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Audio Lecture on The Mitzvah of Shofar

A very entertaining lecture recorded a few nights ago in Jerusalem,
by Rav Fink, about the Mitzvah of Shofar...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1212622/20120827%20193847.mp3

 

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Tonight!!! Special Lecture on Shofar with Rav Dovid Fink   Details appear above as an image, if you can not see it enable your email program to show images, or try this Facebook event link for details: Facebook Event: The Delight of Halacha with R' Dovid Fink     ©2012 Ha'Ohel | P.O.B. 6906 Jerusalem, Israel, 91069

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netiv hatshuvah (Maharal) ch.2

construct of life

attributes that people live by

essence of tshuvah

tshuvah is not a result of creation

it is in the origin of creation

a self-corrective system for failures that might arise

tshuvah moves creation into being

linear world with a vector? No

a circular world

a line through it goes from one side to another – but it joins back to the origin

when Gd reveals himself to Moshe at sneh

bizarre conversation

'what is your name?' – out of place

Gd answers in non-commital way

"Eheya asher eheye"

'eheya' means 'tshuva' (= bina) from kabbala

1^st blessing is chochma (wisdom)

2^nd blessing is sphere of bina

There is a power I am embedding

Power of the divine is eheye

Eheye = I will be (become)

'what is the power that will take us out of here'

The power they need to align to, in order to liberate, for humans

(even though he never tells it to the Jews)

Eheye is the only name in the 1^st person

Impossible for somebody else to say

Therefore the only way to say it and mean it, is by living it.

Tshuvah kadma la'olam

Means the sphira of bina – the end of intellection

Means the driving force of the birthing of human personality (the divine personality) – is eheye – the evolutionary process…

You can't move forward without recognising I am what I am

That is empowerment (or despair without recognition)

Anything to liberate you is to appreciate what you are first

Let them see that (eheye) – you can step beyond

It is a contradiction (existential truths are always in the contradiction)

Contradiction because you can move forward by first recognising what and where you are

The sneh is a contradiction, because it is simultaneously burning

Burning is the binah

Aspiring identity

Page 33

Man is the conduit

Man is the guide

Internal shift (e.g. pray for the earth)

Tshuvah brings planet forward

Tshuvah acts on the entire planet

When I become purified (I am what I am)

And re-assert and re-attach to Gd from there

Announce that I'm moving forward to greater fulfilment

Everything moves that way when I do

Re-attaching to the pure beginning

That is the appreciation and condition of health

Everything is healthy in the beginning

"just turn towards me" (that's all I ask)

Now the doctor has to heal you

Returning to elemental reality

Return to eheye

He goes to Gd with a broken heart (vessel) and asks for healing

The yira must have process

Ahava comes from within

Yira is a response to an issue on the outside

Cheese on Shavuot

I remember sitting at my first Shavuot lunch in the house of a big Chabad Rabbi. What? A lunch with milk & meat??? (first milk then meat) What's that all about? You can't do that!
After inquiring and then finding out that this is symbolic of receiving the Torah laws, including kashrut ('shechita').

(... Something about Gevina)

Korach

Sweeping under carpet

Carlebach niggunim

Am Yisrael Chai
Cracow Nigun
Borchi Nafshi
David Melech, Melech Yisrael
Eliyahu HaNavi
El Adon Al Kol Hama'asim (v'ofanei hakodesh)
Gam Ki Elech
Good Shabbos
Keshoshana
Ki Mitzion Tetze Torah
Ki Hem Chayenu, v'orech yamenu
Lecha Dodi
Lema'an Achai Veray'i
Lord Get Me High
Mizmor Shir Leyom Hashabbat
Mizmor LeDavid, Adonai Roi Lo Echsar
Od Avinu Hay
Pe'er Vekavod
Simen Tov U'mazaltov
Uvne Yerushalayim
Yerushalayim (x4)
Yossele
Yachad
Ki va'moed
V'haer Eneinu
Pitchu Li
Od Yishama V'arei Yehuda uvechutzo yerushalayim

Chabura learnt

Power of passivity
Avodah, let the work do its job, let Gd do his job
Frustration
Learning how to help others
Learning how to help myself

Chabura q's

Did you talk to anyone professionally about your dad, or your fears

On reflection did you have a privileged childhood in terms of happiness

What have you learnt

How do you identify in your emotions what that split screen is

Did you get approval from your parents? Was it wrong that they gave you their approval? Was their approval in hindsight the right or wrong thing?

'you've never opened yourself up to anyone' - What would opening yourself up look like? 'freedom to be innocent' - what does that mean?

Why loneliness? Were you close? Have you been to his grave? Have you decided to not talk about his death - like your grandfather?

Why were you so unprepared? His death was the first experience of separation?

RDK - Maharal - Echad (Shma)

Long days & long years

Why do you go long on the echad (shma)
Many 'ones'
One can be part of a set on singles
One sun
Many unique items
Saying echad which is singular and unique, but better, one which is all encompassing
Only one reality
A long echad shows that you are encompassing everything in one.
Experiential, not intellect. A letting go.
Mind always wants to hold on, but experience is to let go - access to a level of unity and inclusiveness beyond reason.
Achdut Gamur
Don't shorten/cut the chet
Shlemut is when each participant member in the declaration has its presence - perhaps contradictory to echad.
Shalem is unity with participant parts.
Achdut gevurah
Don't over extend or grasp the chet, or else you might be clutching at an individual part of Gd in this world.
Lack in achdut if you can't take account of all the details
Saying chet long participates in eternity, and there is no moment in which He is not present
Time disappears in a non-motion eternal moment - a contact with eternity.
Matza is 'no time'.
Every moment is the same access point and doorway to eternity
Ach & Chad
Chet is the window to eternity - straddling both worlds
Ichui (ach) is binding
Chad is sharpness - a point
Everything is conquered/won over in eternity
Not lengthening the chet participates in insufficiency
Don't limit or bind yourself
Lengthening is part of transcendental
Rushing belittles the details
Don't have an awareness or even hyper-awareness of time by shortening chet
Be focussed and engaged
No need to rush a mitva
Your soul is part of eternity
Do what you are meant to be doing with wholeness, don't rush it. Don't lengthen and don't shorten.
Don't over extend chet and don't cut it short. Say chet fully and properly.
Gd leaves no room for other.
There is no acher, only echad.
The divine has no measure of time, only fulfillment of purpose to participate in eternity.

Aleph is 2 sharp points of Gd (yud) that are joined (bound) together by a common line between worlds - ach & chad.

Echad: Aleph, Chet, Daled = directions
Aleph is 1 - one point.
Chet is 8 - forward, backward, left, right, up, down, present and future.
Daled is 4 - everyone lives within their 4 amot, from which all directions are measured. Their makom = omnipresent.

Map out your life - visualise. Then cut it in half... Make the most of every moment.


Leah Golda bat Esther Frumit

RDK - Aharon HaLevi

Shift into ahava raba
Perek chaf-tet
Tefilla of moshe is ko'ach ma
2 bechinot of chochma
Chochma that is understanding common principles.
Lower end of transition point from specification to creation
Template for created and manifest
Torah seder haolam
Bereshit bara... was with wisdom
Creation that played itself out
Wisdom that is present in all of creation
Everything is governed by rules and consistency
'Intelligent Design' theory
Gd set it in motion
Could not be any other way
Chochma is bound to Gd without any difference
He and wisdom are one.
Wisdom and pre-existing conditions are the same
Creation is a contact with Gd for those who want to know him
Rambam says in Moreh Nevuhim that if there was proof of eternal matter then Gd did not have to pre-exist
Ramban undermines, that matter did not have to pre-exist
Da'at elokim is knowing that Gd pre-existed and is without boundary or rules
The world we live in is Gd
There is no transcendence of this world and creation, because this is part of Gd.
It is this way because it's what he wants
Tyena should be requests
Praying is from Torah, because it is part of this world.
It is what Gd wants
This is an age of yearning for a relationship with Gd
Everyone has issues but it is all a manifestation of deeper yearning
We are in Elef HaShishi
Technology is a part of the current tide of our generation
The wisdom access point of Torah that derive from reality are an intimacy of coming closer to Gd
Ze'er Anpin is the divine order, expression
Chochma galuya is the ability of the recipient to understand the divine order, this is Ze'er Anpin. It is the means.
Chochma atzilut is hidden expression
Bereishit informs you there are 2 forms of reishit... Bet (2) reishit

