This audio is a bit of a Public Service Announcement from Erez Safar of the Light of Infinite to you🤍🕊

As physical creatures, we can’t fully defeat the forces of fate; we’re constricted by time and space. But our souls-- the parts of us that are infinite-- can reach beyond these constrictions. It’s only when we choose with our souls to surpass our limitations that we can connect to the true, everlasting, joyful freedom that can only be found in the Light of the Infinite. 


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Thanks for listening/reading.
Much love, Erez Safar

Follow on instagram: @thelightofinfinite // Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lightofinfinite

Light of Infinite Podcast

Spiritualize Reality (leviticus: vayikra)

Some quick thoughts on Purim! Soon we’ll be reading the Megillat Esther, which is also Le’galot Ha’ester (meaning “to reveal what’s concealed”). The word Esther is related to the Hebrew word, “I will hide,” which is said in Devarim when Hashem says, “I will surely hide my face.” The Megillah is one of the only books in Scripture not to mention Hashem’s name at all. It’s a story that took place in the Persian Empire long after the Biblical stories in which the miracles and revelations took place.

Purim, like the present, is a time in which Hashem, Melech Ha’olam (King of the Universe), has hidden himself in the universe (Olam / עולם). The root of ‘Olam’ is also something that is unseen, hidden or disappeared (Ne’elam / נעלם). Hashem has hidden himself in the universe so that our actions are of our own free will, but when we create space for Him, we can peel back a bit of the concealment and see Him guiding and blessing us.

During Passover, we retell the story of Egypt to relive it as if we too are being freed and to remember that we too were once strangers in a strange land. With Purim it is said, “If one reads the Megillah in the wrong order (‘literally, ‘backwards’), he has not fulfilled his obligation.” The Baal Shem Tov explains that this refers to a person who reads the Megillah believing that the story it tells occurred only in the past (as a retrospective account) and that the miracle does not endure into the present. With that mindset, the person hasn’t fulfilled their obligation, because the purpose of reading the Megillah every year is for each person to learn how a Jew should behave in the present. Purim is the living revelation of the concealed.

As we go into Purim, we need to continue to tap into the energy of the month of Adar, known as a month of celebration and joy. Adar was the last month that B’nei Yisrael were in Egypt before the Exodus, the time right before things became clear and Redemption revealed itself. We learn in the Talmud that “when the month of Adar arrives, we increase in joy,” welcoming this time of miracles. I pray that we are able to celebrate and focus on joy, illuminating ourselves and each other, sharing and shining light to dispel all the darkness of concealment so that we can revel in the Light of the Infinite with the coming of the Moshaich and the final redemption, speedily!


Direct link to this article - lightofinfinite.com/miracles-and-revelation/ ✨


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Thanks for listening/reading.
Much love, Erez Safar

Follow on instagram: @thelightofinfinite // Follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lightofinfinite

Miracles & Revelation (purim)

This week’s parashah, Tzav, continues discussing the intricacies of the Temple sacrifices and touches on chametz (leavened bread). It’s the parsha before Pesach. Learning the parsha, we can draw connections between the weekly portion from Leviticus and the larger Jewish story of moving from spiritual constriction into spiritual freedom. From safek (doubt) into salvation. So when Tzav falls out such that we have a few weeks before Pesach to get into the mindset of Redemption, I see that as a blessing. As Rav Kook so eloquently asks of us all, “find delight in what is truly precious.” 

It’s only recently that I really began to delve into the meaning of Pesach. I’ve realized that the Seder is not just a historical retelling of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, but an actual manifestation, an opportunity for each of us to leave our own Egypts. Through this ritual, we’re meant to free ourselves, to ‘burn’ the chametz that holds us back from seeing and living in full truth, from being fully connected to the Infinite Light. As it’s written in the Zohar, “G-d does not dwell in… a fragmented place.”

In his notebook, Rav Kook writes: “The reality of Hashem’s providence is discernible when the world is seen in its totality. The Divine presence is not manifest in anything defective. Since HaShem does not abide where there is deficiency, how can HaShem abide where everything is lacking, where all we have is the weak and puny entity, only the particularity of the ego? This call to be committed always to the principle of universality to the divine ensemble, where all things have their being, is the essence of the soul of the righteous who walk before Hashem and whose delight is in the Divine.” 

