This Week in Torah by Charlie Harary

You know those people who turn their personal hurt into national problems?

So how do we handle the difficulties that come our way instead of making them everyone else’s problems?

Korach, a prestigious and honorable man, met his downfall by turning his unresolved issues into a national crusade.

Tune into today’s Timeless Lessons to find out how great people handle their difficulties, and how to avoid self destruction.

Excuse us, Canada, can you please keep your smoke to yourself?

That’s not how it works though, is it?

We think what we feel and how we react is our business. But how does it affect those around us?

Tune into the Unlocking Greatness Podcast for this important lesson, and share with someone who needs to hear this message.

The Princes Gift 

Rockets fall in Israel as we go about our day as if nothing happened. 

What is the message? 

How are we supposed to act? 

Let’s do this together.

In part 4 of the Lag Ba’Omer flash series, Charlie uncovers the life changing secret we learn from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

When Rabbi Shimon comes out of the cave he doesn’t see what ppl look like superficially. He sees infinite value, a piece of G-d, their essence, their character. 

He teaches us real respect. To respect someone means “I don’t know why you’re saying what you’re saying and maybe we’re different, but your essence is infinite. There’s a piece of G-d in your soul!”

That’s the story of lag baomer- seeing beyond the physical. That’s what he gave us in Kabbalah- the path to redemption.

Lag baomer isn’t the conclusion of the mourning. It’s the beginning of the future! It’s the new way forward.

Today we have everything- strong army, Torah, money, knowledge stronger than ever. How come we don’t have the temple?

Maybe we haven’t learned the lessons. Maybe we don’t know how to balance “I don’t agree with your views” with “your soul is beautiful, we’re in essence one.”

Today, take a moment and light a candle for rabbi shimon and ask him for help seeing the greatness in each other. 

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To join our Insider’s Community, go to charlieharary.com/insiders

To get this full series all in one place, go to YouTube 

Please make sure you’re subscribed to our two podcasts, Unlocking Greatness and Timeless Lessons.

Join our WhatsApp groups here 

Lag Ba’Omer marks the passing of the Torah Giant, and student of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai revealed the Kabbalah (the deep secrets of the Torah) to the Jewish people.

 After 12 years of hiding out from the Romans and learning all of the hidden secrets of the Torah, Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai emerged from the cave with his so. But everything he looked at got burnt from the intense holiness in his eyes! He returned to the cave for another year in order to integrate what he’d learned, and emerged again with the beautiful ability to see the good in others who are different from him!

After a life of teaching, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai shared everything he had learned with his students on the day of his death, and those teachings make up the Zohar. The day of his passing was Lag Ba’Omer.

What does this story also have to do with the end of the mourning time for the deaths of the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva and their attempt to take back the temple?

Rabbi Akiva’s students could not bring themselves to respect someone with different views than they had. They learned from Rabbi Akiva to “love your neighbor like yourself,” but they interpreted this to mean “you have to be like me in order for me to love you!”

They couldn’t respect anyone who wasn’t like them! They couldn’t differentiate between having respect for someone who chose to live differently from them vs. looking down and judging them. That nuance caused their destruction and the destruction of the efforts to rebuild the Holy Temple.

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai changed this. His ability to respect someone different than him made all the difference. 

But there is one more secret which this holiday is all about!

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Thanks for listening, sharing, tagging, and reviewing! Share your comments with us on our social platforms- we love hearing your feedback.

To join our Insider’s Community, go to charlieharary.com/insiders

To get this full series all in one place, go to 

Please make sure you’re subscribed to our two podcasts, Unlocking Greatness and Timeless Lessons.

Join our WhatsApp groups here 

Why do the Jewish people still mourn the deaths of students we know nothing about thousands of years later?
What is it about Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students that warrant a time of national mourning?
Who were they and what was the time period like they were living in?
Listen in as Charlie Harary brings to life the story of the Jewish people's fight against the Romans that ultimately is the reason why we are still exile.

You’ll be surprised to hear how close we were to the Third Temple, yet a crack in our spiritual armor caused all of our efforts to fail.

This time of national mourning is for redemption that was right in the palm of our hand, and yet the problem is still not solved. What exactly went wrong?

Join us tomorrow to find out!

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Thanks for listening, sharing, tagging, and reviewing! Share your comments with us on our social platforms- we love hearing your feedback.

To join our Insider’s Community, go to charlieharary.com/insiders

To get this full series all in one place, go to youtube

Please make sure you’re subscribed to our two podcasts, Unlocking Greatness and Timeless Lessons.

In this new 4 part flash series on Lag Baomer, Charlie poses a question we may not have considered:

Why celebrate Lag Ba'omer?!?

It's not a holiday in the traditional sense, yet it's a day of celebration, a day which ends the mourning restrictions during the Sefira time period.

We rarely have such extended times of national mourning, and here we are mourning for Rabbi Akiva’s students we never knew! And yet, the yahrzeit of a renowned scholar, Rav Shimon ben Yochai, ends this time of mourning and has us celebrating on his day of death. What a seeming paradox!

Tune into this 4-part series to learn more about this day, its importance, and what we can learn as we return to normalcy after a time of mourning.

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Thanks for listening, sharing, tagging, and reviewing! Share your comments with us on our social platforms- we love hearing your feedback.

To join our Insider’s Community, go to charlieharary.com/insiders

To get this full series all in one place, go to youtube

Please make sure you’re subscribed to our two podcasts, Unlocking Greatness and Timeless Lessons.