You can hide it enough so it doesn't embarrass you in public. You can pretty it up so that others are not as annoyed with it. You can try to ignore its whelps and howls when it gets out of hand. But can you free yourself of your ego?
29 Comments Posted
Thank you for the simply profound insights of how to seek freedom within and without !
May you be blessed with continued strength to help fight all the spiritual bondage we find ourselves enslaved with.
Chag Kosher V'Somayach Mamash
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the simple truth is the hardest to accomplish. Thank you for the insight.
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Rabbi Tzvi speaks to me in a remarkable voice. Chag sameach, Tzvi Freeman. Your words inspire .
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Truth tastes good, though doing isn't as easy as wanting to. But we still can, you taught me that.
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This is breathtaking! All this work of Sefirat Omer, 49 days of refining our emotions from the hart down, can do nothing to clear our main blockage, our Mitzraim, our strangled neck. Only the fiftieth day, G-d willing, can take us beyond.... Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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What a brilliant article - you gave me an extraordinary clear understanding of "I" (ego) along with the holiest of Resolutions. I am grateful for your thoughts - and your exceptional ability to get them to me, and through me.
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This article seems to go nowhere? Is that intentional?
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WOW!! What an insightful article. Please get this printed on every religious website on the planet! To say you speak Truth would be a gross understatement.
Did you know how a farmer can tell the difference between a "weed" and a "reed"? The reed bows as the wind blows.
May we bow our heads as the reeds do to the one true and Living G-d while there is still time to repent and to live a lifestyle of humility. amen
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Simple. Poignant. True. But oh, so difficult to accomplish. Every day is a struggle to do exactly as you've said. But you've reminded us that the struggle is worthwile.
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This article is way up there with the writings of the Sartres and de Beauvoirs. This is a clear and simple explanation of the existential situation of every human being on the planet.
Rev Freeman, thank you for the insights you provide us that help us understand ourselves, our world, and our relationship to/with G-d.
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I enjoyed reading this, it was very explanatory.
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All of your articles are beautiful, R. Tzvi Freeman-This article I studied very hard with notes and journal notes besides..I especially liked two parts so far (I am still studying it) One part I would like to mention is when you talked about how every human being struggles with something-If I may quote"Everything we do is a gambit to escape the slavery. One who surrenders,surrenders to death. One who escapes even for a day has tasted true life.I think that is totally the proof of a deep thinker-and I feel honored and that it is a blessing to have your writings to read and study-they are not easy-I have escaped the gambit of the slavery of my illness but just for a day at a time due to painting a watercolor or sewing crewel work designs-or writing-there have been a few hours where I can get away.-Thank you for writing this
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"If you’re not doing exodus, you’re doing slavery."
The problem I am suffering with is the knowledge that I am in slavery, the desire to escape from that slavery...and no idea of which direction to go! The faith of my youth has shown itself to be an illusion of men, its prayers ring hollow to my soul. I look this way and that and find mirages of the divine created by the ego of men - slavery dressed as salvation. I want to find the exodus, but feel I am constantly lost in the desert.
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to say that we are not in control is absolute madness! we are in control of everything because G-d even commanded us to rule the earth. this is the reason why so many wars have been fought, all have thought they were king and in fact some of them were.
what is driving people crazy especially in the US is because there really is no one particuar person who is in control so when someone has to pay for something they dont want to forced by government or are told we HAVE to do something nobody knows why or where it came from. the bureaucracy is also in place so that no one individual is in charge MISLEADING people into thinking they are free and have free will but actually is far from the truth. if the US is not a free society than there is no such freedom on planet earth. there are only basic freedoms, speech and to assemble and maybe a couple of more that i am unaware of so to claim that we are not in control i will agree but ONLY because governments TAKE control and play G-d.
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Rabbi Freedman has written a beautiful article again. A wonderful answer is found to many of the questions he poses in Mishnat Chassidim by Rabbi Emanuel Chai Riki.
It explains a detail of the mitzvah of wearing tefillin there that is not clearly explained elsewhere. The straps of the head tefillin are supposed to tuck into the gartle which is worn at the heart at the base of the sternum. It is through the straps (retzuot in Hebrew which is also associated with will or ratzon and conduit or tzinor) that the restriction of the neck is bypassed. In so doing, G-ds influence flows unheeded from mind to heart and then to physical actions of the rest of the body. This is characterized by the seven circles of the hand tefillin which correspond with the seven circles a bride makes around her husband while under the chuppah. It is a reminder of the marriage of G-d and the Jewish people at the giving of the Torah.
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This Is For Me... I Like It. I Have To Read This Article Everyday Or Read It Over And Over Again, Until I Get It... To Be Free From I, Me, My Hung Ups. Until Eternity Time I Will Still Be Struggling With Life But Anyways, Rabbi You Are A Good Insight Challenger Writer/Speaker. Thank You.
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Hello Rabbi,
This essay fit in with a question I was intently asking myself: What is the essence of sin? What are we humans so intent upon doing? And your thought, that we are really trying to be what we were in the beginning - one with God - helped me see that as isolated individuals disconnected from the Spirit of God, we use our knowledge of good and evil, our judgment, to compare ourselves with others, which causes every sort of sin. I now see that the Jewish idea that "God is everything" is very helpful. (I once fight this with a great deal of energy because I couldn't think of God as encompassing evil, or able even to approach it.) But now I see that God must have created out of Himself, rather than Ex Nihilo, and the only way to stop the destructive constant comparisons is by seeing that if we are all expressions of God's holy spirit, we are all equal in worth, since no part of God is less than any other. But this is a big and, I think, important subject. Anyway, great essay!
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What a wonderful few sentences. Enough to put one through quite a war with oneself. When I had a great great therapist once who was a Holocaust survivor she helped me unlock many a door but she told me that I do not have an ego...and that because I do not struggle in this way-it is a deep illness. I've been reading this for a long time. I figured by now I should tell you what this doctor said-it is interesting-Thank you
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now I understand where the statement stiff necked comes from....
Pharaoh, as the Ari described him, stands at the back of the neck and strangles us.
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The clarity of this article is so very helpful - thank you for writing it. The shadows of being free and being a slave are not the easiest subject to deal with, but I feel I understand a great deal more after reading this.
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Great message here; too often under the guise of "spirituality", people think that 'I' is to be eliminated. But G-D, out Master Creator, wants I to exist, but in relationship with Him as both an internal and external reality. Tzvi, your words are well spoken.
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I started not long ago to receive the e mails from the Chabad, and I have to say that it is a gift I receive everyday. Your writing is so full of light and every word makes perfect sense. To me you are like a channel to a knowledge which was always there, and in fact, it was. Thank you so much, and keep writing.
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Once again a very good explanation on self bondage where each person try's to prove him or her self a free person by alienating ones self from the creator.
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Beautifully enlightening and well written. Many blessings to you! :)
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Your opening sentence I hope to remember my whole life -If you're not doing exodus,you're doing slavery. After writing pounds of notes on this article this idea of being enslaved is hard for me to accept. But, it is true I am enslaved within myself. Except when, as you write, I feel G-d greathing within me. The love affair of G-d and the human I- This I only feel when I am totally alone in my room.-when I separate from everyone else. Thank you so much
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