Kabbalah for Everyone

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Have you ever had a moment of incredible clarity? A flash of inspiration that made you see your life, your relationships, or your purpose completely differently? You felt certain something was about to change. Then a few days later, life went back to normal. Why does that happen?

In Lesson 21 of Kabbalah for Everyone, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores Binah, the second intellectual faculty of the soul, and reveals how we transform fleeting moments of inspiration into genuine understanding and lasting personal growth.

Drawing from the Tanya, Chabad Chassidut, and everyday human experience, Rabbi Bernath explains the difference between Chochmah, the initial spark of wisdom, and Binah, the patient process of developing that spark into something meaningful.

Discover why intuition isn't always truth, why overthinking can prevent genuine understanding, and how our interpretations shape our emotions, relationships, and decisions.

Through relatable stories about marriage, parenting, difficult conversations, spiritual growth, and even those text messages we probably shouldn't send, this lesson introduces the Three Dimensions of Binah: Depth, Breadth, and Length.

You'll also learn a practical 90-second exercise to help you pause, question your assumptions, and respond with greater wisdom.

At its heart, this lesson offers a beautiful perspective on love and relationships: perhaps truly loving someone means remaining curious enough to keep discovering who they are.

Because sometimes the most powerful words we can say are simply… Help me understand.

Download the PDF Worksheet HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z7v81y588z41fl2ixhaeh/Lesson-21-Binah-Stay-With-It.pdf?rlkey=ijobgb6pfa4iali9pk55082za&dl=0

Key Points

• Chochmah vs. Binah vs. Daat: Discover how wisdom begins as a flash, develops into understanding, and eventually becomes a truth we can internalize.
• Why inspiration fades: Understand why powerful spiritual experiences and life-changing realizations don't automatically produce lasting transformation.
• The Three Dimensions of Binah: Learn to develop any idea through depth (what is really true?), breadth (what else matters?), and length (how does this apply to real life?).
• The danger of premature certainty: Explore how quickly we interpret situations, assume intentions, and turn incomplete information into emotional stories.
• Understanding before reacting: Learn how Binah can transform difficult conversations, communication in marriage, parenting, and personal relationships.
• When thinking becomes overthinking: Recognize the difference between healthy contemplation that produces clarity and endless rumination that keeps us stuck.
• Wisdom and timing: Discover why even the right idea can become harmful when applied at the wrong moment, and how genuine understanding includes knowing when and how to act.
• Humility without becoming a doormat: Understand why bittul, the Chassidic concept of self-transcendence, does not require abandoning personal dignity or healthy boundaries.
• The 90-Second Binah Practice: Ask three questions before responding: What actually happened? What else could be true? What response fits this moment?
• Binah as a form of love: Discover why deep relationships require patience, curiosity, listening, and the willingness to understand another person beyond our first impressions.
• Turning knowledge into spiritual growth: Explore the Chabad practice of hisbonenus, contemplation that allows Divine wisdom to become personally meaningful.
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#Binah  #Chochmah  #Kabbalah  #chassidus  #Tanya  #JewishWisdom  #JewishSpirituality #chabad #kabala #chassidut #personalgrowth  

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Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

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What if wisdom does not begin with having the answer, but with creating enough space to see something new?

In Lesson 20 of Kabbalah for Everyone, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath takes a deep dive into Chochmah, the first intellectual faculty described in Tanya: the initial flash of insight before an idea has been fully developed. Rather than treating Chochmah as simply “being smart,” this class explores it as the capacity to see the essential point before explanations, assumptions, ego, and old stories take over. 

Rabbi Bernath also clarifies an important distinction from the previous lessons: the three souls and Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at are not a one-to-one map. The three souls describe who inside us is speaking and what it wants; Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at describe how an idea moves through the mind. 

At the heart of the lesson is the Chassidic reading of Chochmah as “Koach Mah” - the power of “What?” Wisdom begins when “I know” becomes quiet enough to ask: What am I missing? What is really happening? What does G-d want from me here? This is not low self-esteem. It is bittul - the humility to recognize that our current perspective may not be the whole reality. 

