A teaching from the Tzemach Tzedek

What is really going on when we praise God in our prayer?

The Shechina, the Divine Presence, when we begin our prayer is in the lowest most unenlightened place possible. When we pray we gradually raise up to the highest place, the World of Atzilut. We cry out the wondrous praises of God not only from a place of awe and humility but also like someone who is trying to comfort a woman and make her happy. The Pesukei DeZimra is a series of compliments we give to God, with the intention to raise up the Shechina within us up from its sadness and loneliness.
The nature of this ascension of the Shechina is not linear. She goes up while continuously coming down again like the movement of a flame that flickers up and down. It is a dance we are partaking in.We move from speaking of God's awesome transcendence, "God is high above all the nation..." to intricate involvment in all parts of creation, "You have created the heavens...the sea and all that is in it, and you enliven all of them." Only through this harmonic dialectic movement can we come closer to the all encompassing Infinite.
(When we find that we are incessantly flitting between concentration and distraction, we should know that this too is part of the Shechina's dance of ascension.)
This is the meaning of the verse in Shir HaShirim, " How beautiful are your footsteps in shoes, daughter of the generous one."
How beatiful is your dance, in shoes, when you rise up from the lowest most gross place, and go towards you Father the source of all kindness.

Giving with Freedom

Shimon the Righteous said, "I have never eaten from the offering of a Nazir who was unintentionally impure, except for once..." This is because usually when people accept upon themselves the nazirite vow it is because they were feeling guilty about something that they did. Then later when they inadvertently become impure and consequently must keep more days as a nazirite, they regret their vow. Shimon did not want to eat from an offering whose owner had already changed his mind and is thus bringing his offering to the temple only because the law says he must.

The Gemara is teaching a basic guideline in the service of God. Do not make guilt the basis of your devotion. Guilt may be a very driving force at the beginning but in the long run it does not support genuine service and giving. Guilt is an inner movement of moving away from or reacting to something negative. Shimon the Righteous said he would only eat from an offering that was offered out of feelings of unfettered love and giving. An offering inspired by guilt lacks that holy freedom.

This does not mean that the feeling of guilt has no purpose at all. It is useful as a catalyst. It can remind the person of those values that were very dear to him but for some reason got forgotten. For example, I said something insulting to my friend and I feel very guilty about it. This guilt reminds me how important it is for me to be kind to people in general and how I am fond of this person in particular. Now I can act not out of the negative and reactive feeling of guilt rather out of my internal feeling of kindness.

Baba Sali's Yahrzeit

Today is the Yahrzeit of the Baba Sali (The Praying Elder.) Once it was during Succos and person who was childless for many years came to the Baba Sali for a blessing for children. So the Baba Sali took out his Luav and esrog out and shook them again and prayed for this man to have children. He was very old so he pryed very softly but the gabai who was next to him listened very carefully and heard him saying the following; "Master of the world, I am willing to have my hands cut off in order to bring a salvation to this man and give him a child."

Simple Streetsweepers, Gevalt!

A Moment of Life

Sometimes I am suddenly reminded of an experience of the past and I become filled with feelings of nostalgia. The memory has the flavor of a lost garden of Eden. Upon contemplating on the memory I usually realize that I wasn’t very conscious at the time; it is only in retrospect that it became a consciously peaceful or happy experience.
This makes me stop and think that perhaps this actual moment that I am passing through right now, unthinkingly and nonchalantly, may one day be remembered as magical. So it might be worth it to live this moment for real.