Thursday, January 24, 2019

Komarna, Rav Tzaddok and Rav Nososn on Yisro

Komarna: (15 minute duration) Philosopher-Priest asked Ba'al Shem Tov: Since you believe Hashem is revealed everywhere, why can't you worship in church? Ba'al Shem Tov, for this Hashem made that every human needs to excrete waste. Sometimes you reveal G-dliness by rejecting something; Bechirah and Yediyah and Ishbitz; If one learns Ishbitz and feels his yirash shamayim slipping he is not learning it right; Rabeinu Bachayah when a person thinks about money matters during davening he transgresses the prohibition to have gods of gold and silver; Being wary of similar transgressions Rav Tzaddok: (10 minutes long) Amalek came before matan Torah since we always need a yeridah, descent before we attain an aliyah ascent; Rebbe Nachman's strategy that any fall can be converted into a descent for the sake of ascent; One reason why this is how things are is that we need humility to come to the next level; why is arrogance worse than other sins? Beis Avraham that any other sins are countered by the good we do while if one has the wrong attitude he just puffs himself up more making gavah worse; story of young man who refused all proposed matches and was told to work on humility. Later he was even harder to set up, "Now that I have humility, she is certainly not fitting.." Two stories about Rabbi Akivah Eiger's profound and apparently incomprehensible humility; Rav Shach's explanation that humility is an attitude, not what you know in your head Rav Nosson: (16 minutes length): Torah makes a clarification of fallen sparks; This takes much time so we should never be discouraged by it; tikun habris is connecting to Torah by learning lishmah; "If only they would leave Me but learn My Torah"; Learning can fix all sins if we have in mind that we want the light in torah to return us to good; Gra, Shem M'Shmuel and many others that one cannot immediately come to lishma; Rav Chaim Voluzhiner that becoming l'shmah is like climbing a many storied building, the main thing is to go in the right direction and eventually we reach the top

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Rav Tzaddok on Tu B"Shvat part 1-2 (33 minute total duration)

Rav Tzaddok Tu B'Shvat (30 minutes long) Why we don't make Tu Bishvat earlier since the year s longer; Tuv B'shvat is a spiritual illumination; Rav Tzaddok that during this time we can fix tavas achilah; the seven minim in avodah: Mekor Chaim from Zohar that Chita is 22 since it is Torah and se'orah is sha'ar vav, mishnah and the avodah of this; Rimon to know we are filled with mitzvos as our sage say even Jewish sinners are; VItebsker they are called sinners since they do not appreciate the wealth of good they have and so fall to sin; te'enah is harvested day by so so represents being regular in avodah like Yehoshah; that being regular in learning protects from sin like Rebbe Nachman said, and this is why Adam and Chava covered themselves with fig leaves; dates tamar is the chamber of exchanges; wine is gematria sode since it brings us high if we merit it as the sages say tirosh, can read tiheyeh rosh; but be careful of wine since it can also makes one destitute, tihiyeh rash; "teshuvah makes one a new person!" and the avodah of tu bishvat Tu B'Shat part 2 (3 minute duration) kasis l'meor zayit using pressures to generate light; choosing the connection of shemen while overcoming the distance of difficulty

Friday, January 18, 2019

Rav Nosson and Komarna on Beshalach Rashash Yahrtzeit shiur

Rav Nosson on Beshalach (18 minutes long): Komarna on Beshalach (18 minutes long) aleph is Alufo shel olam; Erdof, asig achalek shalal all start with aleph since even when the other side pursues, overtakes and divides spoils, Hashem is right there; We deal with difficulty by remembering it is from Hashem; Meshoch chasdecha l'yodech Kel kanoh v'nokem, Ei is Meeting Rav Pinchas of Koritz and catching a thief Rashash Yahrtzeit Shiur: (25 minutes long) Rashash and avodah; why is the language so hard 3 answers; chidah that he was a reincarnation of Arizal; a few stories about his greatness; the frog and the chicken and what it means to be Jewish; Proper way to relate to non-Jews and Maharal on what it means to be a Jew; Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach that lo sichanem does not apply when we admire a non-Jew who is admirable from a Jewish perspective

