Monthly Archives: May 2014

Practicing self-analysis

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This is the time when practicing Judaism is a little bit like going into therapy. What we’ve been given is a specific project for seven weeks, when we’re instructed to reach inward to analyze the deeper aspects of our own mind. According to Rabbi Dov Ber Pinson, the Counting of the Omer is the time when we are “unifying our internal reality.”

This means we’re being given the time to come into the oneness of our own being, to disentangle the complexities in our mind so that everything about us can become clearer and more understandable. Materially, this can mean removing excess baggage, by throwing out old papers, or old pairs of shoes. Psychologically, it can mean finding humility, which is the sephira for the coming week, by becoming more aware that we are each an individual part of a greater oneness.

Please join us in The Listening Room this week, on Shabbat, as we discuss these concepts, and follow with a short meditation on the Shema.
Date: Saturday, May 10th
Time: 6.15 pm. (Before Mincha)
Email for location: info@myraestelle.com

Journey of the Inner Self

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People are now beginning to realize that if we want to see more peace in the world, we have to first create peace within our own self. Judaism has given us the tools to do just this through the teachings of the Inner Torah. Right now, during this time of Counting the Omer, the teachings in the Sephirot encourage us to go deeper into the journey of our inner self, so that we can nurture our own soul and develop the kind of peace so many of us desperately want to eventually see in the whole world.

We’ve already looked at the first three steps of this inner path during these last three weeks in The Listening Room. Now we’re coming up to the fourth step—this is when we have to become sufficiently aware of the inner harmony we’ve found, so that we can begin to share it with others. As usual, we’ll look at what the sages have given us to support our journey forward. These lessons can’t be absorbed instantaneously; they have to be practiced over time until we can realize their full power. We have to develop patience, as well as the courage to become more than we thought we could be. We have to develop all the inner gifts we’ve been given, and gradually become more of our full self.

Please join us in The Listening Room this week, on Shabbat, as we discuss this Inner Torah process of finding peace within.

Date: Saturday, May 3rd
Time: 6.05 pm. (Before Mincha)
Location: email info@myraestelle.com