There is so much epic wisdom around our falls and our elevation, but it's far too much to post here, so I thought I would share the first & last paragraph of my latest Dvar/article, "How To Levitate After Every Fall."

First paragraph -> There’s one kind of religious thought, which now feels antiquated, that teaches that a person should never fall into sin and that only in the purest state can they reach unification with the Divine and all the blessings that come with it. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov was controversial in his time and had many that railed against him because he shined a light on the profound spiritual elevation one can reach because of our fallen moments.

Last paragraph -> One of the central lessons of Likutei Moharan is the Azamra, confronting these dinim, the judgments you fall into, and working to sweeten them with Hashem’s Name, elevating the fallen sparks. This is not something that you learn once or do once and master; it is done over time, as lasting and true change happens layer by layer. As Rebbeinu says, “A little bit is also good. The way to grow is to not worry about perfection — simply start moving a little bit beyond where you were a moment ago.” We are meant to emulate our Creator, who mitigates His judgment and applies mercy as often as He can. It is the only way to continue to get back up when we fall– to show ourselves and each other mercy. And it is this choice of mercy– using the right hand of chesed— that elevates us to the Infinite Light. Confucius must have been in Uman around the time of Rebbe Nachman, as he said, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.”

** Watch this short video on how to elevate after every fall - 

**** I DO A DEEP DIVE INTO HOW TO TURN FALLS INTO ELEVATED ELATION, READ IT IN FULL HERE, https://lightofinfinite.com/how-to-levitate-after-every-fall/ 

Thanks for reading/listening!
Much love & Shabbat Shalom!﻿
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- Erez // @erezsafar


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**** watch the video -

How To Levitate After Every Fall (number: pinchas)

The majority of us have the best of intentions, but life sometimes gets in the way. Even when we fully promise and believe that we are going to help a friend out, there are times that, in the end, it doesn’t work out how we had hoped. It’s these promises said with such love and enthusiasm that give us hope and make us feel that we aren’t alone. The flip side is when empty promises leave us feeling misled, helpless, or stranded. People shouldn’t commit to things they don’t actually have time for. Language is powerful. Indeed, as we covered 3 weeks ago in the Torah portion - Chukat, we learn from Hashem (God) that words create worlds. In the beginning, Hashem spoke existence into being. It is the same with each of us, speech is a way to connect and create or to disconnect and destroy.

Thinking about nedarim (vows) in this Torah portion brought to mind a song from my favorite band, The Beastie Boys, dubbed, “Don’t Play No Games That I Can’t Win,” featuring Santigold. The song title came to mind because I was thinking about how often people say that they will do things “bli neder”, in other words, without a strict vow. It’s a way for people to say “I do intend to do this, but without the weight of a vow”. It’s a way to play the game and ensure that you never lose.

The Hebrew letters and their associated numerical value are our mystical link and the code, in a sense, that connects our physical and finite world to the spiritual world that is infinite.

The laws and Kabbalah around speech and the power and meaning behind each word – their roots and permutations and contexts – hold the key to elevating the mundane into the ineffable.

I do a deep dive into the power of words and promises in this week’s Dvar/article - 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, ‘𝙻𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎: 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜,” &/or at https://lightofinfinite.com/dont-play-no-games-that-i-cant-win ﻿
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Thanks for reading/listening!
Much love & Shabbat Shalom!﻿
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- Erez // @erezsafar


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READ THIS IN FULL @ https://lightofinfinite.com/how-to-levitate-after-every-fall/ ﻿
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**** watch the video -  https://youtu.be/1weTcPVb5lg

Don’t Play No Games That I Can’t Win (number: matot)

Tisha B’av is the most somber day in the Jewish calendar. It’s sobering to think that thousands of years ago, we were on top of the world: in the Promised Land, with our Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple), fully connected to Hashem (God) in a revealed state. 

It’s not a coincidence that the first word of the verse in this week's Torah portion, eicha, ‘how?’, is the same word that sets off the Book of Lamentations that we read on Tisha B’av. Jeremiah lamented, “Eicha/How can the city that was so full of people sit alone?” And in the Torah reading for this week, the same word is used: “Eicha/How can I carry your troubles myself?” But this time it’s not Jeremiah asking about the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, it’s Moses asking, knowing that despite his establishing a system of judges and courts, that justice is a difficult thing to uphold absolutely and indefinitely, and it will eventually falter. 

