B"H

Based on Miriam's Own Your Light class:

This week we stayed inside Chapter 9 of the Tanya, and the timing became its own teaching.

The class fell on Gimmel Tammuz, the yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and so much of what we learned carries his message: that we are always connected to G-d, right here in our ordinary lives.

Watch the Class

Two Forces, One Heart

At the heart of the chapter are the two forces that live inside each of us. There is the divine soul, which rests in trust, pleasure, and expansiveness. And there is the animal soul, our survival self, which reaches for control, safety, and validation. Most of us know that inner battle very well, the feeling of being pulled in two directions at once. The Tanya does not ask us to pretend it is not there. It gives us two honest ways to work with it. The first is iscafia, a healthy subduing: not burying a feeling, but acknowledging it, gently placing it in a little box, and choosing to tend to it later so it does not take the driver's seat. The second, and the heart of the chapter, is is'hapcha, transformation: we turn toward the fear and the shame, and through the love of the divine soul, that very darkness becomes light.

The Love That Frees You

The Tanya describes two kinds of love. The first is a fiery love, full of passion, but it quietly assumes that G-d is far away. The second, and the higher one, is a calm, pleasurable love that rests in already being connected, no matter how we feel today. This was the Rebbe's message, and it is why the timing felt so right. We are not only spiritual when we are on fire. We are spiritual when we are grounded and present, with G-d right here in the room, even in the laundry and the bills. Take a quiet moment this week and let one question sit with you: where am I holding closure and calling it safety, and what opening is my soul gently asking for now?

Listen to This Teaching

This teaching is from Miriam's Own Your Light series. Live Kabbalah Students: Watch the full class here.

With love,
Miriam

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