Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World

Dear Friends,Imagine an epic battle between Sea Monsters and a diver out to recover a precious gem.  In a piece of Aggadata —  the deeply encrypted transmissions of the Talmud —  such a tale is related.  What does it mean and how does it teach us to wage life’s battles better?  Using the understanding of the Malbim we take a look in. The post Sea Monsters and Gemstones first appeared on Spiritual...

Dear Friends,Imagine you buy a lottery ticket, never check to see if it won, and then never think about that lottery ticket again.  Now imagine that ticket was a winner and was worth thirty million dollars.   The question is, did you lose thirty million dollars or not?  On the one hand, you most certainly did.  But on the other hand, if you never knew you ever had it to begin with, you never had i...

Dear Friends,I just published a new piece that I hope you like.  It’s called “A Place for the Light.”www.aish.com/sp/so/53785442.htmlToday I took questions.  We had time for three.  The first was, is it our tradition that Moshe ascended Mount Sinai for a second time this month (Elul) and came down with the second tablets on Yom Kippur?  Is G-d really leading me throughout all the hardships I have...

Dear Friends,What does it mean to test G-d?  And what about miracles?  We look deeply into the sources and arrive at a more sophisticated understanding of what it means to be in this world. The post You Can’t Fire G-d – Tests and Miracles in Torah first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post You Can’t Fire G-d – Tests and Miracles in Torah first appeared on Spiritual Tools f...

Dear Friends,Can you imagine eating a hotdog and thinking the whole time this is the worst sushi you ever had?  We need to know what something is first before we can begin to evaluate it.  The same thing goes with this world.  Until we understand how it works we will constantly be met with frustration and disappointment.  In this week’s talk, we set out some of the basic ground rules for understan...

Dear Friends,Tisha B’Av is now over and a dramatic upswing in positiveness now kicks in.  In this week’s talk we look at the spiritual DNA of the month of Av and where we are now. The post Be Comforted Be Comforted – A Kabalistic Overview of Av first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post Be Comforted Be Comforted – A Kabalistic Overview of Av first appeared on Spiritual Too...

Dear Friends,Every year before Tisha B’Av we are always beginning the book of Devarim.  What is this new book teaching us about fixing the world? The post Fixing The World – Devarim and Tisha B’Av first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post Fixing The World – Devarim and Tisha B’Av first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...

Dear Friends,So often it seems like we’re wondering around in the darkness.  Sometimes we’re blessed with moments when a light turns on and then in retrospect we see that we were never alone, even though it felt that way at the time.  Here is a personal story about how sometimes everything comes together in a wonderful way, even though it took years to see it. The post Shabbos Candles and Harvard...

Dear Friends,Did you know there is a Torah way to cut an onion?  Ideally, one shouldn’t begin by cutting off it’s roots.  While this doesn’t necessarily apply in our generation, back then there were even negative health implications for one who did this.  Which got me thinking… If I am that connected to an onion — imagine how connected I am to another human being!  In this week’s talk we discuss p...

Dear Friends,Purification comes when we transcend our limitations.   In the language of the Sages such a thing happens with the ashes of the red heiffer.  Not only does it remove the ritual impurity of death, but on a deeper level it is fixing the sin of the golden calf.  In this week’s talk we explore the interplay between the finite and the infinite, the rational and the super rational, and the...

Dear Friends,According to the Jewish view of the world, the body and the soul are meant to be best friends.  Without the soul the body is just a lump of earth, and without body the soul has no way to perform mitzvahs in this world.   How are we to proceed when (as is so often the case) the body and the soul are at odds with each other?  In this week’s talk we lay out a program on how to assess and...

Dear Friends,Why is life so confusing?  To answer (one part) of this giant question we take a look at another question — is the Torah written in chronological order, or not?  Factor in that we ourselves are compared to Torah scrolls, and that Judaism (unknown to many people) actually believes in reincarnation, and now we have very interesting ingredients for a talk that begins in the Garden of Ede...

