The Advocate

Gilgul: (plural gilgulim) also known as Gilgul neshamot/Gilgulei Ha Neshamo. In Hebrew, the word gilgul means "cycle" or "wheel" and neshamot is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to cycle through lives or incarnations, being attached to different human bodies over time. Which body they associate with depends on their particular task in the physical world, spiritual levels of the bodies of predecessors and so on. The concept relates to the wider processes of history in Kabbalah, involving cosmic Tikkun (Messianic rectification), and the historical dynamic of ascending Lights and descending Vessels from generation to generation. Rolling of the souls through life from body to body, animal or human, basically metempsychosis. There's gilgul, transmigration proper, in which a soul that had previously inhabited one body is sent back to earth to inhabit another body. Then ibbur, “impregnation,” in which a soul descends from heaven in order to assist anoth...

This week is #HEREIAM #Hineni. I've endured horrific #antisemitism, yet, I remain a proud Jew committed to all the beauty of our people, cultivating #community, and forging #partners in allyship.  Learn more at Here I Am Stories . Take note and take care.

( Art credit ) Given that we're amidst the High Holidaze, I think this value is particularly important:  Cheshbon Hanefesh . It means an accounting of and for the soul. This practice aims to help us grow more familiar with our habits of heart and mind and how they promote or impede our growth into a better person. It helps us to ask ourselves , in what ways have I made the world better? In what ways have I made it worse? How do I affect the lives of others? Are their lives easier or harder because of my behavior? This is not about our worth as individuals; it is about the worth of our behavior as individuals. What are we doing with our lives? Take note and take care.

( Books of Jewish Beauty ) Hadran Alach : “hadran alach, ve’hadrach alan,” which is Aramaic for “we have returned to you and we will return to you, dear tractate, and you have returned to us and will return to us.” We say this when finishing any book, not just religious ones. We treat books almost as if they are people, capable of thought and feeling. We respect and revere them. We treat them as guests of honor in our lives. They are to be visited often, to be remembered, and to be returned to in gratitude and thankfulness for the gifts of knowledge and enjoyment that they have provided. Take note and take care.