Rashi points out that the verse reads, “I cannot carry you” and not what might be more fitting, “I cannot judge you,” which is to imply the weight and burden involved in judging another person fairly. The Sin of the Spies stemmed from their harsh judgment of the Land. They sowed seeds of doubt and disunity by using judgment (gevurah), without balancing it with the proper amount of mercy (chesed), which is required to create harmony (tiferet).

Being judgmental (i.e. acting like a court) is the source of anger, and the lesson of Azamra that is at the core of Breslov teaching is to rectify harsh judgment by finding the “good point” in yourself and others and judging it favorably, bringing merit to yourself and others.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov explains that the secret of personal redemption is to combine chesed and gevurah in order to attain da’at (ultimate Knowledge/wisdom). Loving-kindness or judgment by itself is incomplete; balance– knowing when to use each trait– is key. Tempering one over the other and the ability to know when to use each characteristic is the essence of da’at..  #LeadwithLove

I do a deep dive into this concept in the “Only God Can Judge Me” chapter in my latest book, 'Light of the Infinite: Emanations of Illumination.'
Read this dvar/article online - https://lightofinfinite.com/only-god-can-judge-me or get your copy on Amazon, or at www.lightofinfinite.com/shop


Thanks for reading/listening!
Much love & Shabbat Shalom!﻿
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- Erez // @erezsafar


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Only God Can Judge Me (deuteronomy: deuteronomy)

I remember learning the power of the Shema (שְׁמַע) as a little kid. It felt like I was in the world of Harry Potter and someone had clued me into the Patronus charm, so if I put myself into a deep enough spiritual space, I would be able to conjure up protective power. The Shema was a way to channel Hashem’s oneness into this world; I could say it and manifest magic in my own life. It was a pathway from the natural world I was in as a kid to the supernatural world that my kid mind dreamt up. 

Growing up as a Yemenite Jew, I learned to form my hand into a shin (שְׁ), the first letter of the Shema, by placing my thumb and pinky together, leaving my index, middle and ring fingers upright. Once I had this formation, I would close my eyes and place my pinky on my left eye and my thumb on my right. As I got to the last word of the Shema, ‘echad’ (אֶחָֽד/’one’), I would bring all the fingers together, forming one unit and a sort of daled (ד), the last letter of ‘echad’. Then I would kiss my fingers and raise them to the heavens. It was a powerful ritual, one of connection and transcendence. 

The Shema (שְׁמַע) is the climactic praise, prayer, and mantra that centers us in the morning and evening prayer. It’s been at the center of Judaism and the lives of Jews since Moshe said the words to the Children of Israel in the desert thousands of years ago. It took on new levels of meaning when formal tefillah replaced the sacrifices, after the second Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. It is the climax of the final Neilah prayer on Yom Kippur, and oftentimes it’s a person’s last words on earth.
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I do a deep dive into this concept in "The Secret To Oneness (and the Shema)” chapter where I explore mindfulness, transcendence, and connecting to the Light of the Infinite! Check it out in my latest 'Light of the Infinite' book, 'Emanations of Illumination,' available on @Amazon. 


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Thanks for listening/reading.
Much love, Erez // @ErezSafar

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The Secret To Oneness (and the Shema) [deuteronomy: va'etchanan]