Dear Friends,Who is the real you?  Or, put a different way, when you use the word “I” what is it that you have in mind exactly?  In this talk we trace the history of consciousness from the Garden of Eden to Mount Sinai to waking up in the morning. The post The Myth of Separateness – Garden of Eden Part Five first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post The Myth of Separatenes...

Dear Friends,Getting out of bed in the morning for many of us is the most challenging part of the day.  The Torah teaches us that we have to arise in the morning like a lion!  In this weeks, talk we look into what that means and how to do it. The post Waking Up in the Morning – A How To Guide first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post Waking Up in the Morning – A How To Gu...

Dear Friends,Many people are surprised to learn that before Adam and Chava ate from the Tree of Knowledge — the Torah records two earlier rebellions made before human beings were even created!  The first is the incident between the sun and the moon and the second was by fruit bearing trees.  Given that these creations don’t have free choice, what are the Rabbis teaching us with these accounts, and...

Dear Friends,In this, the third talk in the Garden of Eden series, we discussed what the nature of the test really was.  We also explore what the true nature of the special garments Hashem made for Adam and Chava were.  Finally, we take another look at the snake and how in our own lives he tries to defeat us. The post Garden of Eden – X Ray of the Soul (Part Three) first appeared on Spiritual Tool...

Dear Friends,Someone asked me this past week what interests me so much about the Garden of Eden.  I think it’s because for me it’s the perfect setting to most fully understand the human condition and what this world is all about.  Even more, it also allows us to see in the clearest way how Hashem interacts with us — especially berfore, during and after we’ve done something off.   In this week’s ta...

Dear Friends,So often in talking we present opinions as facts.  For example, when we say, “That movie is no good!” we really mean “I didn’t care for that movie”.  Being conscious of distinctions like can actually have a transformative effect on us, instilling humility and refining ourselves spiritually.  Speech in general is a hugely powerful gift, and the Torah gives us really helpful direction o...

Dear Friends,Hope is such a precious comodity and often so fleeting.  In this week’s talk we analyze how taking a forward looking perspective on the unfolding of time can not only increase positiveness but put us in harmony with destiny. The post How To Regain Hope first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post How To Regain Hope first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrag...

Second Chances – Pesach Shani – 2007 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dear Friends,We make a blessing over the sun once every twenty-eight years!  Can you think of where you were (and who you were!) twenty-eight years ago?  In this overview we  explore the amazing spiritual depths behind this mitzvah. Have a Great Week,DavidThe post The Blessing Over the Sun – A Quick Overview first appeared on Spiritual Tools for an Outrageous World. The post The Blessing Over the...

Dear Friends, Intellect is good but wisdom is better.  Why?  Because wisdom is intellect plus life experience.  The Torah is the repository of all of the wisdom in the world.  The more we learn — the smarter it gets!  We are living now in the exalted month of Nissan.  Every day is like the holiday of Rosh Chodesh in this month.  Even more amazingly, the Shelah HaKodesh teaches that every hour of t...

Dear Friends,Perfectionism is that force that comes to us — not to try to improve what we are doing — but to tell us that nothing we do is good enough.   The good news is that all Hashem wants is for us to try our hardest and do our best.  When we fall short, we have to try our best to fix it.  But to be perfect?  Hashem is the only One that is perfect — and the good news is that in His goodness H...

What do we do after we make a mistake?  After we made the golden calf, Moshe does the stunning act of breaking the Luchos, the holy tablets the Torah says were written by Hashem Himself!  Not only that but the final verse of the entire Torah alludes again to Moshe’s smashing them — and it says that Hashem loved what he did!  What was Moshe thinking?  Why was it beloved?  In this week’s talk we exp...

With this week’s Torah portion, the Torah switches from the account of our freedom from Egyptian slavery to receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, to now building the Mishkan – the Tabernacle into the desert.  On a deep level, building the Holy Temple is another way of speaking about finishing the world and turning all of creation into a revealed dwelling place for G-d.  In this week’s talk, we look...