The Foundations of Chassidus with Rav Shlomo Katz

What does it really mean to fulfill בכל דרכיך דעהו — “In all your ways, know Him”?Beginning a new section of Yayin Yashan on Avodat Hashem, we learn through the Me’or Einayim of the Chernobler, Mesillat Yesharim, the teachings of Peshischa, the Divrei Binah of Biala, Malchut Shlomo, Orchos Tzaddikim and Rav Shlomo Carlebach to ask a very practical question: what are the things I have quietly become dependent on?  Not everything material is a problem. But when I begin to tell myself that I need the right circumstances, the right comforts, the right possessions — maybe even the right spiritual experience — before I can really serve Hashem, something has gotten between us.And from there we move into one of the most beautiful images in the shiur: being pulled toward Hashem like iron toward a magnet. Sometimes He has already been pulling us for years. We just had a completely different picture in our heads of what that pull was supposed to look like.  00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsorships01:27 What Does It Mean to “Know Hashem”?03:00 The Chernobler: Why the World Was Created04:25 Yichud: Oneness and Your Unique Avodat Hashem11:31 The Purpose of Creation: Knowing Hashem13:47 When Material Things Become Spiritual Barriers23:19 Being Pulled Toward Hashem Like a Magnet24:54 When Miracles Don’t Look the Way We Expected26:25 Marriage and the Expectations We Bring With Us27:28 Aliyah and the Reality We Didn’t Picture29:01 Can Someone Far From Torah Still Feel the Pull?30:33 The Friends Who Hold Back Your Growth31:37 Living Every Day With the Purpose in Mind32:45 When Even the Shulchan Aruch Becomes Avodah Zarah------For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.comJoin Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

What if the emunah we spend so much of our lives searching for is not something we need to acquire at all?Continuing Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David enter the perek האמונה היא בירושה — Emunah Is an Inheritance, moving through teachings from Torat Avot in the name of Rav Noach of Lechovitch, the Baal HaTanya, Pele Yoetz, Bnei Yissaschar, Rebbe Nachman and the Maggid of Mezeritch. The sources describe a place of emunah already embedded in the Jewish neshamah — inherited from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov — which can become covered, dormant or difficult to feel, but is never actually absent.   From there, the question changes. We are no longer asking, How do I get emunah? We have to ask: What am I doing with the emunah I already inherited? How do we awaken it, shepherd it, talk about it with each other, and leave that same yerushah to our children?Along the way, Rav Shlomo reflects on Rav Leo Dee’s extraordinary words of emunah after tragedy, the life of Reuven Halevi, a survivor of Buchenwald singing Ani Ma’amin, and the teaching that stood at the entrance of the Maggid of Mezeritch’s Beit Midrash.The lesson is clear: Chassidus is not here to give you something you do not have. It is here to reveal what is already yours----------For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.comJoin Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

What does Ahavat Yisrael demand when the Jew standing in front of you thinks, votes, speaks, or lives in a way that genuinely bothers you?Continuing Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David move through teachings from the Chiddushei HaRim, the Arizal, Sfas Emes, Divrei Binah, Rav Avraham of Kalisk, Maor Einayim, Rebbe Nachman, the Beis Yisrael and Reb Simcha Bunim of Peshischa to explore the singular place of every Jewish neshamah.Every Jew has a tikkun no one else can accomplish, an illumination no one else carries, and even a unique da’at Hashem that cannot simply be replaced by somebody else’s.    And then the learning becomes uncomfortable. If the 600,000 root souls correspond to the letters of the Torah, what happens when we decide one Jew no longer belongs? What does Ahavat Yisrael mean across the deepest religious, political and ideological divisions in Am Yisrael? And can we get beyond saying that we “love” every Jew and learn how to actually like one another?----------For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.comJoin Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_tChapters00:00 Opening and Sponsor Acknowledgments01:27 Continuing Daf Z and the Foundations of Emunah02:54 Am Yisrael: From the Klal to Every Individual Jew05:54 The Individual vs. the Klal: The Danger of Conformity08:59 The Arizal: No Two Souls Have the Same Tikkun16:21 The Five Words That Saved the World20:07 600,000 Root Souls and Ahavat Yisrael21:49 Rabbi Riskin’s First-Date Pomegranate Story23:41 Who Belongs to the 600,000? The Chareidim Question25:28 Loving Is Easy. Actually Liking Someone Is Hard26:43 A Personal Tefillah About Drivers and Torah Connection27:43 Zionism, Chareidim and Writing Off Other Jews34:55 Every Jew Has a Unique Da’at Hashem38:06 Rabbi Schraider, Da’at Torah and the Influencer Poem40:05 No Jew Is Unnecessary — The Yitro Insight

