CHESSED of NETSACH

Feel the flow of the new Sefira energy of Netzach /victory,balanced by a gentle soothing layer of Chessed/kindness,allowing for the thrill of achievement,minus the arrogant gloating of conquest.

Let The search begin !

Let the Searching begin! As the Passover season starts to swing into high gear, I start to recall all kinds of childhood memories. One thing that always struck me as ironic and even a bit cruel, was the timing of Pesach cleaning, right after Purim, the holiday easily associated with the highest Chametz (leaven of all sorts) intake of the year thanks to the endless flow of the Shalach manot gift baskets. Once the process started I felt the presence of an invisible surveillance system suddenly activated in the house, like if you step three feet out of the kitchen with a pretzel there was an electric current that would zap us before we made into the living room. Also the ubiquitous “Shukkle up di hent “, the Yiddish battle cry following every meal, reminding us to brush off any crumbs from our hands and clothing before we left the kitchen. As Pesach got closer the full assault on the chametz began, the search was underway, each of us with our assigned quadrants in the house, the search for the chametz was on, and it never stood a chance, “ chametz if you are there, we will hunt you, track you down, and take you out! As I grew older I realized that the there was a secondary process that kicked in as well, of a more personal existential nature. During those hours of searching, scrubbing, and eliminating the accumulated food remnants that gather in the corners of ones home during the course of a year, inevatebly the intense searching/scrubbing of the home would trigger an accompanying inner searching of the soul. Somehow mysteriously a search for meaning would emerge and still does till this day and we would find ourselves suddenly thinking of all the emotional “chametz” that accumulates in the course of a year in the crevices and cracks of our being, cluttering our psyches with ego/chametz consciousness, and the resultant fear based behavior. As we grow and mature, we gain sudden clarity, and a whole new appreciation for the deep wisdom of our Jewishness, and the spiritual rewards that come in its wake. The sacred rhythm of our Jewish year is loaded with delightful spiritual surprises. There are no short cuts here though. The forms and practices of our parents and grandparents are not quaint outdated anachronistic rituals. They are for us as Jews the transporters that take lead us to the precise places in our complex spiritual lives that we need to be We can’t just parachute into the spiritual searching space, though, it won’t register in a vacuum. The outer searching,ironically points us inward, and carries us with certainty to the high plains of our beings. The key to unlocking our ancient souls, are still the old keys, The locks were never changed, the new keys are shiny, but they are not Neshama compatible. Chamets of all types, wherever you are, whether it s the actual breadcrumbs, pretzel remnants, or the emotional chametz, of ego, sadness, or cynicism, beware! We are onto you and we are coming for you soon :)

Clock change /Soul change,Passover is in the air!

Ok so the clocks are changed, once we clear up that annual morning confusion,and we finally get around to the annoying task of resetting the clock on the oven, another realization sets in.Passover is just around the corner. The changing of the clocks neatly coincides,and actually flows from this past Shabbats heralding the onset of the Hebrew month of Nissan, the month in which Passover is celebrated.In the world of the sefirot of Kabbalah this months energy is often associated with the level of Netsach, the energy that is our souls power to experience victory in the on going quest to live a more soul centered existence.May we all be filled with the right balance of passion and discipline( The combination of the Sefirot of Chessed and Gevurah), to activate Netsach victory mindset.Both the changing of the clocks and the blessing of the new month associated with redemption,act as gentle reminders to follow through on our sacred task of taking back our energy from the outside world. The subtle shift in time is a good alarm that goes off in our brain reminding us of the inner shifting that needs to happen in our lives. Shavua Tov and early Chodesh Tov

Why do we braid the Challah?

Q.
What is the symbolism of braiding the challah

A.
One of the answers that has always resonated with me is based on a Kabbalistic explanation for the opening prayers of the Kabbalat Shabbat,Friday evening service. The lead up to the beloved Lecha Dodi prayer consists of six prayers taken from Tehillim,the book of Psalms.
The Kabbalah teaches that each one of those six prayers is an opportunity to mend whatever it is that needs fixing on each of the corresponding days of the week, a chance to bring some measure of mental closure to the unfinished business of a typical week. This practice is not a substitute for taking care of our responsibilities, we can and must resume them with renewed vigor in the coming week,rather Shabbat is a brief period of pausing /cooling off from all the complexities of our lives.This is a Jewish way of saying "the stuff of my life is too integral a part of me to just simply leave behind,but I still need to figure out a way to embrace my life in all its complexity, without allowing it to imprison me emotionally or stunt my spiritual progress.This is the magical spell that Is cast onto the collective Jewish soul, as Shabbat gently flows over us and we are reminded to reclaim the enchantment of our lives.
From this perspective the braiding of the challah symbolizes the weaving of our weekday mentality into a Shabbat state of mind,a sudden BRAIDING of CHOL weekday mindset into a more sublime Shabbat driven consciousness