Chochma can only answer what, not why.
Physics will never find why.

today's thoughts from pesach

I wanted to share with you a few thoughts that came up during our recent shiurim…

1.       Regarding morning shacharit starting from a time when you can notice the difference between tcheilet and white tzitzit, I noticed something curious at Maariv last motzei shabbat which I think is very relevant. Before the sky became absolutely dark, the ambient atmospheric light was in fact 'blue'. This led to an interesting phenomenon where, for example, the white shutters on the buildings across the road from the Bet Knesset were in fact a blue color at this twilight time. The same ambient atmospheric blue light would also hold true for a time just after dawn. Thus, my understanding for the mishna noting the difference between tcheilet and white is very important, not simply because it is light enough to now see the colors of the strings, but in fact during dawn there is a time when all the strings look all the same color! i.e. the white strings (like the white shutters) would actually look blue. This is important because the time for noticing a difference in color between the tcheilet string to white strings is actually a LATER time than if you were comparing, say, orange to white. Hypothetically, if you had an orange shamash on your tzitzit (instead of tcheilet) then you would notice the difference in colors earlier(!) because the white strings would look blue (from the ambient atmospheric blue light) and you would see the orange string as an orange string. Photographers actually refer to this twilight period as "blue hour". As you will note in this picture everything that is white appears as a tcheilet color, just like the white strings would on a tzitzit.

A further thought on this… for the past 150 years Jews have been trying to re-establish tcheilet back into our tzitzit. I have seen various colors of tcheilet from purple to light blue. But there is no doubt in my mind that it is possible (based on this mishna) to deduce the exact tone of blue that the tcheilet shamash string on your tzitzit should be, i.e. the same color as a white string at this 'blue hour'.

… I hope that is understandable.

2.       אם בחקתי תלכו
There is a word that perhaps we forgot to have a look at today? אם = ima = mother? perhaps this is significant in terms of the sphirot/midot and the ima that we have been referring to in previous discussions?

3.       Letters carved into the tablets. The letters were not just carved but they were also hollowed out, in order to let the light (fire?) through. The tablets were the worldly machine/filter/decoder that allowed the Gd's light to be channeled and seen.

4.       Written Torah Ink & Parchment came from living briyot as opposed to the stones which are inanimate.

Parchment is from cow hide and the ink is from gall nut juice & gum.

5.       The keterim on the Torah's letters symbolically represent the fire of Hashem that created the Torah.

6.       Tikun leil shavuot is the breaking of the Jew to be ready for chidush of receiving a new level of Torah. (Can't happen to angels, because they can only stand in 1 place)

7.       R'Akiva also died with the fire (like a keter) on his chest. R'akiva was getting the fire raked into his basar. His life ended as fire.

R'Aharon HaLevi - im bechukotai telechu

Enlivens the kli
Brings us up from the physical world
All the physical world's sphirot
Path of ahavat olam
Moshe brings ahava raba
Not by contemplation of physical
Not relationship between 2 bodies
It is just love
Not yearning
Ahava raba is love
Ahava raba is expansive love itself
No boundaries of love
Moshe's great gift is ahava raba
Reflects itself in access to Torah
It is the Torah of Ma - Shem ma
The expressed realisation
Im bechukotai teleichu
3 levels of full realisation
Chukotai, tishmeru, asitem
Torah has different dargas
1. Moshe brings down engraved in luchot
Words carved/engraved into stone
Torah of chochma ila'a - avot
2. Written torah is from midbar
Ink on parchment - 2 pieces
Seeking to bind wisdom with words
This is Torah of ze'er anpin
Bechukotai telechu is the movement of light
Mitzvotav tishmoru is the cold static means
The fire of the light of the luchot needed to explode/breakup in order to be expressed and disseminated
Hod is the fire in the moment of transition from potential to actual
Malachim are fully actualised always, they always stand
Malachim told Gd to hold still on Torah
Gd told Moshe to express how the Torah is useful only for humans
Will is only actualised when a challenge is presented to it
For Moshe to burst into fire is the sneh -for angels they are consumed.
Torah writing the world and its revelation.
Shavuot is the giving of the luchot

Essence of humanity is the ongoing transition from potential into actual, infinitely unfolding.

(Death is stasis)
Need to be ego-less, and not protecting your paradigms and personality.
Talmidei chachamim are always in a mode of chidush of Torah.
R'Akiva is an access to keter (atik & arich)
Keter is the pure light where potentiality is coming down to the letters.
Engraving of light
Tehiru is the keter
R'Akiva sees the ketarim
From ketarim is the hilchot olam
Moshe is flesh - beshegam hoo basar - the LETTERS
R'Akiva is fleshless, having his skin raked from him - the KETER
R'Akiva is shifting, pirte pratim, chidush

Shavuot is the burning fire
Not the same Torah as the rest of the year

Shavuot is for gerim
Beyond the boundaries
Through gerim comes the keter


Im (Em) bechukotai - ima ila'a
The carving in the tablets are to let the light through - tablets are the kli/machine/filter
The ink and parchment once came from living things.
The keterim on the letters are a representation of the fire of Gd coming into letters
Tikun leil shavuot is the breaking of the Jew to be ready for chidush of receiving a new level of Torah. (Can't happen to angels, because they can only stand in 1 place)
R'Akiva also died with the fire on his chest.
R'akiva was getting the fire raked into his basar.

RDK Tefilla Maharal, perek zayin, netiv ha'avoda

First reading of 3 brachot of Kr'Sh
1st bracha, First notice light - Yotzer Or
More than physical light
Also enlightenment of malachim
Awakening of consciousness
2nd bracha - al olam ha'ze
2 torahs, origins in zohar
Mishle describes how there was torah before world - kodem nifalav
& Torah of response to world
Access to divine, e.g. Mitzvot
Explains how it cultivates a relationship to Gd
A master to whom you're answering
Torah participates with world
Torah gives world priority
Guide to navigate
1st torah is origin of world
World is torah in flesh
creates circumstances of history
Non contingent will
2nd is contingent will
Reality which forces itself upon us, as history unfolds
Allows for technological breakthroughs as we become conscious and aware and lays the path for the next stage of thought
Learning is greater so you can learn how to act/perform/do.
Teach people and or lived truths.
Some things cannot be transferred by words, but only can be done - e.g. Leading by example.
T'chiat hametim is going back into the beam and then being transported again from the beam into the new body.
Everyone lives in a conceptual framework in their particular lifetime.
The next manifestation has a different framework which you cannot live within
Choni HaMeAgel slept for 70 years and when he woke up he struggled to fit the update of life that was now prevailing
The neshama can only be great when it has embodiment and selfhood
The learning(Talmud) can only be connected in the Ma'ase.
The learning moves me into doing and action
The learning must be expressed in the flesh
Words are part of the equation which cannot be realised without embodiment and ma'ase
Torah is lived
Moshe is also flesh, but he is a reflection of what is being learnt, and flesh it out!
Someone talking is not enough yet, it has to be done.
The writing on the luchot is necessary so people can interpret in their own way, for generations and forever.
The aron always needs the rods attached to it - so people can handle it and carry it.
New generations and your new involvment via different gilgulim is necessary
Torah sh'bctav is living still today in new dynamism and vitality with every generation
Forever unfolding
Precedent is stupidity and is constantly getting re-interpreted for new era's. New paradigms.
Halacha is the way we walk in the world, or are the laws forever walking and updating and changing
Im bechukotai telechu - you will see the laws in different ways in different eras
The laws will become engraved and you will toil in the law until the ma'ase is all the Torah enriching life.
Torah sh'bktav is a once in lifetime creation that cannot be altered, added or reduced - but it can be interpreted for the era

Beam of light of creation
Physicality of light
Light is most primordial element of physicality of creation
Recognise transitional vehicle of Torah
Leads to Shma Yisrael
Beyond the Torah is the Ani of Gd
Ani is the creation of Gd becoming manifest
Malchut is Ani
Ani is selfhood of Gd
Ani is before torah, it is the identity
Torah is the medium through which ani will be experienced and given to the world.
This is the light, the Torah.

