InSelf & Spirituality: Spiritual Practices
Preparing or wing it?
Rabbi Yitzhak of Radziwiłłów was active as a hasidic master in the early nineteenth century. His father, the maggid (preacher) Rabbi Yehiel Mikhel of Złoczów…
Spiritual Practices
InSelf & Spirituality: Reflection
Judging God’s sins
In 1933, Rabbi Yisrael Bekmeister (1877-1954) published a twenty-page collection of hasidic tales. The collection included a fascinating tale that speaks to assessing the past…
InSelf & Spirituality: Reflection
Is Jewish law more important than everything?
A 1907 collection of hasidic tales by Rabbi Yisrael Berger (1855-1919), Eser Orot, offered a bevy of tales about Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdyczów (1740-1809).…
InSelf & Spirituality: Jewish Prayer
Praying for peace
Likkutei Tefillot is one of the fascinating books in the hasidic library. Written by Rabbi Natan Sternhartz of Nemirov (1780-1844), it does not fit neatly…
InSelf & Spirituality: Hasidut
Studying Hasidism: Halakhah
The attached chapter, entitled “Halakhah” and written by Rabbi Levi Cooper is available as part of a new textbook that discusses thirteen different sources for…
Toldot: Discovering the Gift of the Body, Discovering the Gift of Unique Selves
In this Podcast Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels looks at the Piaseczner Rebbe who discusses the crucial place of the body in our spiritual practice and the…
InSelf & Spirituality: Jewish Prayer
A Beginning: Renewing the work of creation
The Torah, which we have just begun again this last week, begins “bereshit.” This opening word is often translated as “in the beginning” but we…
Becoming a Mensch: The Spiritual Path of Mussar and Tikkun Middot
Becoming a Mensch: The Spiritual Path of Mussar and Tikkun Middot (Mussar is a thousand-year- old Jewish system for personal growth, specifically in the realm of character…
InCritical Issues: Social Justice
Global Torah: Episode 3 – Bringing God Down to Earth
Where is the intersection between Jewish spiritual practice and social action? Is there a connection between serving God and serving humanity? Global Torah is a…