Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh's blog
Posted in Rectifying the Sense of Sight on Jul 22nd, 2011
Shabbat in relation to the weekdays is as sight to hearing. Throughout the week Divine vibrations fill my heart. On Shabbat I see Godliness. In the Zohar we learn that the word Shabbat (שבת) depicts the secret of the eye. The three branches of its first letter, shin (ש), allude to the three Patriarchs and to [...]
Posted in Rectifying the Sense of Sight on Jul 16th, 2011
The Torah lists by name the non-kosher birds. One of them is the ra’ah, literally “the seer.” The sages explain: It stands in Babylonia and sees a corpse in the Land of Israel. Babylonia (בבל) means “confusion” (בלבול). There God confused the tongues of the builders of the Tower of Babel. The Ba’al Shem Tov explains that [...]
Posted in Rectifying the Sense of Sight on Jul 10th, 2011
In Hebrew, the idiom “to see someone’s face” can mean either to appease him or to fight him. After winning the wrestling bout with Esau’s archangel, Jacob says, “for I have seen the angel of God face to face and my soul has been saved.” Several of the traditional commentaries explain that seeing face to [...]
Posted in Rectifying the Sense of Sight on Jul 3rd, 2011
Each month of the year is associated with a sense. The sense of the month of Tamuz is sight. The month of Tamuz is the time of the year to rectify our sense of sight. The rectification of sight (on the spiritual plane, which manifests on the physical plane as good eyesight) entails two complementary [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Jun 9th, 2011
First put on your right shoe, then your left shoe, then bind your left shoe, and finally bind your right shoe. That’s the way Jews do it. The Torah was given to sanctify the mundane. Shoes allow us to walk the face of the earth, to contact physicality and move around as we wish freely. [...]
Posted in Questions in the Bible on Jun 6th, 2011
Questions come from doubt. Doubt comes from sin. Sin comes from illusion. The Torah was given to save us from false illusions. Illusion is in the mind. The primordial sin, a physical act, was perpetrated from hand to mouth (taking and eating the forbidden fruit). Doubt is in the heart. From the heart doubt enters [...]
Posted in Questions in the Bible on May 24th, 2011
King David asked the question “Who am I?” The Bible describes him as “reddish with beautiful eyes and goodly appearance.” Each of us has a soul-root. Ultimately, we all descend from Adam, and as such we each are rooted in one of his (spiritual) limbs. The soul of Adam is the origin of the middle [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 18th, 2011
Never give up. It’s never too late. Apparent irreversible damage is also reversible. Even when it’s all over it’s not over. Life goes on. Maybe it will be through messianic genetic engineering. But however it be, we believe that the dead will come back to life. Regarding our present world order, Rebbe Nachman said that [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 25th, 2011
Both Purim and Pesach commemorate the redemption of the Jewish People. Both begin with the letter pei (פ), which means “mouth.” Informing Miriam and Aaron of the unique level of their brother Moses’ prophecy, God says: “I speak to him mouth to mouth.” The phrase “mouth to mouth” alludes to the two redemptions of Purim [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 23rd, 2011
The sages are called “the eyes of the congregation.” They are visionaries, they are guides, and they open our eyes to see truth. In the World of Creation, the realm of pure intellect, the sages are visionaries. They gaze into the future and convey to us, almost like prophets, what’s in store for us – [...]