Talking to Himself

Reply to Brenda: Abishai ranked as a general in command second only to his brother Joab (II Sam. x. 10, 14, xviii. 2, 5, 12). By saving David's life (II Sam. xxi. 17) and by the slaughter of three hundred warriors (II Sam. xxiii. 18), he secured a prominent place among the king's bodyguard.
I think of it as "My Father's gift" since I am Avishai ben Abraham.

It was given to me during the ceremony during which I believe it is common to use the father Abraham is common.

The name carries a sense of pride, responsibility, and a deep appreciation for the gift of life.

I am a Marine of the US, honorably discharged in Oct 1972,which makes me feel connected to the ancestry, protector and all that. I have been through a lot, from which I get rare personal insights. (One of which is my age, LOL)

The best in life is realizing the Oneness of the Creator. We all have it. Reply

The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is like the water of a mirage. The belief that each is a separate entity, alone in your body is the venom of the serpent in your mind Each separate personality is in perpetual conflict, both within and without. Give it up. There is no separation, it's only a mirage. God is all there is. The personality self is just a character in a story, an imaginary person. (Source unknown; I wrote it down some years ago.) Reply

We learned from the parsha today that the Sinai experience was Hashem giving His people a second chance to walk in the Garden with Him and to be as one like He was with Adam and Eve before they disobeyed, so this cool poem resonates with that. Looking forward to Shavuot...Aloha from Hawaii! Reply

To speak of the Holy One as "He" is idolatry. For the Eternal is neither male nor female, but both and neither and more. Reply

We talk with Ourselves I would say:
We talk with ourselves, that could equally mean, He talks with Himself.
Are there two selves, one talking with the other?
The thoughts imply a background, a space, which is not the world but G_d, but is silence.
Entertained by the shatter of our own thoughts, we cannot comprehend, grasp the silence in which they take place, we cannot hear G_d talking to us.
Equally, entertained by the shatter of His own thoughts, G_d cannot recognize Himself.
The Torah is the silence manifesting in words.
And we? We are the mirror in which they reflect. Reply

We speak within Once my thoughts were my own and were of no form.
Then my thoughts expanded and I became filled.
So now the thoughts become as one in Torah
I can rest now and reflect upon what I have become.
For seven days is as one thought revealed on each day. Reply

Yiddish original? Would it be possible to share the Rebbe's words in the original Yiddish, with interlinear English (and, while I'm wishing) access to audio to learn the correct pronunciation?). I would very much like to learn to understand the Rebbe in Yiddish, and a friend tells me he has clear and relatively easy to follow talks. For myself, I learn best when I can hear and see, and see the translation and transliterated versions at the same time....Thank you, Reply

Female soul -May 23, 2012 I missed it too, that the soul is a she ! But i am thinking further along. Hashem has masculine and feminine attributes. One of His attributes alludes to His Shechina, the heel, a feminine aspect, which will settle on the Beit Hamikdash when Moshiach arrives. The Shechina has a feminine counterpart in the Soul, where it is called Malchut.

I am in accord with you on the union of the Soul with Hahem. I think that applying a gender is for contextual purposes, depending on the point of Torah on which we are speaking.

Every person has masculine and feminine attributes in context of the times.. For a modern example, fathers diaper babies. Woman are working at jobs. Chabad.org has women working on their staff.

If one looks at Shabbat, She is the Queen. In the Lecha Dodi we call to our Beloved, Hashem, to meet the Sabbath, The Queen. In this context it is Hashem's male attributes that are called forth.

I may be in over my depth on this. But discussing Torah is never be a bad thing. Reply

The Soul as "She" I just read the 21 May email, "Talking to Himself - Meditation."

Earlier today, and out of the blue, I was wondering why Chabad always refers to the soul as "she." Then I had the epiphany that it's because the soul is in union with Hashem, as a bride is in union with her husband. It's referred to so often in Torah I don't know how I could have missed it!

Perhaps the contemplation wasn't as "out of the blue" as I thought at the time: perhaps I was being courted, prepared for the meditation in this email. Reply

That's cool I was just starting to put my feelings and thoughts into soul mode just as you have described !

i have ramped it up from there to the ' grabbing of G-d's lapels ', the work of the soul.

For the 5-6 years that i have been following Chabad.org, , it is with some frequency now that i understand most Daily Dose, which is based on The Rebbe's teachings, and many other articles and comments.

Suddenly i feel as if i am at a feast, loading up on soul food, nourishing and enriching my messenger/soul.

Whereas i thought that i was quite singular in my approach to G-d/Torah, all of a sudden i am reading affirmations. Maybe they were there all along and i missed them. Likely i am on that ' Emunah high '. Now the trick for me is to develop that Bitachon steely constant.

For a person who was your basic atheist, it is nice to move towards the Greater Possibility. Reply

The self with whom He speaks? Does that mean that we are all one with Hashem? Reply

Talking Ah...and so we desire to know Torah.
But can we ever fully know Torah?

The effort is a delight. Reply