Light of Infinite

The majority of us have the best of intentions, but life sometimes gets in the way. Even when we fully promise and believe that we are going to help a friend out, there are times that, in the end, it doesn’t work out how we had hoped. It’s these promises said with such love and enthusiasm that give us hope and make us feel that we aren’t alone. The flip side is when empty promises leave us feeling...

There is so much epic wisdom around our falls and our elevation, but it's far too much to post here, so I thought I would share the first & last paragraph of my latest Dvar/article, "How To Levitate After Every Fall." First paragraph -> There’s one kind of religious thought, which now feels antiquated, that teaches that a person should never fall into sin and that only in the purest state c...

If at every moment you can choose the path that you want to pursue, as the Talmud states, Hashem will help you towards the path of your choosing, then you have to ensure that you're in alignment & on a path of positivity! We shouldn’t ever look at ourselves as fully bad or fully good, cuz that can color how we approach the future & more often than not, in a negative way. If we realize that...

“The best fighter is never angry.” ― Lao Tzu The main problem with hitting the rock, which was born from a moment of imperfect faith by Moshe, was that it was an act of force. Moshe’s sin was in the moment of questioning, & the anger seeped in in that one tiny moment. The Maharal teaches: where there is complete faith, there is no room for anger, for there is great joy. What Korach didn’t unde...

The concept of doing something Lishmah (for its sake) is a key concept in both living in alignment with oneself and living in alignment with our Source. It’s the inner spiritual work, when done with the physical performance of a mitzvah, that sanctifies our outer being. The Zohar stresses that ahavah (love) and yirah (fear) are the two main ingredients needed for Torah and mitzvot to affect their...

As Big Sean raps on Justin Bieber ’s album, “Believe”, “the grass ain’t always greener on the other side. It’s green where you water it.” It’s like this with anything— our relationship with our partner, with life, & just the same or even more so with our Source, the Light of Infinite. We need to open our eyes & align with the present & have that presence manifest concretely. The verses...

King Solomon writes in Mishlei that whatever a person pictures in their mind has the power to happen. Our power to draw down blessings is tied into the faith that colors our beings as vessels to receive. The law of attraction is simple yet profound— positive thoughts bring positivity into a person’s life. And since the opposite is also true, it’s that much more important to paint the pictures that...

We all have a Nefesh Elokit (part of God) in us, we just need to transcend the layers of doubt and unlock the powerful truth and redemption that awaits. It’s written in a Mishnah, “Every human being is unique, and every human being is a copy of the prototype human being (Adam)…therefore, every human being must say, ‘For my sake the world was created.’” The same Mishnah teaches, “that every life is...

For this week I wrote about how to bring more blessings into your life, which is outlined in the beginning of this Parashah. I brought in elements from Jon Batiste’s speech at the Grammy’s and some deep lyrics by Kendrick Lamar, + epic teachings by the Alter Rebbe and Rebbe Nachman, and as always, lots of Kabbalah around the Parashah!  The two aspects of the ה (heh) in the Havayah bring to mind th...

All of life is about the beautiful balance of releasing control and connecting. Because we're tasked to toil for our bread, we find ourselves stuck in a mindset of thinking that we are in control of our lives, that the more that we dominate our circumstances, the more in control we are. What we find in the lessons of Shemita (the year of release) is that the rewards come from the release. Yes, we...

Going through a break up can be one of the most difficult things to endure. A break or a separation in what felt like a divine union. What feels like a heart shattered into a million pieces. But we have to find a way to trust that it is for our own good & what’s truly aligned will arise at the right time. We have to shift our focus from what’s lost & lean into faith that whatever is meant...

“My kedushah (holiness) is greater than yours.” – The Maggid of Mezrich It’s not just an LA thing;), we’re all affected by vibes & energy. That’s why it’s so important to be mindful of the company we keep. I often place myself in what I call sacred spaces, cuz when people are there to reach higher levels of being, it means the base level of what’s expected is elevated. Life can be so precious...