Through examples from relationships, business, anxiety, and anger, the lesson offers a practical spiritual tool: The Thirty-Second Holy Pause. Before reacting, stop the old script, ask one honest question, wait for one clear point, and then let Binah develop it later. 

Sometimes it is simply seeing differently.

Download the PDF Worksheet for Lesson 20 HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0hp35s9alu7f7y00zzjph/Lesson-20-The-Holy-Pause-Chochmah.pdf?rlkey=d0vbl7v05ju3qiudolcpv807y&dl=0

Key Points

• Chochmah is the first point of an idea, the flash before full understanding.
• Chochmah is not the same thing as being knowledgeable or intelligent.
• The three souls and Chochmah-Binah-Da’at are two different maps of the same human being.
• The three souls ask: Who inside me is speaking, and what does it want?
• Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at ask: How is an idea moving through my mind?
• A sudden thought is not automatically holy, wise, or true.
• Chochmah is compared to sight because it grasps the whole point at once.
• Binah is compared to hearing because it develops understanding piece by piece.
• Chochmah helps us see the essence before getting lost in details.
• Koach Mah - “What?” represents openness, receptivity, and intellectual humility.
• Bittul does not mean “I am worthless.” It means, “I am not the entire reality.”
• You cannot receive a new idea while you are busy defending the old one.
• Three major enemies of Chochmah are certainty, speed, and ego.
• Chochmah introduces three different movements: Maybe. Pause. What is true?
• Wisdom asks not only, “What is this really?” but also, “What is this becoming?”
• The Thirty-Second Holy Pause is a practical way to interrupt automatic reactions.
• The goal is not to get a complete answer immediately - just one true point.
• Chochmah must eventually be developed through Binah and internalized through Da’at.
• A central spiritual question of the lesson is: “What does G-d want from me here?”
• Real wisdom may begin with the courage to say: “Maybe I don’t know yet.”

#Kabbalah #kabala #Judaism #Jewish #Chochmah #Tanya #chabad #chassidus #chassidut #chassidic #Tanya #JewishWisdom #JewishSpirituality 

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Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

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Why is it that we can know something is true, understand it perfectly—and still struggle to actually live it? In this lesson of Kabbalah for Everyone, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores the three intellectual powers described in Kabbalah and Tanya: Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at.

Chochmah is the flash of insight.
Binah takes that insight apart, develops it, and understands it.
Da’at connects you to the idea deeply enough that it begins to influence your emotions, choices, and actions.

We connect these three powers of the mind to the framework we’ve been developing throughout the course: the G-dly Soul, Rational Soul, and Animal Soul, the 101st moment, and Truth. Plan. Power.

The question is no longer simply: What do I know? It becomes: Has what I know actually become part of me? Through practical examples, reflection exercises, and the 90-second Inner Team Meeting, we explore how Torah ideas can travel from inspiration, to understanding, to genuine inner change.

I put together a Lesson 19 worksheet so you can follow along, take notes, and work through the exercises afterward.

Download the PDF here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wxx5lf2h5ia86va6nlvp1/Lesson-19-The-Three-Ways-Your-Mind-Serves-You.pdf?rlkey=v4nqppzmx0iymjmp7h0k9lj20&dl=0

Key Points

• Chochmah: the flash of wisdom, the initial spark or “aha.”
• Binah: developing the idea, asking questions, understanding how and why.
• Da’at: connecting to the idea until it becomes personally real.
• Knowing something intellectually is not the same as being connected to it.
• Da’at helps bridge the distance between what I know and how I live.
• The G-dly Soul provides direction; the Rational Soul helps translate; the Animal Soul brings energy.
• Inspiration without development often disappears.
• Understanding without connection may never change behavior.
• Real spiritual growth happens when an idea travels from the mind into the heart and then into action.
• The Inner Team Meeting asks: What is true? What is my next wise step? What energy can help me do it?
• Kabbalah does not ask us to destroy our natural drives, but to educate and redirect them.
• Do not wait until every part of you agrees before doing something good.
• The goal is not simply to learn more Torah—it is for Torah to increasingly become part of who we are.

