Shabbat and the Garden of Eden
Parshat Bereishit One of the most important concepts relating to Shabbat is that of oneg Shabbat, “the pleasure of Shabbat.” The holy pleasures of Shabbat are manifest and meant to be experienced in both the spiritual and physical domains. Every aspect of Shabbat is infused with a special ambience which gives great pleasure to both […]
Connecting Heaven and Earth
Parshat Bereishit The form of the letter vav represents a pillar, or a person standing upright with his feet on the earth and his head reaching the heavens. The first appearance of the letter vav in the Torah is in the first verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Bereishit 1:1).” […]
Most Fascinating: Souls Being Connected To Other Souls
Soul Connection As part of Joseph’s strategy to create a situation where his brothers would do teshuva for selling him into slavery, he engineers that his brother Benjamin will be accused of theft and will become his slave, while the other brothers would be free to leave. Already the brothers attributed their problems at the […]
Be Strong In The Way Of Awakening From Below
Awakening from Below The depiction of the angels as first ascending and then descending alludes to yet another concept, referred to by Kabbalists and Chassidut as “Awakening from Below.” In this process a human being “arouses” him or herself, taking the initiative and mustering the strength and spirit to draw closer to God. Optimally, we […]
The Powerful Symbolism Found In The Patriarch’s Wells
Digging Wells After Abraham passes away, the Torah recounts that the Philistines filled all the wells he had dug with earth (Genesis 26:15). The Talmud teaches that whenever water is mentioned in the Torah it is a remez, an allusion, to Torah itself (Bava Kamma 17a). Just as organic life cannot grow or even continue […]