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January 2021

Classes and Events

Debbie Rubinstein: Creative Writing from the Breslov Contemplative Writing Workshop

by chaya rivka z
written by chaya rivka z

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These two original pieces by Debbie Rubinstein are from prompts for The Sophisticate and The Simpleton. Short but potent, they’ll make you think.

 

What is Your Three-Cornered Shoe

by Debbie Rubinstein

The perfect shape: a triangle, it can be drawn inside a circumference or a square.
Seen as perfection, one can apply it to all those ” not so perfect ” end of stories ” anecdotes and make them adjust to touch in 3 points any surface.


The climbing of the first side gets me to the top only to slide down on the second side, hitting bottom to recover, maybe crawl back into the climbing again.
That has been life.
Ups, downs or maybe just ups if I push hard and turn that circle that surrounds me into another phase.


Continuing to grow up since childhood, looking for balance in that constant triangle, back and forth, that’s what life is all about.


Has the speed of that constant turning changed with age?

 

 

Letters to and from My Inner Sophisticate and Simpleton

By Debbie Rubinstein

My dear Sophisticate,


Are you done with the glamour and the glitter that you want us to see in you?
If so, do you think my simplicity could be of value to your crown?


Yes, Simpleton, I actually like your idea. You have that quality my crown was missing and the addition of that simplicity will contribute like a sophisticated attribute.


The Simpleton celebrated the connection with the Sophisticate and answered the letter with modesty and acceptance.
After all, he said, we live together, we might as well show it to the world.

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Audio Lessons & PodcastsClasses and Events

LISTEN to BRESLOV PODCAST: MASTER OF PRAYER CLASS 8 (Our desire for beauty, our desires in general, the 10 Martyrs, Speech, Immorality, Charity, and More)

by chaya rivka z
written by chaya rivka z

Topics for this week’s class: Land of Beautiful Women; Land of (Free) Speech, and more, powerfully relevant to what the World, the Jewish people as a nation and each person individually are going through during this unprecedented era. (Our desire for beauty, our desires in general, the 10 Martyrs, Speech, Immorality, Charity, and More)

You can listen to the recordings of previous classes, below:

class 1 Civilization, Money, Hitbodedut, Desire

class 2 The Land of Money, Chanukah Gelt, Educating and Rectifying, the Power of Imagination

class 3 Money and the Chashmonaim, Money as a Deity (Worshipping Money), The Messiah (Mashiach ben Yosef)

class 4 The Meaning of the Hand, Finding Yourself in Torah, The Priestly Blessing, Using Your Hands in Prayer, The Secret/Manifesting Wealth

class 5 The Sefirot & the Characters, The Wise Man, The Child, Finding Yourself in the Story

class 6 The Turbulent Hurricane, The Child, The Warrior, The Goal of Life, The Desire for Personal Honor, The Nasty Beggar, Finding yourself in the story and the story in you

class 7 The Land of Murder, The Land of Abundant Food, Murder, Soul Murder, Jealousy, Unlocking the Spiritual Nutrition in your Food, Refined Eating

Join me for Rebbe Nachman’s brilliant allegorical-Kabbalistic tale, The Master of Prayer. Free live call-in at 12:15 EST on Wednesdays. While all the Rebbe’s stories and teachings are relevant for all times, this is one in which the current American and global situation will positively reverberate throughout the tale! We travel with the Rebbe through various lands (the land where they worship money, the land where they worship physical strength, and so on) and meet characters that help us make sense of our own journeys, the Master of Prayer, the Warrior, the King, the Queen, and so on. Of course, it is also packed with psychospiritual exploration for us to delve into personally, and connect to emotionally, as well.

Sign up at BreslovWoman.org to receive class announcements via email, or join BreslovWoman Whatsapp or Signal for free daily mini-lessons and class announcements:

Follow this link to join the BreslovWoman WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/0K6yMTGZyDyBvUI0WMpDQP

Follow this link to join the BreslovWoman Signal group (same info as on WhatsApp): https://signal.group/#CjQKILZ7CG9Hd_hACuEnwv8Lcn2PGqqI2UGF8TUczdDGhKZgEhAUmiymv7jCxHVdMEpMN1Su

Or just call in on Wednesdays 712-770-4598 access code 144097# (If you receive Whatsapp or email notifications, you’ll find out what the topic is and whether or not class is scheduled.)

