Nitzotzos: Inspiration to Keep Your Spark Alive with Rav Mordechai Burg

By NitzotzosReligion & Spirituality Judaism

Nitzotzos: Inspiration to Keep Your Spark Alive with Rav Mordechai Burg episodes

November 02, 2023 Vayera - Are You A Bread Person Or A Salt Person (Achdus Event - Tomer Devorah and Sharfmans)
In this shiur, delivered at the Achdus Event with Tomer Devorah and Sharfmans, Rav Burg explores why Lots wife turns into salt and why we continue to make it a part of our Yiddishkeit today. The difference between drawing towards and drawing from is subtle but the implications are enormous in terms of the way that we treat other people.
37 min
November 02, 2023 Vayera - What You Learn When Your Back Is Up Against The Wall
This shmooze, sponsored by Smilesforthekids.com and delivered in Mevaseret, addresses the Kiruv methodology of Avraham Avinu. Why does Avraham Avinu seemingly coerce people into acknowledging Hashem? Is that helpful? Does it create meaningful and lasting change?
In this shiur, based on a sicha from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Burg speaks about how sometimes we have to face the hard truth in order to unlock who we really are and what we really believe.
36 min
October 25, 2023 Lech Lecha - Be Fascinating
In this shiur, delivered in Tomer Devorah, Rav Burg explores the difference between the generation that built Migdal Bavel and Avraham Avinu. The juxtaposition of the two clearly indicates that the fundamental mission of the Jew is to be uniquely themselves. Only when we serve Hashem according to the unique nature of our soul can we say that we are truly serving Hashem. And when we do we are fascinating people.

36 min
October 25, 2023 Achdus Event - (Mevaseret and Aish Gesher) A Torah of Unity
In a tremendous display of Achdus in these difficult times, Mevaseret and Aish Gesher joined together for a morning seder.
Rav Burg addressed both Yeshivas in an opening shmooze on the topic of Rav Chanina ben Tradyon's tragic death.
As he is leaving this world, Rav Chanina ben Tradyon reveals the secret of Klal Yisrael's ultimate victory.
26 min
October 18, 2023 Noach - Finding an Inner Strength Amidst the Flood
This shiur, delivered in Yeshivat HaKotel for the newly formed Acheinu program, explores the nature of the world pre-flood and post-flood. Pre-flood the world received its Godliness from Hashem whereas post-flood the world discovered its Godliness from within. This change was brought about through two mechanisms: 1. the flood 2. the Teiva. The flood of life destroys all of our toxic systems and the Teiva is where we discover our inner strength.

42 min
October 18, 2023 Noach - Leaving the Teiva, Returning to the Vulnerability of Life
Noach would not leave the Teiva until the dove returned with an olive leaf in his mouth. But where would a dove get an olive leaf from? The Medrash provides us with two solutions: Gan Eden or Eretz Yisrael. What is the inner meaning of retrieving an olive leaf from these two places? In this shiur, Rav Burg explores how we can return to our lives after the flood of destruction. How do we know that it is safe to leave the Teiva? When we discover that our inner essence is untainted, the essential self that never participated in our lowest moments and even the essence of our lowest parts that did things we are not proud of, it gives us the feeling of safety to return to the vulnerabilities of life.

36 min
October 18, 2023 Noach - The Teiva as a model for the Jewish home
This shiur, delivered in Tomer Devorah, explores the specific dimensions and design of the Teiva as a model for what a Jewish home ought to look like.

52 min
October 11, 2023 Bereishis - Making Light Out of the Darkness
In this shiur, delivered in Tomer Devorah, Rav Burg explores the first several pesukim of Bereishis in an effort to understand these difficult times that we are living in.

41 min
October 09, 2023 Chizzuk in These Difficult Times (bonus: how to talk to your children about the war with Hamas)
In this shiur, delivered in the Lubat home in RBS Hey and on zoom, Rav Burg provides Divrei Chizzuk for the community. Focusing in on the spiritual nature of what it means to be a Jew, Rav Burg explores why Achdus is of such extreme importance.
At the end of the shiur Rav Burg provides a step by step guide as to how to talk with our children about the war with Hamas.
54 min
October 05, 2023 Hoshana Rabbah - To Live in a Pleasant World
This shiur, delivered at the Yeshivat HaKotel Hoshana Rabbah program, begins with three questions:
1. What's the inner nature of Hoshana Rabbah such that it has the capacity to override the psak of Yom Kippur?
2. Why does the war of Gog and Magog take place on Hoshana Rabbah?
3. What's the connection between Dovid HaMelech (the Ushpizin of the night) and Hoshana Rabbah?
In this shiur Rav Burg explains how music represents the mergjng of the spiritual and the physical. Though they don't naturally go together, it is possible to synthesize the two. This is the meaning of the pleasantness of Torah and Olam Haba which are both called Noam.
37 min