“I visualize what it is, not what it isn’t” – Nas We read, Hashem spoke to Moshe after the death of Aharon’s two sons, who drew close to Hashem & died. Or HaChayim explains that the sins of Nadav & Avihu were very different than sins as we generally understand them. He explains that their sin involved allowing themselves to cling to Hashem so totally that their souls simply left their bodi...

Staying tapped into hashgacha prati/Divine providence, requires proactive alignment. There's that feeling inside, an elevating feeling when one feels tapped into one’s purpose and Creator, and the opposite feeling when we feel trapped and one’s actions are disconnected from the positive, from purpose, from our Creator. In the Beit HaMikdash, sitting on top of the holy ark, were the two Keruvim. Wh...

In this week we enter a new section of Vayikra dealing with the laws of man. The previous parshiot dealt with the laws pertaining to animals. This follows the order of creation; man was created last. It’s simpler to understand the sanctification of the animal world. It’s natural for us to make important distinctions between the clean and unclean, purity and impurity, in the animal world. Man’s str...

All of Passover (Pesach) is an opportunity for bitul hayesh, to negate and nullify all traces of ego and self-centeredness, to transcend the illusion of self.  I just wrote this Pesach & Omer companion called, ‘The Transformative Power of Pesach and Sefirat Ha’Omer’ that you might find interesting.  We can draw connections between the weekly portion from Leviticus and the larger Jewish story o...

When I can’t sleep, I often free-verse about whatever’s on my mind. It’s always interesting reading it the next morning. From the other night: The world is full of enough dissonance produce melody perform alchemy sift the good notes from the bad the serene from the siren song step in rhythm grow in concert we are all notes in this divine orchestra of existence It seems we all want to be one with o...

Tzav, this parashah between Purim and Pesach continues discussing the intricacies of the Temple sacrifices and touches on chametz (leavened bread). Learning it we can draw connections between the weekly portion and the larger Jewish story of moving from spiritual constriction into spiritual freedom. Realizing that the Seder is not just a historical retelling of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, but an...

𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕫𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 - This week we read: “When one among you offers a sacrifice to G-d…”. Immediately, we ask, what sort of sacrifice? Why? and how? King David writes in Psalms, “For You [G-d] do not desire sacrifices; else I would give it: You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Animal sacrifices we...

This week, we read about the mikvah and its purifying, status-altering power. The mikvah process in this sense is like a rebirth, as it’s written in regards to the convert’s status change and renewal: the mivkah is like reentering the womb, “a convert who embraces Judaism is like a newborn child.” Just as the womb is a space devoid of Tomeh (uncleanliness/impurity), in which the baby cannot become...

So many of us feel disconnected so much of the time. Exile is a state of disconnect; redemption is the rectification of that state. We spin stories in our heads, filling in the blanks of desolation that often feels like desperation, because it’s chiyut (life and connection) that we all crave and that sustains us.  Anxiety is the feeling we experience when faith becomes distant. For interpersonal r...

This week we are commanded to keep the Shabbat - there is no more elevated bridge between this world and the next; it’s the finite time and space where our soul feels tapped into the infinite. Its splendor is ineffable. Hashem created the world in six days, and on the seventh He rested. We spend our days emulating Hashem in creating, in trying to conquer nature, to mold it into our desires, but on...

This week has been a bit more challenging navigating the ups and downs that come with living in this life of exile… as Mark Ronson says, Nothing Breaks Like A Heart. I woke up today and it hit me that we’re all just scattered pieces of a broken soul trying to come together and make it whole. The Parashah opens with: “And you will command the Children of Israel that they shall take for you clear ol...

This week we read, “Speak to the Children of Israel and let them take for Me a portion, from every person whose **heart so moves them ** …” As Miles Davis said, “Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.” Sometimes we get stuck in overthinking or feeling we have to do so much that we don’t do it at all, when really we need to focus on doing even just one thing, but doing...

Loving is giving– it’s literally the root of the Hebrew word – אהבה/Ahava – hav’means ‘to give’. The basis of Jewish faith is action/giving of oneself, and it’s through the mitzvot that clarity, unification & love manifest themselves. This is the love we look for in partners and often feel lacking without one. But we often forget that all of reality is an opportunity for a nurturing relationsh...