Hakitzu VeRanenu #7: The Deep Slumber of Exile

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 30, 2021

However, the revelation of this life-giving spirit is faced with many powerful and difficult obstacles. We have already long become accustomed to perceiving ourselves as separate individuals, to worrying only about our own personal completion – whether in physical or spiritual matters. Together with this, we have become used to sharpening the differences between ourselves…

Hakitzu VeRanenu #6 – Our Generation and the Generation of the Ingathering of the Exiles

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 27, 2021

Understand well that the secret of the descent of the spirit is our generation’s avodah, after the first generation of kibutz galuyos (the ingathering of the exiles). The first generation engaged in the externality of the redemption, gathering the limbs and arranging them one next to the other. Included in this was the preparation of…

Hakitzu VeRanenu #5 – Two Stages of Redemption

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 23, 2021

Hashem has recollected His nation, and with miracles and awesome wonders we have been returned to our land after a long and bitter exile. Blessed is Hashem Whose kindness has overwhelmed us, Who has taken us from death to life, from darkness to light, from subjugation under the nations of the world to freedom in…

Hakitzu VeRanenu #4 – The Redemption and Penimiyus HaTorah

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 20, 2021

It is known from countless sources in the Zohar and other works of penimiyus that in time to come, the interiority of the Torah will be revealed in all of its light and with the full might of its elevation, and that it is by way of this revelation that am Yisrael will be redeemed…

Hakitzu VeRanenu #3 – The Secret of Exile

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 17, 2021

The exile of the Jewish nation from their land involved the mystery of death. This is apparent from the Vision of the Dry Bones – exile is likened to a cemetery. And so our sages have said, “Tzion is considered to be dead, as the verse states ‘you have placed me in the dark like…

Hakitzu VeRanenu #2 – Two Aspects within the Jewish Person

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 15, 2021

Each Jewish person contains two aspects, the mystery of chitzoniyus (exteriority) and penimiyus (interiority.) The external element relates to his personal life as he knows it from the time of his birth until the present moment, and his seeing himself as a complete being with an entirely independent existence. As it relates to avodas Hashem,…

Hakitzu VeRanenu #1 – Introduction

By Rav Reuven Sasson | June 14, 2021

Consciousness of Exile and of Redemption Introduction If you have a heart, my brother, it is important that you listen to our words. If your soul desires to serve Hashem in the truest sense, focus your concentration on our words well, for they emerge from the Mikdash, from the stream of the sifrei penimiyus upon…