So much anxiety is brought on by thinking one won’t receive what is just. Of course, everyone’s view of their own justice looks different. But the idea of not receiving what you think you deserve, whether from a person or the universe creates a division and distancing in one’s relationships to others, to oneself, and even to life itself. 
Justice brings peace, but only when judgment/gevurah is balanced with the proper amount of mercy/chesed. When this is done right, it creates harmony/tiferet.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s last book is titled, ‘Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue’, aptly pulling the words from this week’s parsha, Judges. One lesson to be learned from Ginsberg through her relationship with her Supreme Court colleague, Scalia, is how they exemplified putting aside their egos, building a personal relationship based on humane compassion, even when they disagreed vehemently in their views of justice. The reason people praised their relationship so much is that it seems, as a people, we are moving further and further away from such a rapport. The Talmud is based on opposing opinions and respect. For 3 centuries (200 CE-500 CE) after the redaction & editing of the Mishna, Amoraim and their students discussed & analyzed the Mishna. Their questions, discussions, & solutions comprise the Talmud.
Judaism, from antiquity to now, is steeped in the teachings and the process of learning in the Talmud. Countless Jews (& lots of law students) are lovingly arguing with each other at this moment, using the Talmud as the catalyst for diving deeper into endless hypothetical scenarios connected to the morality of Jewish law & ritual. But, as a modern Western culture & people, we seem to be moving away from this embrace of respectful conflict, something discussed in the book The Coddling of the American Mind.
In a TED talk R’ Jonathan Sacks speaks on how “it’s the people not like us that make us grow” & shares specific ways we can move from the politics of “me” to the politics of “all of us, together.”
I dive fully into justice & how to find peace this week, with wisdom from the Zohar, Rebbe Nachman, MF Doom, & even a little Bieber. Jump into my latest 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, '𝙴𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.' Get your copy on @Amazon, or read it online @ https://lightofinfinite.com/and-justice-for-all/Thanks for reading/listening!
Much love & Shabbat Shalom! 
- Erez // @erezsafar


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…And Justice For All (deuteronomy: shoftim)

First fruits, blessings and our Promised Land. I dive into it all via The Rebbe, Jay-Z, Mark Twain, The Arizal and a memory of my Savta from Addis Ababa and Yemen in this week’s Parashah, Ki Tavo! 

Here are the first couple paragraphs with some memories of my time in Israel. 

My family is originally from Yemen, where my ancestors lived for close to 2,000 years. Nearly 100 years ago, in 1933, my grandmother’s side of the family decided to move to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then to Israel. Once I graduated high school, I went to Yeshiva in Israel for a year in Bayit VeGan, a nice neighborhood in Jerusalem. Every memory I have of Israel feels like a dream, there is just something surreal, spectacular, and ineffable about the land. After that year immersed in ancient Jewish texts, I went to University of Maryland for a couple years and felt drawn to go back to Jerusalem to study more, so I went back to Yeshiva, this time right outside of the Old City. Walking into the Old City on Friday night, you’d feel Shabbat like you never had before, realizing you are walking through history, through what’s left of the two Batei Hamikdash (Holy Temples), seeing the stones that surround the Promised Land of an eternal people.

Some Shabbatot I would take my friends from yeshiva to my Savta’s in Ramat Gan (they all called her G-ma;). I remember her waking up at 5 am every day, covering her head and saying the morning tefillah. She would cook Yemenite food and Moroccan salads, and my friends and I would sing Shabbat songs in Hebrew, as she sat on the couch crying from happiness. It’s incredible to realize all the time that she and her family were exiled in Yemen and Ethiopia and that they were able to come back to Israel and that she could see her grandson living in Yerushalayim, singing the songs that have been sung throughout history every Shabbat since the Jews left Egypt and entered Israel. She had made it, we had made it — the yearning for home and the unification of a people with its ancestral homeland had been realized in her lifetime. 

In this chapter, I dive into how the same way we need to conquer and settle the physical promised land, we need to do that in our own struggle within our spiritual selves, making sure that we don’t doubt ourselves to the point of blocking our own blessings.

As Jay-Z says on "Welcome to the Jungle:"

Where did I go?
I’m losing myself,
I’m stuck in the moment
I look in the mirror,
my only opponent.

Our own promised lands are in our own control. Sometimes it feels like it takes a miracle before we would see it or feel at ease and unified to the point that it would manifest as a feeling of peace or enlightenment, but we have to enter into the process within ourselves, conquer our own doubts and parts of us that act as enemies towards our own selves. When we can settle ourselves to a space of peace, then we can reach a feeling of our own Promised Land.