Friday, January 11, 2019

Chessed L'Avraham-Arizal Mikveh 2

Mikveh II from Maseh CHoshev Harimon Hasheni (29 minnute duration) Rabbi Eliezer of Djikov: kavanah of a mikveh is to undress, immerse and dress; Rabbi Chaim Tzanzer praised this since he meant we need to remove the soiled garments of sin, renew ourselves in the water and redress in new unsoiled garments; Rabbi Solom Kluger and that most authorities seem to oppose his view; Hashem has many names since we call Him how we view His actions (Midrash, Nefesh Hachaim etc); We are all an expression of constriction and we need to be a vehicle to divine names by connecting to the spiritual level that can be reached through them; A way of avodah to attain the spiritual level reachable by the divine names A"B Sa"g Ma"h and Be"n; A"B is seventy-two the numerical value of kindness since this level is an absolute divine kindness; It is the level of Cochmah that connotes nullifcation to Hashem (Rebbe Nachman) and a deep feeling of tranquility and serenity that you cannot explain to anyone (Ramad Vallie); How to attain this bitul; Sa"g is the level of Binah where a person applies what he felt during Chochmah and gets to a higher level of teshuvah through it; Mah is 45 the same number as Adam, man since it means emotional states of love, fear and dveykus and the resonance of those (Ba'al HaTanya); Ben has the same numerical value as beheimah, animal since it connotes dealing with the animal soul

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Rav Nosson, Komarna and Rav Tzaddok on Bo

Rav Nosson (14 minutes long) Rebbe Nachman's explanation of waking a person who is sleeping his life away through stories from ancient days; story of a person who was aroused by hearing the stories; How the story of the exodus in Egypt can wake us from spiritual slumber Komarna (18 minute duration) Not leaving over from the Korban Pesach; Pesach night is leil shimurim a night of protection; Rav Pinchas Epstein that even the impurity during the night is limited during this time; story about stuff left under the bed; Story from Avraham ben Avraham of Vilnah; Klasenberer Rebbe, we all have the same problem of dealing with the body; The Broken Vessels and giving the other side its due; Mayim achronim is one example of this; On Pesach we do not give them anything so we cannot leave over from the Pesach sacrifice; The same is true when we feel a great light don't fall later and give any of it to the other side; So Shabbos and after davening we need to be especially vigilant in this Rav Tzaddok: The deep emunah in every Jew even if he converted from Judaism as a way to rebel against G-d; Rav Zushia once rebuked a community "God loves every one of us so much. How can we do things against His will?"; Non-Jewish wagon driver asked Rav Zushia to help pick up hay and Rav Zushai said he can't, the wagon driver said "You can pick up the hay but you don't want to." Rav Zushia learned that this was from heaven. If we want to pick up the Hei the Shechinah we can can but we don't want to; Person who taught Ishibitz to someone who went off the derech did not understand it properly; Rav Morgenstern that Ishbitz is a focus on yeidiya but the level of bechirah is also always true; we do not understand how we the two are both true at the same time; Rav Nosson says to focus on bechirah before a fall and that it is from Hashem after not because the other aspect is not just as relevant; It is a strategy to help us in the practical realities of our situations. generally one who fell cannot deal with his error immediately, so better to focus on yediyah and repent later when you can; before a fall it is better to focus on bechirah

Friday, January 4, 2019

Arizal-Chessed L'Avraham Part II--Imbuing Shabbos in the week; Mikveh

Maseh Choshev Taking Shabbos into the days of the week; Shnayim mikra; Chayay Adam that you will feel the light of Shabbos after the mikveh; that the Ramchal did not go to the mikveh erev Shabbos and what he writes about this; Today you cannot have kavanos in the Mikveh room but you can under the water (didn't go into Rav Shlomo Kluger about this, maybe next time)

Komarna, Rav Tzaddok and Rav Nosson on Vaeirah

Komarna on Vaeira (11 minutes long) Hashem is right there with us in exile and takes us out of Egypt when we realize that at every instant, in every movement He is right there with us; Through this emunah we sweeten judgments with kindness; This is an aspect of tikin habris the main avodah of Shovavim Rav Tzaddok: The Ten Makkos, the Ten Sefiros and the Ten Kochos Hanefesh in us; Arizal on how the ten Makkos relate to birth; Spiritually birth is actualizing and miscarriage is failing to do so; Ramak on Isur Nidah; Arizal that sweating for a mitzvah like preparing for Shabbos or baking matzos fixes keri; The sympathetic labor camp supervisor who sent for a blessing from the "Kofetz Kaim" and the Chofetz Cham's reaction; Rav Zusia that they could not replicate Kinim since it is small teaches that when one diminishes himself with anavah evil has no hold on him Rav Nosson (8 minutes) shemad gematrai 344, ratzon 346 Moshe is the bridge between the two; Avoiding Bila'am; Remembering the tachlis; Power of visualization; bechirah what we want to happen usually does; Connecting to Moshe--tzaddikim; Chacham and Tam; explaining emunah; emunah is using sechel to understand what one should believe it; Rav Nosson from Yerushalmi--no one looks at things only with his intellect---otherwise you could never take any risk, like marriage or a job where you need to trust another; Bilam from Lavan --Lev Nun, since everything is whitewashed by Lavan; the antidote to Lavan is emes