Healthy Parenting – Joy Expressed in Dance Helps One’s Children Succeed – Education Depends on the Heart – Tefilah BeKoach – Praying With Focus – Birkos HaTorah – The Key to Daas Is Humility – Speaker: Rabbi Nasan Maimon.
*00:00 – Joy that reaches the feet is expressed in dance. Joy begins in a person’s heart and energizes their limbs, as in וַיִּשָּׂ֥א יַֽעֲקֹ֖ב רַגְלָ֑יו – “And Yaakov lifted his feet…” (Bereishis 29:1, VaYeitzei). Reference to 2Likutey Moharan 81. When joy reaches the feet, it strengthens those who support Torah, and elevates a person’s children spiritually and physically.
03:00 – A person who doesn’t yet have children, should bring joy to his wife (Bava Basra 10b).
*05:37 – It’s essential to communicate with a child/student according to his or her individual level and abilities. A student’s grasp of Torah depends on both the heart of the student and the heart of the teacher/parent. Based on Likutey Moharan 91.
*07:00 – A teacher or parent needs to pray to be able to reach the heart of their student or child.
08:44 – A powerful account about Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman zal (1914-2017) illustrates the importance of praying for success in educating a child/student.
*10:49 – When a parent or teacher is careful to say Birkhos HaTorah before Torah study, this protects their children/students from spiritual harm. Reference to Likutey Moharan 14.
15:25 – Every letter in the Torah relates to a Jewish soul.
17:55 – Reference to Likutey Moharan 37.
21:43 – Visiting and living in Eretz Yisrael is a segulah for bearing children. “Nachalas HaShem Bonim”. The mitzvah of sukkah also benefits one’s children. Reference to Likutey Moharan 48.
*23:26 – Tefilah bekoach – prayer with focus and sincerity – strengthens one’s children.
25:04 – Q&R about why children don’t listen and sometimes rebel.
*25:52 – BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE about Rabbi Michel Dorfman zal – At what age should we begin educating a child? From before the child is born.
28:44 – Q&R about kavana during tefilah.
30:05 – “Here are seeds, use them to plant”. In Sefer HaMidos, Rebbe Nachman writes that the letter Hey made of silver is a segulah for having children. The letter Hey indicates daas. There are five things that only HaShem can understand and people can’t. For example, to HaShem, the past, present, and future are one. The more a person is willing to share their knowledge with others, that increases the person’s knowledge. Reference to Likutey Moharan 53. Increasing daas benefits one’s children.
35:07 – Reference to Likutey Moharan 172. Anything that a person is lacking is coming from a deficiency in the person himself. The lack is not coming from HaShem. The antidote to this lack is humility.
39:00 – Reference to Likutey Moharan 196. A person should not allow their tefilah to become by rote. It should always be a new plea to open HaShem’s heart, so to speak. Making demands of HaShem is a form of stealing.
39:43 – Reference to Likutey Moharan 229. There are types of wood used to make a bed that are conducive to bearing and raising children, and types of wood that are not conducive to this. Therefore, even when buying furniture, it’s important to ask HaShem for His guidance.
41:02 – “He even revealed to us the wood of our beds” (Midrash on Parshas Mikeitz).
42:17 – Q&R about why tzaddikim suffer. This is an upside down world. Sometimes the tzaddik has chosen to accept suffering in order to help Am Yisrael, but essentially we don’t know the answer to this question. The constant avodah is to have faith that HaShem is yashar.
45:24 – Q&R about regretting a past business venture. Most spiritual damage can be corrected.
48:52 – NOTE about the Holocaust.
50:03 – Q&R about praying for everything. Beginning the day with hiskashrus with HaShem’s ratzon and asking him for aitza tova.
51:13 – Closing blessings.
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