Souler Powered

B"H

Does the spiritual exist? Do I have a soul? Is there a Divine Life-force beyond the physical?

Well, let's take a trip back in time for a moment and imagine we were sitting in a preschool class (Oh the good old days :).

The teacher takes out a few pictures depicting the weather:



The 1st picture depicts a sunny day. "What's the weather?" The teacher asks. "Sunny!" Everyone yells.
How did they know? Because they saw the sun and its rays.
Next comes a picture depicting a rainy day. The children all guess correctly again, pointing to the dark clouds and numerous rain drops.

Now comes the 3rd picture.



"What's the weather here?" Asks the teacher.
"It's windy!" Everyone yells.
But wait! How did they know?? There's no wind to point to!
Well, one can see the effects of the wind - the leaves flying off, the man and kite bending backward, etc.
Let's take Love. It can't be seen, it can't be weighed or heard. But its effects are blatant.
Radio waves are everywhere. But I don't see them!? Well, bring a radio into your room, turn it on, and you'll hear the waves.
The waves just needed a proper vessel to express themselves.

The SOUL can't be seen. It can't be heard.
But its effects are apparent. And like radio waves, the soul too needs a body to express itself and to carry out its mission.
If you look at the Hebrew words for wind and rain, you discover something fascinating.
Wind in Hebrew is Ruach, as is the word for soul or spirit. Spirituality is Ruchaniyut (Wind, like that which is spiritual, can't be seen.)
Rain is Geshem; physicality is Gashmiut. (Rain, like all things physical, is seen.)
So too by the Spiritual G-dly Life Force that sustains our world. It may not be seen, but through its effects (like Divine Providence - see last email ;)
and the world's vitality, we can deduce its existence.
{To see more on the subject, look here}.

May we keep our eyes and ears attuned to that which isn't openly seen or heard, and sense the subtleties of this world; the
silent underlying force behind life - in the world & in us.
'...And a great and strong wind splitting mountains and shattering boulders before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake-not in the earthquake was the Lord. After the earthquake - fire, not in the fire was the Lord. And after the fire a still, soft sound.' (Melachim-I Kings, Ch.19 verses 11-12)
Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

Lights, Camera, Action!

"Everything is by Divine Providence. If a leaf is turned over by a breeze, it is only because this has been specifically ordained by G‑d to serve a particular function within the purpose of creation." - Yisrael "Baal Shem Tov"

Lights! Camera! Action!
CNN cameraman motioning. Massive microphone in my face. A regret for agreeing to this interview begins to mount...

But let's rewind a few hours.
I'm preparing for the long fast of Tisha B'av (see last email), downing as much water as I can get my hands on.
Hearing about my yeshiva's plans to go to the Western Wall for evening services, I'm feeling a bit apprehensive.
"I'll be fasting and will need to conserve my energy and strength for the next 24 hours! Why go?"
In the end though, my holier (and less lazy) side won, and I was off to the Wall to share in my people's pain over this near-2000 year exile.
After a very special service, as I was preparing to leave, a friend comes running over and asks me to take his place for an interview.
With G-d's Help I somehow do the interview, and hopefully make a Kiddush Hashem -an honoring of G-d's Name- in the process.
{The video can be seen here: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/living/2010/07/21/nat.jewish.holiday.cnn}

After nearly not going at all, I end up perhaps affecting thousands of people worldwide who I will probably never meet.
Afterwards, I felt that this was real Hashgachoh Pratis - Divine Providence, G-d's Directing of the events in my life as part of His Great Plan.
Many of us experience "out of the ordinary" events in our lives. But what is their purpose? Oftentimes they just come and go. Granted, they're pretty cool and inspiring, and they may even cause us to point and say: "wow! That was real Divine Providence!"
But the truth is, that everything that happens in our lives is by Divine Providence. Nothing is up to chance.
G-d Has a Plan for each of us - a very detailed plan that precluded our soul's descent into this particular place & time in history. No moment is ordinary.

So what's with G-d Giving us these moments where we realize for only a moment that something Divinely orchestrated just happened?
WELL, imagine you one day decided to go to Nordstrom. like any high-class store, as you enter you hear a beautiful piano melody playing.
Not paying much attention, you decide it's one of those pianos that are automated to play on their own. As you're perusing the 3rd-floor clothing, you all of a sudden hear a mistake in the melody. Now you realize that there was someone behind the piano - playing the melody the entire time.



G-d Doesn't Make Mistakes, but sometimes He will Change the natural flow of things in our lives. Why? To remind us, that He's REALLY behind the piano the whole time. He's Orchestrating your life & my life from morning until night. Our job is to just be sensitive enough to notice these open acts of Divine Providence - these glitches in the song - and apply that to the rest of the 'ordinary' events of our lives.

'All is in the Hands of Heaven, except for the awe of heaven itself.' - the Talmud
When it comes to moral decisions, that's up to us.
But everything else, from a traffic jam to a baby's diaper - is planned for us from above. WE just have to give every moment our very best shot.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel
CNN Middle East Correspondent to Religious Affairs

Speaking Face to Face

{This Mon. Night - Tues. Night marks the 1,940th anniversary of the destruction of our holy temple in Jerusalem known as "Tisha B'av." We fast and implore G-d to once again re-build our temple & Reside among us. To see more, click here}



To touch on the significance of Tisha B'av, I'd like to start off with a simple question:
If We believe that G-d is everywhere, how come we pray every day towards Jerusalem??
Let's just pray in whichever direction we please!
To A: this Q:, let me ask you one more: When speaking to a friend, why do you look at their face? Their soul & inner life force encompasses their entire body. Speak to their toes!

