Shalom to one and all...
Thank you all for your continuing support of
KosherTorah. You contributions are both
welcome and needed. Thank you for thinking
about me...
Check out our growing online MP3 library.
They are cheaper and quicker than CDs. I
will soon have all 32 lessons in Genesis
available, with many more to come...
I would also ask that each of individually share
KosherTorah essays with your friends.
Forward them
to whomever you think would find them of
interest.
Help us build our reading base. The more who
read
us the more influence we can have to help others
better their lives. Do you need more
motivation than
this?
We are in countdown mode to Rosh HaShana. It
is time to pay attention to the important things.
-----------------------------------
Balance
By HaRav Ariel Bar Tzadok. Copyright (c) 2008 by Ariel Bar Tzadok. All rights reserved.
In visions of the night and in contemplations
by day; I heard images and saw words. The
following best expresses what the
intellectual mind cannot see without the
inner eye.
It is time to again be blunt. Time to awaken
from sleep, or perhaps to go to sleep and
dream. I'll let you decide.
How weighed down are you? How much of the
pressures of life do you carry with you at
every moment?
Have you forgotten the dreams of your youth?
Have you dismissed them as childhood
fantasies not worthy of adult consideration?
Do you live each day just to die tomorrow?
Do you have more to live for, than just to
get through the day to face a similar tomorrow?
What do you live for? What purpose do you
have? What is your destiny? What if
anything are you all about?
If you were to die tomorrow not knowing the
answers to these questions and not having
lived them, then how can it be said that your
life had any purpose?
How can you stand before you Maker and say
that you have accomplished your mission?
Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die
is the motto of a slave. The free person
says that I live for a purpose, that I search
each day to find my destiny; that I move
forward through life on my quest.
I am guided by Heaven to accomplish. What is
the nature of my accomplishments, only Heaven
knows.
I seek daily only to surrender to Heaven. In
my surrender to Heaven do I find my place on
Earth. I may eat, drink and be merry, but
not to die tomorrow. For tomorrow I live and
I will live forever more in the service of
Heaven, be it in this world or any other.
Balancing Heaven and Earth is no easy task.
The great scales can easily be tilted one way
or the other. Yet, whatever way the tilt,
imbalance in created.
Balance must be achieved. Heaven and the
spiritual; Earth and the physical must be
equally balanced and thus brought into
harmony. This is our purpose here on Earth.
This is the Way of Torah and the destiny of
our souls.
Torah was put into words so that we pass them
down from generation to generation. Yet,
their message and meaning is written all
around us.
One can see Torah in the way water flows, the
way fire burns and the way the winds blow.
Indeed, one can see Torah even in the Earth
itself, in the ways of the rock, the tree and
the land.
Our Sages taught us long ago that our Creator
gazed within the Torah and thus created the
world. Thus the world is in the Torah and
the Torah is in the world. Seek it, look for
it and indeed the open eye and the open heart
shall see it in the open mind.
We have slept for all too long. It is time
to awaken so that we may dream again. Our
dreams lift our hearts to Heaven.
In Heaven our hearts see what our minds
cannot. In Heaven our hearts open the inner
eye and enable us to see that which here on
Earth is invisible. Thus we awaken to dream,
and dream to be awakened. There is no other
way to balance the great scales that stand
before us.
Return, return to Heaven sleeper on Earth!
Awaken from your nightmare and dream again
the dream of youth! Return to the great
Mother who gave birth to our souls. She is
our Torah; the Creator is our Father.
Together our Heavenly "parents" gave birth to
us to be like them.
When we serve Heaven we embrace our Father.
When we live by Torah we embrace our Mother.
We are their children. We should be
faithful to who we are and what we are meant
to be.
Contemplate well what I share with you now.
Dream again. Only the awakened sleeper can
again dream and touch Heaven. Only the
awakened sleeper can bring the dream down to
Earth and thus balance the scales.
Only in this way is Torah established and
Heaven and Earth brought into alignment and
peace. This is the great judgment.
Embrace Heaven with your right and Earth with
your left. Stand in the middle and you will
know the truth of the beautiful heart. In
this way will the foundation be laid for the
establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven upon
the Earth.
Contemplate this with wisdom and you will
gain understanding. In this will come both
victory and glory. When all is complete the
crown shall be placed upon the head of the
King. This is our collective destiny.
The time is now, the place is here; the
person is you! Awaken sleeper! Dream and
establish! Blessed is the one who says and does!
----------------------------------------------
Shalom, Ariel Bar Tzadok