Well Praying

Praying is like digging a well in that you need to dig into the depths of your soul where there is flowing water, thirst and pining, deep desires that are befitting like clear, clean water.
Initially, all you find is clumps of dry dirt, then the ground begins to become moist from the waters of the depths, subsequently water begins to trickle out, mixed with mud and dirt. Finally, there is pure, clear, flowing water. The same is true with the gates of the heart which are initially stopped up by lots of dirt, but they are always full of clear water deep within. Prayer consists of peeling away the dried and dirty layers to seek out and reveal what is flowing within, which is totally clear and pure, full of will and desire, connection and great pleasure.
בראשית שס"ז

Daas

Unlike Chochma or Bina (wisdom and understanding) which are acquired through logical analysis of general principles and details, Daas (knowledge) is achieved through finding that  the life force within oneself is in synchronicity with that which is being comprehended. Dass is not superficial contemplation of the matter being comprehended in the manner in which the intellect works, rather it is one's essence connecting with it. It is not expressed in knowledge about, but is united with. It is a life's experience which cannot be expressed verbally and is not delineated by thoughts. Daas is connection, a living meeting between the knower and the known. It creates an essential unity between them. Daas means to blend, to dissolve the external walls which separate and to touch the life force within which is the unity and identification of the knower with the known. Daas neutralizes multiplicity and reveals unity.
תפלה שנ"ז

Resurrection - Where is it to be Found?

I saw something very fascinating in a lengthy piece that HaChalban quotes from the Baal Haleshem (ספר הדעה ב ב ג). This does not sound like the typical kind of idea that you will see in Torah sources. While it may not surprise you the the source is a significant Kabbalistic work, its author was not from the Chassidic movement, on the contrary, he was the leading Lithuanian Mitnagdic Kabbalist of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Despite that, what I share from him here may sound a bit New-Agey. You'd be surprised what you find if you are not too scared to delve deeply into the sources of truth.
As I often do, I will not be translating his ideas word for word, but restating them in my own way, and in this case adding a bit of my own. That said, feel free to consult the original source and you will see that I am true to his message.
The Talmud teaches us that there are three people who are considered to be dead: one who has tzorass, one who is destitute, and one who has no children. Why is this? It would seem because in each of these cases people often wonder what is the value of their life given the situation they are in. A life that is lacking in meaning is essentially death.
Resurrection happens around us all the time. Every person, every object, every idea, every moment that seems to have no meaning and no purpose, and then we discover its value is an act of resurrection. People mistakenly think that the resurrection of the dead is something that will occur in some futuristic Messianic time. They think it only entails dead bodies rising from the earth and coming back to life.  The truth is that it is a process which is ongoing on a moment by moment basis throughout existence.

Every time a scientist discovers a new power of nature that was unknown beforehand, he is resurrecting the dead. He is giving meaning to something that was not yet understood. If an inventor taps the forces of nature to create something new, he is resurrecting latent abilities within Creation that had been dead until now. If a person feels that his life is meaningless, whether for the reasons mentioned above or some other reason, and then finds meaning in her life, she has now been resurrected. If a person spent time pursuing a project that ultimately failed and feels that all the time expended was wasted, that time is dead to him. When he later uncovers the value of that experience another resurrection has occurred.
The only difference between our times and the Messianic Era is that at by that time the meaning of everything will be revealed, all the dead will have been resurrected. But resurrection itself, is always with us.

I

Occasionally a person will go to an extreme and think that his "I" is just something that is evil and must be erased. He chooses to live a life of asceticism and despises his God-given abilities. He thinks that more he crushes himself the better person and servant of God he is.
This is a great mistake. God did not give us great abilities so that we should waste them, but that we should use them in His service. We cannot destroy the abilities and aptitudes which God instilled within us, on the contrary, they should be used in divine service. If God gave someone strength or intelligence or other skills it is a sign that God wants the person to serve Him with those abilities and not to push them aside or erase them.
Occasionally a person must push aside his abilities if they are leading him on an evil path, but that is no reason to completely destroy them. He should push them aside for a short period of time until he can cleanse them of the evil which has grabbed onto them. Subsequently, he should return to them and use them to serve God for which purpose they were created.
The "I" is the entry point to "you." If there is no "I" to stand before Hashem, then there can be no "you" directed towards Hashem.
תפלה ק"ע

The Esrog - Alone

It takes a conscious effort to connect the Esrog to the other three species because oftentimes the Tzaddikim -righteous (who are symbolized by the Esrog) have a tendency to look upon the wicked with a superficial glance and distance and separate from them. They must make sure that they do not separate from the other three species and to join the Esrog with the Lulav and Aravah (which represent those less righteous) so they are literally one.
It is the righteous who are most likely to err when it comes to unity. The forces of evil make every effort to cause them to err as they know that if the righteous would make peace with everyone else and feel unified with the rest of the Jewish Nation, as symbolized by the Lulav, then the Redemption would come immediately. The Yetzer Hora makes every effort to separate the Esrog from the other species and to instill within them thoughts of separation, filled with hubris. G-d forbid that people should fall into this trap because within lies the secret of our Redemption.
א"ת קמ"א