So what's the answer?
The face is the place where a person's soul is revealed most - where it shines.
As the famous saying goes: "The eyes are the windows to the soul."
This can explain also why we Jews aim toward Jerusalem when we pray to G-d: There is where His Presence is most Revealed.

Never was this more apparent then at the time of our temple's existence, known as the "Beit Hamikdash." There G-d's Presence Resided. There heaven & earth kissed. The spiritual melded with the physical, and all, Jew & non-Jew alike, could come to witness G-dliness in this world.
Miracles were commonplace. Not b/c G-d Liked doing miracles there, but rather b/c the area itself was G-dly, and therefore miracles exuded naturally.
"Jerusalem is the light of the world... and who is the light of Jerusalem? The Holy One, blessed be He." -Bereshit Rabbah 59:8.
So how can we get it back?
Well, for one thing, we have to want to see it back.
In 2010, where the average Joe on the street lives a better life materially than a French King did 300 yrs. ago (see showers), why should I want an old temple??
Well, besides for the peace and joy, the ending of disease, strife and suffering that will reign throughout the world when the redemption occurs, there will also be one very special thing:



G-d won't be hidden any more.
Any evil that occurs in this world is rooted in G-d Being Hidden from view,
while only revealed good reigns when G-d Is in view.
As our Sages said, if only the Romans knew the benefit the temple had for them as well, they would have never destroyed it.

The exile we find ourselves in now is called a "doubled darkness."
Why "doubled?" B/C when in darkness, one at least knows he or she is in darkness.
But in the darkness of today's world, we don't even realize we are in darkness - in exile.
For myself, living in Jerusalem, it's a bit easier. Whenever I visit the Western wall, I see a golden dome resting where our glorious temple once stood. I see the tears of elderly ladies at the wall, beseeching G-d for mercy on their families, friends, and on His People worldwide.

May you have an easy fast, and remember the words of Maimonides:
One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil.
One good thought, speech, or deed - can tip the scale and bring the redemption now!

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel

So What's Better, Really?

[Rabbi Yaakov would say]: 'A single moment of repentance and good deeds in this world is greater than all of the World to Come. And a single moment of bliss in the World to Come is greater than all of the present world.'
[Ethics of our Fathers, Ch. 4:17]
~~~
Wouldn't it be cool to know the mystical, inner meaning behind the various Mitzvot (Commandments) we Jews do? Well, Rebbe Menachem Mendel, also known as the Tzemach Tzedek (1789-1866), sure thought so. So he decided to write a book entitled "Derech Mitzvotecha"-"The Way of Your Commandments," expounding on many of these inner meanings.

The 1st Mitzvah he discusses is: "to be fruitful & multiply" (Gen. 1:28).
"There are 3 Partners in the creation of every child," the Rebbe writes. "Man & Woman form the body, while G-d Infuses the soul."



As the Rebbe proceeds to explain the body & soul's composition, all of a sudden he stops abruptly, as if wondering: 'Why get to know about the mystical implications of marriage and childbirth, when one basic, fundamental question is so perplexing that it has to be answered before moving forward:'

And that Q: is:
Why does the soul have to descend into a body in the 1st place!?

Perhaps you might say that it's in order to take pleasure in the world's glorious, physical bounty.
Like in the movie 'City of Angels,' where the angel (Nicolas Cage) wishes to experience physical life and its various experiences and pleasures.
This suggested hypothesis is rejected by the Rebbe with such amazing words, they haven't left me since reading them one night a few years ago in my yeshiva in New York:

'Before descending into this world, the soul basked in the radiance of G-d's Divine Presence...And even if a person lived a 1,000 years in total peace and tranquility,
living as a king over all kings, lacking absolutely nothing of the world's bountiful pleasures, in truth it wouldn't be worth even ONE moment of pleasure in the lowest levels of the spiritual worlds!...'
As it is said: "A single moment of bliss in the World to Come is greater than all of the present world." Wow.
Sorry for suggesting that idea. I guess it's back to the drawing board.
So... why the heck would G-d Send our souls into this kill-joy of a world?? Doesn't seem cool at all...

"G-d Is Good," the Rebbe assures us. Take a look at the 1st part of the above teaching:
"A single moment of repentance and good deeds in this world is greater than all of the World to Come."
But how can that be reconciled with the greatness of bliss in the next world??

And then comes the bombshell.

True, the pleasures of this world can't touch even a glimmer of the amazing pleasure the soul has above, level upon level of greater closeness to G-d.
Ahh, but ALL of these revelations of G-d above are finite, and are as nothing compared to what happens when one performs a single mitzvah in this physical world.
When one feels a moment of longing to come close to G-d.
Not only that, but "all of the possible levels of pleasure of the next world is like nothing compared to this revelation!"
For the revelation of G-dliness above is, at the end of the day, limited, whereas our deeds down here draw down an infinite level of G-dliness.

So in conclusion, the physical pleasures of this world are truly as nothing compared to one ounce of spiritual pleasure.
But our soul came down for a special purpose. To accomplish something of infinite proportions that it could never have dreamed of doing above.

May you have a Shabbat Shalom, and enjoy the physical pleasure of Wine and Challah!
For that too is a mitzvah!

-Daniel