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The School for Sensitive Souls - Only 4 Spots Left

If you feel deeply, notice everything, absorb the emotional world around you, overthink, care intensely, or sometimes wonder whether your sensitivity is a blessing or a burden, The School for Sensitive Souls was created for you.

I’m intentionally keeping this group to just 18 participants, and there are now only 4 spots remaining.

Learn more and register:
https://www.kabbalah4everyone.com/checkout/sensitive-souls

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Support Kabbalah for Everyone

If these classes have brought value to your life, you can help us continue making this learning accessible. You can also sponsor a class in honour or in memory of someone, for a birthday, anniversary, yahrtzeit, refuah, or another meaningful occasion.

Support or sponsor a class:
https://www.charidy.com/kabbalah4everyone

#Kabbalah #Judaism #chabad #chassidus #ChassidicTeachings #chassidut #Chochmah #Binah #Daat #Tanya #JewishSpirituality #Jewishpsychology 

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Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

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What happens when one part of you knows what is right, another part is overthinking everything, and another part simply wants what it wants?

In Lesson 18 of Kabbalah for Everyone, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath offers a simple, practical Kabbalah framework for understanding the G-dly Soul, Rational Soul, and Animal Soul: Truth. Plan. Power.

The G-dly Soul helps us identify what is true. The Rational Soul turns that truth into a realistic next step. The Animal Soul provides the passion, drive, stubbornness, and energy to actually do it.

The goal of spiritual growth is not to become less human or to wage permanent war against yourself. It is to teach the different parts of yourself how to work together. This class explores anger, anxiety, procrastination, jealousy, technology, relationships, spiritual growth, failure, and the practical art of turning natural human energy into something holy.

Download the PDF Worksheet HERE
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/b35i5vc2elld2eb1oowz9/Lesson-18-Truth-Plan-Power.pdf?rlkey=yuwgpoatle0ft9ruf7u8l614u&dl=0

Key Points

• The three souls do not need to become identical—they need to learn their proper roles.
• Truth: What is actually true here? What does my deepest G-dly self know?
• Plan: What is one wise, realistic next step?
• Power: What natural energy already inside me can help me take that step?
• Feelings contain information, but they do not always provide instruction.
• You can hear an emotion without handing it the steering wheel.
• The Rational Soul should be a translator of truth, not an attorney for every impulse.
• Spiritual growth often means giving your natural drives a better assignment.
• Stubbornness can become loyalty. Anger can become courage. Ambition can become contribution. Sensitivity can become compassion.
• The goal is not to destroy the “ox,” but to harness its strength.
• You do not need perfect motives before doing something good.
• Sometimes holiness is transformation; sometimes holiness is simply restraint.
• The 90-Second Inner Team Meeting: What is true? What is the next wise step? What power can help me do it?
• Growth is not about becoming less human. It is about becoming more integrated and more whole.

The School for Sensitive Souls is now open. This will be a much more intimate experience, and registration is intentionally limited to 18 participants. Register HERE https://www.kabbalah4everyone.com/checkout/sensitive-souls

Some of you have also asked how you can support Kabbalah for Everyone and help make these classes possible and accessible:  https://www.charidy.com/kabbalah4everyone

#Kabbalah #KabbalahForEveryone #chabad #chassidus #Tanya #KabbalahForEveryone #GodlySoul #AnimalSoul #RationalSoul #JewishSpirituality #Spirituality #qabbala 

Support the show

Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

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Download the PDF worksheet HERE https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q8oy2i8fo6dg3f8j1xbfp/Lesson-17-Integration-of-the-Three-Souls.pdf?rlkey=nxq3ybh2okjepuml8dj1176wj&dl=0

What if spiritual growth is not about defeating the parts of yourself you struggle with? In this class, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores a powerful Chassidic model of inner transformation through the Nefesh HaElokit, Nefesh HaSichlit, and Nefesh HaBahamit, the G-dly soul, rational soul, and animal soul.

The G-dly soul gives us direction. The rational soul translates truth into something practical and livable. And the animal soul supplies the passion, drive, desire, and energy needed to actually move. Rather than viewing spiritual life as an endless inner civil war, this class offers a more integrated path: learning how to educate desire instead of shaming it, redirect intensity instead of suppressing it, and turn ambition, fear, stubbornness, pleasure, and even the need for recognition into forces that can serve a higher purpose. The goal is to become more whole.

