The Library

It says in the Sefarim that Zos Chanukah is the G'mar - the sealing of the judgement and the last chance for those who still haven't been able to do Teshuvah since Rosh Hashana... I wanted to share something from personal experience. For years, I had difficulty to avo...

We all know the story. . . or do we?The Greeks worshiped beauty, feats of strength and physical prowess, and, of course, pleasure. They were instituting their philosophies rather forcefully on the Jewish people, and they were having a tremendous effect on the Jews. Many J...

Hoshana Raba is the last chance of the year to make a difference in what is decreed for us in the coming year. Some people stay up all night learning, and some of the Teffilos are said with the Nussach of the Yomim Noraim. What does this mean to us in terms of Teshuvah?...

First the problem: We are sincere people who want to stand before Hashem and tell Him that we really do not want this lust in our lives. That "I want to do Your will, not mine." We want to stand on these days of the Yomim Noraim, free of sin, free of this lust. We want t...

Dear GYE Family, I hope everyone had an easy fast and a meaningful and uplifting Yom Kippur. Now as we move from the Yemei HaDin (which were also Yemei HaSimcha) into the days of Z'man Simchaseinu, I'd like to share a few thoughts with the chevra, which have special signi...

I noticed a very interesting thing in one of the Yom Kipppur Piyutim we say tonight. "We are like raw material in the hands of the creator... When he wants, he makes the vessel big, and when he wants, he makes it shorter (than normal)". "We are like stones in the hand...

Yomim Noraim is not meant to be a time of pressure. It's a time of great simcha and opportunity. First, on Rosh Hashana, we coronate the King over us. Then on Yom Kippur, we get forgiven for the whole year's sins, like a filthy child whose father gives him a shower once...

We are told to pray on Rosh Hashana to be given life for the rest of the coming year and to beg Hashem for a good, easy, and successful year. But that is poison for myself and the addicts I know. Fortunately, there is a dissenting (or maybe clarifying) opinion: R. ...

I learned two halachos recently that relate to some beautiful things about recovery. The first one is: If chometz is sent to you in the mail on Pesach, you do not have to accept it. Basically, this is the same message that a friend of mine in the SLAA group says: "If som...

QUESTION: In Elul, we blow the shofar every weekday, except one day - the day before Rosh Hashana. Why? ANSWER: The shofar represents our collective crying out to G-d. A cry from such a deep place in us that there are no words. A cry for connection, to be seen, to be ...

For today's Chizuk e-mail, I point you to an inspiring article written by Tzvi Fishman on his Arutz Sheva Blog: At the center of this month’s Torah readings is Yosef HaTzaddik. The Holy Zohar teaches that Yosef earned the esteemed title of Tzaddik because he guarded the...

R' Nachman of Breslov writes "Because the organ of the Brit is associated with the sefirah of Yesod, which is the foundation of all of the sefirot (Divine illuminations), in atoning for sexual transgressions a person rectifies his entire spiritual blueprint". The Sfat Eme...

Taken from Tzvi Fishman's Blog on Arutz Sheva, at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/4 Slaughter the Trojan Horse! Everyone's final judgment is hermetically sealed and handed over to the Heavenly Tribunal on Hoshana Rabbah. Many Jews will stay up all nigh...

On Pesach we say "Bikesh Lavan La'akor es Hakol" - "Lavan tried to destroy everything" (even more than Pharaoh). The question is asked, where do we find in the scripture that Lavan tried to destroy everything? The holy sefer, the "Ma'or Vashemesh" writes that Lavan is sym...

Chanukah is an opportune time to work on sexual purity. Here are some excerpts from an article by Tzvi Fishman. At the center of the Greek plan to uproot the Torah from Israel was their strategy to lure the Jews into sexual transgression. The Jewish People's belief that G...

In honor of Lag Ba'Omer, we will bring some excerpts from the Holy Zohar of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. (Tanslations taken from www.jewishsexuality.com) Zohar, Bereshit 94a Another began his exposition by referring to the verse, "Unless the L-rd had been my help, my soul w...

The Seder is not just a memorial to events of the distant past - it is a dynamic process of freedom from the challenges of the present. We are slaves. Slaves to our own addictions, habits, inhibitions, fears, cynicism and prejudices. These self-appointed pharaohs are laye...

Excerpts below taken from an article on www.jewishsexuality.com Our Sages tell us that we were redeemed from Egypt due to the merit of the two mitzvot (commandments) which G-d commanded us to perform on the eve of our departure - the Paschal sacrifice and the brit milah. ...