We must remember through the story of our enslavement that we, too, were once slaves and that, as Dr. King reminds us, no one is free until we are all free. Redemption is when the light of universality shines. It’s our task to usher in that revelation. This starts within our own sanctuaries and shines out from there. Nullifying the ego so the screens of separation between us all begin to fall. Indeed, the Alter Rebbe teaches in the Tanya that the basis and root purpose of the entire Torah is to elevate and exalt the soul high above the body to [G-d], the source and root of all worlds, and to draw down the Ein Sof. And only when we place primary importance of our soul over our bodies can the walls that separate us come down and be replaced with love and unification. Since it’s our bodies that separate us from each other, while the soul binds us. When one focuses on the body, the separation between us becomes apparent, and only the love we create can bind us, but a created love can never equal a natural and innate love. So, love between people whose primary importance is focused on the physical, on the body over the soul, is based on external factors and endures only as long as those factors remain in play. Only when we shift our focus towards the soul over the body, of oneness over self, of the unifying and Infinite Light of the Creator of all creation, over the differences of the elements of creation, can Infinite Love exist in its purest state.

Matzah– the central symbol of Pesach– is the antithesis of chametz. It is known as lechem oni, the bread of poverty and affliction. Matzah signifies the humility that comes with poverty, and so the mitzvah (obligation) to eat matzah can only truly be fulfilled if it is eaten with humility. The matzah that the Israelites ate in Egypt was lechem oni, and so, too, the matzah that we eat over Pesach reminds us to be humble– to bitul hayesh, to negate and nullify all traces of ego and self-centeredness, to transcend the illusion of self.

read in full @ www.lightofinfinite.com

When the Screens of Separation Fall (leviticus: tzav)

When I can’t sleep, I often free verse / wax poetic about whatever’s on my mind. It’s always interesting reading it the next morning. Here’s one from the other night:  
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The world is full of enough dissonance 

produce melody perform alchemy

sift the good notes from the bad the serene from the siren song 

step in rhythm grow in concert

we are all notes in this divine orchestra of existence 

—-

It seems we all want to be one with our natural state and the spaces we are in — content, fulfilled, thriving. That would seem to be enough, but the truth is we want more than that— we want to transcend this natural state, to not be bound by the limitations and constrictions of this world, a world where the good is always intertwined with a bit of “bad”. Only in the next world is good 100% and bad is not even a concept. When I was a kid, and even today, when I walk out of the theater after seeing a superhero movie, I feel like I have those powers, if only for a little bit. The allure of these comic books turned movies is the thought of breaking free of one’s limitations, of ridding oneself of reality, of turning what is natural into supernatural. 

In these past parshiot, we have been reading about the Mishkan (the tabernacle) and how Hashem commanded Aharon, the high priest, and his sons to bring special sacrifices for seven days to prepare themselves for their service in the Mishkan. Every seven days, Moshe would take the Mishkan apart and put it back together, as the Jews wandered through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. In this week’s parashah, Shemini, Hebrew for “eight” (referring to the eighth day following the seven days of the inauguration of the Tabernacle), we learn that the service of the Mishkan actually begins on the “eighth” day.  As we read, “And it was on the eighth day . . . and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people . . . And fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fats upon the altar, and all the people saw, sang praises, and fell upon their faces.”  The Kli Yakar, a preeminent Medieval Torah scholar, asks why it’s called the “eighth day.” The Jewish week is seven days, and the consecration of the Mishkan was limited to seven days, as it is written, “And you shall not go out of the door of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your consecration be fulfilled, for He shall consecrate you seven days.” The Kli Yakar answers his own question, stating that related to the eighth day it is written, “Today the Lord appears to you.” Hashem doesn’t appear in the Mishkan during the seven days of consecration but on and because of the eighth day, a day beyond the natural order of things.
Seven is a recurring number in the Torah representing the natural order: seven days of the week; the month of the festivals is Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar; and we have seven-year cycles, culminating in Shemittah (the Sabbatical year). As we learn, seven in Judaism always represents completeness of the natural world, the finite world; so eight, of course, is that one step beyond nature, something more than human, more than finititude– something holy. Shabbat, the seventh day of our week, is a taste of the infinite, but it’s still bound in time and space. It’s a gift from Hashem that we even get that taste, as it is stated in Talmud Shabbat, “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe, I have a precious gift in My treasure house, and it is called the Shabbat.” The eighth day represents a taste beyond this world. 
I can’t put all that I wrote in this little taste of the Dvar, you’ll have to read it at the link below, but the biggest takeaway from this parashah for me is that when we elevate our soul above our body, aligning our physical selves to our spiritual selves we can transform our natural space into a supernatural setting. 
 

