Yoga: While it has been known to originate from eastern religions, many Jewish spiritual institutions are using the practice of hatha yoga as a primary method of embodied experience. Through yoga, participants are encouraged to work with physical postures, giving attention to the detail of breathing and embracing sensations to cultivate a deep awareness of the embodying spiritual life moment to moment.
Text Study: Torah is the foundation of Jewish life and the empowerment behind Jewish spirituality. Studying the torah is to directly come into contact with God’s relationship to the world. Studying the torah is one way to connect into spiritual foundations, while contemplative listening is another experience altogether.
Although the world is racing, and we are under heavy demand to meet deadlines and maintain a system of performances, there is an innate desire within us to be still and steady. The disciplines listed above can invigorate your journey with God and deepen your experience in life altogether.
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People from all walks of life need spiritual guidance to lift there spirits and give faith. The Biala Rebbe of Bnei Brak Israel is a great source of wisdom and spiritual guidance for any person. The Biala Rebbe of Bnei Brak Israel is available to meet with in person or speak with over the phone with any individual regarding any situation, question or simply to receive a blessing.
There is often a sense that investing into spirituality is paramount in our modern day, but the idea can feel exhausting amidst the demands of life and the strain of responsibility to jobs, family, and friends. It is argued that the pursuit of spiritual health, though it may feel like it is being shoved into an already taxing calendar, is the key to every other pursuit’s fruitfulness. So how is it done? How can we gain serenity and vibrant spirituality in the middle of work, stress and strain? Here are a few resources that one can come back to in order to stay in balance.
Meditation: Mindfulness meditation is a core spiritual practice. It is an attempt to attain the calm that our souls are deprived of in such a fast paced society that pressures us to perform. It provides an opportunity to slow down and focus on being aware rather than what we can produce. Meditation is a widely practiced art, but those who are interested in using it for spiritual reasons will see it as a forum to awaken the latent soul. This practice connects the inner self with the outer world. It helps to develop and sustain a unity with Creation and an intimacy with God. Meditation is the work of making concepts, teachings and practices of Judaism alive, thus transforming individual’s lives from the inside out. It is a mode of careful attentiveness in one’s journey.
Prayer: Mindfulness disciplines, such as meditation serve to fortify and deepen an individual’s prayer life. The attention to self awareness often highlights obstacles that are present when we pray, and therefore make a way to remove them. Concentrated observances of prayer can help eliminate distractions of the mind, and therefore establishing a “now” presence in any time of prayer. Reciting words or melodies in prayer can help keep focus, allowing an experience of the Divine attributes. Prayer is recognized to enhance clarity, joy, and inner strength. Prayer can be experienced in many ways, but has been recognized by institutions of Jewish Spirituality by two forums; the practice of communal prayer, where traditional Jewish liturgical references are read, and the experience of the individual outside any form of institution. Chant, song, silent meditation, niggun, and contemplation are all disciplines that can give ear to hear the Divine.
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If you need spiritual guidance contact the Biala Rebbe of Israel today and get your blessing. The Biala Rebbe is available at anytime to speak with you and give you his guidance on any matter.
Simple and true – this is what God is looking for.
Not put-together or coming with complicated formula’s or confusing doctrines or approaches. He just wants you – just as you are. God understood the tendency in human nature to perform. He knows that there is a tilt in us to hide behind the bush, like Adam and Eve because of our shame and guilt.
There’s not much involved in the life of prayer. It’s simply coming to Him and laying it all out.
Fathers’ understand this. There’s something so intimate and connecting when your children are honest with you. You would rather your child mess up big time and come to you in honesty and brokenness than to discover they’ve been hiding something from you.
The heart of God is to connect with us. Since the beginning, all He’s wanted is an interwoven relationship with us, His creation.
Today, stop. Listen for His heart, feel his heart and respond. Let the romance of God rekindle as the focus shifts from you to Him.
Faith is produced and strengthened in the absence of full understanding, in the questions, in darkness.
Our desire is for it to be easy, without effort and conflict, yet what our souls really need is constant testing, confrontation and questioning. In this fallen state it’s too common for the soul to slowly find it’s way back to our “default”, to serve and love ourselves more than God.
We’re broken and we desperately need fixed. We want to resist, and many times even run from those dark nights of the soul when all that is felt is cold, darkness and uncertainty… yet it is in those very moments that faith and love are given greater strength and authority. When the soul can journey on even when it’s dark and rainy and pressing against the wind, then the light of the flickering flame of love can grow in intensity and heat. It’s when we’re placed in the middle of doubt, accusation and confusion that we’re given the opportunity to choose the way of the God and proclaim within, “I will trust in the Lord at all times…”
When we choose like that, a new authority and strength is conquered in the soul. It’s in the face of opposition and confrontation that all the great wars and victories have been won throughout the centuries.
Every believer is called to this place but few find it because it’s the hidden treasure only found by those who seek with all their heart and who are willing to surrender and believe the goodness of God can and is found in the unknown, the unseen and the uncomfortable.
