Meaningful Life Skills with Rabbi Simon Jacobson

Do Spiritual People Live Longer? What is the secret to living a long and healthy life? Much has been said and written about the importance of maintaining physical fitness -- balanced diet, regular exercise, ample sleep, avoiding toxins, and so on. But how about our emotional, psychological and spiritual health? What effect does, say, anxiety and stress have on our welfare and longevity? How much d...

One of the greatest challenges in life is how to rebuild after loss, how to reclaim dignity after we've been violated, how to experience rebirth after we've been traumatized, how to find resolution after something may have been destroyed. Tonight is Tisha B'Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, when the Temple was destroyed. This day represents and personifies destruction on all...

Life is often fraught with challenges and difficulties. Yes, there are many times where life is thankfully filled with celebrations, joy, happiness, beautiful events and experiences. But there is no person on earth who hasn’t also been affected by the other part of life, the pain and suffering, the distress and anxieties – everybody has dealt with this in their own personal lives. Which brings us...

When you think of competition, how do you react? What feelings and thoughts does it conjure up? For many the word evokes feelings of failure, losing, or even humiliation. A competitive nature may not tolerate that another person won, leaving them bitter, angry and resentful. For others, the word elicits excitement, overzealousness to take on the challenge and be victorious at all costs, even if it...

Do you feel alive, truly alive? Is your life filled with enthusiasm, energy, passion and excitement? We all go through ups and downs in life; there are times that we are sluggish and can feel unmotivated, uninspired, apathetic, and even zombie-like. And there are times that we feel like we are burning on all cylinders, making the most of our time and actualizing our potential. What state do you ge...

What power and potency do our words carry? Words are everywhere. Books, media, video, marketing, talk radio -- the list goes on. Words inundating us from every direction. And of course, the words we use endlessly. Words we think, speak and write. Do we even know how many words we utter a day? How many words we text? How many words we communicate? Do our words matter? How many of them are meaningfu...

Are there any leaders that you trust? We have a leadership crisis today, where the people in power - our leaders - are simply not leading, and are not trusted. Do we even know what defines a true leader? Interestingly, the question goes deeper and is actually also about each one of us. Do you see yourself as a leader? We often think leaders are somewhere out there, other people who have the proper...

We are now in the graduation season with millions of students celebrating the conclusion of a stage of their schooling. But what exactly is a graduation? What does it signify? Is it just an invisible milestone that comes and goes? Or is there something deeper, something personal and meaningful that we all - not just the graduates but also friends and family - can learn from it? Please join Rabbi S...

Is there anyone that you absolutely and entirely trust? Trust with your life, trust with your confidence, trust with everything about yourself; someone you are comfortable being vulnerable with, knowing that you won’t be judged or criticized and the person’s attitude will not change in any way. Is there anyone that you have total transparency with, total honesty with no defenses? Actually you can...

Are you a giver or a taker? The fact is that we live in a world that teaches us how to take, with the justification and argument that life is fundamentally selfish; survival of the fittest is the driving ethos and if you don’t take care of yourself no one else will take care of you. Is that accurate? Is that a healthy attitude? On a short term basis, it may seem that being a taker will benefit you...

Let's talk about spirituality. It's pretty much a given today that beneath the material surface of existence lies layers and layers of energy. What we experience with our senses -- sight, sound, taste, touch and smell -- is only the tip of the iceberg. Whether you call it energy, or spirit, or the inner workings, or the dna or the microscopic quantum state - there is a deeper dimension to...

Are women inferior to men? Were they created as an afterthought, a secondary human being, designed to live in the shadow of men? The common perception is that in earlier history, in primitive times, that was indeed the attitude – that men were the center of the universe and women were simply their accessories. Hence, totally inferior. And even more specifically, if you ask anyone about the biblica...