Key Points

• The G-dly soul gives the destination. It asks: What is true? What does G-d want? What is my purpose?
• The rational soul builds the road. It translates big spiritual truths into realistic next steps.
• The animal soul provides the fuel. Desire, ambition, intensity, stubbornness, pleasure, and instinct can become powerful sources of energy when properly directed.
• The goal is integration, not inner warfare. Kabbalah asks us to bring our different parts into alignment.
• Hisbonenut changes the heart. Contemplation helps Torah ideas move from information into lived emotional reality.
• Desire should be educated, not worshipped or hated. The question is not only, “How do I stop this?” but also, “What is this energy looking for, and where does it belong?”
• Truth. Translation. Training. Identify the higher truth, translate it into one practical action, and train the natural self through repetition.
• Do not wait until every part of you agrees before doing good. Action itself can become part of the transformation.
• The obstacle can become fuel. The very trait that seems to interfere with growth may eventually become part of what carries you forward.

#Kabbalah #chassidus #Tanya #kabala #WednesdayMorningKabbalah #qabbala #soul #chabad #DirahBiTachtonim #NefeshHaElokis #NefeshHaSichlis #NefeshHaBahamis #tohu #Tikkun 

NEW COURSE The School for Sensitive Souls

If this class speaks to the part of you that feels deeply, thinks deeply, absorbs deeply, or sometimes carries more than you know what to do with, Rabbi Bernath is beginning a new course on October 15th called:

The School for Sensitive Souls

It is a journey through sensitivity, empathy, overthinking, boundaries, emotional intensity, relationships, burnout, and the spiritual gifts hidden inside a sensitive soul — all through the lens of Kabbalah and Chassidus.

The goal is not to become less sensitive.

It is to learn how to carry your sensitivity without letting it carry you.

Register HERE https://www.kabbalah4everyone.com/checkout/sensitive-souls

Support the show

Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

Single? You can make a profile on www.JMontreal.com and Rabbi Bernath will help you find that special someone.

Donate and support Rabbi Bernath’s work http://www.jewishndg.com/donate

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You can download the PDF Worksheet HERE

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kti2i04bd6rgxgcpsuzr7/Lesson-16-The-101st-Time-Why-Being-Good-is-Not-the-Same-as-Growing.pdf?rlkey=nm3er9rfzuf41sy9sg7m6zw6b&dl=0

In Lesson 16, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath brings together the ideas of the Animal Soul, Rational Soul, and G-dly Soul and asks one of the most practical questions in Kabbalah: How do we know when we are actually growing?

The Alter Rebbe teaches that there is a profound difference between reviewing something 100 times and reviewing it 101 times. One hundred may already be impressive, but if it has become our normal pattern, it may simply be habit. The 101st time represents the step beyond what comes naturally.

This class explores the Kabbalastic concept of oved, a person who is actively serving, stretching, refining, and becoming. It also introduces tikkun, the process of mending and elevating our nature rather than rejecting it.

We discover that even our best traits, kindness, generosity, discipline, intelligence, spirituality, can become more conscious and more G-dly. The goal is not to hate who we are or force ourselves into someone else’s personality. It is to stop allowing habit to become the ceiling of our growth.

Ultimately, the lesson shows how the three souls can work together: the G-dly soul provides direction, the rational soul translates truth into something we can understand, and the animal soul brings the passion and energy to live it.

The question becomes deeply personal: Where is my 101st time?

Key Points

1. Being good and growing are not always the same thing: A trait can be beautiful and still be automatic. Kabbalah asks us to take what is already good and make it more conscious, refined, and connected to G-d.

2. Oved means someone who is actively serving: The Alter Rebbe emphasizes the present tense. An oved is not someone who has “arrived,” but someone who is still doing the inner work.

3. The 101st time represents going beyond habit: The famous teaching of 100 versus 101 repetitions is not about a magical number. It is about moving one step beyond our established nature.

4. Your 101 is personal: One person’s growth may be giving more. Another person’s may be learning to receive. One may need more discipline; another may need more softness.