WE ARE G-D YOUR G-D

Last week Parshat Yitro,we soared upwards,souls floating in the clouds above Sinai,as Torah was transferred into human awareness, getting our collective Jewish consciousness reinstalled,once again,allowing us to re boot our entire spiritual operating system. We heard the Ten Commandments beginning with ANOCHI HASHEM ELOKECHA I am G-d YOUR G-d . Despite the power of last weeks spiritual moment,it was merely the embarking,certainly not the finale of our own personal spiritual odyssey. This week we have descended down to become re grounded in the base-camp of the actual lives we lead. We are reminded that our experience must take place primarily at the foot of the mountain not at its summit. This week we read , "AND these are the laws the Mishpatim " as if to say AND now folks lets roll up our sleeves,and commence the hard spiritual work of Fastening the "high" of Sinai,onto the level stable landscape of our prosaic existence. For us that means clearing a "walkable path through the Sinai Blizzard of G-dly love. Last week G-d drew us up into his world,this week we reciprocate by hosting G-d and welcoming him into our world.The Jewish secret lies in how we walk a human walk,yet still hum a divine melody,calibrating the two truths. How so ? The Mitzvot that we start reading about this week,are ways of being,that encompass the full spectrum of human endeavor,that lead us,by performing them,to our inner truth,and point us toward the G-d that moves within. We echo the divine Anochi with our own human Anochi , It would sound like this. I,Anochi,am (insert your own name),a physical being,finite,sometimes petty,sometimes sad,sometimes hurtful to myself and others,sometimes not able to connect with anything spiritual at all. That however is only one side of me, my lower consciousness if you will. There is another identity in me. I Anochi, (again insert your name,preferably Hebrew this time) am a spiritual being,a container bearing a chunk of G-d within me ,albeit in a human form. At that level we can respond back to G-d,and say,"I too am Hashem Elokecha". When our whole being is laden with Mitzvot,then we are the continuity of the truth sounded at Sinai. Our whole being screams out this week, "it's our turn ",we call out with love and proclaim to the heavenly realms ,and all its hosts ,"We are g-d your G-d". Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Yossi

IT'S YOM KIPPUR TOMORROW

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur and Shavuot, Chanukah and Purim, Tomorrow is the Mishna, Talmud, Midrash, Zohar and Chumash. Tomorrow is the Siddur, the Haggadah, and the Psalms from King David. Tomorrow is the first second, and third temple wrapped in one, Tomorrow is Isaiah and Jeremiah, Moses and Miriam, Maimonides and Nachmanides, Rabbi Akivah, and Rav Kook Tomorrow is King Solomon, King David the Baal Shemtov, and the Messiah. Tomorrow is my Rebbe. Tomorow is your Rebbe. Tomorrow is Shalom Aleichem, Mah Nishmah, Gutt Yom tov, Chag Sameach, Shabbat Shalom, and Shana Tovah. Tomorrow is Borscht, latkes, chicken soup ,(MANNA??) Bagels and cream Cheese, (low-fat of course), Tzimmes, lokshen Kugel, Knaidlach, and Challah Tomorrow we celebrate Yiddihskeit, menshlichkeit, nareshkeit, and any other Keits I may have overlooked. Tomorrow we are Schlemiels and Shlumps, Schlimazels and Shmendricks. Tomorrow “I don’t like the way you look, ARE YOU EATING “? Tomorrow we go to the Mikvah. Tomorrow we sing Hava Nagila, Oseh Shalom, The Niggun Of Reb Michel of Zlotchov, and KOL HAOLOM KULO GESHER TZAR MEOD, (the whole world is a very narrow bridge) but its not a big deal since Reb Nachman reminds us that the “IKKAR” (most important thing) is “LO LEPHACHED KLAll”!!! , That we have nothing to fear at all”. Tomorrow Reb Zushe reminds us that the most important thing to remember when we come to heaven is that they WONT ask us why we were not like Abraham or Moses, but they will call us out if were weren’t R Zushe, if we weren’t ourselves. Tomorrow we sit in the sukkah and get soaked, eat herring, have a drop of Schnapps, and say Lchaim. Tomorrow is the most important day on the Jewish calendar Tomorrow is the reason we even have a Jewish calendar. Tomorrow we will read the portion of Yitro. In it we read about G-d giving the Torah to the Jewish people. Everything that transpired from creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel,Noah and Family Ark and all, from Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah Rivkah Rachel and Leah, to Joseph and pharaoh, slavery and redemption, sea splitting etc. Was all synchronized to be a lead up to this epic historic moment. As a result, every subsequent meaningful Jewish moment, every statement, all the wisdom, all the ups downs, holidays, sayings, foods, jokes, groups, as well as every great leader, can all be traced to that singular definitive moment, when Heaven met earth and G-d formally drafted us to be ambassadors of Holiness, and enlisted us to be co light Shiners in the greatest spiritual adventure ever known to mankind. What we observe and don't observe, what we believe in or don’t, whether we consider ourselves orthodox reform conservative, or whether we are orthoformative, atheistic, Chassidic, agnostic, Sephardic or Askenazic, affiliated, or not, reconstructionist, deconstructionist, non denomenational, pre or post denominational, neochasidic or otherwise, all of who we are, and how we identify, can be tracked back directly or indirectly to what was conveyed at the Foot of Sinai. When we read about the giving of the Torah tomorrow and we Stand and listen to the Ten Commandments being read, we have all the right ingredients for a powerful Jewish experience, one In which we can close our eyes, open our hearts and souls, to meditate and reflect, and drift to our inner space of gratitude. Why not make a holiday out of this Shabbat? I m not quite sure, perhaps it would compete with Shavuot, the holiday in which Mattan Torah (giving of the Torah) actually happened. Or its because sometimes by making a bigger deal about something, we run the risk of overlooking its key message, and its best to acknowledge it in a more private, inward, low key, heartfelt Kavanah filled fashion. Either way there is an immense energy hovering there and we can leverage it into a deep and moving moment of sacredness and transformation. Tomorrow we will celebrate our Chuppah! Mazal Tov, and Shabbat Shalom