With joy,

Chaya Rivka

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Classes and Events

Diana Korzenik: Creative Writing from the Breslov Contemplative Writing Workshop

by chaya rivka z
written by chaya rivka z

Please sign up to receive emails via this blog (see the right sidebar for sign up) and/or to the whatsapp group where you will receive timely updates and daily Breslov audio mini-lessons click to join.

This powerful piece is from a prompt for The Sophisticate and The Simpleton, and the lessons we can learn from it about our own, personal three-cornered shoe. The author, “Diana Korzenik is a lauded writer, arts educator, and painter. She was the chair of the Department of Art Education at Massachusetts College of Art from 1972-1987, and in 2014, celebrated the acquisition of one of her paintings by the Brooklyn Museum.” (The Art Connection) She is also the author of Lithuania to Brooklyn: The Rabbi Daniel and Minnie Shapiro Family.” Diana has been a supporter of Breslov projects and books, a student of Breslov teachings for many years, and traveled to Uman with me and BRI Women in 2016.

The Three-Cornered Shoe

by Diana Korzenik

Each of us has a 3-cornered shoe. What is my 3-cornered shoe?

My “3 cornered shoe” is my misperception/ distortion in certain relationships that leads me to block  out the feeling of pain.   A 3- cornered shoe hurts. 

Like the simpleton I want to be happy with what I have “made.” What I have. The fruits of my efforts. 

Sometimes in my little world I am in the midst of a situation “that does not fit”—  like a 3 cornered shoe.

 I can’t even imagine how a 3 cornered shoe would look…but I can imagine how my foot would feel in a 3 cornered shoe. My foot would hurt. Do I do anything? Do I tell anyone? Do I do anything differently?  

What do I do? (as simpleton and sophisticate) Do I pretend I have mastered shoe-making? After all the sophisticate learned gold smithing fast, then he learned gem-cutting fast,  and I the shoemaker  who stayed working at  shoemaking should be doing better now..better  than making a three cornered shoe.

But I keep being proud my skills. instead I pray to refine my skills.

If my 3 cornered shoe-making is being drawn to certain hurtful people —its time I refine my skills, improve my shoe-making. Its time I stop saying of my work,  it is” sweet and perfect” as it is.  It is not even if the shoe makers wife says it is.   It will be  work to understand why my foot hurts in my 3 cornered shoe. It is time to see what I can do differently to avoid pain.

Diana Korzenik  Jan 19, 2021

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Classes and Events

Rebbe Nachman’s The Master of Prayer (This week, Beauty & Free Speech) Wed. January 20 Tale of Money, Kabbalah 7 Prayer

by chaya rivka z
written by chaya rivka z

Topics for this week’s class: Land of Beautiful Women; Land of (Free) Speech, and more, powerfully relevant to what the World, the Jewish people as a nation and each person individually are going through during this unprecedented era.

Please join me for The Master of Prayer this Wednesday, in our live phone class IyH. You don’t have to attend previous classes in order to attend, but if you have time, you can listen to the recordings of previous classes:

class 1 Civilization, Money, Hitbodedut, Desire

class 2 The Land of Money, Chanukah Gelt, Educating and Rectifying, the Power of Imagination

class 3 Money and the Chashmonaim, Money as a Deity (Worshipping Money), The Messiah (Mashiach ben Yosef)

class 4 The Meaning of the Hand, Finding Yourself in Torah, The Priestly Blessing, Using Your Hands in Prayer, The Secret/Manifesting Wealth

class 5 The Sefirot & the Characters, The Wise Man, The Child, Finding Yourself in the Story

class 6 The Turbulent Hurricane, The Child, The Warrior, The Goal of Life, The Desire for Personal Honor, The Nasty Beggar, Finding yourself in the story and the story in you

class 7 The Land of Murder, The Land of Abundant Food, Murder, Soul Murder, Jealousy, Unlocking the Spiritual Nutrition in your Food, Refined Eating

While all the Rebbe’s stories and teachings are relevant for all times, this is one in which the current American and global situation will positively reverberate throughout the tale! We travel with the Rebbe through various lands (the land where they worship money, the land where they worship physical strength, and so on) and meet characters that help us make sense of our own journeys, the Master of Prayer, the Warrior, the King, the Queen, and so on. Of course, it is also packed with psychospiritual exploration for us to delve into personally, and connect to emotionally, as well. See the flyer, below, for more information, class times, and call-in number.

The story will take a few weeks to unfold, and I will do my best to make time for your questions and comments in each class.

If you have never heard this story before: DO NOT MISS THIS PHONE-IN CLASS

With joy,

Chaya Rivka

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