Malchut of Ein Sof (identification)
Alefcha, katva
Za'er Anpin (response of Torah)
ZA is our vehicle to connect to Gd, the way for revelation to come about

Identity behind everything that will spell things out and make it a manifest of Gd
(megilla esther shows entrapment of amalek which makes the world full of rules and precedent that is unchanging)
Rules always serves something, which gets caught up in the game.
David Hamelech breaks the rules and forgets his self-importance with his humility
What makes Gd one is that there is nothing else. Everything is a reflection of Gd. The personhood of the ein sof.
You are the Torah being reflected via the flesh. Na'aseh v'nishma. (opposite of Bechukotai)

No More Fear - Carlebach

http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/breslev/rebbe_nachmans_wisdom/no_more_fear.aspx?id=21962&language=english

When G-d took us out of Egypt, you know what was wrong? We were still afraid of Pharaoh. When we left Auschwitz, we were still afraid of the Nazis. This is engraved fear. The miracle at the Red Sea is that G-d took fear from us, for a moment we were free.

Fear paralyzes us. The less fear, the more free we are, the more we can grow.

Our Torah says that the lowest, simplest person in the world, when he crossed the Red Sea, had higher vision than Ezekiel the Prophet. We were ready for the highest. For one moment, all of Israel had the same vision as Moshe. Why don’t we have the same vision as Moshe all the time? It’s because of fear.

If I’m absolutely free inside, I’m not afraid of anything.

By the end of Pesach we reach the level of infinite Prophecy and infinite riches. The Egyptians brought all their gold and silver with them, and the ocean spat it out.

There’s high oneness and lower oneness. The high oneness is like on Rosh HaShanah, when I fall down before G-d. There is only G-d: I don’t exist. Low oneness is there’s you, and then there’s me.

Why does a seed have to disintegrate before it becomes something? What remains of the seed is the deepest depths, a vessel for everything. When we stood at the Red Sea, at that very moment we were in a state of the deepest disintegration. On the one side Egyptians, on another side the Sea, and on the third side, wild animals. At that moment we were at the deepest place of recognition, and it was the children who saw G-d first when they crossed the Red Sea. We were disintegrating, but obviously not yet enough. We were still afraid of Pharaoh, we were still too afraid to be prophets.

What’s the first sign that someone’s a slave? No self-confidence, fear.

Why isn’t Moshiach coming? We’re still a little afraid of it.

Reb Nachman says that you can’t taste the hidden light of the world unless you first get rid of fear, because fear paralyzes us mentally and physically. At the Red Sea we learned not to be afraid, to trust G-d in the deepest way.

We are so afraid of loving people. The only ones who aren’t afraid are our children. Seder night is the fixing of fear. How do we do it? We make children the center.

On the first day of Pesach a sin offering is brought to ask G-d to forgive us for not bringing Moshiach sooner. We might have, but we were afraid to.

At the crossing of the Red Sea, all of Israel went to mikva for the first time ever. It was just before Mount Sinai - our conversion - therefore we all went to the mikva.

The end of Pesach is the highest mikva in the world. Most people don’t keep Shabbos, don’t keep Yom Tov, because they’re afraid to. Even when they keep it, it’s not done on the level of Kriyas Yam Suf [crossing the Red Sea]. Only after we cross the Red Sea can we receive the gift of a Shabbos without limits, a Yom Tov without limits. Shabbos and Yom Tov are gifts from the inside, inside, inside of heaven.

The way to fight evil is by becoming infinitely holy.

When we get out of Egypt, Pharaoh is still there. There is still evil left in the world. If we know that there is still evil left in the world, how can we sing? But when we crossed over the Red Sea, there was no evil in our world, so now we could sing.

In order to sing you we be free. Okay. The slaves from Africa used to sing to tell you that no matter how much you tried to enslave them, they were still free. Singing comes from the world of freedom. When you sing, you are telling evil, “You don’t have dominion over me.”

In Judaism, the walking, the journey, is so important. Judaism becomes precious because of the long walk. The holiness of it is that it teaches you that you are always on the road. Teachers have to teach you the holiness of walking, and they have to walk with you. The Baal Shem Tov says that a teacher who doesn’t walk with you, doesn’t know your soul, and is not a real teacher.

---

Excerpt from “Rebbe Nachman Says”, The Teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev as Taught by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach z”tl. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s books are available online at the Breslev Israel store.

meron day - Lag B'Omer

We tried to catch the bus to Meron, but at 2 separate bus stops there were hundreds of people waiting around and no buses. So I offered to drive and everyone paid 40 shek's each. worked out well.

Schedule – Lag B'Omer – Meron - Amirim

4.00pm-6.00pm Had special pre-lag b'omer shloof

8.00pm-12.00pm Lag B'Omer bonfires in Gan Sacher for Mayanot Shule and Sulam Yaakov Yeshiva

12.45am               left home in van to pickup friends

1.00am                 picked up friends, drove to Kikar Belz to catch bus to Meron

1.10am                 arrived at first bus stop for Meron – hundreds of people, no buses

1.20am                 arrived at second bus stop Meron – hundreds of people, no buses

1.30am                 decided to drive by ourselves to Meron (full car of 9 people)

3.30am                 Pit Stop on Kvish 6

4.30am                 Arrived in Meron 'area'

5.00am                 Parked behind Meron in SifSuf

5.15am                 Caught Shuttle to front gate of Meron

5.20am                 Arrived at front gate of Meron

5.30am                 Started Shacharit (amud hashachar) – outside the front of kever

5.45am                 Neitz

6.15am                 Finished shacharit

6.30am                 'Dived' into kever - bracha

6.45am                 'Swam' out of kever

7.00am                 Listened to Kriya in Bet Knesset beside Kever

7.15am                 Ate a little out the back beside the forest.

7.30am                 went into kever of Hillel HaZaken - bracha

7.45am                 danced a hora with bunch of chareidim

7.55am                 waited at front gate for friends

8.05am                 caught shuttle back to car park

8.15am                 arrived in car park at SifSuf

8.20am                 departed for Jerusalem

10.00am               pit stop on kvish 6

11.30am               arrived back in Jerusalem

12.00pm              went to bed (didn't sleep)

3.00pm                 got back in car with family and drove to Amirim (next to Meron)

10.30pm              Fell asleep after almost 30 hours…

RDK - Aharon HaLevi

New bechina, sha'ar slishi
Moshe Rabeinu
Ahava Raba
Shem Ban, Shem Ma
Aspect of Ima and Aba i'la'i
Power of M's shushavina d'malcha

All forms of spiritual expression find a place with Moshe R.
M has a special place with Bina.
Ima on left side, is into hod of ze'er anpin - expression of emotive, bringing things into realisation
Ima gives over conviction - something has to come from this
Her son is the modality through which her NEHI become expressed - netzach, ?, hod
Though yesod ima is short, (yesod aba extends downwards) does not extend into midot of Ze'er Anpin
Hod of ZA is impacted by Ima
Brings an acquiescence to Gd's infinity
To be modeh
Influx from above is modeh
Cause others to be modeh by being fully revealed and powerfully expressive
To be modeh to our talents, then that becomes powerful to others so that it spreads
People won't experience you fully because you haven't fully expressed yourself and admitted fully to your midot
Leads to obsequiousness
Tries to get someone to be modeh to him before he's even reached his own hod fulfillment
Hod is crucial to understand ourselves
When Bina extends downwards, the impact of the ein sof, it goes beyond and open to the infinity
The personal impact is to be modeh in the ze'er anpin
Binah does not take over and define midot, she only helps with being modeh
Aba's yesod is long, not in the intellection and differentiation
Aba dwells in ein sof
In expansive bitul, and perfectly present
Midot can be completely transformed, not intellectual.
Wisdom not thinking
Aba extends down through centre line of all midot into ZA
Ima extends down left into Hod
Ima is not prime identity
Aba spreads out into Hod and yesod, but not essential to it, except for expanding midot
Centre gets transformed into bitul
Aba produces a bliss which expands your midot because the ein sof is being integrated