READ IT IN FULL @ https://lightofinfinite.com/step-in-rhythm-grow-in-concert/

Step in Rhythm, Grow in Concert (leviticus: shemini)

Light of Infinite PSA

Carrie Fisher used to say, “take your broken heart, make it into art.” It’s incredible how we are able to turn tragedy into triumph and our own dark moments into light and hope for others. There’s nowhere we see our interconnectedness more than in art. The stories that are the most popular in films and literature play off the primary story (rises, falls). A few examples: Rags to Riches, Riches to Rags, Cinderella (rise then fall then rise), and Oedipus (fall then rise then fall). Most stories play off of this - this is seen in the Torah, too, especially in the story of Yakov and Yosef. When we bump into a friend or a stranger, we never really know if at that moment they are feeling a fall or a rise, & so we each have to be as graceful as we can. In writing these dvars, my own story has been facing ups and downs, and when I feel low and go through something difficult that so many of us have gone through, I actually think it has been happening to put me in a space to be able to relate & bring light to others, since I am actually going through it, too– we are all connected.

Yosef’s brothers are scared that because their father passed away, he’ll finally take revenge on them -“… he will surely repay us and the evil that we did to him.” They told Yosef that one of their father’s wishes before he died was to forgive their spiteful deeds. This means that for all their years, even though Yosef had shown time & again that he had forgiven them, they lived with the fear that eventually he would take his revenge. It’s incredible how often this plays out in our own lives; the safek (doubt) and fear which plays on our minds as a personal Amalek, the nation/notion that the Torah commands us to eliminate from the world. We are commanded to eliminate it because it is the force that makes us fall. It stands opposed to faith and is our strongest detractor of bitachon.

Balance is instrumental in being in a space of goodness, as too much of one thing throws off the balance and alignment required for peace and blessings to flow. Mercy with each other and ourselves is the one thing we could attempt to overdose on and find that, even in those instances, it is often not enough.

Thanks for reading! Much love & Shabbat Shalom!🤍🕊
- Erez

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 **** 🪬 & DO A DEEP DIVE INTO OUR INTERCONNECTION BY READING THIS DVAR IN FULL @ https://lightofinfinite.com/take-your-broken-heart-make-it-into-art/  📝⚡️

Take Your Broken Heart, Make It Into Art (genesis: vayechi)

Light of Infinite is a blog, a podcast, a festival and a soon to be released book series, where Erez Safar acts as Your Spiritual DJ, curating insights into the weekly Torah portion and the infinite light of Kabbalah.

The project began on the Yartzeit (yearly memorial) of my ex wife’s mother’s passing, and it’s inspired by both her (Yehudis Chava bat Yakov Dov) and my mother (Frida Levona bat Shalom), who passed the same year. When I think of these women, I think of tzedaka and chesed, words that are hard to translate because they capture the real depths of words like ‘generous’, ‘giving’, ‘loving’, and ‘kindness’. These two women embodied and exemplified these qualities to an angelic degree: so full of life, love, warmth, and light, at every turn, every single moment. Being around them inspired me to be more loving, more giving, more full of a zest for each moment in life.

My goal with this ongoing project is to spread that inspiration and Light that I received and still receive from them. Using each week’s Torah portion, delving deep into the text, the commentaries, and the Kabbalah connected to it, I’ll share insights that bring that inspiration and Light to life for me, and will hopefully do the same for you.

As DJ Shadow sampled on his seminal record, Entroducing, “It’s not me that’s coming through– the music’s coming through me”. With that said, I do not take any recognition for any part of the material except the writing style. The recognition is meant for the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and the Giants of Torah that reveal the the Light of Infinite in a way that only they can. So, I would like to give thanks to some of the Chassidic Masters and Rabbis that I draw the most inspiration from, whose wisdom I’m attempting to bring down and make accessible. These include Reb Nachman & Reb Nosson Mi’Breslov, The Arizal, The Ba’al Shem Tov, R’Menachem Mendel Schneerson (the Rebbe), Carlebach, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and so many others.

I hope that these words inspire you to delve deeper into the Torah and kabbalisitc texts, and, as Chaim Vital says, “One can go deeper and deeper, as far as the human mind can delve, and it will always yield new treasures.”

Light of Infinite is an upcoming book series where I act as your spiritual DJ, curating insights into the weekly Torah portion and the infinite light of Kabbalah. The sefer (book) will include newly edited, and in some cases, expanded text on the weekly parashah. There will also be a section on key concepts of Kabbalah as well as a section that includes stories and info on some of my favorite Rebbe’s.

Take Your Broken Heart, Make It Into Art (genesis: vayechi)

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