Awakening with Rabbi Ami Silver: Recent Episodes
Shefa Podcast Network
Join Rabbi Ami as he shares from the wellsprings of Jewish spiritual teaching and practice, and guides us on a path of healing, transformation, and awakening to experiencing the Divine.
Pesach Seder Prep
Hallel-Nirtzah: The Night That Shines Like Day
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder Prep
Barech: Embodying That Which We Hope For
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder Prep
Tzafun: Tasting the Hidden Light
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder Prep
Shulchan Orech: Being Okay
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder prep
Maror-Korech: The Other Side of Bitterness
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
An overarching kavannah/intention for the Pesach seder - being free, making space for our pain, leaning into our weakness and redeeming it.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder Prep, Steps 7 and 8
Motzi-Matza: Receiving Life Through and Beyond Constraints
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder Prep #6
Rachta - Cleansing Ourselves from Limiting Beliefs
We've told our story. Now we have a chance to bathe in the faith that our redemption is real.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Passover Seder Prep #5 Maggid - The Questions That Free Us
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder prep
Here we pick up the whole matzah for all to see and break it into two. This sets into motion the redemptive process that grows specifically from brokenness, and develops into the greater, hidden light that is nurtured through the lived experience of each and every one of us.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Pesach Seder Prep
Karpas is the true beginning of the Seder experience, when we encounter the paradox of this night - the newness and pain, rebirth and suffering, growing and drowning. Here we begin to feel the expansive space that holds the totality of this moment, and becomes the ground from which we can hope to be redeemed.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
The second stage of the Pesach seder offers us the opportunity to put our intentions for the night into practice.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
Spiritual guidance and preparation for the Passover seder. Finding Seder/"order" amidst chaos, creating holiness in the here and now.
The Sages teach that the salvation of Purim has something to do with Moshe being born and dying in the month of Adar. They also teach that Purim is the day of true acceptance of Torah, when the event of Mount Sinai was ultimately fulfilled. In this very personal rendering, R' Ami explores the themes of birth and death, of traumatic separation and loss of self, and the possibility of a Torah that emerges when a self is expressed on the other side of that trauma.
Jacob's character is one of paradox and pulling polarities. He is the youngest and the oldest, he is a man of truth and is embroiled in deceit, he is Yaakov and is Yisrael. Here we explore the competing energies that pull us in different directions, and the aspects of ourselves that hold polarized identities, and the possibility of touching a wholeness that encompasses both ends of the spectrum.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
"Yitzchak went out to be a bush in the field" - Immersing Ourselves in the Field of Experience A brief teaching and body scan to invite us into attentive presence.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
We leave Yom Kippur with a strong awareness of our mortality, and we enter Sukkot to rejoice within our temporary home, under the passing shadows, within this temporal life.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Our liturgy speaks a lot about God as King or Melech, and even more intensively during the High Holidays. What is a Melech? How might we relate to this encounter with God when we have never stood before a King? Based on a Kabbalistic teaching on the meaning of the word Melech, this is an exploration of a way to come into contact with the visceral sense of a Melech within our own experience of being alive.
Shofar: Broken Whole
How do we bring our parts together to stand before our Creator?
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RW7XP05U6O5L_IuLaVrGe3Qc_LP1pdeE6epsoowk1ZE/edit
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Tisha b'Av - a day for questions with no answers.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Shefa's logo is the "Returning Light Meditation" by Avraham Loewenthal.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Thoughts and teachings on the Three Weeks, and the spiritual stance of learning to be with all that is not right.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gIYF4BJ1_e-idp-qyTEUlU1hX_i3fKT3QBnMmuFUQ9Y/edit?usp=sharing
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Shefa's logo is the "Returning Light Meditation" by Avraham Loewenthal.
Audio is by David Kwan.
"Moshe didn't know who was speaking to him..." -- Bamidbar Rabba 14:20
"'And nobody knows Moshe's burial place'... Even Moshe doesn't know where he was buried" -- Sotah 14a
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14j2Q09ByioGFJJZiDy2jhP4ePuW7Xn8tuOYMar1yEI4/edit
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Shefa's logo is the "Returning Light Meditation" by Avraham Loewenthal.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Dipping into the Torah that can carry us through. This piece from the Piaseczner Rebbe speaks of accessing a Self that exists beyond and within, a point of contact with the Divine in our root, that paves the way for a radical new framework of what it looks like to live with faith.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Nasso תר״ץ
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from theHadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Shefa's logo is the "Returning Light Meditation" by Avraham Loewenthal.
