WELCOMING SHABBAT

Shabbat is more than a day of refraining from worldly activity.

When experienced to its spiritual fullest, its holiness enlightens all other days of the week.

We invite you to enhance your Shabbat with these words of Torah.

 

abstract colorful art of Shabbat candles and light being swirled around them

Parshat Vayechi: The Eternal Life in This World

Parshat Vayechi: The Eternal Life in This World

Nagen (Genack), Rabbi Dr. Yakov
December 31, 2020

“…Despite the fact that in certain regards the world to come is exalted beyond the physical realm, there are specific opportunities unique to this world – namely, the ability to ‘do’. Man can only change through doing; this change has implications on man’s eternal identity.

 

Each individual is who he is on account of the life-story he has written, for the experiences he has made, and the actions he has taken. Therefore, even if he does not remember what occurred in the past or if he is unaware of what has happened in his life, these life-events are still ingrained in his body and soul.

 

The Zohar teaches that after the physical body disappears, the spiritual identity that man formed for himself over the course of his life adorns his soul. It follows that life in this world is eternal in the sense that man’s eternal identity is comprised of all the days he lived, and they accompany him eternally…”