Keeping warm(th)

I was part of the wave of young Rabbi s sent to the USSR in 1989 -90 .It was exciting to be part the post glasnost Jewish renaissance.We were thrust into this situation,with very little training or formal orientation. We were armed with a blessing from the Rebbe,our youthful naïveté and enthusiasm ,and a suitcase filled with the currency of the day, American Dollars, Levi's jeans, and assorted Revlon products,which when produced, magically turned sold out flights,trains,and hotel rooms into available ones! We arrived in Minsk on a wintry Erev Purim and were whisked right from the train to the house of an elderly Russian Jew who had passed away. We were the first rabbi s that many of these people had interacted with,especially the young ones,and the pressure was intense and the expectations seemed unrealistic. After about a week ( yes I know it sound s impossible )I was speaking fairly passable Russian and when I returned back to states I was speaking fluently. In the beginning however it was rough going. So I m sitting in this home with all the bereaved relatives,and these starving hungry souls are looking to me for something.How do you feed a hungry soul ,that s been starving for over seventy years,ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T SPEAK THE LANGUAGE ! On a whim I just started singing . A song popped out of my soul and went straight to my voice ,totally bypassing my brain " ..Oiphen priperchik Brent a fayerul ,uhn in shtub is hais ....." It's a sweet slightly sad Yiddish lullaby that describes a cold winter night in a village in Russia ,but inside the house it s warm ,there is a small stove providing the HEAT ,but there is a "Rebbele " a wizened elderly teacher of our faith instructing a small little child in the aleph bet , that is providing the WARMTH . Then the most amazing thing happened ,I realized I was not singing alone , an entire room of elderly soviet Jews was singing with me , Tears were flowing down all of our faces .We had established a common language,a common soul,a shared yearning and sense of nostalgia for the spiritual warmth of our faith. At that moment I realized that although that warmth, that YIDDISHE NESHAMA (Jewish Soul )often lies dormant within us,either due to being preoccupied with The fast pace of our lives,a Jewish upbringing utterly devoid of the more spiritual experiential part of Judaism ,or due tragically to the brutal oppression of a Stalinist regime , that warmth is nevertheless always there , lurking just beneath the surface of our consciousness , and there is no better way to raise a submerged sense of soulfulness than with one of the heartfelt melodies of our people. The way to unlock the door to corrupt Russian bureaucracy was a few cartons of revlon and some American dollars The way to unlock the spiritually starved soul of the Russian Jew was with that Yiddish song oiphen priperchik In the past week I ve spent every spare Moments next to my beloved fireplace basking in its warmth,and realized that the discussions of how cold it is outside and wether our heat is working properly,leads us naturally to reflect on coldness and warmth of a more personal spiritual nature . National grid provides the heat, our faith and yiddishkeit supplies us with the warmth Today I can truly say I m grateful for both ! Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Yossi