Audio is by David Kwan.
In honor of Lag Ba'omer, thoughts on making space for beauty to emerge, for secrets to be noticed and heard, and for love to be sought after.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d66bYRaVxAy2lnWPS_zYiyOIpooL17RkHjPEdFGr9Lc/edit
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
With Lag Be'omer approaching, Rabbi Ami guides us through the story of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai, exploring its connections to sefirat ha'omer, the tragedy of Rebbe Akiva's students, the hidden dimensions of Torah - and ultimately, the potential for healing that this story contains. Technical difficulties affected the sound quality of this class. However, we decided to share it for its timely content. The audio evens out after the first 7 or so minutes. Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Yzrf4mniECN8H_hlOkJ4VF7882T2AeX_QB6gv44QJsc/edit?usp=sharing
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
On Seder night we’re obligated to “see ourselves in every generation, as if we left Egypt.” This is not just a metaphor - it is offering a practical, experiential guideline to help us engage in a story from our past, and to participate in liberating ourselves in the present. Based on a close reading of the book of Exodus and a powerful teaching from the Piaseczner Rebbe, this class explores the liberating power of seeing and being seen, and the redemptive power of sharing a quality of vision with our children - those who we are raising, and those who are living within each one of us.
Sources for further awakening
Many of us throughout the world are staying home these days due to quarantine and general guidelines around Coronavirus. Here Ami shares some thoughts and teachings about making a spiritual home, turning our house into a place of prayer, and our shared world into a house for God.
Dive into the everlasting nature of Purim, the redemption that takes place in light and shadows.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CsTV0u9iUTSETy28sFk1ixM_6W4t3L2h43aiclKXq2I/edit?usp=sharing
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from theHadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 39
In this session we continue our exploration of the postures of prayer with the Maharal and a stunning piece from the Zohar, describing how we fall before God, and are lifted by none other than God.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cOyQS0h0uwS_g3y_9DbSaJd8EHLOTHd_xZesUuxNgic/edit?usp=sharing
Episode 38
Is bowing just an add-on to our prayers, a nice ritual that accompanies parts of tefillah? Or is it part and parcel of tefillah itself? What would that look like?
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tSMYjxAJGVGTA0BCBOh5Km-4-8xVYc29Fj0eDFNOZSE/edit?usp=sharing
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from theHadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 37
We are so used to making brachot, to saying blessings as we go through our daily tasks and in our prayers. But what is a bracha? In this class we explore the deeper dimensions of what a bracha is, and what it might mean to engage in the practice of making and saying brachot in the moments of our lives.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vQ_Xqcgjck67IxQ_PaS8_hhAW5AmuYC4A2D4KNntNVg/edit?usp=sharing
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 36
“Tefillah is a space for me to not exist in a splintered reality… a place to unify my reality.. in Rebbe Nachman’s words, ‘to make the entire tefillah one’”. In this episode of Awakening, we explore approaching Tefillah as a way of coming into contact with our source of life, through savoring and attaching ourselves to the experience. Join Rav Ami as he guides us through teachings from Rav Kook and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kt15BhAm3waWRn8VrB8eWiSvaKCIBxZOsf37kJg4Lwg/edit?usp=sharing
* Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rav Daniel Kohn. Help support him by purchasing his music.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 35
In the eyes of the Hasidic masters, we do not pray to God—we pray with God. Join Rav Ami as he guides us through teachings on tefillah from the Baal Shem Tov, Rav Pinchas of Koretz, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and the Piaseczner Rebbe.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kx2DBx2HvX-ty-G5I-LdaKhE73iSuRUm23ckXezlcFc/edit?usp=sharing
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rav Daniel Kohn. Help support him by purchasing his music.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Join Rav Ami as he guides us in a kavanah for taking three steps backward and forward, inward and outward, to enter into prayer in Presence.
Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rav Daniel Kohn. Help support him by purchasing his music.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 34
Can we really stand in prayer before our Creator? Is it possible to approach God in our humanness, or do we leave our shortcomings behind when we show up to daven? This week, Rabbi Ami shares the sources behind the approach to tefillah - taking three steps back and forth, and the opening words of the amidah - to discover the possibility of bridging the impossible gap.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivvo3JZjLhkEuvnd0doldsH3oQu5hnt4wGQCIpqcKuY/edit?usp=sharing
Please support this Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rav Daniel Kohn. Help support him by purchasing his music.
Audio is by David Kwan.
A meditation on joining together with God, in Presence, based on a teaching from the Piaseczner Rebbe.
Please support Rabbi Ami's teaching and this podcast, designating “Awakening” with your contribution: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 34
While much of the language and forms of prayer tend to be outward-directed, tefillah is an invitation to turn inward, to cultivate an internal space in which we can meet ourselves together with the Divine. This teaching from the Piaseczner Rebbe helps guide us into that space.
Sources: Aish Kodesh, Ki Teitzeh ת״ש
Please support this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
A guided meditation on opening the space of the heart - makom halev - as the space for prayer.
Please support this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rav Daniel Kohn. Help support him by purchasing his music.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 33
Our primary sources point to prayer as a prophetic practice - the direct meeting between human beings and their Creator. The fixed prayers we have are based on this direct communication, and are an attempt and opportunity to reclaim that connection. We’ll explore these themes with the help of Leonard Cohen and the Piaseczner Rebbe.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZLL5kyyw0VXYAUTwXFl7XZr0QZ8ybGR3bMWfNEi6y9U/edit?usp=sharing
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 32
This week we continue to explore the entryway into tefilla, and look at the heart as the place of prayer, the locus for encountering ourselves together with the Divine.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aJ52Ts6LvEiea-EPIGCO-YSya8GBIqgcOv8nh8TpDvU/edit?usp=sharing
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 31
The Mishnah teaches that the basic orientation to prayer is to bring ourselves into presence, to align ourselves and let our attention rest in the here and now. Here, Rabbi Ami explores the underpinnings of this practice, from the Torah through the Mishnah and into its practical application in preparing ourselves for prayer.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kxS1EBqaSDHrDaMJD0zofTgYTRtlXFVku-VkQJQDveI/edit?usp=sharing
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 30
Prayer is the centerpiece of our daily spiritual practice, and as we’ve been exploring in the previous sessions, it’s at the heart of what it means to be human. But is it a mitzvah? Is prayer actually a command, or is it something else? Rabbi Ami contemplates the nature of prayer and the relationship between human instinct, creative purpose, and religious obligation.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s_K3yKIMDMlTvgGNEnLu11rJarzusabGrYHJGt81znA/edit?usp=sharing
* This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 28
On this episode of Awakening, Rabbi Ami explores prayer as part of our basic identity as human beings. The Jewish tradition teaches that we are born from the prayer of the universe. This is not merely a spiritual or mythic message - it carries a key to understanding our place in the evolutionary process, and guiding us in how we may take part in our purpose as part of this grand ecosystem.
Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CCtdqR4bhdO3wMs1MbUuacRAlhRRk5wZ0of6dzW71Fs/edit?usp=drivesdk
* This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 027
What are the roots of prayer? Where does tefillah come from - in the universe, in the human psyche? The Rabbis identify prayer as emerging from the very fabric of Creation itself, speaking through our own being. Rabbi Ami shares his insight and his deep intuition in this continuation of this new series.
Sources: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HKSKtd-0oR6BzxFhaDi9zR1eK21T8UJc4XV1b4CAz9A
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
027
We often translate Tefillah as “prayer”, but what is the meaning of this word in its original form? This class explores a number of uses of this word throughout the Torah, and the way that its meaning is refracted through those stories and their interpretations. Once we can uncover some of the meanings of this word, we can begin to ask - how do we engage in Tefillah? Sources:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11JpDQ3vcNUWYaWw-Gl-pW9lo8ZXiLeoUdNhMqKnBMvU
Episode 026
This is the first class Rabbi Ami ever gave in the Piaseczner Rebbe’s writings. It’s a broad introduction to the Rebbe’s life and writings, including a broad overview of the Rebbe’s various sefarim, historical background about the Rebbe’s life, stories about the Rebbe and his family, and a biographical sketch. The class ends with a framing of the Rebbe’s teachings through a powerful piece from Aish Kodesh.
Sources: Aish Kodesh, parshat Yitro
In honor of David HaMelech, the end of the seal, prayers for salvation and redeeming the beauty of being alive.
