Our Shul is a Beit Knesset as well

Call me old fashioned but for me a synagogue will alway be called a “Shul” .If I had to go for my second option I would settle for the name" Beit haknesset",translated as house of gathering. The reason to call a synagogue a house of gathering is a reflection on the multi purpose nature of our spiritual homes, they are places where we can gather with our peers,family,and friends,and experience a sense of connectedness to a sacred community,or in Hebrew a Kehilla Kedosha.Part of the chemistry of a successful spiritual society stems from the awareness that our link to one another is not limited strictly to our davening/worshiping together,indeed that is only the beginning point in the building of sacred community.True worship takes us out of our head space and leads us to being in our heart space,lifting us out of narcissism and setting the stage for an empathetic and kind intertwining of other peoples lives into our own. That's why the gathering after davening is actually called a kiddush,it's the Jewish way of upgrading mere social interactions into an experience of holiness,a time where we connect with one another and share in one another's joy and sadnesses,and strengthen and uplift each other. This morning,reading a Torah commentary in the book “Pri Haaretz” from Reb Mendel Vitebsker who was a part of the inner circle of the Maggid of Mezritch,I learnt of a new reason for using the term “bait knesset”to describe a house of prayer. The word Knesset,meaning to gather,is talking about an inner process that transpires in moments of deep prayer. In those moments of spiritual enlightenment all of the different and sometimes competing aspects of our personalities are gathered together,united, coherent,a complete harmonious being stretching upwards toward the divine.Since this is the ultimate experience to look for in a "Shul"we name it as such, thereby creating more openness and readiness for that experience. This week we read about the Noah and the ark. The Kabbalah sees the ark as a metaphor for a safe haven for humanity,amidst the often turbulent waters of the cynicism,rampant materialism,and me first self aggrandizement that our society often finds itself drowning in. Wether you call it a Shul ,synagogue ,shtibel or temple ,it must always be a beit Knesset/ark as well.For both reasons.When we "Knesset" gather together as a unified people even just to be around one another,in simple basic communal graciousness, something surprising happens.The mere act of togetherness and the practicing of kindness suddenly unlocks the closed portals in our soul and facilitates the second more individual experiential "Knesseting of our Neshama/soul ,leading to a rich and deeply rewarding Davening experience.

Simcha soul Joy

This morning Uplifting Hoshana Rabah prayers at "The Chabad communityShul "!

Thanks  to all who came out at 630! You who intuitively know how critical it is to keep these beautiful customs alive and strong,and ensure our Jewish continuity.You are the real unsung heroes of the North Shore community,always leading the way by the example you set with your devotional lives.A morning prayer like this, situated post Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur soul searching, poised to celebrate Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah gives us a moment to reflect on the survival of the Jewish way of life.We must be cutting edge and visionary about our Jewish future,but it simply won't work if we think we can get there by turning our backs on the deep and nourishing wellsprings of the past.A tear slips out of the corner of our collective eyes as we part with our precious Lulav and Etrog,lasting but a brief moment,as we start to let go of the intensity of the past weeks and begin transitioning into intense Simcha mode and  deep soul joy as we dance with and celebrate the gift of Profound Torah  consciousness in our lives