5. Going beyond nature does not mean harming yourself: Deep spiritual work is not self-punishment, burnout, or unhealthy deprivation. Growth stretches us without destroying the vessel.

6. Every soul has intellect and emotion: The Animal Soul, Rational Soul, and G-dly Soul each have their own way of thinking and wanting.

7. The Animal Soul has a very intelligent lawyer: Desire often comes first, and then the mind creates sophisticated reasons to justify it. A powerful question is:
Did my reason create the desire, or did my desire hire the reason?

8. Tikkun begins with the Rational Soul: The Animal Soul is immersed in desire. The G-dly Soul already wants Hashem. The Nefesh HaSichlit can understand both sides and translate Divine truth into language the natural self can absorb.

9. Kabbalah educates the translator: Learning, contemplation, and prayer help the mind stop serving every impulse and begin teaching the heart a different way to see reality.

10. Iskafya comes before transformation: Sometimes growth begins simply by saying no to an impulse. Over time, deeper work can refine what we actually enjoy and desire.

11. The G-dly Soul also needs Ratzo and Shov: Spiritual yearning must return to life. The goal is not to escape the physical world, but to bring holiness into relationships, work, food, money, family, and ordinary life.

12. The goal is integration: The dream is not a human being fighting themselves forever. It is a person whose mind, heart, body, personality, and passions increasingly become partners in serving Hashem.

13. Growth begins with the willingness to say “maybe”: Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there is another way. Maybe this pattern is not permanent. Maybe G-d is asking me for my 101st step.

14. Dirah BiTachtonim happens inside us too: G-d does not only want the obviously spiritual parts of us. He wants our habits, emotions, intellect, body, and ordinary life to become His home.

Support the show

Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

Single? You can make a profile on www.JMontreal.com and Rabbi Bernath will help you find that special someone.

Donate and support Rabbi Bernath’s work http://www.jewishndg.com/donate

Follow Rabbi Bernath’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ybernath

Access Rabbi Bernath's Articles on Relationships https://medium.com/@loverabbi

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Download the PDF Worksheet HERE

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gagsu8grekp6yowaaca65/Lesson-15-Nefesh-Elokit.pdf?rlkey=7azd1oa13zbj43al7t11w6m01&dl=0

What if the deepest part of you was never damaged, never lost, and never truly disconnected? In Lesson 15 of Kabbalah for Everyone, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores the Nefesh HaElokit, the Divine Soul. Drawing on Tanya, this class teaches that our Divine identity is not something we earn through spiritual achievement. It is something already present within us, even when buried beneath distraction, failure, shame, or spiritual exhaustion. As Rabbi Bernath puts it, there is an enormous difference between something being gone and something being covered.

The lesson explores how the Divine soul differs from the animal soul and rational soul, and how all three are ultimately meant to work together. The animal soul brings energy and passion, the rational soul translates and directs, and the Divine soul provides the deeper orientation: “G-d is real. I belong to G-d. What am I here to do?”

Through Tanya’s teachings on Chochmah, Binah and Daat, thought, speech and action, ratzo v’shov, and Dirah BiTachtonim, Rabbi Bernath shows that spirituality is not about escaping ordinary life. The soul came here precisely to illuminate it.

The practical invitation is beautifully simple: don’t wait until you feel spiritual. Give your soul a garment, one thought, one sentence, one mitzvah, one concrete action. Holiness does not have to remain a feeling; it can enter your calendar, your relationships, your money, your body, and your everyday life. Ultimately, teshuvah is not about creating a new self. It is about uncovering the part of you that always remembered where home was.

Key Points

• Your Divine soul is not something you earned. Spiritual accomplishments reveal the soul; they do not manufacture it.
• Hidden does not mean gone. Failure, distraction, resentment, anxiety, or shame may conceal the soul, but they do not redefine its essence.
• The three souls ask different questions:
  Animal soul: What do I want?
  Rational soul: What makes sense?
  Divine soul: What is true before Hashem?
• Chochmah, Binah and Daat turn spiritual truth into lived awareness. An idea moves from inspiration, to understanding, to something personally real.
• Thought, speech and action are the soul’s garments. You do not need to wait for inspiration before doing something holy.
• The soul did not descend simply for its own growth. It came to transform the body, animal soul, and physical world and through doing so, the soul itself rises higher.
• Ratzo must lead to Shov. We rise spiritually not to escape life, but to return to life carrying G-dliness with us.
• Teshuvah begins with dignity, not self-destruction. A mistake can demand responsibility without becoming your identity.
• The ultimate goal is integration. Divine direction, rational understanding, animal passion, and physical action can all become partners in making this world a dwelling place for G-d.

