How to Find a Healthy Mashpia

MyLife: Chassidus Applied Episode 98, with Rabbi Simon Jacobson

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I have had no success in finding an appropriate mashpia? Is it me or is it the mashpi’im? What are the criteria for a fitting and healthy mashpia?

Your excellent talks on hair covering, tzinius and intimacy, exposed, at least for me, a fundamental issue: Who we turn to for advice on these matters. Many of us have received either limited information or even misinformation and immature or dogmatic direction from untrained – even if well intentioned – chosson and kallah teachers and mashpi’im. Begging the question: How do you identify and find the right authority whom you can trust?

What would the Chassidishe approach be to “Women of the Wall”? I was recently asked my opinion by a Jewish, non-observant woman who shared her resentment, frustration and sincere desire to pray at the Kotel in the way she believes – with kippah, tallis and reading from the Torah. How should I respond?
I am the type of person who needs step by step instructions on how to get things done. I have read many of your articles about purpose in life, but for me, they seem abstract, as I need specific, outlined, “do step 1,2,3…” Can you help?

These are among the topics that will be addressed in this week’s 98th episode of My Life: Chassidus Applied. Additionally, Rabbi Jacobson will follow-up on some earlier topics, including the attitude one should have to a friend who is dating a non-Jew.

Rabbi Jacobson will also review the following essays submitted in last year’s MyLife: Chassidus Applied essay contest: “Educating through Love or Fear?” by Dovid Ginsburg; “Do you live life or does life live you?” by Yochanan Ress; “Tapping into The Infinite” by Sophia Katz. These and other essays can be read online at meaningfullife.com/essays.

And finally, the Chassidus question of the week: While learning Shaar HaYichud V’ha’Emunah chapter 1, I was doubtful about what the Alter Rebbe means when saying that the Hebrew name of every existing entity is the life force that perpetually sustains and energizes that entity. Does that apply only to the raw material as first created by Hashem, or even to the actual form it takes on at any given point? For example if a piece of wood is turned into a chair, is the makeup of the chair no longer through the letters of the word eitz (עץ), but rather it’s now through the letters of kisai (כסא,) or is the form of the object (the chair) only what the Alter Rebbe calls maasei enosh (מעשי אנוש), mans’ handiwork of reshaping an object from one form into another (yesh m’yesh), and it doesn’t actually effect the essence of the wood? In other words, is every word in לשון קודש a שורש of the thing it represents and is referring to, meaning that’s basically what לשון קודש really is, a vocabulary of components of אלקות, or is only in regard to certain words of לשון קודש, and the rest of the language being just that, a language like all others.
On the same note, how will that refer to verbs, such as הליכה or ישיבה, are they also the source of those acts, or is this only said in regard to “things” that have a makeup of דבר ה’ שבעשרה מאמרות?

This hour-long dose of insights is meant to inform, inspire and empower us by applying the teachings of Chassidus to help us face practical and emotional challenges and difficulties in our personal lives and relationships. To have your question addressed, please submit it at www.appliedchassidus.com.

The topics in this Sunday’s hour-long broadcast will include:
Chassidus Applied to Shvat and Bo
How do you find a healthy mashpia?
Chassidic approach to “Women of the Wall”
How to find purpose in life
Tznius contn’d
Dating non-Jew (follow-up)
Tzimtzum (follow-up)
Do time and space exist in the higher worlds? (follow-up)
Chassidus Question: The life force in Hebrew names
MyLife Essays: Educating through Love or Fear? Do you live life or does life live you?, Tapping into The Infinite

MyLife: Chassidus Applied addresses questions that many people are afraid to ask and others are afraid to answer. When asked about the sensitive topics he has been addressing, Rabbi Simon Jacobson commented, “I understand that the stakes are high and great care has to be taken when speaking openly, but the silence and lack of clarity on matters plaguing the community can no longer go unaddressed. The stakes of not providing answers are even higher.”

The on-going series has provoked a significant reaction from the community, with thousands of people viewing each live broadcast and hundreds of questions pouring in week after week. At the root of every question and personal challenge tackled by the series is the overarching question: Does Judaism have the answers to my personal dilemmas?

In inimitable “Jacobson-fashion”, the broadcast answers people’s questions in simple, clear language while being heavily sourced. Each episode is jam-packed with eye-opening advice from the Rebbeim, gleaned from uncovering surprising gems in their letters, sichos and maamorim that address our personal issues with disarming relevance. Simultaneously, Rabbi Jacobson is able to crystallize a concept quickly, succinctly, and poignantly for any level of listener.

All episodes are immediately available for viewing in the MLC’s archive and can be downloaded as MP3’s for listening on the go.

Questions may be submitted anonymously at chassidusapplied.com.

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