Wise man is beyond abilities and comprehension, apprehension
Not really aligning himself, but listening and chupping it
Chacham echoes the teachings and has learned
He can't be creative, he just gets it
Modeh le chochma
Primary stance is not to align with the wisdom, but to be modeh and his students learn from that
But if student is bitul to chacham, then he becomes transformed by this relationship and understanding of the chacham.
Binah can only hold conceptualisation
They don't get it, and nothing for them to do in the contemplation.
This is binah i'la'a
Avot is in love with Hashem, ahavat olam - Gd is enlivening their kli.
But the kli and midot are separate
Ahava raba is expansive though and is beyond kelim
But contemplation needs to love
Bina i'la'a is infinte in which there is no other
Midah means measurable and finite.
Hod-hoda'a is a surrender, a stance
Contemplation is the disembodied aspect
My mindfulness and awareness of ein sof can be awakened
They're all then batel
Do they disappear to the ein sof? No, that's binah talking. Participant of consciousness.
Chochma is simply to see it. Impact from midot being enamoured/integrated - present to it. In solution with it. Dissolved.
Bina looks for solution
Chochma is the dissolution
Lacks distinction
Spiritual awakening
Value of both possibilites
Intellect ends, and chochma is involvement in presence without thinking.
Power of this is that midot are still there, but enhanced by bitul of chochma.

The makot of mitzrayim are a teaching - a transformation of consciousness.
It was a shift so we could go into desert and live with Mun and Clouds, etc.

Impact of hitbodedut in ahavat olam
Nothing to do but let go of self-hood
A new human being walking around
Different level of humanity, a new league - you can only be modeh of these people.
Seek to be modeh of your own path
Live in the presence of Moshe
Could only see his backside, not his face, needs a mask
Moshe's face changed when he asked to see Gd's face
The only gilui of Gd's malchut is in the hod of 'atik'.
People will just look in complete surrender and awe - hod she'be'atik
Binah knows it's beyond me.
Atik is misgaleh to binah
Ne'etak means separated from. This is how binah sees Gd.
Chochma has no transcendence to see this.
Beyond kelim.
M is using hitbonnenut, perfection of bina i'la'a.
M also exists in Aba, the midot is yesod aba.
M is in the attachment of Aba, and this is the source of his true anava to Gd.

RDK - Aharon HaLevi

Yaakov excited by physical reality, when he meets Rachel - ahavat olam, responsiveness
Movement inwards to intimacy
Accessible path
'Ban' = 52
Redundancy, replication - this is that
Appreciation of the child 'Ben' = child
The world is the child of Gd
Jews are first born of HKBH
Path of the fathers

Then introduced to Moshe
Ahava Raba
Not aroused by phycial presentation
Aroused by contact with essence
Kelim are not source of arousal
Love of one for another
Blissful stillness
Quiet of presence within divine
Deeply reflected in Moshe's stance in life in anava
Simple and boundless
Anachnu ma? We are what?
We are not a particular entity and phenomenon
We are absorbed in all
1 way is carrying content in words
Another way is seeing the words
Seeing the speaker
Jews touch this when they 'see' the words at Har Sinai
Ban is Bina is hearing and listening - not that way.
What is desire and intention behind those words
Words block the intention
Moshe lives in ahava raba
Moshe says this is not for me, the world of ma.

Aharon HaKohen is the escort of the queen
Moshe is the escort of the king
Moshe, brings king into avod of queen - divine to the world.
Moshe is netzach, right side
Aharon is the escort of the queen to the king - the world to its submersion in the divine
Aharon is Hod, left side

Aharon and Moshe are Ma - mahut nothing
Don't see sum of things
They're love is beyond understanding and wisdom
Derived from kelim, where the avot are
Supernal mother and father
Does not enter into ze'er anpin
z.a. is accessible format
za the driver to unfold and unpack
Za the contemplation is of avot and Gd
M&A are not bringing down vitality
Only seeing divine
Is no other in the divine
Delineation b'n body and vitality is not appropriate there
Perspective of man is built on consciousness of b'ground and perspective
Our brain 'subjectifies' everything
Israel is the forerunner of imaging
You never see what it is, only who it is
You can see patterns and give it identity
This is disappointingly NOT what is there
The translation of what is there
Electrical impulses are the real form
Moshe in ma sees what is
Ultimately you become anava
Ultimately access the inner, and leads to netzach, which is forever
Pale blue is the netzach, the forever
Naming is a function of 'ban' - subjectifying
Angels can't name items
Human brains give it pattern and appearance
Humans live a pattern out as identity
This is man's glory (not undoing)
Angels are pure force
Force which is potency which is unformed
Moshe is an ish elokim
Moshe is never named by his mother
Aharon was named 'nireh', an enabler of perception
Always seeing divine
Doesn't see space in between
Like an eddy in the flow
(as opposed to Korach who stood on his legs and was not part of the natural flow)
Gds appearance in yesh is no different to Gds appearance not in yesh
Moshe is Gds escort to house of queen
Queen is representative of people, the recipient
Moshe brings revelation of divine into nifalim - this world
Panim b'panim - inner to inner
Kelim don't have mahut, don't carry anything

All devarim in the world are Gd speaking to us
... Now we have to get that

Like a love letter. Its about the love and accessing her - not the letter
What stands behind all this
Coming into the world, not as other
Aharon is left, who turns upwards
Brings queen into kings chamber
Re-instates belovedness between 2 people
Reintegrate their relationship
It's not a lie
2 people don't want to be separate, really.
Zohar gives contradiction and says Moshe is supernal wisdom
... And also yesod aba
And bina is Moshe
And Moshe is bina
And Hod
But in truth they're all of a common intention
Moshe is abnegated before Gd, Ma.
Activity and contemplation in terms of seeing via bina ha'ila'a.
M Always looks upward towards his divine essence.
This is bina, but not bina of deriving Gd from the world
M sees Gds picture of the world, from Gds perspective
Revelation of chochma and bina reflect in Hod.
Moshe has hod, reflection of light glowing from him
M passes light, hod, onto Yehoshua
Malachim admit to the power of man when they see Moshe
Empowerment of hod, and moshe's ability to give it over
Hod above shamaim is ze'er anpin

Extent of anpin is into Hod
ZA is standing, man. Above is ima. Netzach extends downwards into midot
Where mind meets matter
Bina spreads down
3 legs extending down, segments,
Top is chochma, middle is chesed, lower is netzach
Side of hod, top is bina, middle gvura, hod - this is ima
Avot are in zeer anpin
Moshe is ima which is in hod
His face is glowing

If chochma and bina remained in their essence they would not come down at all
Experience acceptance
Knowing there is nothing but Gd
Your brain is structured so everything is translated into image
Moshe is the only non imaging prophet
You can only be modeh to it.
Hod is the source of prophecy
Experience of flow
Moshe brings that down
Experiencing hod is appreciating its influence and acquiescing to what it is
Hod is the end of Bina
Becoming inquisitive makes Bina disappear, you just need to nullify and accept

Yesod is the connection of Ima to the ein sof
Awareness of ein sof, there is no emotion to accompany that
Hod goes down to bina to accept there is nother than He
Chochma of Yesod of aba can connect downwards and connect with love, informed by the bitul submersion
Bina, looking towards, and aware of, stands in your way of emotional reality

