How should a chassid view healing programs like the 12 Steps? Is the affirmation that “we are powerless over our addiction” and that “we made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God” and are “entirely ready to have G-d remove all these defects of character” a contradiction to what the Torah teaches us? Is there ever any justification to lessen one’s mitzvah observance in the name of recovery and healing? Is this consistent with the concept of iskafya and the methods Chassidus teach us in exercising restraint and conquering our obsessions?
Other topics that will be discussed in this week’s episode of MyLife: Chassidus Applied include:
· Should I relay positive feedback and affirmations to a friend when I honestly don’t believe what I am saying?
· Do we have a different version of G-d than the non-Jews have?
· My family recently moved to a small town where there is no synagogue and no other Jewish families. How can I stay connected when there are no resources around to do so?
· How do we apply today the concept of berating our animal souls as explained in Tanya chapter 29?
Rabbi Jacobson will also continue describing the process of chazoreh and writing hanochos, remembering and writing the Rebbe’s sichos.
He will also review the following essays submitted in last year’s MyLife: Chassidus Applied essay contest: “Our Guest Was Having a Bad Hair Day” by Yosef Kanner, “Growing through Guilt” by Rivkah Shanowitz, and “Uplifting the World” by Chaim Venkin. These and other essays can be read online at meaningfullife.com/essays.
And finally, the Chassidus question of the week: Please explain the meaning of the Alter Rebbe’s famous statement in Torah Ohr Vayeira, Posach Eliyahu (14b) that “aderabah, ha’Maor Hu b’hisgalus,” in contrast to light which is subject to concealment, the “Source,” on the contrary, is revealed. How do we understand this revelation when the Alter Rebbe says at the same time that the “source is beyond revelation and concealment”?
This hour-long dose of insights is meant to inform, inspire and empower us by applying the teachings of Chassidus to help us face practical and emotional challenges and difficulties in our personal lives and relationships. To have your question addressed, please submit it at meaningfullife.com/mylife.
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Questions may be submitted anonymously at meaningfullife.com/mylife