Wednesday, September 16 at 7:30 PM
THE FORGIVENESS EXPERIMENT: LIVE
What Are You Ready to Stop Carrying Into the New Year?

An honest, interactive evening about forgiveness, repair, letting go, and what we want to leave behind before Yom Kippur.

Register HERE https://www.jewishndg.com/civicrm/event/info?id=109&reset=1

#Kabbalah #kabala #KabbalahForEveryone #Judaism #mysticism #jewishmysticism  #NefeshHaElokis #DivineSoul #Tanya #chassidus #Chochmah #Binah #Daas #chabad #Teshuvah #RatzovShov #JewishSpirituality #soul #purpose #mitzvah #spiritualgrowth #InnerWork #JewishWisdom #Hashem 

Support the show

Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

Single? You can make a profile on www.JMontreal.com and Rabbi Bernath will help you find that special someone.

Donate and support Rabbi Bernath’s work http://www.jewishndg.com/donate

Follow Rabbi Bernath’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ybernath

Access Rabbi Bernath's Articles on Relationships https://medium.com/@loverabbi

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In Lesson 14, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores the Nefesh HaSichlit, the Rational Soul, the part of us that thinks, analyzes, interprets, plans, and explains. But the mind is not automatically wise or holy. Sometimes it becomes the brilliant lawyer hired by our desires, constructing sophisticated arguments for what we already wanted to do.

Kabbalah teaches that the rational soul can become something far more powerful: a bridge between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. It can take the higher truths the soul knows and translate them into language that the ordinary human being can actually understand and live. The mind’s job is not simply to accumulate knowledge, but to bring truth from the head into the heart and ultimately into action.

The lesson asks a deeply contemporary question: Who is educating your mind? Every conversation, social-media feed, advertisement, piece of Torah, repeated thought, and person we surround ourselves with teaches us what is normal, important, desirable, frightening, and true. If the mind is going to guide the heart, then the mind itself needs an education.

Through the Kabbalah concepts of Daat Tachton and Daat Elyon, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath explores two ways of seeing reality: beginning from our world and searching for G-d, or beginning with G-d as the true reality and asking what our life is doing within His purpose. The Nefesh HaSichlis helps us hold both perspectives, practical responsibility together with spiritual meaning.

Ultimately, the measure of spiritual wisdom is not how sophisticated our ideas become, but what kind of person those ideas produce. The lesson culminates in the Rebbe Rashab’s teaching that even the deepest contemplation of Chassidus is worthwhile if it leads a person to genuinely desire to do another Jew a favor. The highest truth must eventually become kindness, patience, humility, courage, and a softer heart.

