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Tzav: When Spiritual Growth Produces Depression

The Mitzvah of Removing the Ashes as a Guide for Dealing with Your "Downers"

1 hr 10 min

Class Summary:

There were two mitzvos—terumas hadeshen and hotzaas hadeshen. The first consisted of taking each morning one shovel filled with charcoal ash and placing it near the altar; the second consisted of cleaning the altar from all its ashes and removing it from the Jewish camp. Yet the first mitzvah seems completely futile? What’s the purpose of filling a shovel with charcoal ash and placing it near the altar? The class explores two approaches. One is a guide to deal with the sadness that is born from your spiritual fire; the other represents the delicate balance in Jewish history of cherishing the past while constructing a future.

Please leave your comment below!

  • Anonymous -1 year ago

    At -10:28 it seems to switch to a class about nosen taam liphgam? Its a bit confusing and can perhaps be changed. But the class is wonderful. Thank you! 

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  • Anonymous -1 year ago

    Less than 2 lies a day

    According to a research conducted by university of Massachusetts. Definitely not 35.

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  • N

    Nafskha -1 year ago

    So true and encouraging 

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  • SBP

    Sam Bezalel Perlman -8 years ago

    Thank you so much for this incredible talk. This is Rivka Malka Perlman ( I happen to be on my husband's account.) We love the torah that comes through you. every Friday my husband prepares for the shabbos table by listening to your talks and taking notes which he prints about and brings to the table. We are consistently moved by the beauty and depth and relevance of your words. This week I was in the room while he was listening and my ears perked up. The piece from the Alter Rebbe about the Fire and the two types of ashes pierced my soul. I spoke about it in your name on Torah Anytime, I shred it on Fb and I repeated it again and again over Shabbos. Thank you! thank you in general for making this torah available to us and for putting energy time and love into this website. You are educating and inspiring thousadns and the ripple effects will only continue.

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Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • March 23, 2015
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  • 3 Nisan 5775
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  • 3248 views
Dedicated by David Pisarevsky in loving memory of Yaakov, 5, Sarah, 6, Moshe, 8,Yehoshua, 10, Rivka, 11, Dovid, 12 and Eliana, 16 -- Sassoon, and for the complete and speedy recovery of their mother Gilah bas Frances and her daughter Tziporah bas Gilah.

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