RDK - R'Yehoshua Ben Levi

(Ch.26)
Last time began world of Moshe as expressed in ahava raba
Shift in sha'ar
When M&A say nachmu it is def'n of their nature and identity
Different from world of avot
Different b'n havaya and
Ma is with aleph, unfication, essence
Ba is diiferent
Aleph is a vav on a slant with 2 yud's, gematria 26
Orientation to essence and unity
Ma is non-presence
Denial
After saying there is nothing left of you
Completely lost in presence of divine
Act of abnegation
What did you think we are?
What is that?
Not interested in its functions
Unrelated to anything
'Mahut'
Reflected in kabbalah - Ma and Ben
Ban - 52 -
Ma - ?
Yud is chochma is essence
Chochma is Ma
Bina is Ban
After seeing the sneh, M goes to par'o
Who am i?
... I am with you.
Bina is the power of redemption
The wise man has what he has
Bina is the ability to derive one thing from another
Ma is the essence in presence
Redeem involves ability to step the next step
To find out 'who' it is, requires context and expression
Who we are is defined with bina
E'he'ye - I will be with you
I don't provide names - ma
E'he'ye & E'he'ye
First appearance, after Gd asks, who am I
E'he'ye is the def'n of both Gd and man
Par'o is a disrupter
Lots of boundaries in Egypt (euclidean plane)
Subjugation and oppression has no connection to spirituality
Mitzra'im is 'meitzar', confinement of me.
Physics & geometry is the opposite of Gd/spirituality.
E'he'ye means i will be - Essence and core
Modality and personality is governed by e'he'ye
Identity is essence&core, liberating
Personality are the pieces
Self is the integration and expression
Self-dedication is confinement & control
E'he'ye is dynamic, expose yourself
David HaMelech is dynamic
Sha'ul was trapped in his image, paranoia
E'he'ye is a mode of becoming
Becoming free
E'he'ye is uncommonly used
Malchut is a reflection of bina
Selfhood is the end and emergent personality
Selfhood, if it loses bina, becomes self-serving and non-expansive
Moshe needa to go in with E'he'ye, not with Ma.
E'he'ye is the power of liberation.
E'he'ye is the keter
Ari: E'he'ye is in keter and bina
Doubled E'he'ye, 1st is keter, asher is chochma, 2nd is bina
... I am, that is, what i become
2nd E'he'ye is the revelation of Gd
Expansion and moving out
Only way to be in resemptive posture, needs preceding with E'he'ye and Asher, essential stillness and listening
Asher is the anchor, or else it comes with too much frredom - hippie, footloose.
Moshe is ma.
In M's presence, everything can begin to expand.
Zohar: bina is a river flowing out of Eden.
Needs to achieve a sense of presence & worth.
Bina is the source of simcha and liberation
Zohar: 50 times in the chumash
Mi is 50 times
E'he'ye is the only name of Gd in 1st person
But as soon as you say it, it is yourself.
It is the expression of Gd in this world.
Ban is mi, who, my power
Beginning in anochi, keter
Nothingness to the Ma

Moshe asks for an identity when he goes to see Par'o.

(Yovel is 50 - Mi - comes back to primary identity, beginning. It is also shavuot)
Nachala is bina
Shavuot is nata betochenu
Chachamim are guiding with a 'cattle prod', but they're not moving around. But they are not stuck, they are planted. Therefore able to grow. They have a foundation.
When the malchut becomes a separate reality, then we get disconnected and enclose ourselves in a mitzraim
Always reference to source before reacting
Moshe in the desert finds Yitro the 'Keni' and marries tzippora

Ultimately, Ma is static. Asher and chochma allows us to respond.
Nature unfolds so that if we stay passive in the Ma, then we are abortive of Gd's revelation in this world.
Nature of reality is that Gd is always calling us forth.
Ma will lead into Mi. Gd is calling us to task.
Asher is an affirmation.

Resentment - steps, process...

1. Bringing forth the object of our resentment. Judging, deriding.

2. Confessing the extent of the resentment. What i've been doing to this person and to myself.

3. Gains and losses

4. Ask forgiveness - gam anosh l'tzadik lo tov ('even punishing for a tzadik is not good'). Offer forgiveness.

5. Choose an action. Imagine it done. To reflect this new perspective.

Resentment (my response)

I don't know you well enough.

Where is your life, your character, in respect of Torah. If you were to reflect on that, what's the difference.
Stubborn, rude, condascending, nasty
Obvious lack of patience
What makes you like you are
Lack of compassion
Not very happy
I only see smiling when there is a joke
Mocking
Too serious
Closed
Disconnected
Proper
Does the negativity overflow into all areas of life

Yet i think you know what you're like...?
How do you reconcile?
Tell me about your life?
Why are you the way you are

tazria-metzora-omer

Tazria has 67 verses which is gematria for the word בניה – her children – a reference to the woman who gives birth (at the beginning of the parsha). The word בניה can also be understood to be mean 'builders', since children are also the builders of the future. Metzora has 90 verses which is gematria for the word עידו – his witness – a reference to tzaraas which is witness to someone who tells lashon hara. This week we also start perek aleph (ch.1) of Pirkei Avot, which we say weekly between Pesach and Shavuot. Pirkei Avot begins with discussing how the Torah was received by Moshe at Sinai and then 'passed on' ("Mesora" = tradition) to Joshua, etc.

What's the relationship between the two sidras and Pirkei Avot?

In all 3 cases the relationship revolves around the origin of Torah for the Jewish people.

Tazria: The children (בניה) were the 'guarantee' offered by the Jewish people at Har Sinai in order to receive the Written and Oral Torah. The male child, discussed at the beginning of Tazria, is also the receiver of the Jewish covenant by the law of brit milah – 'circumcision'. The builders of the Torah are the Torah scholars , and Gemara Berachot 64a tells us that children shall be the learners of the Torah.

Metzora: In our system of imposing Torah law in our society, we also have the Jewish Beit Din. The Beit Din when listening to cases needs to have independent witness/es in order to pass their judgement. The judgements of a Beit Din are clarifications of our Written and Oral Torah and therefore carry similar obligations to be observed by Jews. Therefore the Jewish court system is an additional aspect of the origin of Torah for the Jewish People.

Pirkei Avot: So we received the Written and Oral Torah at Sinai (Tazria), and we have rules and judgements by the Beit Din (Metzora), both of which contribute to Torah in our daily life. The last aspect of how Torah is a part of our daily life comes from the way Pirkei Avot begins – traditions. For many Jews, one of the most regular ways that Judaism plays a part in our lives is by the traditions we receive from our parents and our families.

Tazria (67) + Metzora (90) = 157 => 1+5+7 = 13

Gematria for:     13 = אחד (unity)                13 = אהבא (love)

This is the 'antidote' against lashon hara, disunity and baseless hate between Jews.

67 (סז) + 90 (צ) = 157 (קנז)

קנז is a reference to Othniel Ben Kenaz who was the first of the lineage of Judges. He was the first to follow after the end of Joshua's reign.

RDK - tefilla - R'Yehoshua HaLevi

Introduction:
Moshe
Ish elokim
Divine human being
Introduced as in the 'flesh' - 'certainly'
Relationship b'n flesh and selfhood
Flesh is needed to fully participate in the temple service
Vegetarian age - body?
Transcendence
Pride of incorporation of body with Torah
Primitive sacrifice of animals
We are now not necessarily at the highest development
Power of divine to relate to the basar, rather than relating to the soul

Ahavat Olam

Looking at body of world, life force, origin
Ya'akov touching the place
Other Avot oriented to essence, not manifest or output
Female to embodiment and realisation
Male essence concept
They declare their identity
Aspect of 'Ma' has 2 meanings

1. They way it is - not sensing. Abstract. Whatness not suchness. Template for physical formation.
e.g. hardness and resistance. modality for finding difference b'n bodies
There are 10 differences - sphirot - b'n all the elements, colours, sounds, tones, motion, rhythm, energy.
Goes back to chochma and then atzeilut
Things are in revolution
Humanity constantly shifts paradigm, e.g. Analog to digital, discovery of 'genes'
Chochma and nachmu ma, are those who hold the abstracted format. Not the world.
Moshe and Aharon are introducing something new.
This is looking to essence - not the world.
Avot melachot are physical
Moshe & Aharon are divested of reality
'Ein kavod ela Torah' nothing to honour except Torah
i.e. No origin for kavod without Torah
Honour is part of the essence and embedded meaning.
Given significance by manifestation and teaching.
Nothing here without purpose and significance - R'Nachman.
Those who are attached to chochma will assign kavod, honour.