The Breaking

HaChalban quotes Rav Kook:
Why was it necessary for their to be a breaking of the vessels at the time of Creation?
Godliness gives according to its ability, whereas the recipient is limited which results in its receiving a finite amount of goodness. So the good is given in infinite measure, as is its nature, and is unlimited Godliness, despite the fact that the receiving Creation is incapable of receiving such goodness. Creation will completely shatter and then rebuild itself it its desire to return to the unbound source, to unite with God.
In this manner the Creation creates itself to be on a level of completeness akin to its Creator. It rises above the limitations of a Creation which would not have been possible without being exposed to goodness that was beyond its ability to receive. It would have remained on the level of a Creation and never approached that of the Creator...
The World of Tohu, its shattering and rebuilding, teach us that the urge to rectify, improve and exist operates very powerfully. Existence cannot receive the powerful goodness of the Higher Existence, the unlimited power. The limited existence melts before the goodness, the power of life; it shatters because of its great ambition. But that does not prevent the good from continuing on its path. It rebuilds after breakage and the new building is beautiful with immeasurable value. The measure of good is so much greater than that of suffering that it is worth suffering all the pain of shattering, all the ruination of destruction, so that such improved worlds can emerge that carry a richness of life which, left to their own devices, would have been beyond their ability.The Creator does not choose a path that is measured and constricted commensurate with the ability of existence. Were He to do so the good would be limited and not according to the the powerful life-force of the Creator of All, but based on the conditions of the weak Creation.
אלול תשרי ק"ל

Harvesting Torah

In every generation there is a small group of people to whom Hashem reveals the unique light of Torah which is necessary for that generation to fulfill its destiny. They harvest the fruit of Torah for their time by developing and disseminating new paradigms of understanding which speak to the souls of their contemporaries and infuse them with life. Others spend their time weeding out the evil in their generation, but harvesting the field is a much higher level. The others are merely fighting against what is wrong, but those who harvest the produce awaken a higher good, עשה דוחה לא תעשה.
Every season it is important to harvest the fruit that has grown in order to enable the tree to renew its energy to produce a new crop in the following year. If the fruits are not harvested they will stunt the growth of the fruits of the coming year. In the same manner, those who harvest the fruit of the generation, who tap into the unique teachings of Torah for a particular time, are not only shining a powerful beacon of light for their contemporaries, but they are clearing the path for new lights to shine for future times. We need to act as midwives to deliver the unique paradigms for our times so that we enable the gestation of new and deeper lights. This is the epitome of working with God.

Paraphrased from בראשית  322

Missing the Bais HaMikdosh

I happened to come across a piece from the Chalban today that is most appropriate for the day following Tisha B'Av. In his Sefer on Tefila (prayer) he discusses Tikkun Chatzos, a prayer service traditionally reciteג only by a few individuals who awakeמ at midnight to cry over the destruction of the Bais HaMikdosh (Temple) and the exile of the Schechina.
He points out that in our times there are more people seeking the Bais HaMikdosh as the ultimate redemption comes steadily closer. It is still in the pre-daylight stages when only a few have awoken while most are slumbering in their beds. Those who have woken up are few in comparison to the large numbers of Jews, including Torah observant Jews, and

are not enough to seek the Mikdosh and the complete redemption with full force. They are not enough to demand of heaven and earth for the sake of Zion and Yerushalaim, to fulfill the verse of "It is Zion which has no seekers," from which we understand that there should be seekers of Zion. But the bottom line is that those who seek are increasing in number.
In previous generations, during the Exile, it was the giants of the world who awoke at midnight to cry over the Destruction and to pray for the complete redemption. They felt intensely the state in which things would be in their proper order. Even though it was distant from their everyday life, as they were oppressed and denigrated in exile, these holy people felt the true glory of the Jewish Nation, the glory of the Schechina, of Yerushalaim and the Torah. They felt intense pain over the lack of each of these.
Even though there were many open difficulties, decrees prohibiting Torah study, economic privation, pogroms, these holy people did not just effort to ease the strains on the Jewish people, but they also felt the absence of the land, monarchy, Schechina and prophecy. The absence of offerings,the songs of the Leviim and the burning of incense.
תפלה קמ"ב

Simcha - III

In contrast to the other forms of sweetening the Din (discussed in the previous two posts), that of Binah is the highest form as it is rooted in Simcha which chases away all the Klipot. The root of the evil of the evil and the Klipot is that they try to infuse a person with an imaginary life. The Yetzer Hora only enters an empty heart as idleness and boredom lead the person to find a sense of being alive within sin. But this is all empty and imaginary and trying to convince the person that they will fill his empty life. But a person whose heart is filled with true holiness is not one in which the Klipot can take root as it is filled with God's blessing, richness of life and full of pleasant feelings, joy of holiness with no emptiness boredom or starving for life.
The bottom line is that every person wants to feel alive and if he doesn't keep himself alive with holiness he will starve, and then the Klipot will sell him rotten food that appears good on the outside.
What fills a person with great spiritual wealth? Simcha! To expound on this we need to know that wealth is synonymous with Mochin (literally brains, in Kabbalistic terminology it means the spiritual emanations from above, specifically of Chochma and Bina). All of the middot are vessels within which one can receive the light of Chochma and Bina. Chochma is the source of Torah wisdom, and Bina is the source of happiness. Together they fill a person with wealth and a sweet and powerful sense of satisfaction to the extent that the person no longer feels a sense of hunger and emptiness which lures him to imaginary ways of satisfying his needs.
Bina is the wine that brings joy and bestows on a person great happiness and fullness of life. Bina is also referred to as Elokim Chaim as it is the Middah that bestows a feeling of truly being alive through happiness.
תפלה פ"ב

