chabad jerusalem

A couple years ago, a friend of mine read the Purim scroll with different voices.  He read it with the voice of Mordecai, with the voice of Haman, with the voice of Esther and the voice of Vashti, among others.  That awakened me to a new fact of life – there are a lot of voices and personalities vying for our attention.  And being humans, we can better understand ourselves and the Torah by tuning into the voice or character vying for our attention at any given time.  Even the simplest person is “inhabited” by many characters.  And since we are a very old nation, there are some wise and venerable voices demanding our collective attention.  So, why ignore them?  Each has a personality, and each expresses himself.  A good psychologist can help decipher which voices occupy our psyche, and a good rabbi can help decipher which spiritual character seeks expression through our soul.  If we remain unaware of “who is talking,” we run the risk of total confusion and chaos.  The same applies to Torah and to tefila.  Knowing whose doing the talking, during prayer and study, is key.  Once we know their perspective and their goals, our avodat Hashem (“spiritual service”) will go much smoother.  It is not necessary to remain reactive during learning and prayers.  We can be proactive, and then the rest falls into place…for more information, check out our latest Tefila tip (#8), at www.jerusalemconnection.org/weekly.  Or, delve deeper into Jewish meditation and prayer, at www.jewishspiritualbooks.com.  Or just browse what’s happening in Jerusalem, at www.chabadjerusalem.org   Good stuff going on round the clock…

Tags: spiritual character