Pesach 5784

פסח תשפ”ד 5784
💡Idea for Pesach-  Step 4 Cleaning
חמץ ומצה
As part of the preparations for the amazing chag of Pesach🍷, it’s important for us not just to prepare our homes by cleaning and buying everything we need to observe the holiday. It is also important to try to prepare ourselves spiritually💥. Every holiday has a special light that we can experience and internalize. After the amazing night of Leil Haseder, the main mitzvah of the holiday is that for seven days we only eat matzah🤩. Just as we have the laws of Pesach where we learn about kashering our kitchen, the prohibition of chametz, and eating matzah; so too the tzadikim and Rabbis teach about the spiritual aspects of eating matzah and removing all chametz. Cleaning our homes in preparation is not only something physical.
It is taught that matzah represents healing and emunah, faith💖. Chametz on the other hand represents the evil inclination and our bad character traits🤯. As we enter Pesach, we want to be free of all that holds us back from true freedom🚀.
Many years ago I learned about a powerful tool💥 for preparing for Pesach from a dear friend and teacher, Rav Micha Hyman. He gave a simple, but powerful idea: as you prepare, take for yourself two pieces of paper. On one of them we write down🖊 all of the chametz in our lives. Everything that holds us back and that we want to be healed from it. This piece of paper with our spiritual chametz we will burn on the morning of Erev Pesach as we burn our physical chametz🔥. On the second piece of paper we will write down all of our matzah. Everything good which we want for the current year and for the future. Everything we want to grow in and change for the better. Our prayers, our goodwill🙏. We can pray for our own personal matzah on the Seder night, all throughout Pesach, and throughout the year. The more that we pray and express our רצונות, our good desires, the more they become a part of our life.
In a similar light💡, Step 4 of the 12 Step program teaches us to take a moral inventory of ourselves. To get to know our souls better; to recognize our strengths and our weaknesses. To be honest with our fears, the grudges we hold inside, and the actions we would like to make amends for. What are my good qualities, what do I like about myself?🤔 What do I dislike? What do I want to improve? Step 4 usually falls at the same time of year as Pesach and the preparations for the holiday. I think that this is not a coincidence, since the step encourages us to do the same spiritual work of growing internally.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that the month of Nisan is a time of teshuva❤, just like Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. This is an amazing insight, because we usually only think of Tishrei as a time of special prayers and introspection. However, Rebbe Nachman teaches that this month of Nisan has the same power!🔥 This is a powerful time of the year, just like the holy days of the month of Tishrei, to find renewal and teshuva, as we prepare to receive the amazing light of Pesach!🙏
Chag Sameach

קברי צדיקים

קברי צדיקים The graves💡 of the righteous
I have found a lot of meaning and connection❤ in my life’s journey going to kivrei tzadikim. I went to a cemetery recently which I don’t usually go to. It has unfortunately been the site of many funerals💔 since the war began a few months ago. Har Hertzel. The national cemetery for our fallen soldiers.😢
I heard someone quote recently what one of the great Rabbis in Israel of the previous generation, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach z”l, had said about Har Hertzel, “If you want to go to the graves of the righteous, go there.”💥 A person who dies protecting our home and protecting our people is holy קדוש.
I wasn’t sure what it would be like and what I would feel🤔. I parked my car a short way down the access road after entering the cemetery and walked up a short set of stairs to the nearest plots. I saw right away that it was an area for soldiers who died fighting in the War of Independence. I spent time reading their names and ages. For many of them the grave also listed where they had made aliyah from. Some were as young as 16 years old🤯. Young men and women. They had no choice but to fight the invading Arab armies.
As I looked at the trees and the beautiful gardening around me, I thought about these young soldiers of 1948🕯. You could see in the distance, past the trees of the cemetery, different neighborhoods of Jerusalem. I thought about how they would feel about the miracle of Jerusalem being rebuilt, 75 years later. How they would see it. The miracle of so many Jews returning to our home🇮🇱🙏. The rebuilding of our homeland. In their merit, and in the merit of all the soldiers since, we have a thriving, beautiful country, despite the hatred around us. I thought about how they must be praying for our holy soldiers who are fighting now. Just like the soldiers fighting today, their courage and sacrifice is leading us to redemption✌. They are keeping all of us safe from cruel enemies.
May we see the immediate release and freedom of the all hostages, and may all of our holy soldiers come home safely.🙏🙏 May we see real victory over our enemies and the full Redemption.🙏 Amen

