Makif & Penimi; Sovev & Memalle

Question: Most blessings seem to begin in second party ("Blessed are You..."), and end in third party ("Who gives us His Torah" or "Who santifies us with His commandments")—as if we were discussing G‑d instead of addressing Him directly. Why is this? Answ...

Every Hebrew letter holds a secret, but nothing Rabbi Infinity's lab can't break open. Even the all-encompassing secret of the letter chaf.

On the Shabbat before the Ninth of Av, we are granted a vision of the third Temple. But what is the point of this vision, if we do not experience it consciously? And what exactly is it that we see?

First you had faith. Then you grew up. Then you discovered truths you always knew you knew but which your knowledge obscured. That's why we have pre-midnight matzah and post midnight matzah

Kabbalah explains father/son and teacher/student bonds

Why do we celebrate Sukkot immediately after the High Holidays?

Imagine if everyone saw you as you really are, as you see yourself. And you looked at everyone else and saw them as they see themselves. Our world would be a very different place, wouldn't it?

When you’re feeling sad, do you go to your father or to your mother? Is it transcendence that you seek, or the solacing embrace that assures us that nothing is meaningless, that everything we are and feel can be borne, inhabited and redeemed?

We recognize a face, feel the cold, understand a concept; these are all expressions of memalleh, "filling" energy. Yet we all experience a more sublime consciousness -- the "encompassing" energy the Chassidic masters call sovev

"Beit!" cried the angry little Aleph to G-d. "Beit is a nice little house with a roof and walls to hold out the Infinite Light and a little door on one side to let a trickle in. And You chose that constipated, square-headed letter over me!"