Loving God, The second root mitzvah:
Is it at all possible? What does love mean? Can one command a feeling? These are questions we start to address as we learn the Zohar on the second commandment, that of loving God..
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Yirat HaShem 3: True Yirah vs. false fear
Yirat HaShem, actually means the fear of doing anything that will cause me to become separated from the Divine. Both the Divine within and the Divine without. This is not a theoretical issue, but one which actually forms both the beginning, and the ongoing experience of the most important relationship we have.
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Yirat HaShem 2-The very beginning and basis of our relationship with the Divine
Yirat HaShem, actually means the fear of doing anything that will cause me to become separated from the Divine. Both the Divine within and the Divine without. This is not a theoretical issue, but one which actually forms both the beginning, and the ongoing experience of the most important relationship we have.
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Yirat HaShem- the fear of being separated from the Divine
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai the author/compiler of the Zohar the central book of the Kabbalah, teaches that there are 14 root mitzvot or prescribed commandments, pieces of advice if you like, which enable us to come closer to the Divine. Of them all, the first and most basic one is Yirat HaShem, erroneously translated as fear of God. In fact it is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge and faith...
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Expecting a Reward 
 We have all been in the situation where we have given wholeheartedly to someone or to a cause, yet the recognition or appreciation of our efforts simply hasn't come through. Although our feelings of hurt are only too human we need to know that giving unconditionally, without getting a reward, was built into the very beginning of the Creation.
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The Four Cups of Wine: Their Inner Meaning
"And we awaken with their joy, and drink four cups of wine for the four aspects that are never separated from each other when this union is found." Zohar Emor 135.
Learn a piece from the holy Zohar together with Yedidah on the inner meaning of the four cups of wine that we drink on Seder night.
For full talk
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Who knows One?  From Exile to Redemption
The energy of exile and redemption comes around again as we approach Passover. But are we simply re-enacting an historical event? According to the Kabbalah to the extent we can experience an inner exile we can likewise come to an inner redemption.
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The joy of expecting Purim
We are now in the beginning of the month of Adar, the month in which Purim takes place. This is the month in which we increase our joy. But people don’t feel happy or feel sad without a reason. Happiness is not a feeling one can fake or force. We tend to feel happy or sad depending on events. We can’t feel feelings just because we are told to! So it’s clear that the Sages of the Talmud intended the increase in our simchah in our joy to relate to an inner joy, something more connected with our inner being. …
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Dealing with dilemmas
Have you ever found yourself in the uncomfortable position of being asked to do more than you really can? Of feeling afraid to say no when you know deep within you that what you are being asked to deal with is a bit beyond your capability? Interestingly enough, this is the very position the highest spiritual entity in the very first of the spiritual worlds found itself in…
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Yom Kippur : A chance to reclaim our true identity
Which is the real me? We have a body of skin, bones, muscles, etc., that is given life by the nefesh behami the animal soul. Within this there is the point source of the holy sooul, the neshamah which is part of the essence of God. On Yom Kippur we have the opportunity to release this precious part of ourselves from the bondage of the animal soul and its confusing behaviour and rediscover our real selves.
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Changing our outlook on Rosh HaShanah
Do you feel upset and anxious when it comes around to the High Holy days? So many of us do. Many of the symbols associated with Rosh HaShanah, the Book of Life, the day of Judgement have been distorted over the centuries. Now with our knowledge of Kabbalah we can learn what “life” really is and how the shofar is the instrument of compassion.
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Enjoying the month of Elul
So many people dread the run up to the high holy days. They feel guilty about what they didn’t do all the year or/and anxiety about the year to come. But it needn’t be like that at all. The month of Elul is the opportunity for a good inner spring-clean and there is a real joy in that!
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Further on Decisions
Sometimes life presents me with a situation which seems impossible to resolve. When sharing this with a friend I realized that this experience is not unique and I couldn’t help wondering why? The Creator created the worlds with increasing concealment in order to give human beings free choice. Yedidah continues this discussion by looking at where freedom of choice really lies, based on Rabbi Ashlag’s article on “Freedom”.
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Decisions
The Holy Master the Baal Shem Tov teaches us that before we make any move we need to consider ourselves as having infinite free choice. After the event we need to consider that the move we chose was the one God wanted us to choose. I considered this statement carefully. Does it match with my experience? I have to say it doesn’t. Before any event it feels as if I have one or maybe two choices available, certainly not a whole array of choices. I decided I need to go into this matter more carefully. After all, if a mere computer has a large number of choices just playing one move in a game of chess, how is it that I, a human being who is far more complex and sophisticated and dealing with life itself should have less?
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The meaning of the Akedah
The great Kabbalist, the Ari informs us that the essence of God is unknowable. Even the highest angels have no conception of Him as He is in Himself, as He has no Name.
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Where I am and where I'd like to be
The body and the soul have three main channels to them,according to the way the Divine channels, the Sephirot, line up. These are the right hand line, the left hand line, and the middle line. Our consciousness also lines up similarly, the right hand line being the consciousness of wholeness and perfection, that all is just as it should be, and the left hand line being the consciousness of where I really am. Which consciousness should I focus on? Which one is more real?
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