Mental health is a critical component in every aspect of our lives. It affects how we think, how we feel, our moods, our behavior and our actions. It impacts how we will deal with stress, our relationships, the choices we make, and so much more.  Therefore, to lead a functional, productive and meaningful life, it is absolutely vital that our mental state be healthy. But what exactly is a mental st...

We live in a world where we are constantly categorizing and labeling all our experiences, our products and our entities. We do this in our personal lives; organizing our kitchen cabinets and closets and orchestrating our family's activities. And we do this in our professional lives; creating a filing system and a structured work environment and schedule. The human mind is a master at quantifyi...

There has been a recent explosion of the use of mind altering substances - specifically psychedelics; DMT, psilocybin, ayahuasca, mescaline, ketamine, and other forms of experiences that people are attributing to helping them heal and reach deeper spiritual states and expanded consciousness. Some are suggesting that certain psychoactive substances have immense therapeutic potential, especially whe...

One of the more challenging moral obligations that we face throughout our lifetime is honoring our parents - and especially our elderly parents, as they become more needy and more dependent. This is not an easy thing to do on so many levels. It can be physically challenging, mentally taxing, emotionally draining and a major burden financially. So the big question is why are we obligated to help ou...

Freedom is one of the most cherished values in life. Personal freedom, political freedom, religious freedom… Much blood, sweat and tears have been shed for freedom; wars fought and lives lost in the name of freedom. Indeed, for thousands of years the world’s population was not free at all! We lived under monarchs, sometimes tyrants, always controlled by others. It’s only a recent phenomenon that w...

We usually associate spirituality with very positive and uplifting experiences; feelings of inspiration, transcendence, and free-spiritedness. Spirituality encompasses the ability to go beyond ourselves to experience higher states of consciousness and awareness. But is there a dark side to spirituality? Are there shadows, risks and challenges lurking? Is there such a thing as a bad or destructive...

What is meditation and how can it help you in your life? Our minds, especially in today’s world, are hyper-stimulated and over inundated. While racing from topic to topic, we are constantly multitasking and filled with distractions. How can we learn to slow down, smell the roses and live in the moment? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson and discover that there is a method where you can learn to focu...

Happiness is so crucial to life and yet often so elusive. Many people say, “If things are going well, I’d be happy.” The truth is: If you were happy, things would be going well! So how can we become happy? Is there a trick, a method to finding more happiness in our lives? Or are we destined to our predisposed disposition? Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for this unique program on happiness. Disco...

A new frontier is upon us. Artificial intelligence has been talked about, written about and discussed in the form of predictions, prophecies and science fiction for centuries. Books have been written and movies produced foreshadowing a world driven and even controlled by robots and machines. But now we are actually experiencing it, living with it -- we have entered into a new era of AI that s...

How much potential do you have within you? Is there a way to release, access and actualize it? Today we know that every fiber of existence — even the smallest piece of matter — contains enormous amounts of atomic and nuclear energy. But to the naked eye and to our conscious senses and conventional tools, this energy is so concentrated that we have no awareness of it, and can’t even fathom its shee...

Are you able to access your supra-conscious (or unconscious, as it’s more popularly, though not necessarily accurately, known)? Ostensibly, it would seem impossible considering that the supra-conscious is an imperceptible and ethereal state — comparable to quantum-like indeterminism. However there are indeed methods to access and channel your supra-conscious into your consciousness. This is no sma...

Do you ever wonder where consciousness comes from? It’s quite obvious that our conscious thoughts, feelings and experiences are just the outer tip of the iceberg. But what lies behind the curtain of our perception? Can we access it? Understanding the supra-conscious and how it impacts our lives is not simply an academic, psychological or even philosophical discussion. It affects all our activities...

Do you ever wonder where consciousness comes from? When an idea suddenly falls into your head, where did it originate? That aha moment... what brought it on? As conscious beings we are aware of our thoughts, our experiences and phenomena around us. But what lies behind the curtain of our perception? If consciousness is the outer tip of the iceberg, what does the iceberg look like? Can we access it...