2.

Esh Kodesh - Piasetzner's Torah from Warsaw Ghetto - Parsha Mishpatim

Bracha...
Understand
Connect
Dedicate
Learn
Something new
Beyond reason
Something real

Laws placed before them
Broken houses (Gemara Berachot)
Daven in a ruin
Eliyahu was at the doorway
Daven on road
Daven short amida
Voices of hurva
Heavenly voices
Cooing like a dove
Woe that my home is destroyed
My children are exiled
That voice is heard 3x a day
Gd bows his head during kaddish
'keve yachol' - so to speak...
Woe to children exiled
Woe to father who exiles his children
Jewish soul tortured
Thinks only he is tortured
All the pain is not of interest above
Heaven doesn't care
All the pain - gd is in pain
When the shechinah is in pain, Gd's limbs are hurting
More than a person feels pain
Gd himself, so to speak, feels the pain

Does the Piasetzner see Gd's pain?

Not perceived in the world that Gd is not in pain
If Gd is infinite, then he is in infinite pain
Imagine Gd's pain
Do we even hear the echo of the voice of Gd'w infinite pain
It is beyond our human limitation
How could R'Yosi have heard Gd's voice and here in the Warsaw ghetto we can't hear it?
Hurva of J'lem, your identity is nullified
R'Yose's limitations were nullified in J'lem
Part of R'Yose was destroyed
That's when R'Y heard Gd's voice, an echo
Heard from far away, faint

This is the explanation for the world existing, if we don't hear His pain.
Gd's pain is not entering the world, and this is why the world exists
Angel told Gd that he wanted to cry instead of Gd, during the destruction of Temple
Gd said that He wants to, and not to stop Him
Angel says that it's not prayer
Piasetzner says that this is not protocol
Gd goes to a different place to cry
It's not good for servants to see the King crying
The King's pain boundless! That's why it can't come into the world.
The angel wanted to cry so the pain would go into the world
Angel is Gd's extended will/messenger
Emissaries of Gd
The angel wanted to cry the cry of the 'so to speak' - the 'so to speak' is that which can't come into the world.
Otherwise the world would have heard the cry
LET THE WORLD HEAR HIS CRY - AND BURST!
ONE SPARK AND BURN UP ALL THOSE WHO HATE HIM... i beg you.
Gd had mercy on Egyptians
Now the Jews are drowning in blood.
Can the world continue to exist?
Angel: i'll cry, and You wont have to, so then there will be nothing left to cry over

... It wasn't yet the time for the revelation.

Now.
The pain is great
It's too huge for world to contain
It is transcendent
He lifts his pain higher than the angel
Even the angels can't see it

Kabbalah:
That place is the inner chamber
Understanding beyond cognition
Intuition
Bina exists for us to wonder
Not for that which needs to be known
It is higher
His pain is hidden from us and malach

My thoughts:
People visit a makom (omnipresent) many years after the dust has settled 'so to speak'. Like R'Yosi visit the hurva of the Beit Hamikdash. This is when you feel and hear the souls. This is when you hear the latent echoes of Gd. When the injustice is being done - during the destruction and the death - the voice is still in its chamber. The cry is in its chamber. The cry of when you open your mouth and nothing comes out. You are in such pain. When we go to the Har HaBayit, when we go to Warsaw, to Auschwitz, to Dachau and all the places where the cry was of such pain that it was not heard, now, today, we hear the moaning and the cooing and the keveyochel, the 'so to speak' - beyond this world.

Parshat Tsav - Shabbat HaGadol Teaching

2 teachings...

1. picture from Mei Hashiloach (R'Leiner-Ishibitzer) about how we will regard each other in the days of Mashiach. This is from parshat tsav.

2. below, from R'Brodt about Shabbat HaGadol

_____________________________________________

Before leaving Mitzrayim, Hashem gave us a very special mitzvah: the mitzvah of Korban Pessach, the Paschal lamb that was to be sacrificed on the 14th of Nissan in the afternoon and eaten in the evening, the 15th of Nissan, at our last meal in the land of Egypt. However, for this Pessach sacrifice, Hashem required us to acquire the lamb on the 10th of Nissan and to bring it home for safeguarding until it was time to offer the sacrifice, to ensure that it would not have any blemishes that would otherwise disqualify it as a sacrifice.

It is well known that the lamb was one of the many gods that the Egyptians worshipped. The mitzvah of the Korban Pessach was an opportunity for us to do something that required a great deal of faith and courage. Visualizefa a little 'yiddele' who all his life was a slave to the Egyptians and now he had to confront his masters. Here he is walking home with a little sheep on his shoulders and an Egyptian stops him on the street and says to him, "What are you doing with that lamb"? And this little yid, had to tell him, "I'm bringing this lamb home because in four days from now we are going to use it as a Pessach sacrifice." He had to find all his courage and gather all his faith and publicly proclaim that he was now prepared to slaughter the god of his oppressor slave-master, for now he truly believed and knew that there is only one G-d, the G-d of Israel.

The miracle was a twofold one. The Jewish slave found his faith and courage, and the oppressor was overcome with fear and did not try to stop him from killing his god. But there was something even greater that took place in this miracle! When the Egyptian first-borns were told of the coming 'plague of the first-borns' they, the very Egyptian first-borns who oppressed the Jewish slaves, went to demand of their elders to let the Jews go. When their request was refused, they waged battle against them and many were killed. This is alluded to in the verse: "To Him who smote the Egyptians with their firstborn." The Rebbe zt"l explains that this represents the highest stage wherein "darkness is tranformed into light".

But why do we honor the Shabbos before Pessach each year, instead of the 10th of Nissan? Chassidut explains that all the spiritual and material gifts that come to us during the week, actually originate in the preceding Shabbos. Thus we observe the Shabbos before Pessach as Shabbat Hagadol, rather than observing the 10th of Nissan for the miracle that occurred on that day. The miracle that took place on the 10th of Nissan in Mitzrayim was nurtured by the fact that it was Shabbat.

Today, it is a widespread custom that on Shabbos afternoon of this Great Shabbos, we read a part of the Haggadah, from "avadim ha-yinu" until "lechapeyr al kol avonoteinu", to note the miracles of Shabbos Hagadol and to prepare ourselves consciously for our upcoming liberation celebration. It is also customary to do further study and review of the many laws of Pessach.

Rav Aharon HaLevi

World of truth
Love and truth come together
Truth is not attached for gain and benefit
Thats what it is
Truth may not lead to love
You can attach to something you see as true
Attachment of love can come from seeing something as true
True love is something seen as absolutely true
Love is a dedication
Entirety of being
Sense of beloved
Depth of connection cannot be observed from outside
Almost impossible to see something as being true and not being connected
Truth resonates my own essence
Part of our psyche
Olam chesed is the beginning of the root to truth
Rambam at beg'g and end of sefer hamada - begins with truth and ends with
All beings have a desire to return
That is love
Love comes from authenticity and truth
Like Rav and Talmid
Relationships are built on truth
Yaakov as an ish emet is the first great lover, most romantic
Elemental relationship, truth and love
Love truth and truthfully love
Western idea is that love and truth are disconnected. One is emotional and one is intellectual.
However, the da'at is that they are both deeply related.

