Today’s video program from Nishmat Kol Chai women’s circle. This talk is about the power of the month of Shvat and Tu B’Shvat to help you renew yourself, spiritually, emotionally, and creatively. You CAN Start Over! Follow this link to view this 30 minute event on YouTube.
Topics for this week’s class: Land of Joy, Land of Wisdom, What is joy? What does Rebbe Nachman really teach about simcha? What is wisdom? Wine and Liquor, PhDs and MRSs and more…with some fascinating student questions and comments
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
class 8 The Land of Beautiful Women; The Land of (Free) Speech; The Good Point of Beauty and the Negative Point of Beauty, Are we Swayed and even Manipulated by Beauty?, What is Beauty?, The Worship of Beauty, Talking a lot and Speaking Eloquently–Do these Attributes Imply Wisdom? The Crazy Frenchman, and more
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
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.
These two original pieces by Debbie Rubinstein are from prompts for The Sophisticate and The Simpleton. Short but potent, they’ll make you think.
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?
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.
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
One of the biggest obstacles in the search for truth is other people, especially those who make fun of religion with sophisticated jokes… –The Advice Book
My current favorite Breslov tale is The Sophisticate and the Simpleton.(My favorite tale of Rebbe Nachman’s is always the one I’m reading at the moment.)
It’s easy to find parallel themes in the lessons in Likutey Moharan and the Rebbe’s stories. In class and b’chavrusa, we’ve been discussing how to have authentic, positive relationships. Especially with one’s self. The discussions are based on the quintessential Breslov teaching, lesson 282 in Likutey Moharan, known as Azamra.
At the end of the Azamra talk, we’ve been reading aloud from The Sophisticate and the Simpleton. This important yet humorous story offers a fascinating counterpoint and commentary on some of the themes of Azamra.
The Sophisticate
The Sophisticate is an expert in business, philosophy, and medicine.