The central practice of Yom Kippur is vidui - confession of wrongdoings. What is the goal of this? Is it make us feel guilty and ashamed? How does this lead us to teshuva or closeness to God? On this episode of Awakening, Rabbi Ami explores the role of vidui and teshuva on Yom Kippur, and look to Rebbe Nachman of Breslov to help guide us through its transformative process.
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
“When we blow the shofar, we ourselves don’t make a sound; we express the breath of our hearts, “the voice of my Beloved is pounding…” it’s the Divine voice within our hearts, screaming to us, to give it space to be revealed… that is the sound of the shofar”
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Rosh Hashana תרפ״ו
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Where does Teshuva begin? Where can we turn to draw on faith? In this piece for Rosh Hashana, the Piaseczner reframes Teshuva as tuning into the frequency of life, and Emunah as being a platform for the Divine. Learn along with Reb Ami in part one of a two part series.
Source: Derech Hamelech, תרפ״ו
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 025 Rosh Hashana is a day of awe - the kind of awe that comes from closeness, and a revealed encounter with our Creator. In this piece brought by Rabbi Ami, the Piaseczner Rebbe explores the nature of this revelation, and points us inward to discover the meeting point with God within our own prayers, through our own voice.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Rosh Hashana, ״קולי שמעת אל תעלם אזנך לרוחתי לשועתי״
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 024
This is a teaching on exile, the exile of the soul, of the world and of the Divine itself. Oftentimes we think that teshuva - the return to God - is about overcoming our own shortcomings, and repenting for our sins and misdeeds. But the Piaseczner Rebbe reframes teshuva, not as a narrowly focused battle with ourselves, but as something much more fundamental: our deep need and desire to return home. Beneath all of our prayers, there is a single, persistent prayer, “God, why have You abandoned me?” If we can feel into the painful reality of this separation, it can become the corridor to lead us back together, to walk together with God, even in exile, and to come home. As always, Rabbi Ami masterfully navigates these questions and ideas, and more. (This recording was adapted from a preexisting video and therefore has lower sound quality than usual. However, we felt that the power of the content outweighs the audio levels, and hope that you feel similarly.)
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Rosh Hashana first night, תרצ״א
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 023
In this continuation of the Piaseczner Rebbe’s teaching on prayer and Torah learning, we explore two kinds of pleasure on the spiritual path - the pleasure of grasping for something that you cannot grasp, the experiences that give us greater hunger for more; and the pleasure of integrating our experiences of the unknown, and coming to know something deeply in our bodies and minds. Join Rabbi Ami’s teaching as the Rebbe brings us closer to both of these modes of being, and offers us a map to build a bridge between them.
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 022
In this piece from Derech Hamelech, the Piaseczner Rebbe guides us on the search for wholeness in our spiritual path. In prayer, we can encounter our wholeness, can experience an undifferentiated light that surrounds us in its totality. Torah study is the search to come to know that light, to recover our wholeness and absorb it into the particular vessels of our body and mind.
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This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 21
The Piaseczner Rebbe’s Hashkata meditation is a step-by-step practice with detailed instructions for developing our inner workings (middot). It is the work of quieting the constant stream of thoughts, cultivating positive qualities in ourselves, and being our own best parent. Rabbi Ami guides us through this practice, and places it in the broader lens of the Rebbe’s teachings.
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This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
On Tisha B’Av, we ask unanswerable questions. We gaze into the wounds of the world and don’t turn away from the pain. Rather we search for ways to be with it, and find a way to rebuild through it and with it. This Torah from the Aish Kodesh is about showing us a path forward from within the darkness.
In this powerful piece from Aish Kodesh, the Piaseczner leads us into deep questions about suffering. From within the darkness, he shines a path for us towards finding connection, empathy, hope and care not despite - but within the pain. This is a season to pay attention to the wounds of the world, to find a way to live with it and build from it.
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This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 020
This short piece from the Piaseczner Rebbe’s journal offers us a powerful invitation to experience prayer in intimate connection with the natural world, and all of Creation. After reading through this piece to unpack its meaning, Rabbi Ami ends with a brief meditation to apply the Rebbe’s words in practice.
