throne of Glory, and (to this very day) is the force behind the Jewish people’s subsequent success in peddling, big business, war and Torah study. What does that mean?

Video–Yom Kippur: Leave Your Begging Bowl at the Door

The Sod Yesharim suggests a very powerful practice to get the most out of our highest of holy days, Yom Kippur. (Sod Yesharim is the third Rebbe in the Ishbitz line of chassidut. He wrote in the mid/late 1800's).

Video–Rosh HaShana and the Kabbalistic Mystery of Nesira

You might be surprised to know that Rosh HaShana is not only Day of Judgement and the Day of Remembrance, it is also, says kabbala, the Day of Nesira (surgical uncoupling). This is a short teaching about that profound dimension of Rosh HaShana.

Elul and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy

The prayer is that HaShem should feel free to choose the speediest path to redemption, and that we should have the depth of vision (of x-ray vision) to see and truly experience (to whole-heartedly embrace) the good of it.

Malchut Sh’b’Malchut

To describe the king as “entangled in the tresses” is to assert that there is a level of G-d that is entangled by our conceptions and projections of Him/Her/It.

Sifra, Sefer, Sippur

The Torah, says Sefer Yetzira, is really three in one. There’s the Torah of Bereshit, the Torah of Sinai, and the Torah of souls. Our job, says the Baal Shem Tov, is to unify these three Torot with every word we speak and breath we take.

The Coveted Sukkah of Sodom

"Anyone who fulfills the mitzvah of sukkah in this world, will get a perpetual share (are you ready for this) in the Sukkah of Sodom” [Pesikta d'Rav Kahana].

Chai Elul—A Rosh HaShana Teaching for the Baal Shem Tov’s Birthday

R. Tsadok notes that Rosh Hashana (humanity's birthday) is actually a very strange Yom Tov given the debate between Hillel and Shamai about whether its better to be born...or not.

Masters of Judgement

Rosh Hashana marks the conception (when the thought of creation arose within the mind of G-d) and Pesach marks the actual birth (when an actual “creature” evolved that could hold the level of consciousness, called yechida, the capacity to understand what it means that G-d is one on the 50th gate level of understanding. That “creature” is Kenesset Yisrael, the Mystical Body of Israel, born on the other side of the parted sea that served as its birth canal.