I heard a piece of music last week for the first time, that moved me so much, It filled me with so much emotion that it brought me to tears and at the very same time I just had to dance to it. It wasn't tears of sadness but tears of a spiritual closeness that I've not felt for a while.
Rabbi, I'm addicted to learning Oral Torah at night! Another way one can elevate the music one is listening to is to dance to it. Go to a room in your house where there is ample space, put the music on and switch off the lights and dance. This is best to be done at night time, as with different parts of the night there are different levels of intensity corresponding to the different watches of the night and one can have a real feeling of a conection with ha Kadosh Barchu. You can have that same feeling that you get when on Chanukah you are kindling the lights of your Chanukiah and creating a new light in a dark space. When doing this imagine yourself before haKadosh Barchu. David haMelech knew how to stand before haShem because previously he had been a musician/jester before an earthly king, Shaul haMelech and this broke the ice, so to speak, for if one really thought deeply about how to stand before the Rebono Shel Olam, you would never be able to do it, you would be confronted by so many negative thoughts, so many reservations that you would lose all courage to do so. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says that a person in his 'avodat haShem' has to have a real chutzpah in serving God, an Azut d'Kedusha, otherwise the forces of the other side will take all the wind out of his sails and he will not be able to make any moves whatsoever toward holiness it will be like he is frozen to the spot. So, in this dance it is best to use instrumental music unless the lyrics are kept to a minimum and are of a pure motivational content. This kind of music is a Klipah Nogah, a klipah because it is a garment, it is something of an external quality, but nonetheless one that has light in it and it is therefore up to the person how he or she elevates it. As an aside, one can tell what a particular type of music is for them, by when they listen to it, what does it make them want to do? Shalom Rabbi Israel Yakobov, I enjoyed your shiur very much! M
I heard a piece of music last week for the first time, that moved me so much, It filled me with so much emotion that it brought me to tears and at the very same time I just had to dance to it. It wasn't tears of sadness but tears of a spiritual closeness that I've not felt for a while.
Rabbi, I'm addicted to learning Oral Torah at night!
Another way one can elevate the music one is listening to is to dance to it. Go to a room in your house where there is ample space, put the music on and switch off the lights and dance. This is best to be done at night time, as with different parts of the night there are different levels of intensity corresponding to the different watches of the night and one can have a real feeling of a conection with ha Kadosh Barchu. You can have that same feeling that you get when on Chanukah you are kindling the lights of your Chanukiah and creating a new light in a dark space. When doing this imagine yourself before haKadosh Barchu. David haMelech knew how to stand before haShem because previously he had been a musician/jester before an earthly king, Shaul haMelech and this broke the ice, so to speak, for if one really thought deeply about how to stand before the Rebono Shel Olam, you would never be able to do it, you would be confronted by so many negative thoughts, so many reservations that you would lose all courage to do so. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says that a person in his 'avodat haShem' has to have a real chutzpah in serving God, an Azut d'Kedusha, otherwise the forces of the other side will take all the wind out of his sails and he will not be able to make any moves whatsoever toward holiness it will be like he is frozen to the spot. So, in this dance it is best to use instrumental music unless the lyrics are kept to a minimum and are of a pure motivational content. This kind of music is a Klipah Nogah, a klipah because it is a garment, it is something of an external quality, but nonetheless one that has light in it and it is therefore up to the person how he or she elevates it.
As an aside, one can tell what a particular type of music is for them, by when they listen to it, what does it make them want to do?
Shalom Rabbi Israel Yakobov, I enjoyed your shiur very much! M