Sources: Tzav Vezeiruz 18
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Please take a moment to complete our listener survey so we can help improve our offerings, and get to know more about those learning with Rabbi Ami: https://forms.gle/KU9sd25CwiMeuUSA8
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This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 019 A great grandmother who davened in a tallis and received Hasidim looking for brachot and guidance; another whom Hasidim flocked to to listen to her teachings; the Rebbe’s wife who wrote a commentary on a Hasidic sefer and edited the Rebbe’s own Kabbalistic writings. This episode explores the female figures in the Piaseczner’s family who stood out as spiritual teachers. Rabbi Ami shares the scant stories we have about these women, as well as the Rebbe’s poignant writings about his wife, to learn about these women and to uncover a deeper layer of understanding their impact on the Rebbe's teachings about the rise of the Divine feminine.
Please take a moment to complete our listener survey so we can help improve our offerings, and get to know more about those learning with Rabbi Ami: https://forms.gle/KU9sd25CwiMeuUSA8 * This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 018
"Kabbalah bent the heavens so that a person could glimpse the Divine through their mind and intellect… but Hasidut spread the heavens out even into the street, the house, the attic and the basement, and crowned the divine within the human being."
In the final episode of this series, the Piaseczner articulates the radical shift in the way that Hasidic teachings relate to the body and the physical world. Whereas Kabbalistic literature speaks of the body as a parable for Divine reality, in the writings of the Hasidic masters the body is not a parable, it is an emergent Divine expression that is not distinct from what exists "on high." Rabbi Ami ends this episode and series with a powerful story and passage from the Piaseczner's own life and experience that illustrate this path of avodah/devotion in practice.
Sources: Mevo Hashe'arim ch.4, Tzav Vezeiruz 29
Please take a moment to complete our listener survey so we can help improve our offerings, and get to know more about those learning with Rabbi Ami: https://forms.gle/KU9sd25CwiMeuUSA8
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 017
In the next episode of this series, the Piaseczner guides us to our inner experience as the locus for accessing God. The body, senses and emotions are the primary place to turn our attention towards; they are the field in which our spiritual work takes place.
Sources: Mevo Ha-she’arim ch.3
Please take a moment to complete our listener survey so we can help improve our offerings, and get to know more about those learning with Rabbi Ami: https://forms.gle/KU9sd25CwiMeuUSA8
*
This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
We are honored to re-release one of Rabbi Ami's first episode's as a bonus episode. This is one of the Piaseczner’s final teachings from the Aish Kodesh, which he taught in honor of the yahrzeit of his wife Rochel Chaya Miriam (10 Tammuz). In this teaching, the Rebbe explores the meaning of Miriam’s death, and Moshe’s striking of the rock, through the Kabbalistic lens of feminine and masculine models of Divine interaction. The Piaseczner offers a radical reading of this story and overturns the traditional models, pointing to the desire from below, the feminine quality that emerges from within the earth, as the more potent and necessary model for reaching God. Sources: Aish Kodesh, Hukkat (תש״ב)
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This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.
Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.
Audio is by David Kwan.
Episode 016
“... and this world itself and all of its matters, is also a rung and quality of Divine light…”
“... the spiritual work must not be to merely save the soul and neglect the body, but rather to sanctify the body as well until it too becomes soul; and the light of holiness that a person experiences, they must not hide from their body...”
In this third part of this series, Rabbi Ami keeps us learning about the revolutionary and evolutionary teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his students, through the lens of the Piaseczner Rebbe’s Mevo Ha-Shearim. Here the Piaseczner speaks deeply to the Divine reality that penetrates all of earthly reality, and all human life. The class ends with the Rebbe’s own account of turning away from the crowds of people he was teaching to speak to the Universe, to communicate with the natural world, that knows the Divine reality that courses through it in the full and intimate way that the Rebbe is trying to share.
Sources: Mevo Ha-Shearim ch.3 and ch.1; Tzav Ve-Zeiruz 48
Episode 015
“... and why should the body be considered any less than the mind?... isn’t the primary purpose of Hasidut to reveal the light that is within lowness? To show that it too is holy?”
The second part of this series explores the Piaseczner’s evolutionary vision of God’s further manifestation through physical reality. The Baal Shem Tov’s teachings are not merely novel ideas brought to the world by a unique individual. They are an expression of a new unfolding in reality, a new stage of Divine revelation that makes God accessible in new ways and allows for the Torah’s own words to be understood more deeply. This has great implications for the path of avodah - of practice - and how it relates to our thoughts, emotions and embodied lives.
