How Tefillin Work and Heisech HaDaas

Chassidus on Tefillin paraphrased from the Rebbe Maharid (a branch of Chabad that merged into Lubavitch):

The tefillin for the hand and the head are two separate mitzvos. Each has a distinct effect on the revelation of G-dliness in the world.

The tefilah shel yad brings down light from the the G-dly Emotive sefiros in Atzilus to the lower worlds of BiY"A.

Oseh Ha-Shalom: Returning the Hei

Why do we say עושה השלום "oseh ha-shalom" instead of עושה שלום "oseh shalom" during the Yomim Nora'im?

In plain translation, the significance of the change is difficult to understand, since the only difference is the addition of the word "the":

	English	Hebrew
Regular	He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace...	עשה שלום במרומיו, הוא יעשה שלום...
Yomim Nora'im	He Who makes the peace in His heights, may He make peace...	עשה השלום במרומיו, הוא יעשה שלום...

What meaning does the insertion add? To understand this, we need to preface the idea of teshuvah.

Teshuvah: Returning

Teshuvah תשובה is often imprecisely translated as "repentance," but the richness contained in the Hebrew is lost in this rendition. In Hebrew, the word is derived from the word shuv שוב, which means "return." So, teshuvah is more precisely translated as "returning."

What returning? To what? Somewhat unusually, Judaism holds that in its essence, the soul is holy and pure. It is not predisposed to sin. Teshuvah is a return to the soul's essential, pristine state. Sin is an external shell that covers the soul's light and inherent connection to the Divine; the internal reality of a human being is that s/he is a creature of light, made in G‑d's image.

Tiferes ShebeHod: Harmony of Acknowledgement

Tonight is the 31st day of the omer (count it here), which corresponds to sefirah-permutation of Tiferes ShebeHod, Harmony of Acknowledgement, or Compassion of Humility.

Tiferes is the Harmony between the opposites of kindness and severity, which usually manifests as Compassion. There is an awareness that there is darkness, but the reaction is to feel pity and compassion for the divine soul that it must endure such exile and be trapped in such a coarse physical body. This bitterness leads one to strive to rise from the dust to cleave to our Father the King, with fiery longing, with all one's heart, even to the point of expiry of the soul.

Levels of the soul

Hi ____,

I forgot to explain the Hebrew terms you asked me about in class on Friday: Leiv (heart), Ruach (wind/spirit) and Nefesh (soul).

I think these terms are best explained by the Jewish mystics, who understand them as part of other dynamic systems. So, I will explain the systems, and how the terms fit in.

True Hope

To truly hope is to truly live. To be hopeless is to wander the earth in the shadow of death.

Without desire, there is no hope.

A true desire is something that can be achieved, but once achieved, continues on. This is because truth has no end.

Therefore, a true desire is not for a particular end goal, but for a journey of some sort. Of improving and increasing in something.

The desire then, should have no end. The desire is in the journey.

Yet, in order to maintain interest in the desire, it must consist of tasks that in fact do culminate in goals.

Spiritual healing

There is a story about a certain patient whose doctor despaired of healing him. The sick man's condition continued to worsen, until he could no longer speak. It happened that the Baal Shem Tov came to the place where the patient lived, and asked to visit him. Upon arriving, the Baal Shem Tov ordered some meat stew to be made, and gave it to the patient, who immediately began to speak again. After this, the Baal Shem Tov healed him until he was completely healthy again. 

The doctor was shocked to see the patient healthy again, and asked the Baal Shem Tov how he healed him. "I know for certain," said the doctor, "that his vocal cords were damaged, and there was no way that they could be cured!" 

Replied the Baal Shem Tov, "You 'diagnosed' the patient physically, while I 'diagnosed' him spiritually.

Mysteries of the Bahir: Alef and Bet

Sometimes, Torah is so mysterious I don't know where to begin talking about it. But with meditation, sometimes I can find an answer. Here's one thing that stumped me:

What does the Bet (ב) resemble? It is like a man, formed by G-d with wisdom. He is closed on all sides, but open in front.
The Alef (א), however, is open from behind.
This teaches us that the tail of the Bet is open from behind. If not for this, man could not exist.
Likewise, if not for the Bet on the tail of the Alef, the world could not exist. 

~ The Bahir, #15

After an hour or so of thinking about it, an idea dropped in:

Gravity and the Sefiros

It is frequently mentioned in works of Kabbalah that the sefiros are expressions of G‑d, rather than parts of him. But if they are expressions, how can there be so many expressions of an utterly unified and unique being? The question is compounded by the unequivocal statements of the Rambam:

... This G‑d is one. He is not two or more, but one, unified in a manner which [surpasses] any unity that is found in the world; i.e., He is not one in the manner of a general category which includes many individual entities, nor one in the way that the body is divided into different portions and dimensions. Rather, He is unified, and there exists no unity similar to His in this world....

~ Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 1:7

If He is utterly unified as the Rambam says, what gives rise to His varied "expressions"? How can a single, indivisible Cause have varied effects?