Category Archives: Inspiration

The Three Transcendentals: How Shabbos, The Sun and using the Restroom Provide Insight into Another World

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שלשה מעין עוה”ב, אלו הן: שבת, שמש, ותשמיש. תשמיש דמאי, אילימא תשמיש התטה, הא מכחש כחיש, אלא תשמיש נקבים (ברכות דף נז:)

The Talmud does not dispense secrets like gumballs. Therefore the Aggadic secrets of the Talmud are masked in parables, fantastic stories, allusions and the like and only after much toil can one uncover their true meaning and gain insight into the wisdom contained within. In this class we learn a lot about the Sabbath, the eternality of the Soul and the interplay of humanity’s body-soul makeup from examining, investigating and analyzing a brief and seemingly obscure, confounding and befuddling Talmudic statement.

Yom Kippur: A Path to Internal Renaissance

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Yom Kippur is a day unlike any other. Every other day of the year our spiritual growth is limited to small steps; like climbing a ladder – we cannot skip any rungs. Yom Kippur is a spiritual cornucopia – 24 hours to make meteoric spiritual ascensions before this golden opportunity expires. In this class we learn how to maximize Yom Kippur and make it memorable, marvelous and meaningful.

Tikkun Olam or what it means to be Jewish

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Tikkun Olam, fixing the world, has been the rallying cry of the Jewish national mission for millenia. We live in a flawed and broken world and our people were entrusted with the sacrosanct and vital responsibility of fixing it. In this presentation we discuss where the world’s flaws lie, and, taking a lesson out of Abraham’s playbook, we outline a roadmap to go about fixing it.

Tackling Temptation: How to Unleash your Willpower, Unbind your Inhibitors and Unlock your Potential

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“I created a yetzer ra (evil inclination) and I created the Torah as an antidote” – (Talmud Kiddushin 30b)

The essence of man is his capacity for free will; to make moral decisions; to favor his mind and intellect or to favor his bodily instinct – and the world is the playground where these decisions are made. To make it fair and balanced, God embedded within us a certain force called the yetzer ra, evil inclination, that entices us to sin. Battling with this force is the paramount challenge of our life. In this class we cite several Talmudic sources that outline the nature of this epic foe, and outline methods, strategies and tactics that we can use to be victorious in these crucial conflicts.

Envy and Faith

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Jewish law makes a strange distinction regarding the prohibition of envy: Envy of someone else’s physical, material and intellectual gifts and successes is prohibited, while envy of another’s spiritual achievements are permitted and encouraged. What is the rationale for that distinction and why does it mirror the prohibition of arrogance? We also learn that of the fine pattern strung through the Ten Commandments, why some always wear ties when praying and several interesting Heavenly proclamations made before a child is even born.

Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Soul

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The words of our Sages in the Talmud were written with the utmost precision and exactitude. Thus, when encountering perplexing statements in the Talmud (as in the subject of this class) it is a grave error to consider that the authors made a mistake or even to only study the statement superficially without straining to understand the true meaning and intent. Often the wisdom of the Talmud is concealed beneath a thick layer of profundity, and only after digging fastidiously will you begin to understand the unfathomable depth of the the words.

In the very first book of the Talmud, Tractate Brachos, we find this incredibly confounding statement:

שלשה מעין העולם הבא, אלו הן: שבת, שמש, ותשמיש. תשמיש דמאי? אילימא תשמיש המטה – הא מכחש כחיש? אלא תשמיש נקבים. (ברכות דף נז:)

Translation in English: Three things are a measure of the World To Come. They are: Shabbos, the Sun, and tashmish. What does tashmish mean? If you say tashmish hamita (sexual intercourse), it weakens. Rather, it must be referring to tashmish nekavim (bowel removal).

Join us as we attempt to unravel this intriguing but puzzling gem of Talmudic wisdom.

Life Begins Before Conception (Jewish Life Cycles Part 1)

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Us Jews are privy to the most valuable thing on Earth: The Almighty’s precious Torah. All too often we neglect to realize the enormity of this reality, but if you stop for a second and truly analyze it you will recognize how astonishing it is. Mere mortal humans, the most fallible and feeble of all creatures; these same humans who are constantly swayed by our petty whims and desires  have access to the wisdom and instructions of the Almighty God, Creator of heaven and Earth?!? If this alone will not blow your mind away, some of the incredible content of the Torah likely will. In this class we discuss some of the Torah’s statements regarding the early existence and development of children and talk about what it means for us.

Click HERE for part 2

The Golden Ticket

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Every adult Jew is obligated to perform all 248 positive and 365 negative mitzvahs of the Torah. The sheer volume of mitzvahs can seem overwhelming and that raises a question: why would God in His Infinite wisdom see it necessary to task us with the performance of so many mitzvahs? Would not one mitzvah suffice? Is not the potential for failure so astoundingly exacerbated when there are hundreds of mistakes just waiting to happen? Why is Judaism so exhaustively encompassing? These questions were pondered 2000 years ago and the answer will challenge everything you think you know about the Almighty’s commandments.

A Journey through the Jewish Calendar in Thought and Practice Part 1

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Join Rabbi Wolbe and his trustful comrades as they attempt to unlock the wonderful meaning and insight of the Jewish calendar. This presentation will succeed in shattering the childish and simplistic understandings of the Jewish holidays that most of us have harbored since our youth, and infuse the holidays and rituals of the Jewish year with structure, meaning and purpose.

Holidays discussed in Part 1: An overview of the system of Jewish months and the interrelationship of a lunar month with a solar year; Rosh Hashana; Yom Kippur; Sukkot.

The 5 C’s of every happy and harmonious marriage

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It is well documented that modern humans fail at marriage at alarming rates. In the United States for example, in any given year the amount of divorces are roughly half the amount of marriages pegging the divorce rate around 50%. Shockingly, 5 out of 10 couples who commit to stay married to each other “until death do us part” renege on their vow. This staggering percentage does not include all couples who are dissatisfied in their marriages. Some couples have miserable marriages but remain married because of the legal costs and hassles of divorce, or to avoid the religious or social stigma associated with divorce, or even to protect their children from the pain and suffering of a family torn apart. These couples, while technically married, may be permanently separated as is the case by 15 percent of separated couples who don’t divorce nor reconcile rather remain separated permanently,  or they may even live together but have separate bedrooms, separate TVs, separate bank accounts and separate lives. Thus the true rate of failed marriages is significantly greater than the quantifiable divorce rate.

Can anything be done to ensure that our marriages succeed? The Torah outlines five principles of great marriages –  each beginning with the letter C – all you need to do is follow the instruction laid out and you are guaranteed to have a wonderful marriage.