Chanukah 5784

The Power of One Small Light 💡

As we lit our first candle🕯, I thought about the power of one little candle. A small light in the darkness💥. We need the light of the נרות so much this year. What can one small candle do? What does it represent? 🤔

It is the light of a mitzvah. It’s the light of our souls💥. It might seem small and only burn for a short time, but the light of this mitzvah stays with us forever. Every mitzvah, every good deed brings light into the world. The light of the candles grows and gets more powerful each night🕯🕯, as we ascend to the Eighth Day of Chanukah זאת חנוכה, which is the pinnacle of the holiday. However, the power of lighting just one candle, one small light, is immeasurable🤯. Even if we were only able to light just one candle, if we didn’t have enough candles or oil; we also fulfill the mitzvah.
Rav Shlomo Carlebach z”l teaches that during the rest of the year even when we do something good, we might think it’s nothing, it’s not important😢. We don’t value our good acts. We don’t find Gd’s light in them. He explains that is because we don’t value ourselves enough, we don’t feel the light of our souls. We don’t see our special light. However, on Chanukah everything is illuminated🔥. When we light a candle, we know it’s Hashem’s light. Suddenly we understand that all the good deeds we did during the year were bringing Gd’s light into the world.
May we merit🙏 with the amazing spiritual light we receive during Chanukah to see our own light all throughout the year. May we believe in our own light, our beautiful souls. Gd willing we will then be able to look at another person, a loved one or even someone we don’t know so well, and we will see their special light as well.
חנוכה שמח

Lech Lecha 5784

Lech Lecha 5784- The Power of Unity 💡

I had an amazing experience 💥this week when I drove to Jerusalem for a meeting. It was my first time travelling to Jerusalem since the war began. I noticed as I drove into the city that all of the billboards, which usually have different kinds of advertisements, all had the same message: an Israeli flag🇮🇱 with a message of unity. Am Yisrael Chai; Together we will win; Shema Yisrael; One People One Heart and other messages.💖
Inside the pain of the war💔, it was an amazing change to see happening on the streets! Everyone can feel it. Just a few months ago, you would see everywhere different protest signs and slogans, for people both for and against the judicial reform. There was a lot of tension and division in Israeli society 💔🤕. More than once I got stuck in heavy traffic due to the protests about the reform in the city.
In a painful way Hashem is teaching us that we are all one soul, one family❤😍. It might be an old cliche, but our enemies don’t care what type of Jew you are. All different kinds of Jews were killed on October 7th, only because they are Jewish.
Our strength and our victory, Am Yisrael in it’s glory as we say in Hebrew, is that despite our differences, everyone is in the war together helping each other. We are all fighting for our lives and our home🙏, on many different fronts. In both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem there are informal ‘command centers’, which have been set up by citizens to help in the war effort. They are organizing help for displaced families, gathering information about the hostages, helping soldiers, organizing clothes and food donations, etc.  There are all different kinds of people with the same goal, to help their people however they can.
Rebbe Nachman🔥 teaches that Moshiach will come when there will be unity in the Jewish people.
Am Yisrael Chai. Together we are winning! 

Bereshit 5784

My Thoughts 💡as everything changes before our eyes. Parshat Bereshit 5784💥

I heard an interview a few days ago (amongst the many classes and podcasts being given to strengthen and comfort each other) with Hillel Fuld. Hillel, from what I heard and understand, is an unofficial yet brave💪 spokesperson for Israel on social media; doing his part to spread light. Hillel’s brother Ari, a hero of Israel, was killed 💔in a terror attack five years ago in Gush Etzion. One of the points he stressed in the interview is that we all need to do our part to help. Whatever we can. We are all in this together. We need to spread light.🕯
Hearing Hillel inspired me to write and share some of our experience as we suddenly find ourselves at war.
There are many emotions we are experiencing, ups and downs. Confusion, fear. 🤯🤕 At the same time, inspiration and emunah are burning inside🔥. There is so much pain💔 about the horrific attacks, but the inspiration which has awakened inside the Jewish people is awesome and un-precented in recent times. The heart of the Jewish people is broken, but awake in an incredible way. The Jewish people have an incredible, above nature strength. The feeling of mutual care and unity is palpable.💖 We are Avraham’s children. Avraham shared the light of faith with the whole world. He walked his own path, without fear of what others thought or said. He gave that faith to us.🚀
We are living in a time where everything is changing in front of our eyes. It’s scary and awesome.
This is really a war of light versus darkness. Pure souls versus impurity. Good against evil. The truth is being revealed.
Our hearts are burning with pain, but this burning fire is causing us to wake up and do what we can for the Jewish people and the Geulah. The amount of spiritual awakening and chesed we have seen since the horror, both in Israel and abroad is incredible! Hard to describe. There are so many stories and so many heroes.
To quote from Mordechai Shapiro’s new song,  אני יהודי I am a Jew, “our faith burns inside us, this is a people which can’t be broken.”
Am Yisrael Chai!

