When you struggle to get out of bed in the morning, are you fighting your Yetzer Harah or your Nefesh Habihamis? Both? None? Is there even a difference between them? Can we hurt ourselves by not being able to distinguish between them?
This is just one of the issues discussed at a “Chassidus Academy” with Rabbi Manis Friedman this month in Pittsburgh. One group of Bochurim and a separate group of Shluchim enjoyed full days of free-wheeling learning with Rabbi Friedman, delving into some of the most intriguing and unexplored areas of Chassidus and life as a Chossid in 2011.
With Tanya Perek Yud Ches and a Maamar of the Rebbe’s (Lihuvin Inyan Tchiyas Hameisim) as the anchors, they covered a vast variety of subjects, large and small.
What is the meaning of a sefira? How do you say that in English? And speaking of English, how do you translate the common word “hecher”? Higher? In a realm with no time or space? What does that mean? Is it any different than “heiliger”?
Can we continue to grow and progress if we cannot define the most common terms and ideas in Chassidus in plain English?
Rabbi Friedman illustrated the point with this anecdote from Reb Yoel Kahn. When Reb Yoel was his teacher in the 60’s, Reb Yoel finished teaching a Maamar and asked one of the students to say what he learned. The studious Bochur immediately began repeating the Mamaar’s main message.
Reb Yoel interrupted listened and then said, “You repeated the Maamar. That you know the Mamaar is not a chidush; I want to know what YOU learned from the Mamaar.”
“This is the way to understanding Chassidus,” said Rabbi Friedman. “And learning that way will literally change your life.”
He insisted that Chassidus has the answers to all of life’s dilemmas crisis. Not only Davening and learning are revived through Chassidus. Marriage, friendships, psychology, personal discovery, pessimism, achievement, organization, anger management and trauma – everything changes with a genuine understanding of Chassidus.
Wrote an attending Shliach from North Carolina: “Everything was so easy to grasp! Though the one thing I still don’t understand is why even more people didn’t take advantage of just sitting for hours on end learning with Rabbi Friedman, simply a physical and spiritual pleasure.”
Rabbi Zalman Friedman, the program’s organizer, tells of the refrain he keeps hearing from participants: “You need to do this again, and not only for Bochurim and Shluchim, but for every segment of Anash. People need to hear this. It is indeed life changing.”
AUDIO: A conversation on dating and marriage according to Chassidus
Download the MP3 or listen:
This Rabbi seems to have quite a negative view of honesty and communication in a marriage. He also does not voice much faith in the two people involved in the marriage. I do not believe it is a “black and white” situation. Expressing feelings in a marriage can be healthy when the parties are adept at expressing with appropriate maturity and knowledge of communication skills. A spouse who can not allow the other to express is a spouse who is abusive and disrespectful. That spouse is also immature, regardless of age. We need to educate ourselves in this very important… Read more »
Not every guy is a chazer at home, and not every girl who wants a good looking guy will get divorced. i dont get his pessimism…?
I understand not having faith in the current dating trends, but i dont understand not having faith in people.
Dont tell people that if you do such and such, you’re heading for failure! It implants doubt in their minds, and can be the cause of problems.
WRONG. Of course G-d is conducting everything, but he is putting it in our hands. There is more choice in shidduchim then we are lead to believe. Ultimately we marry what we want, really truly want sub consciously and consciously. And prayer has a lot to do with who we end up marrying at the end. So we should pray that we should want the right person. Because you will get what you want in the end. Trust me.
That was a cheap shot against Satmar….
Let the Rabbi speak.
please post the rest/more.
Would really like more.
you can always email rabbi friedman’s office for more
would like to hear more if possible…….
Where could i get hold of this?
we gain so much lets please hear more!!!!
where can i hear the rest of it?
!
how do I get to the rest of the lecture?
where can we hear the rest of it?? thank you for making this public for all to listen!
When can R.Friedman come to Baltimore? Who shall i contact to have the next Chassidus Academy here??
we please hear more? it is very helpful in these days to be guided and directed in the shidduch scene. we get so easily blinded.
thank you for posting, and please continue!
“If you marry whoever you want than that is not a marriage”.
We ultimately marry who Hashem want s us to marry.
The answer is has been and always will be a 3 letter word.
GOD
how do you hear more of this lecture??
Would like to hear more of this.
This is nuts most ppl will find out if the person has a past anyhow….
THIS IS HILARIOUS BUT SO TRUE
Listening to some of the questions, i now understand why are where we are today! Nuff said.