Food for the Soul

How can we hold on to the great light of Hashem's presence when it is too much for us to handle? The class opens chapter 34 of Tanya, explaining how the Avot were a chariot for Hashem, like a shaliach with no self of his own, and how Matan Torah overwhelmed the Jewish people. We then see why Hashem commanded the Mishkan, with the Aron in the Kodesh HaKodashim, as a physical place where the Sh...

Why does the Torah read like a storybook instead of a list of 613 mitzvot, and how do we know where to put a mezuzah or what counts as work on Shabbat? The class opens Rabbi Yishmael's thirteen rules for expounding the Torah that we say every morning, explaining why the Written Torah needs the Oral Torah to unlock it. We begin to learn the rules of general and specific, using the example of &...

Why is a Jew doubly happy, not only because Hashem dwells with us but because of what we do for Him? The class explains the Sitra Achra and the two strategies of Itkafya, pushing off a desire, and Ithafcha, transforming it into holiness, which make a home for Hashem in the lowest world. We see why this is especially precious in exile, and why Hashem rejoices when a Jew turns darkness into light. T...

How does putting the body second help us love another Jew? The class continues chapter 32 of Tanya, explaining that only our bodies divide us while every neshama is one with Hashem, which is why Hillel called Ahavat Yisrael the whole Torah. We then learn how to turn hatred into love by awakening pity for a Jew's neshama, and why the hatred King David spoke of applies only to rare, extreme cas...

How can thinking that there is nothing but Hashem lift us on a hard day? The class opens chapter 33 of Tanya, reviewing how the world is nullified to Hashem like words in the mind and light in the sun, and why a person who truly contemplates this breaks into joy and song. We see that the purpose of creation is a dwelling place for Hashem below, and why this joy, more than belief alone, is the key...

How can we find real happiness when the Yetzer Hara tries to make us sad? The class opens chapter 33 of Tanya by learning that sometimes sadness over the past simply has its own time, and that meditating on Hashem's oneness, filling every world and everything in it, helps us see how special it is that the Creator turns to each of us with a mission. We begin to explore how everything has a spi...

On the yahrzeit of Rachel Imeinu, the class asks why she was buried on the road to Bethlehem, and what her honor for her father and her devotion to her children teach us. We then see how Sarah, and the wife of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, cared about what others would say, and why a Jew must avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing so that Hashem's name is sanctified, never profaned. We end with ho...

Why is chapter 32, the Lev (heart) of Tanya, all about loving another Jew? The class learns how a person who feels spiritually cold can "chop the wood" of the body so the fire of the neshama catches, and how the body's ego is what divides one Jew from another. We see that every mitzvah makes the neshama primary over the body, which is why Ahavat Yisrael measures how connected we are...

If Hashem forgives so easily, why should we remember our sins at all? Continuing chapter 11 of Igeret HaTeshuva, the class learns that even a person must forgive when asked, and how much more so Hashem, as seen in the story of the Givonim. We then see how remembering our past keeps us humble and even helps us stay happy, without sinking into regret. Igeret HaTeshuva chapter 11, Tanya

How can a Jew be heartbroken over a mistake and still be truly happy? Starting from Lech Lecha and the idea that even our past is part of the journey, the class learns chapter 11 of Igeret HaTeshuva and explains why sadness after a sin is worse than the sin itself, and why Hashem is so quick to forgive. Igeret HaTeshuva chapter 11, Tanya

If the neshama is already one with Hashem's essence, what is there to gain by coming down into this world? Continuing chapter 5 of the Rebbe's maamar, the class explores how Hashem "consulted" with the souls of the Tzadikim before creation, and why the neshama's source only counts if it fulfills its mission down here. We end with a thought to take home about time, place an...

If the neshama is rooted in Hashem's very essence, how can the great waters of this world drown it, and what could it possibly gain by coming down? The class continues the Rebbe's maamar with chapter 5, sharpening the question of what is higher than the neshama's source, and why a Baal Teshuva can rise above even a Tzaddik. We end again with a question to take home and think about....

Using the image of fire in its flame, coal and hidden spark in the stone, the class explores the levels of a Jew's love for Hashem. It explains why even the "great waters" of worldly preoccupation cannot extinguish that love, by looking at its roots in Or and Kli and Tohu and Tikkun. Maamar Mayim Rabim 5738

Why can the great waters of worldly distractions never extinguish the Jew's love for Hashem? The class explains how the Neshama is rooted in Atzmut, higher than the waters that come from Tohu, and what we gain from facing those waters. Maamar Mayim Rabim 5738

After the inspiration of Tishrei, how do we stay connected through the distractions, stress and pressures of daily life? Using the story of Noach and the flood, the class explores what the "waters" are in our own lives, what our personal ark is, and how Hashem's floods can actually lift us higher. We open the Rebbe's maamar on the verse "Mayim rabim lo yuchlu" from Sh...

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