Sublime

Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe (d. 2005)

From earliest rabbinic times there were such institutions as the tamchui, or mobile kitchen, which distributed food daily to whoever applied,

serving G-d with joy is the highest rung on this ladder of spiritual connection to G-d.

rabbis as teachers are in critical demand. And after a year running Hadar, I knew that my life’s focus was not only to build one specific community but also to spread the model of Empowered Judaism.

With its dedicated volunteer culture, focus on inspiring traditional davening, high-level Torah study, and egalitarian, universal outlook, Kehilat Hadar attempts to live out a world of Empowered Judaism.

As Rabbi Kalonymos Shapiro taught, the mission of the Jew is to teach the world how to sing. This is the call of Nishmat on Shabbos morning. Nishmat pleads to “arouse the sleepers and awaken the slumberers,” drawing on the language of Psalms 146:7–

The practice is to search until you find a good point that really makes a difference to you. Rabbi Chaim Kramer, the founder of the Breslov Research Institute, describes the process.

Rabbi Max Kadushin deemed this approach “normal mysticism”—the habit of infusing daily life with a sense of the sacred, and transforming it from a succession of unremarkable acts we mindlessly perform to a series of wonders in which we delight.

there are two kinds of good: goodness that is openly apparent, and goodness that is disguised and requires a frame of mind like that of Nachum Ish Gamzu or Rabbi Akiva to appreciate it.