Accessing Your Best Self with Devorah Vale

Human beings are social animals! We crave relationship. Relationships are the source of our greatest pleasure and our greatest pain. What we have learned from the recent pandemic is that loneliness leads to all kinds of mental illness. As the song goes, 'People who need people are the luckiest people in the world!' We need others! How can we love others more, especially those who we don't naturally like!! Join me as we work to increase our ahava/ love for the unloveable just because.... This is true tikun olam...it begins with me!!!

In this class we discuss the words of Rabbeinu Yona who explains the passage in Mishlei that Wisdom resides with those who are Tzniut/Private/ Modest and Internally developed. Tzniut encompasses much more than just dress but how we communicate! Self regulation and learning to be a good listener is also the way we develop our internality and become wise!

'Tznius is the inner directed aspect of striving' according to Rabbi Meiselman in his book Jewish Women in Jewish Law. It is required of both men and women to walk 'modestly with God.' How does the Jewish concept of heroism differ the Greek or Western idea. The greatest moral and heroic acts in Judaism almost always take place in private as taught through the stories of great personalities in our Torah.

'Tznius is the inner directed aspect of striving' according to Rabbi Meiselman in his book Jewish Women in Jewish Law. It is required of both men and women to walk 'modestly with your God.' How is the Jewish concept of heroism different than the Greek or Western idea. The greatest moral and heroic acts in Judaism almost always take place in private as taught through the stories of great personalities in our Torah.

In this new series we will reveal that tzniut or being modest encompasses so much more than matters of dress. Of course the way we dress should be an external manifestation of what tznius is at its core. Tznius means covering the ego, being less external and image conscious and asking 'What does Hashem think of me?' instead of being obsessed with oneself and what others think and trapped by one's own biases.

To be ruth less is to be cruel. Ruth, the progenitor of King David and ultimately Mashiach is someone who was the personification of chesed - lovingkindness, She teaches us that to be able to receive the Torah we must emulate her and God Himself by making ourselves into people who are always asking, What Can I do for you?i Listen and be amazed by modern day regular people who have perfected this midda called chesed.

In this final episode on Zrizoot we heed Shlomo HaMelech's advice to go and learn from the Ants. They can teach us what we need to know about working hard, identifying completely with the task at hand and how stealing or taking short cuts can undermine developing this important character trait.

In this episode we reveal how our low energy for certain tasks can be the result of fears, perfectionism or creating avoidance cycles of certain situations. Learn how to overcome shiflut and have more zrizoos by letting go of these obstacles!

As we conclude the Shemona Esrei prayer, the Rabbis added on personal prayers asking Hashem to help us guard our speech. As we re enter the world of human relationships and leave our prayer, we need to realize how important our daily interactions with others through speech can affect the power of our prayers and our requests being realized. The more purity, the more power.