The Jewish Mind

There are great struggles in our journey to life, and not just struggles, but failures. And while there are some great quotes about failure being strengthening and revision, and while it is true that the greatest success stories of the most successful people began with failures, bankruptcy, and ridicule, nevertheless, for some of us failures don’t turn into determination, but into blockage, a bloc...

People turn to spirituality for inner-peace and fulfillment. Something deep within us knows that our pursuit for happiness will never be fulfilled in just the physical realm of our being alone. Inner-peace and fulfillment demands wholesomeness in our pursuit, and our wholesomeness can only be achieved through embracing both dimensions of our being, our soul and our body, our physical and our spiri...

The human soul is built for love, to receive love and to give love. Well, if the human being was built for love, then love should be a simple journey for the human soul, and yet it isn’t. Why? True Love is an art, and like with every art, True Love takes mastering specific disciplines, time, and continuous practice and work. It is so for the very same reason that all and any art demands this. The...

On the one hand we are taught to feel our feelings, while on the other hand we are taught to not allow ourselves to feel pain and discomfort. As young children, it was the Holy Grail of our parents to protect us from any feelings of discomfort, pain, and sadness. Let alone any feelings of unbearable extreme pain and suffering. What this lecture will teach us is that the only way to truly break fre...

One of the last commandments of the Torah is the commandment of Hakhel, in which once every seven years all the Jewish people, the men, the women, and the children, would gather together to hear the king read to them verses from the Torah. Why does the G-d choose monarchy for the Jewish people? In this lecture you will learn what the mystical teachings of Chabad say about who a Rebbe is, and what...

We live in a generation in which people's self-worth swing as a pendulum from being Superman to being in the grips of depression. This lecture will take you through the mystical journey of the 12 Spies who toured the land of Israel, the report they brought back to Moses and the Jewish People, and the aftermath of their report. In this mystical journey you will learn the secret of believing in your...

"Speak to Aaron and say to him: 'When you kindle the candles...'" Simply speaking, the verse is speaking of the candles of the Menorah in the Holy Temple. However, mystically speaking the verse is speaking of kindling our soul in our relationship with G-d. This lecture will take you on a journey into the depths of human relationships and its powerful fragility. To maintain a healthy relationship o...

When Moses went to up Mount Sinai to Heaven, the angels asked G-d why a human was among them. G-d answered to the angels that Moses had come to receive the Torah in order to bring it down to the Jewish people. The angels were in an uproar! "Why G-d are you giving your perfect holy Torah to the imperfect human being?! Give Your glory in the Heaven (to the angels)," the angel cried G-d told Moses to...

So often I am asked, "Rabbi, do you believe that people can ever really change? Isn't it true that a leopard can't change its spots?" This lecture deals head on with this question on a mystical and practical level. First it will explore the difference between the 'Written Letters' of the Torah Scroll written by Moses, and the 'Engraved Letters' of the Two Tablets engraved by G-d. What we will real...

According to all medical statistics stress is the number one killer in our modern times. At the birth of our nation, G-d gave us the cure for stress. G-d gave the Jewish people a gift called Shabbat, the gift of inner-peace. This lecture deciphers the three-dimensional Shabbat, dimension by dimension to reveal to us the cure to the stress epidemic. In this lecture you will dive down into the depth...

G-d commands us that we are to be holy. What is that supposed mean? What does it mean to be holy? Jewish Law defines it to a specific situation under specific terms. However, Jewish Mysticism defines it as a daily way of life for any person at any time, place, or situation. As a matter-a-fact, we are commanded to become three different types of holy! How holy are we to become? As Holy As Thou?! YE...

This is the link "G-d's Paradigm of Spirituality and Holiness" mentioned in the lecture: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JCMDSMAGK5E7Y "Wealth! ~G-d's Paradigm of Holiness and Spirituality," is a life altering lecture that will change your relationship with money. People created this paradigm that 'Spirituality', 'Holiness' and 'Closeness to G-d' exists only in...

Rosh Chodesh is the first day of the Jewish Calendar month, which is based upon the lunar cycle. Rosh Chodesh is the day of the birth of the new moon, as the moon begins to reflect the sun's light. 'Erev' (the day before) Rosh Chodesh is the day that the old moon completely looses its light, and enters into total darkness. The Sun and the Moon represent a relationship between the Soul and the Body...

