In Tishrei, one holiday follows another, and many of us are busy hosting guests. We spoke with four women who have many guests throughout the year, and heard from them how guests impact their home and families. • Insights and advice for successful hosting from veteran hostesses.
By default, the sun emanates light. The circumstances through which the light is blocked are all external obstacles – whether they be natural or man-made. As long as there is some obstacle between me and the sun, the light will never shine on me. I definitely want to let more light into my life. Who doesn’t? So, if I want to let more light into my life – more meaning, more spirituality, more goodness – then the question I have to ask myself is: What’s blocking the light? The light is certainly shining, but something is stopping it from getting to me. If I can figure out what the blockage is, then I can remove it and allow the light to shine through.
How can I know if I have a healthy relationship with the world? This crazy world that seems to be spinning to an increasingly absurd and chaotic tune, when all my inner being wants is some peace and a sense of purpose in it all – how am I supposed to relate to it? From the microcosm of daily survival to the macrocosm of global geopolitics, how is an ostensibly sincere individual supposed to function within this elaborate, chaotic world of duplicity, double-standards and outright deception?
In our incessant pursuit of quantity, we lose the quality. But the opposite extreme would also be destructive: An unhealthy obsession with quality can lead us to get stuck and accomplish nothing.
Chassidic thought was first unveiled by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760). These profoundly spiritual teachings were later harnessed into a comprehensive and methodical philosophical system by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the Alter Rebbe, who was born in 1745 – the same year as Volta).
Every Jew, no matter what his status is as a Jew, how Jewish he thinks he is or even if he considers himself a Jew at all, is ultimately and completely bound to G-d – his G-d – the G-d of his parents and grandparents going back 134 generations to our great father Avraham. The faith and universal truths are part of our genetic makeup, and the greatness of our ancestors, the steadfastness of their faith and the aggressiveness of their minds, have left their imprint on us.
The world is changing. New technologies are plummeting us to lower depths of disconnectedness or propelling us greater heights of interactivity, depending who you ask. Power is shifting in the stage for global military and economic superiority. New paradigms are being created in virtually every field of inquiry before we even have time to adjust to the old ones.
Prayer itself generates a heightened sense of awareness, which affects our daily conduct, and our ability to be self-disciplined and remain true to our ideals. That’s why the ideal time for prayer is first thing in the morning.
When one considers the truthfulness and majesty of what was once there upon the Temple Mount, how can one look at the pathetic, crumbling segment of a haphazardly reconstructed retaining wall that remains and feel inspired? Then I came to appreciate that it is not the Wall that makes the sanctity of the place. It is the energy of the people who come here, the precious souls of all colors who merge together in the fading twilight and become one, embracing the oneness and each other, if even for a brief momentary taste of what could be, of what must be.
The bottom line is that people are able to see things they would not otherwise have seen – or guess with confidence about what they were seeing – simply because they thought they could. In other words, this experiment seems to prove that “believing is seeing.” I find this conclusion astounding.
The only battle left is the one I create in my own mind, so the revolution begins within my mind as well. I choose which reality is allowed to persist. I no longer need to fight for the beauty that is the harmony of body and soul to persist.
Then reality set in. The cold reality of dollars and cents, the harsh reality that making dreams real is hard work, and the simple reality that I am just a little man. A little man with big dreams…
Let’s face it. The greatest obstacle we face in the pursuit of peace and happiness is that we are full of belief systems that govern the way we perceive ourselves, the world and role in it. Prejudices about ourselves and others, conditioning that is the product of our education and upbringing and the intensity of life experiences and our reactions to them all contribute to the internal clutter…
September 19, 2017