I thank God for the darkness, for the unknown, for the accusation and constant attempts to weaken my faith, for all of this is used for the Glory of God – This is the fascinating truth of God that in unknowing, we know.
If I begin to say a verse over and over again, or sing it over and over again, eventually each word comes alive and deeper meaning springs up. God’s Spirit comes and breathes life on the words I’m saying and before you know it, I could write an entire book on that one verse.
David knew this well. That’s why there are so many references in the Psalms to meditating on God’s promise, his word. Give it a try today. Instead of reading a whole bunch of verses or chapters and not remembering much, take one or two lines and begin to chew on it. Repeat it, sing it, write it, pray it. You’ll see how quickly the words will take on life and slowly work their way into your very make up. The words will become permanently written on your heart, not just memory in your mind.
Get away today for some time and purposely meditate on his unfailing love.
Meditation is one aspect of our faith that is talked about so much in Scripture but isn’t practiced. I believe that our current way of worshiping was an evolution from active meditation or corporate prayers and chants. In essence when we gather with the people of God and sing the songs we do, we are praying together, declaring together and actively meditating together.
Obviously, meditation is now mostly recognized with the New Age and Far East religions. Many Jews have such a negative association with the word that they’ve dismissed it from their daily life in God. Yet, I believe meditation is crucial in remembering him and growing in faith.
The Scripture can become so familiar that many times we can read an entire chapter and remember one sentence and even at that it’s a vague memory. Yet, when I take the time to meditate on one verse, great understanding, revelation and life springs forth.
Many of the psalms have been trivialized. When David said, “The Lord is my Shepard,” he was taking a stroll in the park, he was releasing deep levels of faith that found the rock of his salvation. David craved God, yearned for him and even fainted in expectation of his coming. His writings are more than inspirational, they are the naked and raw reality of the human condition.
Each of us need God just as desperately as David, some know it well and others are unaware. It’s as we journey to those places many keep boarded up, that we see our decrepit state and our need to be rescued. It’s dirty, messy and very uncomfortable. It requires the unveiling of our insecurities, our pride and the disappointment we try so hard to dress up.
Find God today in desperation.
“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1)
Have you ever seen a woman in labor? Have you ever seen a little boy dying from starvation? Have you ever watched a grown man weep in sorrow for infidelity? This is desperation.
Those images flash so quickly in mind and grab our hearts. They draw us to a place of communion with the human spirit. We all relate to desperation, we’ve all been there many times. No, probably not dying from starvation and maybe never in labor but places where we were so desperate we would do anything.
David knew this place well. He was being pursued by someone he loved deeply. King Saul was after David’s life; he wanted him dead. During the years of Kings Saul’s pursuit David found an incredible resting place or refuge and strength. David discovered the depths of God and deepened his friendship with him. What pushed David into these places with God was his desperation. He knew what it meant to cry out as if it was his last breath.
Prayer is like conception.
I’m fascinated with the whole idea of creating life. It’s mind boggling that small, alien-like cells flow from me to my wife, find an egg in waiting, fight to enter and finally in one split second a human child is conceived! How does this happen? It’s a mystery – no matter how modern science and technology become – this will always remain a mystery.
Prayer can be likened to conception. In those moments of intimacy with him he sends forth the seed of his word to find fertile soil in waiting. When the seed finds the fertile ground, it takes root and brings forth life.
Just like with conception, there is typically a long incubating period where the egg must mature, grow and develop into the baby it’s intended to be. If the growing baby was removed from the womb premature, the chances of the baby not surviving or having severe complications is pretty high. The fetus needs to stay hidden, protected and in the secret place of the womb to properly grow.
This is how it is with prayer. God speaks and in that moment our human heart jumps to the end of the process… we want to see a baby, but it going to take nine months of growth, waiting and quietness before the fully mature baby is able to come forth.
Prayer is a glorious grace that requires faithfulness, patience and protection in the secret place of God’s heart. We need not grow weary or impatient because the longer we wait, the more accurately and developed his word with become until there’s no other option but to push!
Everything is discovered in Him.
It’s in that place of prayer – the place of secrecy and intimacy that all the answers my heart is seeking for are found. As I pour my heart out to Him, He responds with revelation and grace upon my soul.
I find myself searching for answers in other places but never finding satisfaction or true rest for my soul. I weary myself with attempts of discovery and then finally fall to my knees in a place of desperation before the One who holds the keys to my heart.
It’s crazy, but all things are found in Him. Even if I don’t understand, if I don’t “get it”, I leave His presence filled with peace, hope and the ability to forge on. His touch, His words and His comfort is so beyond me. It has a way of taking me to places I never thought existed. He is magical. He is glorious. His is Love and in Him I learn to live in Him, through Him and for Him.
The questions.
The searching.
The drive.
It’s all found in Him. In His knowledge, in His grace.