** Read this article/chapter in full in my latest 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, '𝙴𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.' Get your copy on @Amazon, or read it online @ https://lightofinfinite.com/first-fruit/
Thanks for reading/listening!
Much love & Shabbat Shalom!﻿
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- Erez // @erezsafar


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First Fruit  (deuteronomy: ki tavo)

As we touched on in the "Don’t Hate, Foster The People" chapter in my latest book, "Emanations of Illumination." Another way to think about our collective Oneness is through water. We know that water is fundamental to all life; our bodies are mostly water, and the brain and heart, in particular, are composed of 73% water. That means we have 73% in common with every person in the world.

This gives new meaning to the saying, “the grass is greener where you water it”. On top of that, people mirror each other’s inner belief systems, so if we aren’t “watering” ourselves and those around us in connectedness and positivity, then individually and collectively we can’t grow. Continually giving yourself and others life force is essential to being in a blissful and connected state. It takes work because on the other end of it is being unhappy, which is a vicious cycle and can lead to worry, anxiety, anger, and depression. Anger is toxic to your body and soul, often triggering one’s ‘fight or flight’ response, which floods the body with stress hormones, health issues & digestive problems.

The cure for all this is easier said than done, but it begins with a healthy perspective, with trust and faith that all is for the good and that everything will work out. This is part of the grass being greener where you water it. In life, there will always be two ways to look at everything coming your way, as a blessing or as a curse. The Torah last week and this week articulates this to a great degree. Showing time and again that it is ultimately up to us if we focus and manifest good & blessings, or if we bring about the opposite. So if our heads are filled with something negative, we need to remove the negativity and replace it with the positive.

** Read this article/chapter in full in my latest 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, ‘𝙴𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.’ Get your copy on @Amazon, or read it online @ https://lightofinfinite.com/greener-where-you-water-it/

Thanks for reading/listening!

Much love & Shabbat Shalom!🪬🤍🕊️
- Erez // @erezsafar


* 🔊 Listen: Audio/Podcast version - https://lightofinfinite.com/podcast

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Greener Where You Water It (deuteronomy: nitzavim)

For this week, I wrote about the secrets to being in harmony with each other and the world, bringing in wisdom by Pharrell, Rebbe Nachman, David Sacks and the Ramban.

Meanwhile, around this time (Yom Kippur) marked the last day I was to say Kaddish for my mom who passed away almost three years ago. In some ways, it was a relief to not have to say it. As her only son, having this sole responsibility weighs heavy, but, at the same time, it makes the ritual that much more meaningful, and so the connection, born of the ultimate need, is one that is very transformative.

 As I have said Kaddish leading up to this week, it always ends in the same way, just as the Shemona Esrei ends, Oseh Shalom Bimromav (“He who makes peace in His high places”). This year I was thinking about those words more than ever, discovering how Shalom (peace) is where blessings exist. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks shared a powerful moment when someone asked Rabbi Shmuel Salant, a rabbi who spent a lot of time resolving family disputes, how he would make peace in conflicts between people. Rabbi Salant looked at the person and asked him, “What do you do when you say the words ‘Oseh Shalom’?” The person replied, “I take three steps back.” Rabbi Salant said, “That!” and went on, “is how peace is made. Each party has to take three steps backward.” To make peace we must compromise, we have to sacrifice some of what we want for the sake of what someone else wants. Without the ability to take steps back, the ability for peace is paused.

I go into a lot of epic wisdom by a lot of my favorite humans in this week's chapter. Read it in full in my latest 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, ‘𝙴𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.’ Get your copy on @Amazon, or read it online @ www.lightofinfinite.com/the-secret-to-being-in-harmony 


Thanks for reading/listening!

Much love & Shabbat Shalom!🪬🤍🕊️
- Erez // _@erezsafar_

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*** ISRAEL TOUR SEPT 20 - OCT 10th! details @ www.lightofinfinite.com/events 🪬🤍🕊

The Secret To Being In Harmony With Each Other & The Universe (deuteronomy: ha'azinu)

We're back in the Torah portion of Bereishit (Genesis), which contains almost all of the mind-blowing kabbalistic concepts of the Light of the Infinite. When Hashem (God) said, 'Let There Be Light…. And It Was Good,' it clues us into the purpose of Creation– to reveal light and goodness in this world.  We need this now more than ever. I'm praying we can meditate and manifest this redemptive consciousness, rather than G-d forbid the opposite like we are seeing being done to the Children of Israel.