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David begin the second perek of Yayin Yashan, Ma’alat Yisrael — and enter a series of teachings that are much harder to simply “know” than they first appear.Through the Ramchal, Baal Shem Tov, R’ Baruch of Mezhibuzh, the Tanya, Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Shem MiShmuel, Maor Einayim and Ohev Yisrael, Rav Shlomo looks at one of the foundations of emunah: what a Jewish neshama actually is, what happens in the higher worlds when a Jew learns, davens or performs a mitzvah, and why even the Jew who looks completely covered in schmutz never loses the essential kedushah within.Along the way, the conversation moves from Moshe Feiglin’s response to Tucker Carlson, to Jeremy Boreing’s recent Shabbos visit, to the Alter Rebbe’s astonishing teaching about what happens when ten Jews simply stand together. But underneath all of it is one question: what would our lives — and the way we looked at another Jew — actually look like if we had even a clue?    --------For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.comJoin Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t00:00 Opening Greetings and Dedications01:40 Ma’alat Yisrael: A New Foundation of Emunah02:43 The Baal Shem Tov: Why Jews Are Compared to Stars05:14 Moshe Feiglin, Tucker Carlson and Explaining What a Jew Is06:29 Why a Jewish Neshama Is Greater Than an Angel07:41 Stop Thinking Only About What You Haven’t Done09:23 How Do We Actually Internalize These Teachings?12:18 Seeing the Greatness in Every Other Jew13:07 Your Torah and Tefillah Nourish the Higher Worlds17:12 Hashem Is Waiting for Your Torah and Tefillah18:01 You Are a Ladder Reaching Heaven18:54 Jeremy Boreing, Shabbos and Righteous Gentiles21:41 What Happens When Ten Jews Stand Together?24:11 The Alter Rebbe: An Angel Couldn’t Withstand Ten Jews25:47 Kedushat Yisrael Is Part of Who You Are27:46 Gerim and Full Inclusion in Am Yisrael29:43 This Is a Principle of Emunah30:06 A Jew Can Never Lose This Kedushah31:25 The Precious Stone Covered in Schmutz32:06 Rav Shlomo Carlebach and the Rebbe’s Mikvah Story33:35 Simmy Green Finds a Hidden Jew in London34:45 Every Jewish Soul Will Ultimately Be Rectified36:42 Hashem Does Not Want a Single Soul Lost38:17 Gilgulim, Tikkun and the Final Redemption

In this shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David continue learning Yayin Yashan and move through an extraordinary chain of teachings from the Chafetz Chaim, Chovot HaLevavot, Reb Aharon Karliner, the Me’or Einayim, Ma’or VaShemesh, Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, the Imrei Elimelech, the Baal HaTanya, and Yosher Divrei Emet — all circling one foundational point: what it means to actually believe in Hashem’s love for every Jew.These sources push us far beyond the idea that Hashem’s love is something earned through performance. They ask us to believe that His love and compassion are beyond our measurements, that every Jew can give Him real נחת רוח, and that even the smallest act of Torah, tefillah, or connection carries a weight we barely understand.-----For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.comJoin Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t