Tag Archives: paul philip levertoff
54 Days: Along Another Path
I have set God always before me. -Psalms 16:8 Late one night, Rabbi Naftali of Ropschitz took a walk in the outskirts of town, where he met a night watchman and struck up a conversation with him. The watchman assumed … Continue reading
Offering Love to God
It is the avoda of davening which brings the comprehension of the brain into the emotional sensitivity of the heart – and (also brings) both of them together into the practical avoda of performing mitzvot with fear-of-Heaven and acquiring fine … Continue reading
The Mystic Mirror Darkly: Messianic Divinity Part 3
I’ve said numerous times before in other blog posts, that I’m becoming convinced that we cannot understand the teachings of the Jewish Messiah and his early disciples without some ability to look at those teachings through a Jewish mystical lens. … Continue reading
The Living Word of God: Messianic Divinity Part 2
According to this concept, God’s unknowable and divine will and wisdom (which are inseparable from His being) descended to be clothed in the corporal substance of commandments of Torah and ink in a book. This is not to say that … Continue reading
Failure to Escape
Rabbeinu Yonah, zt”l, teaches a lesson of teshuvah from a statement on today’s daf. “One who repeats one sin ten times has transgressed ten sins. We learn this from a nazir. A nazir gets a separate spate of lashes for … Continue reading
Seeking the Awe of Heaven
There are two approaches to the Bible that prevail in philosophical thinking. The first approach claims that the Bible is a naive book, it is poetry or mythology. As beautiful as it is, it must not be taken seriously, for … Continue reading
Searching for Sparks
At one time there were tzaddikim who would look into the soul of a disciple, see the place where the G-dly sparks were awaiting this soul and tell the disciple to go to that place to liberate those sparks. All … Continue reading
Beyond Reason
A mind directed entirely by its own reasoning will never be sure of anything. As good as the mind is at finding solutions and answers, it is even better at finding questions and doubts. The path of Torah is to … Continue reading
Drawing Near
The name of this week’s Torah reading, Korach, provokes an obvious question: It is written: “The name of the wicked shall rot,” and on this basis, our Sages state that a person should not be named after a wicked man. … Continue reading
The Messianic Tale
The third goal of the hasidic story was to rouse its hearers into action for the service of God. Several compilers of hasidic stories quoted the dictum by R. Elimelekh that ‘it is an auspicious sign for a person if, when he hears … Continue reading