• The rational soul is “the mind in the middle.” It can listen upward to the G-dly soul or downward to the animal soul.
• Intelligence is not the same as wisdom. A clever mind can become extraordinarily talented at rationalizing desires it has already decided to pursue.
• The mind needs chinuch. We are constantly educating our minds through what we watch, read, hear, repeat, and surround ourselves with.
• The mind can be a lawyer or a translator. A lawyer defends appetite; a translator takes the truth of the G-dly soul and expresses it in a way the natural self can absorb.
• Spirituality is not self-rejection. The goal is not to scream at the animal soul, but to educate it, explain to it, and gradually help it experience holiness as meaningful and desirable.
• Daat Tachton and Daat Elyon represent two cameras on reality. One begins with the world and works toward G-d; the other begins with G-d and asks how the world fits into His purpose.
• Inspiration must become integration. An awakening from above may inspire change, but the rational soul asks: What does this mean tomorrow morning? What habit follows? What actually changes?
• Knowledge is incomplete until it reaches the heart. The purpose of Chassidic contemplation is transformation, thought into feeling, feeling into action.
• Feelings matter, but they are not automatically facts or instructions. The rational soul creates the space to ask, “What is true? What is mine to do?”
• Overthinking is not the same as wisdom. Overthinking circles endlessly around “What if?” Wisdom moves toward clarity: “What is true? What belongs to me? What can I release?”
• Freedom often begins with one word: “Wait.” The pause between impulse and response creates room for understanding, choice, and dignity.
• The practical avodah is to catch the lawyer, become the translator, examine your mental inputs, and turn Torah into one concrete act.
• The ultimate test of Chassidus is the human being who emerges from it. Did the learning make you gentler, more generous, slower to judge, more courageous, and more aware of another person?
• The deepest question of the lesson: Am I thinking in order to discover the truth, or am I thinking until I find permission to do what I already wanted?
• The closing movement: the G-dly soul illuminates the rational soul, the rational soul educates the animal soul, and the entire human being becomes a Dirah BiTachtonim, a home for Hashem.

#Kabbalah #kabala #Judaism #Jewish #KabbalahForEveryone #NefeshHaSichlis #RationalSoul #chassidus #Tanya #JewishWisdom #InnerVoice #MindAndHeart#GdlySoul #FreeChoice #Bichirah #JewishSpirituality #ChabadChassidus #personalgrowth #SelfAwareness #EmotionalIntelligence #spiritualgrowth #Mindfulness #InnerWork #JewishLearning #ChabadNDG #TruthOverRationalization 

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What if the parts of yourself you struggle with most are not meant to be destroyed, but redirected?

In Lesson 13 of Kabbalah for Everyone, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath moves beyond simply identifying the Nefesh HaBahamit, the animal soul and discovers the deeper Kabbalistic vision: the goal is not to become less human, less passionate, less ambitious, or less emotional. The goal is to educate the enormous energy already inside us.

Drawing from Tanya, we explore itkafya, the ability to create space between an impulse and our response; the inner “courtroom” of the beinoni, where a feeling may make its argument without being allowed to issue the verdict; and ultimately the possibility of redirecting the animal soul itself toward holiness.

The ox is powerful. Unharnessed, it can destroy a field. Harnessed, that very same strength can produce a harvest. Your stubbornness can become loyalty. Your ambition can become service. Your sensitivity can become compassion. Your appetite for life can itself become part of your relationship with G-d.

The goal is not spirituality despite being human. It is spirituality through being human.

Key Points

A voice is not a verdict. An impulse, emotion, or thought may speak loudly without being given authority over what you think, say, or do.

The beinoni is not someone without struggle. Spiritual greatness can exist right in the middle of an ongoing inner battle.

Itkafya creates freedom. Sometimes holiness begins with the ability to say, “I want this, but I do not have to obey it right now.”

Don’t kill the ox. Harness it. The raw energy behind difficult traits may contain tremendous spiritual power.

Same ox. Different plow. Stubbornness can become persistence. Competition can become self-improvement. Pleasure can become beautiful Shabbat. Ambition can become service.

The Nefesh HaSichlit is the translator. Our rational mind can help translate the G-dly soul’s truths into language the animal soul can actually understand.

Dirah BiTachtonim happens inside us too. G-d wants a dwelling not only in the obviously holy parts of life, but in our bodies, appetites, personalities, passions, and physical energy.

Transformation does not mean sanctifying harmful behavior. We reject what is destructive while asking what healthy, holy power may exist underneath it.

Do not confuse recurring struggle with failure. Needing to choose again today does not erase yesterday’s victory.

The ultimate question is not, “Why am I not somebody else?” It is: “What am I going to do with the soul and temperament G-d gave me?”

Tonight Wednesday September 2 at 7:30pm EST on Zoom

https://www.jewishndg.com/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=110

September 16th at 7:30pm EST on Zoom

The Forgiveness Experiment: LIVE

https://www.jewishndg.com/civicrm/event/register?id=109

The School for Sensitive Souls

https://www.kabbalah4everyone.com/checkout/sensitive-souls

#Kabbalah #kabala #Jewish #Judaism #KabbalahForEveryone #Rabbiyisroelbernath #Tanya #chassidus #chabad #ChabadChassidus #JewishWisdom #NefeshHaBahamis #AnimalSoul #Beinoni #Itkafya #DirahBiTachtonim #JewishSpirituality #SelfMastery #Transformation #purpose 

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Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

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How Tanya teaches us to understand our inner conflict without shame and choose who gets to rule the city.