Lulav energy conductor

One of the best examples of practical Kabbalah is the already accepted widespread practice of starting to build a sukkah ,immediately after Yom Kippur post breaking the fast at night.
You would think that Hashem would have a little rachhmones on us (mercy) and give his exhausted spiritual warriors a little pass. After all we ve just fasted and prayed for 24 hours straight!
The Kabbalah perspective here is the antidote to what might best be described as post Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur fatigue syndrome,with a mystical twist.
Here is one way to describe what that might have looked like to the mystics.
According to Kabbalah we all receive a huge lump sum deposit of raw spiritual energy during Rosh Hashanah .That is the basis of all we will draw from ,the well we can drink from the entire upcoming year. The "downside" of that is that right at the beginning all that energy is too powerful. It can be compared to riding a powerful 1500 CC motorcycle minus the throttle and the gears that regulate the flow of horsepower.Those controls are vital to allow us the ability to downshift when we are going to fast around a curve,and vice versa. Or a better example might be trying to plug your cell phone directly in to the electrical generator in your town. Its not gonna go so well for you. The energy needs to be routed first through electrical wires and poles throughout the city ,that then leads into your home circuit box and finally to an outlet inside your room that will provide the right voltage for you to plug in and not get fried.So we have all this energy,and we don't know what do with it ,and slowly it slips away from our grasp.How can we prevent this ?
The Jewish way to process the soul energy we ve been given is through the OUTLETS we call mitzvot.
With this in mind the Kabbalists read the biblical passage in Leviticus about sukkot as a direct response to this highly ironic spiritual crisis,when though physically depleted,we should still at least be at the top of our spiritual game! The answer is, of course we are ,but we need to protect and process that energy. Here is what a mystical reading of this passage (Vayikra (Leviticus ) 23:40) might look like
" you shall TAKE to YOURSELVES the fruit of the haddar tree" ,this is the source for the mitzvah of the Lulav and Etrog.
The Kabbalists knowing that the Hebrew letters of the word Lulav are numerically equivalent to the hebrew letters of the word Chaim (life),see in this an opportunity for a deep emotional teaching/ learning.
TAKE that energy To YOURSELF as soon as Yom Kippur ends so that the soul energy that is swirling AROUND instead of floating away from us starts to flow THROUGH us.
Do this by jumping right into the first mitzvah available to us !SUKKAH BUILDING!

This is also the symbolism of the Jew pointing the Lulav upward toward G-d and pointing the Lulav in all directions,almost as if we are gathering, all the spiritual energy that's been dumped on the outskirts of our psyches,and then bringing the lulav,laden with our harvested new life force inward toward our hearts.
Chag sameach

Rabbi Yossi

Dancing on the Ruins !

Tonight is Tisha B bav, the ninth day of the month of Av, the saddest day of the year for the jewish people,recalling the destruction of our holy Temple,The Bait Hamikdash in the holy city of Jerusalem. An interesting episode in the Talmud. Rabbi Akivah and the sages are walking over the ruins of the temple, the scene of the foxes scurrying over the smoldering rubble overwhelms the sages with sadness and they tear their clothes in mourning, their luminescent faces awash with tears .Rabbi Akivah rends his garment,but then begins to laugh and dance among the destruction ! What a scene, the grieving sages,on one side and the jubilant ecstatic Rabbi Akivah,dancing atop the ruins on the other! Another surprising and delightful tradition,the Messiah is born on Tisha Bav ! How do we process these mixed messages ? The truth is that Tisha Bav encompasses both. This day, we must reflect on our communal history, bitter defeats ,and our frequent oppression, at the same time we must acknowledge our miraculous ability to rebuild, redeem,and rise again outwitting history(Thanks Aaron Lansky!)and standing poised to write the most glorious chapters of our beloved narrative. As modern devotees of Chassidus and practitioners of jewish mysticism,we must also turn inwards with that paradox, and see those same patterns as they play out in our personal lives. On this day,even as we are aware of being surrounded by love and goodness, we also acknowledge the holes in our lives,and we become aware of all the pain in the world. Those place s where we feel destruction in some way,wether its the loss of a loved one, conflict within families, lost opportunities, a sense of vertigo,lack of drive, loss of interest in life, living without passion or faith, struggling with addiction,living with anger and sadness, all potent and destructive in their own way, all blocking our awareness of the latent dormant divine dimension ,lying just beneath the sometimes scorched earth of our inner landscape. In This sense we cry with the sages.However ......in order to unlock the real mystery of this day WE MUST ALSO LAUGH with Rabbi Akivah! We do so in the knowledge that the messiah is born today as well, we must acknowledge the gaping holes,but we don't have to keep falling into them! On this day our inner messiah presides over the groundbreaking ceremony of a new soulfulness, as we remember the forgotten steps of the dances of our lives!!

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