Light of the Infinite: Transformation in the Desert of Darkness

If the commandment is to love others as we love ourselves, and we feel that we don’t have enough love for ourselves, then the only way to keep this mitzvah is to increase the love we have for ourselves and decrease the self-doubt and self-hate. Because if we don’t show ourselves the proper love, how can we properly love others? And truly, the way w

The Zohar teaches: “By (the way one handles one’s) anger, one can recognize who one is. If a person guards one’s soul at a moment of anger and does not allow it (one’s soul) to be torn from its place… this is a person who is as they should be… This is a complete person.”

“I never doubt, ’cause doubt is the cousin of death.”

the ups come from the downs, and learning that dance while staying hopeful and connected, even in despair, is the key to eventual redemption.

we realize that at any given moment we have the power for bad or the power for good, then we can begin to be present, let go of the weight of our past decisions and choose good, choose positivity in the very moment in which we find ourselves.

The main problem with hitting the rock, which was born from a moment of imperfect faith by Moshe, was that it was an act of force. Moshe’s sin was in the moment of questioning, and the anger seeped in in that one tiny moment. The Maharal teaches: where there is complete faith, there is no room for anger, for there is great joy.

Hashem loves righteousness and justice, the objective of both being the bringing of balance to this world.

The one name that we do not speak out loud, also known as the HaVaYaH, is kulo chesed, full loving kindness. The second name, Elokim, is gevurah, restraint/justice/strength. And the name Ehyeh (אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה) is the mediator between those two. This is why Hashem commands Moshe to tell the children of Israel that Ehyeh has sent him—the God that balances

It’s written in Talmud Brachot, “Let my soul be like earth to everyone.”15 Everyone treads on the earth and destroys it to an extent; yet the earth remains in its humble state and continues to provide nourishment, food, drink, gold, silver and precious stones. Rabbeinu teaches that in the case of the enemy that may oppose us or treat us poorly, we