Moshiach (Messiah) most have two dimensions to his personality, that of a King and that of a Teacher, because he has two missions, to heal the world from the two pronged contraction. This lecture will take you on a mystical journey through the secrets of creation, the secrets of G-d's Infinite Light, and the secrets behind exile, darkness, and suffering. In this lecture you will learn about the hu...

Four ~Understanding the Four Quadrants of a Relationship The number four is connected with the Passover Seder. We speak of the Four Sons at the Seder Table, and we drink the Four Cups of Wine. The Four Cups of Wine were instituted for the Four Terminologies of Redemption used in the verses of the exodus. Redemption is deeply connected with Teshuvah (Returning; Repentance), thus, just as there are...

Passover at the Seder Table we eat Three Matzot and we drink Four Cups of Wine. What are the deeper secrets of drinking the Four Cups of Wine? At the Seder we have the children ask the Four Questions. This year, let us do something daring! Let us invite our inner-child to the table, and let us allow our inner-child to express his Four Questions of all that he has been through, his confusion and fe...

“If a woman conceives and gives birth to a male…” -Leviticus 12:2   “If the woman emits her seed first she will bear a male, and if the man emits his seed first she will bear a female.” -Talmud; Niddah 31a   There are two opinions as to why it is so. One is that if the woman emits seed first, then the male emits seed second which means that his seed is on top, so the child will be a male. The seco...

"You formed this Leviatan with which to sport.” -Psalms 104:26 What is the Leviatan, and what is the sporting event that the verse is speaking of? "The animals [the Wild Ox] and the Leviatan they are the sport of the righteous in the World to Come...The Wild Ox will gore the Leviatan with its horn and tear it, and the Leviatan will slaughter the Wild Ox with its fins. " -Leviticus Rabah: Portion 1...

"On that night, sleep eluded the king " -Esther 6:1 "It is the custom to raise your voice here, for this is the main portion of the [Purim] miracle." -Customs of MaHaRI"L “That night sleep eluded the King, -this refers to the ‘King of the Universe’.” (-Yalkut Shimonie; Esther 6:1) What does it mean that G-d was sleeping? What is the mystical difference between “That" night and "This" night? Why wa...

"And you shall salt every one of your meal offering sacrifices with salt, and you shall not omit the salt of your G-d's covenant from [being placed] upon your meal offerings. You shall offer salt on all your sacrifices." (-Leviticus 2:13) What was 'G-d's Covenant' with the salt? The power of salt is that, “It in itself has no taste, but nevertheless, it brings taste to meat.” What lesson in life i...

"These are the numbers of the Tabernacle, the ‘Tabernacle of the Testimony,’ which was counted by the command of Moses, the work of the Levites under Ithamar the son of Aharon the Kohain.” (-Exodus 38:21) According to Jewish mysticism this opening verse of our Torah-portion of Pekudei lays out before us the entire journey of our daily prayers, the journey of ascending and descending upon Jacob's L...

Title: Shabbat, Before and After ~Finding inner-piece "Moses called the whole community of the children of Israel to assemble, and he said to them....Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have sanctity, a day of complete rest to the Lord " -Exodus 38:1-2 Moses commanded the Jewish people after he commands them to build the Tabernacle, and then again just before they build the...

"When you will count the heads of the Children of Israel for their counting... this is what they shall give... a Half-Shekel of the holy shekel twenty geirah the shekel (geirah is a smaller coin then the shekel, and the verse is telling us that a whole shekel is 20 geirah, thus, we now know that a Half-Shekel is 10 geirah).” -Exodus 30:12-13." -Exodus 30:12-13 Why does the Torah tell us the value...

"And you [Moses] shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you [Moses] pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually." -Exodus 27:20 One a spiritual level, what does this mean to crush the olive? Why do bad things happen to good people? What does Kabbalah say about punishing children for their bad behavior? This lecture will take you through your Higher O...

“The Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me a Terumah (donation)'" -Exodus 25:1-2 Why, "TAKE for Me," and not simply say "GIVE a donation...?" In this lecture we will learn the imperative foundation needed to be in a healthy and non-abusive relationship with another person. We will learn the necessity to TAKE as well as to GIVE in our relationships,...