Pesach 5783

Short Idea- Pesach 5783- Finding True Freedom💡

One of the main ideas and focuses of the holiday of Pesach🍷 is freedom. Hashem freed us from our slavery in Egypt. We became a free people, a people free to serve Gd in our own land, after our years of exile and wandering in the desert.
How can we connect to the concept of freedom today, as Passover approaches? How do we find true freedom in our lives? 🤔

I have been learning this month about the third step of the 12 Step program from a powerful💥 daily learning book someone recommended to me last year. Step 3 of the 12 Steps of recovery is the decision to give our lives and our desires over to Gd’s providence💖. It is the belief that only He can heal us and set us free from everything which holds us down. Freedom from all of the actions and thoughts that hurt us and hurt others. In recovery it is taught that if we truly live this step everyday, we will begin to experience real freedom. The freedom of feeling and knowing that everything does not depend on us, we don’t need to carry everything on our shoulders🤗. Many times we have an overdeveloped sense of responsibilty, which causes us pressure. Step 3 teaches us to give our lives over to Gd, since the truth is that really He is in charge of everything. We just need to try our best everyday to make good choice and live a healthy life. Step 3 will give us the gift of quiet and peace inside our souls❤. We can sit in the back seat of the car (so to speak), relax, and let H’ take the keys. Step 3 gives us the freedom to live each day as best as we can, and to let go of the past and the future, which are not in our hands anyways. One of the spiritual principles of the recovery program is Only Today.  I only have the day in front of me to try to be healthy. I only need to try my best, the results are not up to me. Let Go and Let Gd. 🤩

Rebbe Nachman teaches in the second teaching of Sichos Haran, Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom🔥: “It is very good for a person to throw himself upon Gd, and to rely only upon Him. My (Rebbe Nachman) way is that when the day begins I give over all of my actions, mine and those of my family and all of those who depend on me to Gd. I pray that everything should be according to His will.”

May everyone have a beautiful Pesach of feeling the taste of freedom!

Marcheshvan 5783- Connected

Short Idea- Being connected and happy💡😃
In Ran Weber’s new book, Connected, מחובר, he teaches about happiness and satisfaction in work and our daily lives based on Rebbe Nachman’s powerful story💥, the Sophisticate and the Simpleton. In the conclusion of his book, after discussing some of the main, practical understandings and advice that we can learn from the Rebbe’s story, he writes: To live a life of connection is the greatest gift 🤗that we can give ourselves… In a generation of chronic disconnect, where technology and a lifestyle of enjoyment drag us outwards, without a doubt, it’s not simple to choose to act differently…” (page 288)
One of the challenges aspects of this time of year🧐, as we begin the winter, after the inspiration of the month of Tishrei, is returning to the daily grid. Another day of work, another day of school. The daily grid. It can feel boring and we struggle to feel inspiration and connection💔. How can we be more connected to ourselves and to our lives?🤔 How can we feel more connected? How can we choose a life of internal connection to our souls in the face of an external culture?
These are deep questions which the book addresses. As I was thinking about these questions, I thought about my daily practice of personal prayer, hitbodedut. I think that the path of personal prayer, Rebbe Nachman’s advice🔥 to meditate and be with ourselves every day in seclusion, helps us to become more connected and find meaning and happiness in life.
In my experience this is one of the most powerful and real ways to be more connected to our souls, to our lives and to others.💖 When we give ourselves this quiet time for reflection and prayer, we give ourselves a place to take a deep breath and to disconnect from the noise of the outside world for a little bit. We connect to where we find ourselves at that moment. We can let ourselves ask questions, meditate on what we feel and why, and pray over what we are lacking😞. We also give ourselves time to reflect on all of the blessings in our life.🤔 Taking time for ourselves helps us to re-engage with the world afterwards in a more composed and connected way.
Step 11 of the 12 Steps states: “We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious connection to God, as we understood Him, praying only to know His will for us and the power to carry that out.” Seeking to increase our connection with God by prayer and meditation will also have a positive influence on other areas of our life, it will help us to live a more positive, connected life. Amen. 

