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Receiving the Torah through faith

prayer in faith

prayer in faith

The light of the Torah is one. The vessels with which we receive the light of the Torah are called the garments of the Torah. However, to access the light of the Torah we need to add in the ingredient of faith. Faith that the Torah itself can bring us back to the good way.

From an article by Rabbi Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag from his Sefer HaMa’amarim

Listen to podcast (13 minutes)

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The night of the Bride: A class on the essence of Shavuot

The ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai

The ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai

The night is the time when we can’t see or know God’s presence He is hidden form us. Nevertheless by coming to Him through the practice of Torah and mitzvot in faith we build the relationship which becomes manifest at the final redemption.

The essence of the festival of Shavuot, the time of the giving of the Torah, with the final redemption, is elucidated by Rabbi Ashlag in his commentary, the Sulam, on this beautiful piece of Zohar.

Here is a class given by Yedidah. The Aramaic and Hebrew is presented. The translation and discussion are in English.

You can access the text of the Zohar and Perush HaSulam here

Listen to class (36 minutes)

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Uniting mind, heart and soul

Praying at the Kotel

Praying at the Kotel

When we act from our ego we become separated from our soul . Yet it is the basis of our nature, formed by the Creator in the Thought of Creation. The ego expresses itself through two main vehicles— the mind desiring to know why we are doing any action and wanting control over our lives; and the heart which looks for pleasure, both sensual and emotional.
As we work to transform the direction of its energies, we come to unite the different aspects of ourselves, heart, mind and soul, which then form a uniquely coherent vehicle for the light of God.

From the writings of Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag
Listen to podcast (15 minutes)

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Israel’s Independence and its connection with the revelation of the Zohar

Israel independence: the flag

A return after 2000 years!

Unlike the physical realm in which giving and receiving come together, in the spiritual realm they are often widely separated.
Writing on Israel’s independence Rabbi Ashlag points out that we have been given the opportunity for the return to our land and the complete redemption, both in the life of the individual and as the community as a whole, we have yet to receive it in its full meaning. Still we must see the cup as half-full and celebrate the great opportunity with which we have been blessed.
Adapted from an article written by Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb.

Listen to podcast: 15 minutes

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Counting the Omer from the inside

Counting the Omer

Counting the Omer

In the external pattern of counting the days between Pesach and Shavuot there exists a rich inner reality. Each day pertains to a different Sephirah, a vessel for the light of God. How may we experience this richness?

Rabbi Ashlag the great commentator on the Zohar explains the inner meaning of these days and shows how the fulfillment of the mitzvah of counting the Omer provides the outer framework for inner work of building the vessels by working on ourselves and with which we may receive the light of the Torah on Shavuot.

Excerpt from the Zohar Tezaveh (Perush HaSulam 62-64)
Listen to podcast ( 14 minutes)

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The inner connection between exile and redemption

Teaching our children about how we came out of Egypt


Listen to podcast (ten minutes)
Rabbi Ashlag teaches that the difference between the human and the animal is really only the desire for the connection with God. When we lose our connection with the One that is a state of inner exile; redemption is a reconnection. By looking at the story of the coming out of Egypt and seeing its equivalent aspects within ourselves we come to see how we can ourselves ask to come out of our own inner Egypt.