Sources: Mevo Ha-Shearim, chapter 3
Episode 014
The Baal Shem Tov recorded a conversation with the Mashiach in which he asked, “when will you come?” The answer was not too promising, but it spurred the Baal Shem Tov to teach a new path of living, learning and devotion. This is part one of a multi-part series by Rabbi Ami that explores the path of the Baal Shem Tov as articulated by the Piaseczner Rebbe in his work, Mevo Ha-Shearim. The Rebbe puts forth an understanding of Hasidut as part of a continuous, unfolding spiritual evolution over the ages. These next few classes will unpack the Rebbe’s articulation of what makes Hasidut unique, what is its core mission, and can we walk this path of Divine connection in our earthly, embodied lives.
Episode 013
There is a Torah that is taught to everyone equally, a Torah that is written in books and can be accessed by all. But there is also a Torah that is a direct communication from the Divine to the individual heart, an intimate, secret teaching that every person must seek to hear and learn through their own experience.
In this teaching from the Aish Kodesh, the Piaseczner Rebbe opens a path for avodah, for the practice of creating a space for this Torah to be received and cultivated.
Sources: Aish Kodesh, Ki Teitzeh ת״ש
"In truth, all pleasure and enjoyment in the world, of any kind, are nothing other than God's own joy and pleasure." — The Piaseczner Rebbe
In this teaching for Shavuot, the Piaseczner Rebbe invites us to join God in experiencing pleasure and joy. The Rebbe outlines the contours of pleasure - those experiences that distance us from God, and those that bring us closer - and offers a paradigm shift in which all pleasure, and all forms of joy are at their source a moment of uniting with God. The work is one of developing a greater awareness of this and allowing our contact with the Divine to begin to inform and build our lives around this awareness. Finally, the Rebbe ties this to the essence of receiving Torah and the moment of revelation at Sinai.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Shavuot Leil Aleph (תרפ״ה)
The path through Sefirat Ha’omer to Shavuot is a process of self-refinement, of coming into contact with the myriad parts of our personality that compose the sum total. But how do we orient ourselves toward this work? Is self-development about striving to reach at a new plateau? Are we reaching outward toward a higher goal? Sometimes the outward focus can actually work against us, it can make our goals unattainable, as we search for things that don’t pertain to who we really are.
In this episode, Rabbi Ami explores the process of Sefirat Ha’omer through the particular lens of this week’s middah - yesod - and its connection to the quality of tzaddik. We learn a piece from the Piaseczner Rebbe’s journal that challenges our ideas of what it means to be a tzaddik, and offers an alternative to the all too common self-deprecating and alienating approach to spiritual work.
Sources: Tzav Vezeiruz 24
Episode 012 In the second part of this series, Rabbi Ami continues to illustrate the Piaseczna Rebbe’s framework for how Torah, tefilla and spiritual work can serve to lift and support us, and leave a lasting impact in our lives. This teaching ends with a powerful vision of what took place at Mount Sinai, and how Torah can be revealed through us - its recipients.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Noach (תר״צ)
Episode 011
For many of us, our meaningful spiritual moments seem to exist in a vacuum. They happen to us, and then quickly dissipate, leaving us wondering where they went, and what value they truly are in the grand scheme of our lives. The Piasaczner Rebbe was dedicated to teaching us ways to remedy this, to cultivate these powerful experiences and train ourselves to absorb them into our lives. Transformation cannot truly happen without a conscious effort to integrate our experiences. This is the first of two sessions that will explore this path, offering a framework for understanding this avodah and some practical guidelines for engaging with it.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Noach (תר״צ)
Episode 011
Rabbi Ami continues his exploration of the Piaseczna Rebbe’s essay, “How to Learn Works of Hasidut” with the second part of a two-part series. There, the Rebbe expands his exploration of the soul’s composition in order to guide us towards a deeper understanding of ourselves, and to help us find our own soul’s resonance in the teachings of Kabbalah and Hasidut. This is a remarkable framing of the nature of spiritual learning and the personal process that it entails.