Chodesh Elul 5782

Short Idea- Elul 5782💡
Opening our hearts to new knowledge.🤗

There are many things to say and to write about this special month of Elul, as we prepare for the awesome days💥 of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, when everything begins again. This month is very powerful in its own right💪. The days of this month are known as days of love and mercy, where we can renew ourselves and obtain new levels of closeness. The most famous acronym for this month is the verse “I am to my beloved, and my beloved is to me.”
Rebbe Nachman teaches in Likutei Eitzot🔥, the book of Advice, that the month of Elul is the opportune time to merit new knowledge, to know and to understand that which was hidden to us previously🧐. Through the light of this new knowledge we reveal new levels of our soul. This new light of knowledge also protects us from suffering and difficulties. 💔
We suffer when we feel and experience something and we don’t understand why it is happening or why it is good for us. However, if we had true knowledge in that moment, that we are being helped and protected by Gd, that everything is good for us, that we are loved; we would not suffer.💖 This month is a special time to seek and to request from Hashem to have new and deeper understanding about our lives and our mission. To request feeling His love throughout the year🙏.
One of the principles of the 12 Step program is openness🤗, being open to change and to new understandings, about life and about ourselves. The second step states: We have come to believe that (only) a power greater than ourselves can return us to sanity. I think that this is what Rebbe Nachman is teaching us here🤔. When we are open to learning more and seeking new knowledge, knowledge which brings healing to our souls, this brings us to sanity, to composure, and to being present and happy in the moment.😃 It helps us to feel faith and love in our lives.
May we all have a beautiful and powerful month of renewal and insight.🙏

Parshat Ekev 5782

Short Idea- Parshat Ekev 5782💡
Speech and Encouragement

After Tisha B’av💔 we begin to read seven special haftarot which speak of prophecies about the final redemption. They are called the seven special parshas of comfort❤️. In addition, the special parshas that we read during this time of year are filled with Moshe Rabeinu’s words of faith and encouragement; reminding us of our special, eternal relationship with Hashem💥. I remember once🤔 a chevruta of mine in Shomria said that the book of Devarim was his favorite book of the Torah due to this- the amazing way that Moshe gives chizuk, encouragement, to Am Yisrael. The words of faith and encouragement🔥 which a tzadik gives over in his teachings stays with us forever.
How can we bring this more into our lives? How can we also feel this today? In addition to learning these parshas with an open heart and mind, we too can also share words of faith and encouragement. Our speech has a lot of power. We all have words from our heart that can lift someone else up. We have light to share💖. When we share faith and encouragement, when we say a compliment or a good word to someone else, it can really help them and have an impact on them. Sometimes we have no idea💡 what good can come from the words we express.
The 12th step of the 12 step program teaches: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs. We all have a message of faith and healing that we can share with others.
Shabbat Shalom 🕯️🕯️

Parshat Devarim- Shabbat Chazon 5782

Short Idea- Parshat Devarim 5782💡
The Three Weeks- Galut השכינה. What are we missing? 🤔

What are we missing during these special and difficult days before Tisha b’Av?😢 What are we longing for? What are we lacking without the בית המקדש?💔
There is a beautiful book called the Soul of Jerusalem💥, a compilation of Rav Shlomo Carlebach’s teachings on the Temple and Jerusalem (Compiled by Rav Shlomo Katz). When I read this book it takes me to a different place inside, a place of comfort and longing. In the end it’s going to be okay🤗. The first chapter of the book talks about the Temple, what it was like to be there and what we are missing today. Reb Shlomo says (page 25): “In the Holy Temple, what Gd wanted me to do was so real and so clear, that it filled me with light and such a longing that all my life should be according to Gd’s will. I was as connected to Gd as my foot is connected to my brain. Our beings were all together and all together with Gd. In the Holy Temple, all our fears, doubts, arguments… they all faded away in the Oneness of Gd.”💥❤️
We are missing the feeling and the place inside where everything is clear in our life. Where all of our fears and doubts melt away. We knew in a completely revealed way that Hashem was with us at every moment. We didn’t suffer from disconnection💔, we were deeply connected to our souls and to those around us.
Many of our pains and struggles today are because we are missing the Divine presence and revelation which existed in the Temple.
May our experience and observance of the nine days and Tisha b’Av be one of recognizing what are truly missing and yearning for the full revelation of Gd’s presence in our lives. Amen.