Gd does not award existence and then depart.
Gd creates reality and becomes continuously manifested.
World was not there before
Reality is a creation of the divine
Creating worlds are not a separate entity of Gd
Yaakov is left levado - alone. Like Gd at the end of time.
Lavud means attached, fused
Delineation of images of people are a concept that is unreal
But that is our existence
That is our struggle to cope in this world with all the delineation
Love depends on delineation
Love is not unity
Love is yearning to be together
For 2 products of Hashem and Hashem to become close
Love is bina
Kudsha Brichu Shchinte - Gd is the power that holds together and is the existence of all delineates objects
Shchinte is His spreading out into the world
To give life and entity
To give hierarchical levels
Shchinte is Elohim and Adonai (adon is socket)
Din is the giving of appropriation and allocation to the earned object
Elohim is the distinction and oneness
Elohim aherim is giving separateness and removing relationship from the divine, the ultimate distortion
Derived out of loneliness
Everything becomes estranged
No access to emet
Prophets say it is lies and false
People end up bowing down to their own fear
Comes from losing relation to the infinite
Knowing Gd and his greatness comes from knowing it yourself.
A revelation of atzeilut
Sitra achara is an alternative reality
Commitment to rebellion
Amalek is this image and committed to its own self destruction
Amalek shows that its possible to attack the real reality and show everyone that you can attack Gd's will and presence
Leads to chaos, entropy and the world of lies.
There is only Me. The malchut
Gd even is on the sitra achra
Keeping it all alive
The plagues in mitzrayim are about Pharoah's discovery of the truth of Gd
Kant says that conscience is a discovery of Gd
Once conscience is discovered, then it becomes impossible to repress another
Recognise that Gd is the indwelling Gd
The Master of all
Once discovered, then you become dedicated.
We all have a passion for truth.
This is back at Avraham who was the first to recognise Gd as Adon(-ai).

Chabura

Tonight i'm feeling a bit hampered because i'm slightly tired. I may not be completely here and giving my full attention.

I've been feeling a little useless in the group and wondering whether i'm learning because i don't necessarily have a gauge. My oy gauge is that i don't tend to input as much as everyone else. Is that because of my nature or lack of experience. I do care.

I would like to help people more. I would like to give my advice. I don't want to attack personalities, but sometimes feel a strong urge to scream about my frustrations or because i want to lash out at a situation that i really really really want to help with, but have to bite my tongue and approach from what i see as a less constructive perspective. Thank Gd my patience wins. I think...

I'm a little tired and perhaps don't feel like being here tonight honestly. I'm a little mixed up.

I'm feeling small internal struggles in the beit midrash watching people blow in and out (no disrespect) and feeling a strong sense of being an anchor, which i didn't expect i would ever be.

I also hate Matthew's hair color.

purim - ki tisa - adaloyada

Hi Everyone! Happy Purim! Good Shabbos!

"ADA LO YADA"
What does that mean?
"Until you don't know".
This phrase is normally used on Purim to mean that we drink until we don't
know.

What don't we know?
We don't know the difference between Mordechai and Haman.

So we get drunk enough to not realise the difference between Mordechai and
Haman.
What does that mean?

So there are many events in the Torah where a seemingly bad situation is
described. For example, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot
flees with his daughters into a cave. Abandoned and all alone, the daughters
believe that they are now the only people left on the planet. In order to
produce babies, the girls feel that their only course of action is to commit
a sin whereby they produce children from their father. That looks pretty bad
- right?

Do you know what came out of this seemingly un-holy union? King David.
Unbelievable, right? How? One of the girls produced a boy by the name of
Moab. Ruth was from the people of Moab (she converted to marry Boaz). Ruth
was the great-grandmother of King David. And we know that the lineage of
King David will bring forth Moshiach. Unbelievable.

Another example is the sin of the Golden Calf in Parashah Ki Tisa. I'm not
on a level yet where I can tell you the goodness that came from such a
despicable act. But this is a perfect example of how you can easily fall
into the trap of believing that a seemingly bad event that happens in the
Torah must obviously and surely have bad outcomes for the Jewish people. But
does it?

I'll take this point to an extreme. The Holocaust was terrible. Did you know
that written into the declaration of independence of the State of Israel
there is a specific point made of the establishment of the state as a direct
result of the Holocaust. The Holocaust was terrible. But according to the
declaration, would we have had the State without the Holocaust? It's
obviously hypothetical, but that's what is written there.

So we get so drunk on Purim that we look at good Mordechai and evil Haman
and we don't know the difference. I was walking with my family down Rehov
Yafo toward the old city a few days ago (on the 14th of Adar). I stopped.
Mamash, I just stopped. I turned to my family and said, Do you realise we
would not be standing here today if it wasn't for the events of Purim!

Do you realise what we don't know on Purim? We don't know how much all the
events of this world, and all the people of this world, good and bad, are
all connected to Gd.

On Purim we realise that everything is connected to Gd.

May we carry that idea forward every day of our lives.

Tefilla - RDK

Review:
3 primary meditations
Drash
Zohar
Ve ani berov chasdecha
2 types of love
Ahavat olam
Yehud of kudsha shchinte
Cosmic reflection
Whats in each of
Manifest reality and expression
Primary essence
Unity b/w more essential reality
Yichud is the undertaking in life
One self, one being, one reality
Prayer is expression of presence and essence
Yichud is the focus
Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov covered
Then explication of 3 tefilot and their relationship to avot

Tefillot are aligned with avot or korbanot
2 aspects of tefillot
One attachment to source
Another to readiness to give all up
2 modalities
Everything Gd takes me thru is a temporary sojourn
End of ultimate truth
Avot are first 3 brachot of shevach
Giving over to him
Standing here
Modality of expression
Rich variation of touching each tefilla
Tofel is to connect
Tafil is taking strands and intertwining
Yechud HaIla - alignment vessels
Yechuf HaTata - speaks thru it
Perfect oneness
Avot are the merkava - yechud haIla
David Hamelech - yechud hatata (children)
Yaakov responds baruch shem kevod to children
Reality is the divine expression
Essential personality should reflect our characteristics-talents
Integrate with surroundings
We are not separate from our environment
KiTisa is about the yichud and malchut of tiferet
Beauty and divine expression of the malchut-mishkan
The reality of my personhood made by virtue of relationship
Aharon loves you, and you sense love
But the relationship is 2 separate individuals.
Reality of personhood as we mature and go through stages.
Differentiation is just a stage
One entity is there. I am you. You are me.
Couples look like each other.
Darga of tomati -
Anochi is a different sense of reality
Keter includes us by unification
Identity and reality are not separate
This is what was supposed to happen in KiTisa.
But they became self involved, thru avoda zara.
Intellectual contemplation and wholeness of Gd
Gd's coming to be known
Truly
Sharing becomes Yira
Noda is knowing, awareness
Shoshanat Yakov, a flower thats unfolding and blooming
Gd's presence should become known through manifest and 'reality'
Moshe's expresses a lack of bringing shechinah to malchut when he hits rock.
Esther also does not want to enter King's chamber.
But then she enters and the verse only talks about Melech, not Achashverosh.
Esther becomes Shchinte
Moshe is Kudsha Brichu
In the essence there is no change
Essence is no differentiation
Equal presence
Letters are particular parts of expression
But letters unify into one name - one essence
Hay Vav Hey are main letters
Yud is always happening
The present is always new
The present is always being made now
Time not being experienced
Continuation of something that came before
Truth is reality of worlds we live in are not coming from a process
It just is
Yud is the perfect presence
Ye Ha Ve would make it wrong because Gd is only in the present. The yud changes grammar to future.
Ha Ve is meeting Gd now.
All of reality did not exist before because to say that would mean pre-existence
The ayin is the possibility of thinking a particular thought
The ayin is the source
Everything is coming out of that
The truth is that the ayin of the source of thought, not the thought itself
Yesh is not what we know now
In the next moment it is not there
Yesh is not something material that is not here from one moment to the next
Every moment is completely new
Reality is completely new
Awareness when it looks at the thought, and questions it, it is wrong.
Awareness needs to accept the new
The only way to touch Yesh is with love
Lehanchil ohavey yesh - we need to experience, e.g. Love, motherhood, etc
Moshe hitting the rock is a reflection of derision of reality
There needs to be acceptance of reality at that moment.
Ein Sof is not potentiality

Ultimate reality is the complete Yesh.

