Spiritual Growth

Modern society is so preoccupied with body that most people don't even know that they have a soul. When people think that life is only body and the physical, they become candidates for depression. Why? For them, each day is a day closer to the cemetery. Is that all one has to look forward to in life? Thank goodness, no!
Champion athletes are highly aware of their bodies. A marathon runner feels what's going on in each muscle of his legs and feet. Yet, an overweight person who never engages in physical activity and barely gets out of the sofa is utterly out of touch with his body. By the same token, one who never engages in spiritual activity loses touch with his soul. Spiritual awareness - awareness of the soul and its Creator - is a prerequisite for happiness and inner peace.
Here's the good news: the soul is a tiny spark of the Creator. Just as the Creator is eternal, so is the soul. A person who prioritizes soul over body lives forever.

There's a common denominator between your most valuable asset and your birthright, which is even more than a basic human right. No person on earth has the right to take either of them away from you. What possibly fits that definition?

Why do we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah? What's the connection between the shofar and Moshiach? Our sages provide some eye-opening answers that tell us exactly what's happening today...

Did you ever wonder why people are willing to exert themselves so much to climb mountains? Your soul wants to do the same thing, but you don't need a Mount Everest to gain a magnificent view of the world and of yourself. In Elul, Hashem is especially close to you...

Before the war, when I spoke at a girl's school in Brooklyn. We discussed the importance of a person having his or her own personal relationship with the Creator and speaking to Him daily. Then, a young lady shot up from her seat and said, "Hey Rabbi, what you're talking about might have applied to Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah and other holy women mentioned in the Torah, but not to me and my generation. How could God possibly care about me, especially when I'm far from Torah and holiness and all that stuff? What does He need me for anyway?" Great question; here's my answer...

The most important of Rebbe Nachman's teachings is about hitbodedut, personal prayer, one's intimate private conversations with the Creator. Discourse 25 of Part II deals with this vital subject. We learn that each of us has the priceless birthright of our own personal relationship with Him. This is an asset greater than anything, which only a fortunate few take advantage of.

Could you believe that a brilliant investment banker would be gullible enough to sell his twenty million-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills for a mere thousendth of its value? Listen to today's podcast, which exposes the sly methods of the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination, who is capable of getting any unsuspecting person to sell his or her priceless soul for a pittance...

Imagine that every gift in life that we take for granted would disappear. How miserable we'd be! Shouldn't we rejoice when we do enjoy all of life's gifts, especially the spiritual ones? Enjoy these empowering 4 minutes.

When your throat is parched, you drink. Negative emotions are a sign that the soul is parched. It feels weak. Here's how to quench its thirst.

Don't let society tell you that the important things in life are the curves in your figure or your six-pack abs. Health is important, but a healthy body is not everything. Most horses are much healthier than we are and stronger too. So what makes us any better than a horse?

There are two types of honor: man-granted honor and Divine granted honor. Everyone questions whether a person is worthy of the honor he or she receives from other people, but no one questions Divine granted honor. Rebbe Nachman teaches that the only way to attain Divine honor is through teshuva, or penitence. Not only that – a person is not yet a person until he repents. The key to repentence is silence, worth its weight in gold...

This week we learn the ability of powerful prayer. It can rejuvenate and illuminate a soul as well as invoke tremendous Divine abundance.