Download the PDF worksheet here

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ueahmlvp3pptfisjb3a22/Lesson-12-Animal-Soul.pdf?rlkey=dmspfv7j4b4tzlfol97awgyd0&dl=0

Why can one part of us sincerely want holiness, meaning, kindness, and growth, while another part wants comfort, recognition, revenge, or simply five more minutes in bed?

In this lesson, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath introduces one of Tanya’s foundational teachings: the Nefesh HaElokit, the G-dly soul, and the Nefesh HaBahamit, the animal soul. Rather than seeing our contradictions as proof that something is wrong with us, Tanya gives us a radically compassionate map of the human being: the struggle itself is part of the spiritual life.

We explore the animal soul not as something evil that must be destroyed, but as a powerful, self-oriented life force filled with desire, intelligence, emotion, and enormous energy. Its “horsepower” can pull us toward ego and indulgence or be redirected toward love, generosity, ambition and community.

Using Tanya’s famous metaphor of two kings fighting over a small city, we discover that spiritual success does not mean never feeling anger, jealousy, temptation, or resistance. The beinoni may still experience the battle; freedom means learning that not every feeling deserves the throne.

The lesson concludes with a practical tool, The Two Kings Pause: identify what the animal soul wants, listen for what the G-dly soul wants, and choose one concrete next action. You may not control the first feeling, but you can often choose the next sentence.

Key Points

Not every voice inside you is your deepest identity.

Tanya describes two inner orientations: the G-dly soul and the animal soul.

The animal soul is not inherently evil; it experiences life primarily with the self at the center.

The animal soul possesses intellect, emotion, thought, speech, and action, it can be remarkably sophisticated at justifying what it wants.

Through kelipat nogah, ordinary desires and physical energies can either descend into self-indulgence or be elevated toward holiness.

The goal is often not to eliminate desire but to ask: “Where does this energy belong?”

Tanya compares the human being to a small city ruled by two competing kings.

The beinoni teaches us that spiritual greatness is not the absence of struggle; it is choosing wisely within the struggle.

Moach shalit al halev, the mind can govern the heart—does not mean suppressing emotion. It means emotion does not automatically dictate behavior.

The practical process: Name the animal soul. Listen for the G-dly soul. Choose one next action.

Don’t measure your day by whether you struggled. Ask: “Who ruled the city in the next moment?”

When you fail, repair and choose again. The battle itself can become avodah.

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Wednesday, September 2

NO FEELING IS FINAL The Elul Art of Beginning Again

What if the way you feel right now isn’t the truth about who you are? Elul reminds us: you are never stuck. You are not your worst mistake, your fear, your disappointment, or the version of yourself you’re ready to outgrow.

Join me for a special Elul evening exploring teshuvah as return, the possibility of reconnecting with who you really are and beginning again.

Wednesday, September 2
Live on Zoom
7:30–8:30 PM — Lecture
8:30–9:30 PM — Interactive Workshop & Guided Processing

ACCESS HERE https://www.jewishndg.com/civicrm/event/register?id=110&reset=1

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#Kabbalah #chabad #Jewish #Judaism #KabbalahForEveryone #Tanya #chassidus#JewishWisdom #AnimalSoul #TwoSouls #Beinoni #spiritualgrowth #SelfAwareness #InnerConflict #EmotionalAwareness #FreeChoice #JewishSpirituality #kabala #KabbalahForLife #jewishmysticism #mysticism 

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Got your own question for Rabbi Bernath? He can be reached at [email protected] or http://www.theloverabbi.com

Single? You can make a profile on www.JMontreal.com and Rabbi Bernath will help you find that special someone.

Donate and support Rabbi Bernath’s work http://www.jewishndg.com/donate

Follow Rabbi Bernath’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/ybernath

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