Accessing Your Best Self with Devorah Vale JewishPodcasts.org

In this class we explore the midda of endurance. Tenacity, Resilience and perseverence are traits that we embody as a nation and we need to develop personally to actualize our potential. We learn from the greats! Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who figure prominently during this time in the Jewish calendar and teach us these great lessons .

Purim is the only holiday our Rabbis teach, that we will continue to celebrate after Mashiach comes. It will still be relevant when all other holidays no longer are needed. Purim lights our way through the darkness of exile and its spiritual lessons will continue to reverberate forever in the future.

Having hakpada is a very negative trait and makes us transgress many positive mitzvot in the Torah . We must get rid of it the way we rid ourselves of chametz before Pesach. By striving for greater humility we become more like the matza which is the bread of freedom metaphorically and in reality. 

Seeing Hashem in the miraculous is not hard! It's seeing Hashem in the everyday that is a challenge! Recognizing the good that He does for us and that others do for us is a character trait called Hakarat HaTov! It is more than just saying a perfunctory thank you! It requires us to get rid of expectations that others should do for us and also realize that by acknowledging the good, we are now left owing and that is often why we would rather ignore it.

In this class we discover the origin of the light at the beginning of Creation. This same hidden light is the same one that we illuminate in the month of Kislev, the darkest month of the year. Removing the darkness of false ideologies which the Greeks gave us is the work of Hannukah that continues to this day. 

This is a world of tests. Hashem tests each one of us in a specific way in order that we actualize our potential. Passing a test is a miracle, its a flag that we raise when we have overcome. By working on bitachon, and asking Hashem to help us when we are dealing with difficult people or situations, we are more assured of success.