The value of values and a clear perspective!

The holiday of Shavuot, when Jews worldwide celebrate the receiving of the Torah,  is just over a week away and its time for us to ask ourselves a fundamental question?What Role does Torah play in our lives?

Do we view the world and are our values truly shaped by a Torah- Centric lens, or are our views and opinions shaped more by the current trends on facebook, the opinions on NPR or our most recently watched movie? 

We are living in very challenging, confusing and unsettling times... . so many values, beliefs and centuary old institutions have come into question; political ideologies or religious  theologies that just a few years ago seemed solid and dependable are no longer trusted or relied upon and people dont trust  not just used car sales-people or politicians, but we no longer trust

the Media

the Police

Teachers

Rabbis

Schools

Doctors

Hospitals

the Banks

 or the Economy!

Living in a world where so much cannot be trusted or relied upon is very unsettling. NPR itself has a radio show right now called "The United States of Anxiety".

But as Jews we do have something very precious... we do have something that despite all of this uncertainty and dissillutionment is still Rock Solid...

we do have the Torah!

Torah values are not dependent on current trends...Torah values provide light and clarity in an ever increasing muddled reality, but unless we involve ourselves with authentic Torah learning, we cannot take advantage of this great gift. Without Torah learning, even if we have taken on the commitments to be observant,  we remain vulnerable to having our world view shaped by every  social trend or new" ism" out there.

and of course we cannot inspire our kids unless we are truly connected!

 Learning Torah gives us the opportunity to shape our own outlook and perspective into one that is Torah-True....

I encourage you to join me, every  Wednesday evening at 7:45pm as we connect to authentic Torah,

discussing the weekly Parsha or  upcoming holidays with Chassidic insights, some Tanya and of course a great cup of Tea.

Torah Learning Circle: TLC

Chassidic Insights into living your best life!

(Featuring Torah, Tea and Tanya!)

Wednesday evenings at 7:45pm

A biblical perspective on "Tweeting".

As this is a period of polishing our character and "personal vessel"  in preparation for receiving the Torah in a few weeks, I  thought I would share this brief food for thought...from Parsha Metzora.

Did you know the Torah  speaks  about tweeting??

A person who was on a sophistiated level spiritually and who spoke badly about others could become afflicted with a type of "disease" called "Tzara'ath" which would manifest, innitially on the walls of the  gossipers home, then on his or her clothing and finally, if the gossiper is still unrepentant, on the skin. 

One of the rituals necessary to get the affected person healed involved an offering that involved two birds, one that would be sacrificed and one that would be let free.

The first thing that I found  amazing about this ritual  is that two birds are used... to teach us that as dangerous as negative speech is,  speech is very important, and often as bad as it can be to speak negatively, it is also bad not to speak up when the right words need to be said!  There are times when keeping silent can be a grave error.... just as we need to watch ourselves from speeking badly, we must not neglect speeking up for what we believe in or to defend what we believe in when the sitiuation demands;  even offering a comforting word to someone in need might make a critical difference, ...thus the second bird,.....who is set free! 

The second point that I found fascinating is brought by the biblical commentator Rashi who explains why specifically birds are used in the rectification ritual..,"Because lesions of Tzara'ath come as a result of derogatory speech, which is done by chattering. Therefore for his cleansing, this person is required to bring birds, which twitter constantly with chirping sounds."

Such a great cautionary tale about using Twitter without due concideration!!

Excited to share....

So this blog is a place to share, ideas, thoughts and different musings. Mostly I have used this blog to write about theoretical concepts and ideas, but today I feel I just want to share something personal. The picture featured here was just taken this past Sunday, and it is is of me holding my IAYT Certification. The IAYT is the International Association of Yoga Therapists.  I had thought it would be  quite a grueling process to actually get this certification, but through tremendous Hashgochah Pratis, ( Divine Guidance and Divine Protection) I was able to qualify for a pathway that made it quite manageable and possible... this particular pathway will no longer be open after June of this year,  and from then on, achieving such a certification will truly require a much more intense and prolonged commitment. I am so grateful to Hashem that I started my training when I did, and that I was thus able to qualify for this in a manner that while still incredibly demanding and time- consuming, was actually possible for me to accomplish despite all of my other commitments as wife, mother, grandmother, ( baruch Hashem) and teacher . 

I believe that all of my life I have wanted to serve in some way, offer my talents to others in a manner that could be truly helpful and to quote a cliche,  " be of service". For many years I dedicated myself to teaching Torah, and I believe that in the process many folks ( somehow seems like the best word for now) benefitted a great deal by acquiring insight and information about our timeless heritage,  and of course as every teacher knows, I benefitted the most from all of that teaching, not only through getting so much more familiar with all of our amazing texts but having many wonderful Torah students over the years from whom I learnt a great deal. However, while involved in all that theoretical and philosophical teaching,  I often wondered if I  was doing justice to the material at hand and if there was a deeper, more holistic manner in which I could not only convey the deep concepts being discussed, but also accomplish the deep spiritual work required myself more fully and authentically.  I also wondered if my teaching was really making a difference on an essential level in the lives of those whom I taught or was I  just sharing "information" that was intellectually engaging.

We live in the world as a soul within a body and are truly a combination of Soul and Body or Body and Soul, and it began to occur to me, that true change,  true learning and transformation really does need to involve both body and soul... and thus began my journey of learning to teach Yoga as well as Torah. ( I have practiced yoga since I was about  14 years old, but somehow becoming a teacher of the practice, and sharing it with others marked some sort of critical shift.) 

The world is a very challenging place and so many of us are hurt and damaged in some way. I am so grateful that I am on a path and continue to learn more every day, how to bring in the gifts of deep breathing, stretching, strengthening, meditation  and learning to let go, not only for the benefit of  my students and clients, but as mentioned above, as every teacher knows, we teach and share in order to learn ourselves... I am grateful I  am learning everyday how I  can breathe more deeply, slow myself down more frequently and in the process, learn to listen more attentively while I  stretch and strengthen. 

My commitment when I began this journey of learning how to teach Yoga was ultimately to assist and deepen my sharing of Torah,  in an integrated and holistic mind-body-soul combination, and I continue to be motivated to do so.

Currently,  I am teaching a class called "A Taste of Tanya", hopefully in this class, I can achieve the kind of integrated learning that I have been aiming for.

The point of this blog was to share my joy and gratitude to Hashem, that I can now truly claim the title of Therapist, which in the context of my almost 54 years is a big deal and in a way a culmination of a lifelong journey, dream and ambition ( even though I don't think I really even realized it myself for most of those years..) and hopefully with Hashem's help I will be able to do justice to the title...!