Sources: Chovat Hatalmidim, Shlosha Ma’amarim 1
Episode 010
Many people are drawn to Hasidic teachings and spirituality, but few are taught how to engage with these texts and what the path of avodah (spiritual work) looks like in practice. The Piaseczna Rebbe was devoted to guiding people on the path of Hasidut, which he believed was a continuation of the path of the prophets. In this first of a two part series, Rabbi Ami delves into an essay in which the Rebbe guides us in how to approach Hasidic and Kabbalistic texts in a way that will lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves in relation to our Creator.
Sources: Chovat Hatalmidim, Shlosha Ma’amarim 1
Episode 009
Where have all the prophets gone? Where do we hear God’s voice in our day and age? In this piece from Derech Hamelech, the Piaseczner Rebbe probes these questions and offers a path of hearing the Divine voice through our learning and our listening. He also offers a novel approach on the role of a tzaddik and the process of being helped in our own spiritual path.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Shemot (תרפ״ט), Mevo Hashearim ch.1
Episode 008
Rabbi Ami continues his teaching of the Piaseczner Rebbe’s framing of mitzvot as a path towards unifying the body and soul. Here the Piaseczner goes deeper into the spiritual and Kabbalistic underpinnings behind this approach that touches on the core of who we are, what we are made of, and what it means to be alive.
Episode 007
Rabbi Ami begins with a meditation from the Piaseczner Rebbe’s journal on the limits of life in a body, and the potential for the soul to live on by transmitting its teachings to the next generation. We then enter a teaching on the relationship between body and soul, and the unique path of uniting the two that is offered through mitzvot. This is the first of two classes on this teaching from Derech Hamelech.
Sources: Tzav Vezeiruz 1; Derech Hamelech, Parshat Toldot (תר״צ)
Episode 006
The path of teshuva, of returning to God, is inherently fraught. How can a person create change within themselves? Aren’t we ultimately stuck with the same personality and makeup that led us into our current state to begin with? By mapping out the Kabbalistic levels of the soul and the vision of Creation, and then translating these concepts into accessible, familiar aspects of our own experience, the Piaseczner shows us a model for true transformation at a root level.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Nasso (תרצ״ג)
Episode 005
In this piece, the Rebbe speaks about connecting to the root of our being, and drawing from the highest Self, from which all “Self” emerges.
Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Nasso (תר״צ)
Episode 004
This is one of the Piaseczner’s final teachings from the Aish Kodesh, which he taught in honor of the yahrzeit of his wife Rochel Chaya Miriam (10 Tammuz). In this teaching, the Rebbe explores the meaning of Miriam’s death, and Moshe’s striking of the rock, through the Kabbalistic lens of feminine and masculine models of Divine interaction. The Piaseczner offers a radical reading of this story and overturns the traditional models, pointing to the desire from below, the feminine quality that emerges from within the earth, as the more potent and necessary model for reaching God.
Sources: Aish Kodesh, Hukkat (תש״ב)
Episode 003
The Piaseczner Rebbe managed to create a monumental work of spiritual potency from within the depths of horror in the Warsaw Ghetto. This piece exemplifies the Rebbe’s courageous faith and his unbending will to find God and encounter Torah, even under the most unimaginable circumstances. A powerful teaching about finding God on the path, and about transforming discomfort to discovery and victimhood to empowerment.
Sources: Aish Kodesh, Parshat Yitro (ת״ש)
Episode 002
We tend to think about Divine revelation as something that comes to people from the outside. But in the Piaseczner’s world, God is revealed to each person in their own unique way. These teachings reframe the search for God as something internal, and point to the subtle ways in which the Divine whisper can be felt through the individual’s own inner experience.
Sources: Tzav Ve’Zeiruz 13; Aish Kodesh, Parshat Ki Teitzeh (ת״ש)
Episode 001
What does it mean to “know God?” Where does this knowledge stem from within the individual? This is a radical teaching from the Piaseczner Rebbe in which he lays out a path toward coming to know God as one knows one’s self. Sources: Derech Hamelech, Parshat Vayeitzeh (תר״צ)
In the first episode of Awakening, Rabbi Ami explores the centrality of the telling of a story, not only to the holiday of Purim itself, but to awakening to our own lives, through a teaching of Rebbe Nosson of Nemirov.
Sources for further awakening:
- Mishna Masechet Megillah
2. Talmud Masechet Megillah
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Likutei Halachot
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Likutei Halachot 2