Mussar – developing a place beyond the ocean of emotion to make good decisions.

Join us as we begin a new lesson – Likutei Moharan Torah 54.  Rebbe Nachman speaks of memory – of the world to come!  We have to remember the larger context in which we live, and the ramifications of that.  And that affects every moment – every thought, word and action.

In the mussar-trait of truth, we struggle to understand that truth does not necessarily mean speaking your mind.

Responsibility for the other – this is important material. The truest way – and the goal – of enlightenment is to focus our concern on others.  In opposition to so much self-help – which seems to overemphasize SELF – we need what I call Otherism.

The word for responsibility in Hebrew – achrayut – has two meanings.  One is rooted in achar – after, and the other is in acher- the other.  This class deals with the first definition – we have to know what the consequences are of what we do.

Rebbe Nachman talks about the two directions we have to get good at – one is going up and finding G-d, the other is going down, and finding G-dliness.  These are very different from each other – opposite, even – and need to be understood more deeply. The volume might be a bit quiet on [...]

We will put up our Gemarra classes for a while, as we are in the beginning of a nice, long Aggadeta.  This one is about how G-d “acts” during exile – a lion, a dove.  And Kaddish just makes Hashem regret the exile even more. 

We continue with Torah 82, where Rebbe Nachman describes Moshe’s two-fold approach to soul-success – going up and seeing G-d, and going down and seeing G-d.  Both are really hard.  Today we discuss what it means to “go up,” what the dangers are and what we can do to avoid them.

Unreal!