Redoing the Giving of the Torah
“…And they stood at the bottom of the mountain…” – Shemos 19:17 וַיִּתְיַצְּבוּ בְּתַחְתִּית הָהָר – שמות יט, יז The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, of righteous memory, would bless people before the holiday of Shavuos, “to receive the Torah b’simchauv’pnimiyus, joyfully and internally.” At the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, both of these qualities were […]
Outside Influences
“…You shall not have other gods…” – Shemos 20:3 לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹקִים אֲחֵרִים – שמות כ, ג The Talmud (Shabbos 88b) relates that the angels protested G-d giving the Torah to Bnei Yisrael, insisting that G-d’s wisdom must not be shared with mortals of flesh and blood. In response, Moshe demonstrated that only humans could fulfill the Torah’s commands, […]
The power of prayer
A key element of our relationship with our Creator is to “serve Him with all our heart.” The word serve in Hebrew is ‘Avodah’ which carries the sense of laborious work. But what kind of labor can the heart do to serve G‑d? The classic Jewish answer is that this is Tefillah (Prayer) a labor of awakening the hidden love […]
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