A few years ago, I took up rappelling, the art of descending sheer cliffs by rope and harness, so that we could explore the red-rock canyons of Southern Utah. After I had begun to learn the basics, Steve, our guide, said to me, “You’re one of those people who wants to speed up when your adrenaline starts to flow.”
Some things in life have to be earned, and some things cannot be. We can earn respect and reputation by our behavior, but sometimes we need help, or forgiveness, or just a break, that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve. And we can also give to others gifts they don’t deserve and don’t have to earn. That sort of undeserved kindness is captured by the word Hesed, often translated as lovingkindness.
The other day I had coffee with Hal, the father of one of our chavurah members. He had just written his second novel, this one based on his amazing experiences as a Jewish-American soldier fighting the Nazis in World War II. We got together to talk about his book.
One of the current terms of religious discussion that I’ve grown to suspect is “spirituality.” I’m tired of hearing people say, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual,” which often means I don’t have any outward signs of religious or transcendent life, but, trust me, I possess many lofty sentiments.
Chesed or loving-kindness is an essential human attribute, but it’s first of all a divine attribute. If we want to cultivate chesed, we should pay attention to how Hashem exercises it. And God’s chesed is on display at the conclusion of the Haftarot of Comfort, the passages from Isaiah that we read during this period between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashanah.
In the volume, Sefer haMiddot, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught that one should give charity (tzedakah) before praying as well as bind oneself to the righteous (tzaddikim) of the generation. In other words, there is a connection between giving charity and cleaving to the righteous, and an interconnection between the performance and reception of righteousness.
{enclose 2011-05-02-cleanliness-as-filters.mp3}
in this podcast, rebbetzin malkah relates the lessons of parasha kedoshim (Lev. 19) on speech and forbidden mixtures as it relates to cleanliness of heart and mind.
{enclose 2011-04-24_decision-at-the-sea.mp3}
In honor of the seventh day of Passover, this podcast recalls the moment before the Sea of Reeds is split and Israel is saved from Pharaoh's armies in Exodus 14. It was moment of decisiveness for the people, who could return to Egypt or forge forward into the water with faith.
Most people have had the experience of going to a restaurant with other people and having to wait on one person who can’t make up their mind over what to order. The person ordering agonizes over what to get, and meanwhile, everyone else is hungry and waiting, because their order won’t be placed until the indecisive individual comes to a decision. You just want them to order anything just to get the ball rolling.
Of all the biblical holidays, only Shavuot – the time of the giving of Torah – lacks a specific date. Instead of giving a month and a day as with other holidays, the Torah tells us to count forty-nine days from the offering of first fruits during Passover. Then on the fiftieth day we celebrate Shavuot.
We conclude the class on how to use meditation to converse with G-d through prayer (12mins).
Here we present more advanced meditative techniques. These are not for beginners and only for those well established in Torah, Mitzvot and have a mentor (21mins).
Now the rebbetzin explores specific techniques of meditation, including understanding different states of thought and how to meditate on Scripture (36mins).
On this page, rebbetzin malkah takes over the lecture and introduces us to the inward journey of hitbodedut (14mins).
Here is our introductory class to Jewish Meditation. On this page, rav rafael gives an introduction to meditation and explores external self seclusion (25mins). 
