Torah

As we begin the new Torah cycle, let’s take a moment to contemplate the deeper purpose of Torah. Some may refer to the Torah as a history book; others may think of it as a book of law or a source of Jewish wisdom. While these are all true, they only scratch the surface of the Torah’s true nature.

Genuine teshuvah is not just about self-transformation; it’s about self-expression, returning to your true and higher self. As we have previously explained, there are three stages of genuine teshuvah:

A father set out one day to teach his young daughter a powerful lesson. When she woke up in the morning, he took her in front of a mirror and asked her, “What do you see?”
She smiled and answered, “I see myself!”
He then took her to the window and asked her, “What do you see now?”

The second Daniel woke up, he knew something was wrong. He felt perfectly fine, but he had no memory of who he was. Searching his house, he found a book he seemed to have written. Inside was a guide explaining his life’s story and how he suffered from amnesia, forgetting who he was at times. The book served as instructions for these moments.

A speaker once started his seminar by holding up a $100 bill. “Who would like this $100 bill?” he asked.
Every hand in the room went up.
The speaker looked around, and then crumpled the bill in his hand.

In our previous article, we began exploring the deeper nature of the sin of the Meraglim (spies). To review, we explained that the sin of the Meraglim lay in the way they perceived Eretz Yisrael. The Meraglim’s physical sight was intact; what they lacked was spiritual sight. They physically saw giants burying their dead, but they interpreted this to mean that the “land consumes its inhabitants.”