Welcome back to the new season!
This week we discuss the bracha of HeMeichin Mitzadei Gaver — that God guides and supports every step we take.
It's "the harmony of individual choice and effort married to God's guidance." (R' S.R. Hirsch)
P.S.: Post Shiur discussion, mostly reviewing foundational ideas regarding brachos and the Four Worlds.
Shoes off feet: where you're at. Shoes on feet: where you're going.
It's the difference between taking yet another step forward, and staying at your madreiga. It's the difference between wearing shoes and going barefoot. It's the different between life and death; love and rejection. Hit the ground running!
This is the final shiur of the 5775 2014-2015 School Year. I look forward to seeing you in Elul!
If you've got shoes, you've got it all! Part One of the meaning of "need", and why we need it so much.
Creative energy urges us to grow and develop. Firm boundaries (in professional lingo, "specs") build that energy into productive, effective impact.
In other words, potential is not enough. It is at the hard intersection of creativity and restraint — of who we long to become and who we really are — that our greatness takes shape.
P.S., Post Shiur Discussion
#40B P.S. Post Shiur Discussion:
When we pray using the words of the Siddur, our voices join the echoes of the voices of King David and all the prophets and righteous people who spoke those words before us. Also, a brief introduction to Asher Yatzar and Elokai Neshama. אשר יצר - אלקי נשמה.
The purpose of falling is to be held up by Hashem. The purpose of stumbling is to be caught by Hashem. The point of falling is what you do when you fall. The point of stumbling is what you do when you stumble. Remembering God's past kindnesses to you will help you cross the chasm from falling down to being.
True freedom comes from the realization that there is a bigger picture than just what we can see. There is a God, and there is a Divine choice inside of me to choose His Will. In the power of this choice, in breaking through the barrier of the finite, we can never be enslaved again.
#39B P.S. Post Shiur Discussion: It is even greater to do your duty than it is to volunteer. גדול המצווה ועושה משאינו מצווה ועושה.
It's time you looked forward to all that Haggadah text before the songs start!
Freedom of the Night; Freedom of the Day — Yosef, Yetzias Mitzrayim, and bringing the Seder into real life.
Handout:
It's time you looked forward to "Al HaNissim" on Purim!
Every person and every life, in being created, has inherent value and meaning — including your own.
Amalek's denial of God as the Source of life and Creator of the world also attacks the core value of human life as a reflection of the image of God. Want proof? See it in a close reading of the words of the "Al HaNissim" we say on Purim in bentching and Shmone Esrei.
Happy Purim!
Handouts:
Clothing is an expression of a person's sense of self and self-respect. When a person is unclothed, only the externality of the body is visible, and the soul, the spirituality of the person, lacks external expression.
"At the level where a Ba'al Teshuva stands, a perfectly righteous person cannot stand." When we fix what we have broken — when we get back to perfection — we get back to somewhere even greater than where we started.
#30B P.S. Post Shiur Discussion: When foreign ideas become integrated into our own thinking; internalization of the snake, the Yetzer Hara.
"Garments clothe the body; the body clothes the soul." (Shelah)
Also: the power of symbols; making inspiration last by tying it to the concrete.
#29B P.S. Post Shiur Discussion: Rabbi Shlomo Goldberg's responses to halachic questions from Session 28; responses to misconceptions about modesty.
The Torah is Chessed (kindness) from beginning to end. In this session, we find that God's lovingkindness in clothing Adam and Chava reveals the deeper essence of what Chessed really is about.
"Everything which, when done selfishly for ourselves, is lowering, becomes divinely great when done for others. … Thus the hardship of life, the need for assistance, has become the basis on which everybody, who so wills, can elevate himself to God-like heights." (Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, Commentary on the Torah, Bereishis 3:21)
#28B P.S. (Post-Shiur) Q&A: Practical Approaches to Chessed in Real Life
Show people that part of you which you value most. Show people that part of you which identifies who you really are. Show people that part of you which you want them to notice and focus upon.