Hi friends,

This morning's session in Second Life went great! For the foreseeable future our Wednesday gatherings will be focusing on the Essential Rebbe Nachman pieces. We take turns reading a section and then discuss it. When we are ready we move on. These pieces contain great wisdom and offers us wonderful opportunities. We cover the same material in the morning and evening sessions. This way those who can only attend one of them will get all the printed material and those who can attend both will receive the benefits of repetition as well as the insights offered by the participants. I hope YOU will join us.

If you already have a Second Life persona you can come to our Shalom Center using this link: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Summer%20Paradise/209/77/21

If you are new to Second Life I encourage you to read over our introductory material here: http://yeshivabethhashem.org/SecondLife and follow the instruction for creating your free account. You can create an account and just log in for our meetings or you can explore this awesome virtual world. Contact me if you have questions or concerns.

Today's Topic for both the 10 AM AND 5 PM sessions:     

 

THE ESSENTIAL RABBI NACHMAN

Translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum

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FAITH

The world regards faith as something minor, but I consider faith as being of the greatest importance.

The way to faith is through simplicity, without sophistry or philosophy.

Sichot Haran #33

* * *

Believe in something

It is better to be a fool who believes in everything than to be so clever that you do not believe in anything.

If you believe in everything, some of your beliefs may be foolish but you will also believe in the truth. However, when a person is too clever and does not want to believe in anything, he may begin by ridiculing falsehood and folly but can easily end up so skeptical of everything that he even denies the truth.

Sichot Haran #103

* * *

There must be questions

There are many searching questions about God. But it is only fitting and proper that this should be so. Indeed, such questions enhance the greatness of God and show His exaltedness. God is so great and exalted that He is beyond our ability to understand Him. It is obvious ly impossible for us , with our limited human intelligence, to understand His ways . Inevitably there are things that baffle us, and this is only fitting. If God's ways were in accordance with the limits of our meager understanding, there would be no difference between His understanding and ours, and this is inconceivable.

Likutey Moharan II, 52

* * *

Believing is seeing

If you ask a believer to explain why he has faith, he will certainly not be able to give you a reason, because faith is applicable only where one does not understand the reason. Yet , because of his complete faith, whatever the believer himself believes in is perfectly clear and self-evident as if he sees it with his own eyes .

Likutey Moharan, I, 62

* * *

Rely on God

It is very good to rely on God completely. As each day begins, entrust your every movement and those of all who depend on you into God's hands, asking that everything should go according to His will.

You will then not need to worry about whether or not things are going as they should, because you are relying on God. If He wants things to go differently from the way you may wish, you will be willing to accept everything the way He wants it.

 

We hope to see you in Second Life!

Shalom

Tomorrow (Wednesday 2.6.13) at 10 AM and/or 5 PM (SLT: Pacific time) in Second Life we will be discussing THE ESSENTIAL RABBI NACHMAN Translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum

These are a series of short excerpts by the great tzadik on various topics. This should be an interesting series of gatherings.

We'll begin with a reading and discussion on Rebbe Nachman's teachings about emunah (faith)

If you'd like to read ahead you can read the text here:

http://azamra.org/Essential/faith.htm

 

If you already have a Second Life Presence GO HERE

If not GO HERE  for more information. If possible please set up your free account at least an hour before the gathering you plan to attend so you will have time learn basic movement etc.

 

We also meet on Shabbat (Saturdays) at 1 PM Pacific for general conversation, q & a etc.

These are weekly gatherings and YOU are welcome to join us.

Is Satan Real?

שמע ישראל ה 'הוא האלוהים שלנו הוא אחד Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad Hear, Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One.The Jewish Teachings of Rebbe Y'shua:   Is Satan Real? By John of AllFaith © 02.03.13 Also posted on my Website. We are convinced that the God of love, mercy and justice does not torture people as some maintain. But what about Satan? Is he real? There are innumerable creatures (beings created by God) both terrestrial and celestial. In the Tanakh (Isaiah chapter 14) we find a being mentioned who is generally considered to be Satan by the Christians. This being is called Lucifer in the text (in Hebrew: Heylel). Here is the question: Is this speaking of an individual being (as with the fallen angel Lucifer/Lucius) or something else. The rabbis typically view this section more contextually specific than Christians. The great Jewish teacher Rashi explains in his commentary that the day star, referenced here, is the planet Venus and that the one who dared to lift himself up is King Nebuchadnezzar, who practiced astrology and lashed out against the Elect. This passage certainly fits him as well as Lucius. While I would not wish to disagree with Rashi and our other rabbinim, I think there is more to it than this (not that this is incorrect, I agree with them as well). In the Book of Job we see a being named (or called) Satan coming before the throne of HaShem to challenge Job's emunah (faith). In Hebrew the word satan means opponent or adversary and so the rabbis often teach that this challenger was in a sense "a satan" opposing the righteous Job, but not necessarily HaSatan (THE Satan) as in a specific being. Some (not all by any means) say Job was challenged by his own inner struggle between good and bad and not by any literal adversary (I disagree). Others take this a bit more literally (as do I). Likewise some maintain that Rebbe Y'shua was challenged not by a being but by his own inner struggle. Again I disagree. Our understanding of Genesis is that God gave humanity an eternal choice to do good (yetzer tov) or evil (yetzer ra). Whatever temptation urges us towards evil is "a satan" and whatever urge draws us towards the good is "an angel" (malak). However we also know from Scripture that there are individual beings who are angels (Michael, Gabriel etc). This being the case, we believe there are also beings that are evil, demons. If so, it stands to reason (and agrees with Scripture) that they have hierarchies as do the angels. In my opinion then, Lucifer/Lucius is doubtless among these creatures and quite real. There remains a critical difference in our teachings however: While we acknowledge that Lucifer exists, he is in no way the equal of nor opposite to God. ALL beings serve the Will of the One God. God allows rebellion because it provides the opportunity for people to choose yetzer tov and thus draw ever closer to Him. Without challenges our service to HaShem would be meaningless. We need not fear Lucifer therefore. We have only to cling to Torah and we are safe. Shalom, ~ Yochanan (John of AllFaith) The Jewish Way of Rebbe Y'shua	Way of Rebbe Y'shua
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Another great Drybones:

Cartoon Sickness

 

Short notice notice I know, but our Oneg Shabbat gathering is starting now in Second Life. Come join us!