Rabbi's Blog - Chabad of the Bay Area

A peak into your subconscious mind

Friday, August 28, 2015 - 3:03 PM

"When you reap your harvest and forget a bundle in the field, you shall not go back to take it; leave it for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow...". (Deut. 24:19)

From here we see, says the Talmud, that if you accidentally drop a coin and a poor person finds it, you still receive merit for helping the poor.

Wow, let's think about this: You didn't want to lose the coin, you may even be aggrieved by the loss, yet it is still considered to be your good deed?

Your deep subconscious desire is really to do only good, explains the Rebbe,it is merely that sometimes your conscious thought is not aware of it. Your dropping of the coin could have actually been your soul's way of doing an act of goodness and bypassing your conscious thought. That is why this 'accident' is to your merit and it brings you blessing.

Let's get in sync with our subconscious!

Wake up!

Friday, August 21, 2015 - 2:08 PM

It is customary to sound the shofar during the month of Elul, the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah.

Maimonides says that the Shofar can be seen as a "wake up call" - as if it is calling out and saying:

“Sleepers, be roused, from your sleep! Slumberers, wake from your slumber! Search your deeds and return in teshuvah...” (Maimonides, Laws of Teshuva 3:4)

The path to teshuva, repentance, is a two-step process. The first step is to arouse and wake from our sleep or slumber, and the second, to search our deeds.

While we are sleeping we normally have no conscious desire to disturb our sweet sleep and awaken. The same is true when we might be in a spiritual slumber - we may become complacent with life and uninterested in disturbing our peaceful obliviousness. Therefore, says Maimonides, the first step toward teshuvah must be to wake from our slumber so that we can become aware and make an assessment of our spiritual condition. Only then will we be in position to begin to earnestly work towards return.

- Adapted from Lightpoints

Why Kosher?

Friday, August 14, 2015 - 2:03 PM

In this week's Torah portion Moses reviews the laws of Kosher. Which animals are permitted to be eaten and which aren't.

Ramban, one of the great Jewish scholars from the middle ages, says that although the commandments are first and foremost an expression of G-d's Will, which by its very concept would be beyond human comprehension, yet, there are benefits in the Mitzvot that our rational human minds can also appreciate.

"We are what we eat," goes the popular saying. Now, this is not only true physically, but spiritually as well. Since the non-kosher animals have more aggressive natures and are usually carnivorous, when we eat them, says the Ramban, we are absorbing some of their physical and spiritual energy, and thus something of their traits.

Thus, avoiding eating non-kosher, is not only about fulfilling G-d's Will, but also a means to help us ensure that our spiritual antenna, our natural sensitivity to holiness and spiritual things, remains uncluttered and in optimum condition.