Are you carrying a heavy burden? It might not be just sin and guilt. This teaching speaks about the need to train the animal side of the human being and bring it into subjection. Part two of the Choose Life teaching and the conclusion to the Train Yourself for Godliness series, just on time for the high holidays. 

If Yeshua came to die for our sins, then why did he pray that the cup of suffering might be taken away from him? This teaching on Parashat Ki Tavo's curses and blessings reaches into the kingdom to obtain some help for our physical condition in the world today. 

Why was Yeshua called "a glutton and a drunkard"? Discover the meaning behind the cryptic passage, "We played a flute for you, but you did not dance; we sang a dirge, but you did not mourn," and learn about the path of meseret nefesh, asceticism, and self-control.

Have you ever heard of the "Hudson Twenty"? Beth Immanuel's new associate pastor, Toby Janicki, speaks about some of the "weighty matters" of Torah in this teaching from Parashat Shoftim, encouraging us to lighten up.

Loving God seems like should be easy. Unlike humans, he is perfect. There is also no doubt that he is worthy of our love. But there are serious challenges with carrying out the important commandment of loving God. In this class we learn how to overcome these challenges and what it takes to love our Creator.

One mussar theme pervades Yeshua's teachings, but it defies the typical categories of middot (traits) taught by the mussar masters. This instruction for life is the defining theme of Yeshua's message to Israel: Endurance and Perseverance for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Does Hagar represent the Jews in slavery under the law while Sarah represents the Christians in freedom under grace? That's the conventional interpretation of Paul's parable in Galatians 4:22, but this teaching turns over that common interpretation by revealing the Jewish background to the story.

Was Paul in disguise? Paul says, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." Did he adopt hypocritical pretenses in order to win people with the Gospel, acting like Jew around Jews and like a Gentile around Gentiles? This teaching on Galatians 4:12-20 considers Paul's evangelism strategies and the real meaning behind 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.

Forty days in the wilderness! The season of repentance is often referred to as the Jewish version of Lent, but which came first? This teaching from 2010 makes the case that the Christian season of Lent was originally based on the Jewish season of Teshuvah. This teaching calls upon us to employ asceticism and meseret nefesh in a forty-day face-off with the devil as we train for Yom Kippur.

Your soul's purpose in this world is to serve God. That's why it was given a body. This purpose implies that there is a foundational commandment in the Torah that many of us may be neglecting. The soul is like an astronaut in a spacesuit. Is an astronaut concerned with maintaining his spacesuit?

In the interest of proper credit, some inspiration for this teaching came from this page. Beth Immanuel does not necessarily endorse everything on that site (which appears to be from a Breslov perspective).