King David says in Tehillim/Psalms, “The world was built with chesed (loving-kindness).” Our sages teach that “The light that was created on the first day shone from one end of Creation to the other.” In Kabbalah we learn that this was the light of chesed— “an infinite, uncompounded light that filled all of Creation.” The light of Chesed is at the heart of everything. Chesed and giving are at the root of creation and at the root of joy. Spreading light is done by giving joyfully, just as when light from your own flame is shared with another flame, your flame doesn’t become smaller, only the other person’s flame is now ignited.

I can’t help but hear @JohnMayer singing, “just keep me where the light is,” a reminder that we all share this desire to give and receive love and light. The secret to life is rooted in giving– giving to yourself what you may need– love of yourself, belief in yourself– and giving to others, which creates love and community, something every person needs to feel alive. The Hebrew word for love, is אהבה/‘ahava’, the root of the word is related to the Aramaic word ‘hav’ which means “to give”. Real love is something you only receive through giving love. As Snoop Lion sings on the opening of his album, Reincarnated, “the only way to get love is to give love.”

We see this through the Hebrew language and its numerical value. Blessings come from love and Ahava (the Hebrew word for ‘love’).

Ahava has the same gematria (numerical value), 13, as the word Echad (‘one’). As many of us know, 26 is the numerical value of Hashem’s four-letter name (the Tetragrammaton), the ultimate Divine Infinite Light. So, if we share our love and our oneness— 13 + 13— then we manifest that Divine Light.

Dive deeper in my '𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞' book, "𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙻𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝" https://amzn.to/3uvdfxw


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Thanks for listening/reading.
Much love, Erez // @ErezSafar


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Just Keep Me Where The Light Is (genesis: genesis)

Greetings From The Edge Of The World (genesis: vayeira)

For this week, I do a deep dive into the damaging effects of lashon hara (speaking negatively). 

Blessings don’t come easily in this world. Everything of great value comes through hardship. Even peace itself comes from being diligent in bittul (self-transcendence), choosing how to navigate our reactions.
The deeper & more meaningful a relationship is the better the chances are of having difficult elements to work through. If you want to go deep in a relationship, there will be work to get through so that each person feels that they are being heard & loved in the way that they need. It’s similar in relationships between parents & children: the amount of love a parent feels for their child is indescribable, but it comes from a constant giving of one’s emotional & physical faculties. In the newborn stage, it’s waking up every couple hours to feed, hold or change the baby, when we just want to have one solid night’s sleep. When they are older, it’s a series of challenges that any human goes through & every parent wants to take on. But the connection could not be deeper & the love more profound because of those challenges on the journey. Through the hardships come the blessings. 

Rashi says that “Yakov sought to dwell in tranquility”. But as soon as he did, immediately the troubles with Yosef & his brothers began, & instead of peace, Yakov ended up mourning Yosef, thinking he was dead for twenty years, only reuniting with him in his old age. It’s said that when a tzadik wishes to live at ease, Hashem says to them: “Are not the righteous satisfied with what is stored up for them in the world to come that they wish to live at ease in this world too! 

There’s a song by Cage The Elephant that I remixed for my Bonnaroo album called “Ain't No Rest for the Wicked.” It’s a play off the verse from Isaiah, “There is no peace for the wicked.” But Chazal say the same in regards to tzadikim, “The righteous have no rest.” & Job wrote that “man was born to toil" Essentially, in this world, we have work to do, & we can’t hope to sit idly by as our unique gifts & talents grow stale.

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

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** Get your copy of the book: 'LIGHT OF THE INFINITE: THE GENESIS OF LIGHT' now available as Prime on Amazon! The second half of the book parallels the Parshiot (weekly Torah reading) of Bereishit/Genesis, which we are reading now!! - - https://amzn.to/3uvdfxw 

**** & OF COURSE, BE SURE TO READ THIS DVAR IN FULL @ https://lightofinfinite.com/the-three-sided-story/ ️

The Three Sided Story (genesis: vayeishev)

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.

The Three Sided Story (genesis: vayeishev)

light of infinite

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