A NEW RELIGION - Wisdom/Truths

The Canopy of Peace: the Sukkah of Peace

8/25/2019

99.

The Canopy of Peace, the Sukkah of Peace

Peace comes to us in the recognition that when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, when we recognize that we cannot control everything, redemption can be achieved. The central image in this prayer is the “sukkah of peace.: The sukkah is a fragile structure, open to the elements. Peace is pictured not as a temple, solidly built, gulded, perhaps ornate, but rather as created out of the most fragmentary of materials, leaving us vulnerable and at risk.

Shalom

8/25/2019

98.

Shalom

A man growing old is going
down the dark stairs.
He has been speaking of the
Soul...
Of dreams
burnt in the bone.

He looks up
to the friends who lean
out of light and wine
over the well of stairs.
They ask his pardon
for the dark they can't help.

“It's alright,” answers
the man going down.
“It's alright ---there are many
avenues, many corridors of
the soul
that are dark also.
Shalom.”

Denise Levertov

Exiles

8/25/2019

97.

Exiles

A Hasidic master taught: When we bring into the light the parts of ourselves that we have let languish, that is the ingathering of the exiles.

Healing

8/4/2019

96.

Healing

Heal the people I know
and heal the people whom
I don't know. Heal those
who have helped me in the
past and heal those who
have harmed me. Heal
those I love and heal those
with whom I am angry.

Elijah De Vidas

Sages

8/4/2019

95.

Sages

Who are the sages? They are the people who teach children.

The Righteous

8/4/2019

94.

The Righteous

In speaking of the reward for the righteous, the Hebrew uses the word 'tov,' meaning “good” (translated here as “truly”). At the end of the creation story in Genesis, we are told that God saw all that was created and it was good (tov). The reward of the righteous is that they will have eyes that see the good as God did.

Justice

8/4/2019

93,

Justice

A world of true justice is a world in which God's love is sovereign.

Siddur

The Soul's Mission

6/30/2019

92.

(An exceptional letter to a friend from her friend that talks of the Souls reason to be here. It explains why it matters what we say and what we do in the deepest ways.)

Dear Evelyn,

Yesterday, in the weekly Authentic Kabbalah class that I teach in my home, we learned something absolutely mind-blowing about the soul.

The soul's essential desire is NOT to animate your body, but rather to nullify and submerge itself back into the infinite light of Source.

To get your soul to come down into your body, to stay there throughout the course of your life.. generating every thought you think... each breath you breathe... every step you take...

God has to literally seduce your soul.

Your soul is given a vision of the intense brilliant sparks of Divine light and presence that are hidden within your physical and emotional world...Divine light and presence that only your soul has the power to reveal!

These hidden sparks are far more powerful than anything your soul, or anything in the spiritual worlds, could ever experience in the spiritual realms...compelling enough to change your soul's nature and convince it to come down into your body and navigate the perils and challenges of a human life.

Kabbalah explains that a soul without a body can only experience God's LIGHT. But a soul in a body can experience God's ESSENCE.

It's not only in the "big things". It's happening at every moment and in every aspect of your life.

Every single time you choose good over evil, reveal a bit of light in the darkness, seek God's presence within a challenge, recognize the gifts that you are being given, explore a bit of Divine wisdom from the Torah, or choose to live with purpose in a world that can feel random and wrong, your soul literally becomes a co-creative partner with the ONE.

And that makes life worth living for your soul.

Think about that the next time you wonder what you're doing here,

You are so much more powerful than you know.

Love and blessings,

Shifra

Bring Light to the Darkness

6/30/2019

91.

Bring Light to the Darkness

The Hasidic master of Ruzhyn taught: This is the service a person must perform all of one's days.....to let the light penetrate the darkness until the darkness itself shines and there is no longer any division between the two, as it is written: “And there was evening and there was morning—one day.”
Genesis 1-5

Light

6/30/2019

90.

Light

Adam was created just before Shabbat began,
and during Shabbat
the world was lit with
the light of creation.
After Shabbat darkness
descended and Adam
rubbed two stones
together and a fire was
lit. Astounded, he said a b'rakhah:
“Blessed is the one
who creates 'lights
of fire.” On Shabbat we
make Kiddush and
celebrate God's creation
of the world, as Shabbat
departs, we recite
Havdalah and cele-
brate the possibility of
human manufacture
and creativity.

Talmud of the Land of Israel