Jewish Spiritual Growth: A Step-by-Step Guide by a Hasidic Master

Jewish spirituality lives in the midst of life itself, the life of society and its institutions. To create it we have to battle with two kinds of fear: fear of failure and fear of success.

the more we are in the space of na’aseh v’nishma (we will do and we will listen/learn) with the mitzvot, the more elevated our spirit, and by virtue of that, our physical selves, will be.”

In carrying out a mitzvah we acknowledge the fact of God being concerned with our fulfillment of His will. XV

the mitzvot in this understanding gain an irreplaceable urgency that embodies delight, companionship in times of joy and sorrow, at our waking, and throughout our days.

Can we combine simchah and responsibility? Is it possible to have purpose and direction, and at the same time to let loose and feel free? Yes. This is the type of happiness that comes from kabbalas ol, accepting G-d’s yoke. On the one hand, a person lets go of his self-consciousness, but he does not sink into emptiness; he connects to a force that

One may be on such a low level that one is literally “inside the earth.” But in order to serve God one must start advancing from level to level. This applies to everyone in the world. Each time a person emerges from one level in order to rise up to the next, the “husks” attack him again in the form of temptations, fantasies, strange thoughts, confu