Simcha - II

When sweeting of Din is accomplished through the pain of having sinned exemplified in Malchut, or the admitting of wrongdoing and Viduy of Hod, or being God-fearing and overcoming the desire to sin of Gevurah, there remains room for the Klipot (forces of impurity) to take hold. This results from the fact that all of the above have the tendency to cause a person to draw into himself and to feel down about himself. One who feels knocked down tends to want to be alone and doesn't feel comfortable relating to others in a happy and loving manner. After confessing his sins a person may feel embarrassed and not show a shining face towards others. One whose sins have left him gripped with fear may feel an overpowering sense of seriousness that makes it difficult for him to smile at others.
The bottom line is that as long as a person remains within the left-side middos which emanate from Gevurah it is difficult for him to incorporate also the right-side of kindness, love, smile, connection, unity. He wants to be alone as Gevurah is the essence of separating things so that each thing stands alone. In these situations a person is not avoןding others because of evil Gevurot - there is no anger, hubris, stinginess or related traits. Those are perversions of the left-side and the distancing that results from them is negative, distorted and misguided. In this case the distancing is resulting from the good middot of Teshuva and correction. Despite this, as he is still rooted in the left-side his heart is connected to Gevurah, separation, and does not find itself whole and complete and incorporating Chesed and the light of unity, love and connection.
Therefore, even though these are all necessary Middot in the process of Teshuva and purification, they will not come to their completion until one joins to them the higher level of Binah the root of joy as we will explain next.
תפלה פ"א

Hidden Connections

Every Mitzvah has reasons that are revealed. Frequently these reasons seem to show that certain Mitzvos have no connection. One example is the ארבע פרשיות which seem to have each been instituted for a reason that is independent of the others. The same is true of other Torah concepts which seem to have an independent existence with no connection to another. However, beneath the veneer of revealed reasons lies a hidden realm which intimately ties together all the parts until they are one entity forming a comprehensive picture expressed by numerous parts that had seemed to lack any connection. Hidden lines and thin threads weave together all the aspects of the Torah to form amazing connections. We frequently find in the Tikkunei Zohar connections between seemingly distant topics, which are then united by their hidden ties.
Topics such as conversion, Korbanos, Tzitzis, redeeming first-born donkeys, Amalek and marriage which are each found in a different part of Shulchan Aruch and have no connection in the revealed world, are deeply connected in the Zohar. One can study Mesechet Kiddishin and have a comprehensive knowledge of the laws of marriage without knowing anything of the laws of mixing meat and milk. But Kabbalah connects them. In the revealed world discussions about certain topics are generally focused solely on that topic. It is then expounded upon through numerous citations from the sages until the topic is completely clarified and its practical application understood. However, within their words the Sages sprinkled hints, sparks of the hidden teachings, which direct us to discover the hidden principles, and the connections between disparate topics. Often these are predicated upon shared usage of certain terms.

פורים כ"ו

Simcha - I

Simcha is rooted in the sefira of Binah which is also the root of din. Two principles of din are that it is the place where vulnerability to klipot exists, and that it can only be sweetened (mitigated) at its root. Therefore one can only sweeten the din by connecting to Binah.
 There are a number of other Sefirot which relate to din, namely all the 'left-side' sefirot of Gevura, Hod and Malchut. They are knowמ collectively as אלוהים (Elokim). In its most perverted sense Din is exemplified as the self-centered Yetzer Hora which manifests anger, hubris, lust and other egoistical traits. One must get to the roots of the four sefirot in order to mitigate the din.
Binah is the root of Simcha, Gevurah is fear and overpowering, Hod is acknowledgement of truth, and Malchut is humility.
 One mitigates the Din in Malchut by feeling the pain of the damage one has caused by improper behavior. This is exemplified by the humility demonstrated by King David in the wake of his sin. Stubborness is the root of sin, and breaking that weakens the evil within the uncircumcised heart.
Within Hod, by admitting the truth of one's failings and reciting Viduy one mitigates the Din. The sin came about because he was blind to falsehood. By owning up to the reality of the wrong he wrought, he breaks the power of delusion,and enters the realm of truth.   Within Gevurah one mitigates the Din by learning how to be a God-fearing person. Sin comes from forgetting who God is, and magnifying onesself. When one visualizes God before himself, the Yetzer is weakened and mitigated. In a similar vein within Gevurah, the Din is sweetened by fighting and overcoming the Yetzer as the fighting is inspired by the fear of God found within.
תפלה פ