Re:

Short Thought - Parasha Vayakel-Pekudei

These two parshiot are full of the accounting of the building of the mishkan. Bnei Yisrael immediately contributed to excess and Bezalel and Oholiav performed their work dutifully as befitting their creative talents. All of the work culminated finally in Moshe, Aharon and his sons coming to do their holy service in the mishkan.
There are 92 verses in Parasha Pekudei the gematria of which is the same as the word אצא = "I will fulfill". G-d told the nation of Israel what to do in order to build the mishkan. They did that, and then they put it to use. Then was no delay and no questions. Everybody just got on with the job and fulfilled G-d's instructions. In the journey of our lives, each one of us should also strive to say "אצא" in response to what G-d's wants of us.

tekhelet

http://www.tekhelet.com/diagrams/RadzynDetailInstruction.pdf

 

 

Chasidut - RDK - R'Aharon HaLevi

Gd is the great healer
Holds together 2 opposites
Power that binds all parts of our body in 1 unification
The fulcrum of creation
Beit hamikdash
Malchut is the line down the centre
Holds the 2 sides together
Manifestation and creation
Chazi hamalkut went down between the 2 kruvim
Went down into the creation point in the rock
Empowerment that holds together achar and echad
This is Yaakov, can experience the divine through individuation and unification
Rests his head on the stone and dreams of the unification
Rests on the access point and axis point
He rests at Luz, the bone in the body (base point of the spine), from where tchiat hametim will come from
Sacrifices himself for multiplicity
Holds his children all together - oneness
Avraham and Yitschak were only able to 'hold' one son - different oneness
Realisation of the tifferet, the mikdash becomes invested with personality - Aharon
He is the great lover of all creatures
Power is introduced with the Menorah
If You created light, why do we need to give you light?
Because you love the work of your creations
The mikdash is a place of love
Achashverosh dresses in Aharon's clothes and degrades love
Haman wants to destroy creation
Kilalat Elohim Talui - hang His image
Don't leave a body hanging overnight
------------------------

Response of Norah
When Yaakov wakes up from the dream
First time the word appears
Leaping flames from Yaakov
Fluidity of creation
Distance and separation
Fire from water (baytzah)
Chesed is the endearment of existence
Chesed is the embodiment of gvurah
Chesed and existence requires personal reality and longing to reunite
Yaakov is the disparate elements
But it is one will that all is suffused within
One integrating power
Reuta DeLiba is Yaakov
There is a movement,tendency,trajectory to it
This is how Avraham understads Gd
'Someone' is spinning this rock/galgal
Will in its all inclusive state is Yaakov
Yaakov being the centre, he was able to touch wellsprings that brought him back to atzeilut and extends his life
There is a root that can be accessed and re-awakened
In Will are all the midot, the particular expressions, and some remain dormant or latent
The shoresh always gives you access
You will re-enliven
Yitschak is the longing for connection
In a primary identity, it is still never exclusive.
There is always something to share
All of creation has a holographic illusion to it
Unite him via the world - Avrahams power
To know the unitary point of oneness
Longing desire like a fire leaping
Bow myself down and seek the loss
Give it all up just to be in the source
If you saw things as they are - objectify - you will never have longing
If you see the power of expressions, then you desire to enter and bow before the King
He'll never look behind the curtain
Yitschak is born from that
Yitschak is the imminence
Yaakov is the ascendance
Yaakov's bitul comes from touching the divine essence
Yaakov knows that
He knows that Gd is infinite
Now its all the same
The king is here is as he is there
Even in this pile of rocks is the essence of Gd
The Will is in all things
Reuta DeLiba

Tefillah - Magen Avraham - RDK

We 'take' trumah
We don't give trumah
If you believe you are only giving trumah then you are just building for yourself - this is avoda zara.
You 'take' because it already belongs to Gd.
It's a commandment.
This is his world
We are his funnel
We are his channel

1st bracha is Avraham - Magen Avraham
Thank you for protecting me

2nd bracha is Yitschak
T'chiat hametim

3rd bracha of sh'e is about yaakov
"Ha'El HaKadosh" is part of Yisra-El.
Yaakov is the only one that Gd calls 'El'.
He is the only one that cares for possessions and sees them as holy, not just as material.

These 3 together form the merkava-chariot for us to channel our tefilla. They create the foundation.

Chabura - 7 items to be mindful during listening

Groups of 3
7 things - important to be here, get off our chest
Taking stock of last week
10 pointers of having focus
Open for tonight
Bless for yourself this evening
my own sub agenda
My own work
Listening deeper
intentional
Helps to care for someone
Speak up
Pay attention to feelings
Share your feelings, don't wait to act
React to other reactions
Avoid advising
Don't band-aid
Care for intense moments
check in, keep a journal - Stay in the space

Mi'she'nichnas Adar - Purim - Tshuvah in Adar

Terumah - tachash

The cover of the ark was made from tachash skins. The tachash was the unicorn. It was created for this purpose. And ceased to exist afterwards.

Terumah - separate...

This is really quite beautiful...
Make sure a part of your life is separated and dedicated to Gd. Perhaps some of your money, perhaps time with your children, perhaps an item for your Shul (mikdash).
Make sure to really dedicate it, on it's own. Something special. Lift it up. If you lift it up you are also lifting everything else in your life up. Ultimately you are elevating Gd. Bringing the spiritual, Gd, into all aspects of your material world.
Listen to R'Shlomo here:

Tefillah - beginning of siddur - RDK

Bakashot
Learning in nigleh
First 3 brachot of Sh.E.
Yihud of kriyat shema
8 truths after ga'al israel
Context for beginning of Sh'Es and the beg. of everyday
Circadian rhythym significance
Deeper than sleeping
Waking up is associated with tkiat hametim
Meditation at the opening of the day
Consciousness and breathing
Order of brachot
Opening your eyes - elohai neshama
(no modeh ani in gemara)
Awakening in Tzfat
Modeh Ani was replaced by elohai neshama
M'Ani came out of E'Nesh'
We awaken to marvellous reality
Gd guarded our soul during sleep
Guarded our essential selfhood
External trappings was gone
Essence of who we are was preserved
Gd's devotion to us
Only due to sleep can we discover that
Only waking can we appreciate that
Everytime we breath as well
Letting go, and have faith
'Breath your soul into me'
Recall the intimate rhythym
Breathing is a creation of the 2nd story of Bereshis
There is no breathing in the beginning
Everything is created as ready to breathe
2nd story we find creation from dirt
Neshama is breathed into you
First accent and realisation of soul
2nd story - no breathing creatures until man (inc. vegetation)
Sneezing, say 'asuta' (heal) = gesundheit
Your soul should not leave you when you sneeze.
Primal awakening and awareness
Consciousness
Pure soul breathed into me
Reflected on a cosmic scale with tkchiat hametim
Guard our soul for reconnection with our bodies
Souls dearness to Gd
Body is the vessel through which the soul shines
Body will not alter the soul
Mishna - anyone who denies tkchiat hametim, is denied tk'met'
Responsiveness of Gd to the world he makes
Gd is paying attention to the details of the way we lead our lives
Respnsive to our nature and our choices
Parallel in tk'ham'
What matters to us, matters to him
A time when the world will be desolate
Souls will just be hovering above it
Then there will be tk'ham'
Then the souls will be breathed back into the world
2nd storey - b'hi'baram - created with a breath ('hey')
As opposed to bereshit bara
Now there is a 'hey' - the breathing world
'Shenatata bi' is bina
Rhythym is Gd's guardianship
Shenatata bi - the bi is the nefesh habehema speaking

"Elokai neshama shenatata bi tehora..."
The Gdly soul that you gave me ('bi' - behema nefesh - its 'me'at - meat!) is pure.

Nachoshet is actually bronze. Not copper. Copper with a bit of tin.
Ani is an outgrowth of modeh
If ani comes before modeh, then i come before giving thanks.
Bekirbi - expression of soul descent into me. Thus Modeh Ani.
If you don't bend at Modim then your soul will become a snake when you're buried.
It's fine to stand up tall, as long as you have bowed for modim and lifted up like a snake.
Alignment of awakening
This is parallel to first 2 brachot, ultimately realised in magen avraham
Language of first bracha is suggestive
Comes from ch.14 in bereshit
... Avraham comes back from war and malkitzedek approaches him and blesses him. (14:9)
Hashem now uses Malkitzedek's usage of magen avraham.
Magen avraham is the protection
Koneh shamaim v'aretz
The receiver of heaven & earth
Lost in atzilut - let go to me - i will guard you.
Ga'al israel - a meditation that Gd is holding us in his thought
Parallel between redemption and reality of the world