A Listening Heart

A Special Place In The Heart Our heart or feelings are comprised of many desires that we wish to realize that make me feel pleasure.

My mind is constantly occupied to devise ways of satisfying these wishes.

Only when I shut down these thoughts demanding me to achieve my selfish desires, I am able to feel that special, beautiful place in my heart that connects me to G_dliness. This is a desire to come out of myself and use my mind and prayers for the benefit of others. Then, G_d responds by trusting me to deliver His Light through me to all. Reply

To be a mentsch is the goal A jew using just his mind...well maybe this person can do almost all mizvot...
A jew using his or her mind and the heart will become a mentsch Reply

Sorry Rabbi I do not agree with you. I am a 77 years old women and from my heart since I do remember I loved HaShem.
But we need more to grasp Him to know Him fully. We cannot defined and described and analyse but is my experience is
a fact to be experienced when we do not have doubt anymore.
G-d must be a continuous Force in our life, never wearing but a continuous need as the food to our flesh in our daily life. He is connecting to us as a unseen but a feeling rope or a chunnal where is a relationship, such us personal, always present, ethical and moral. a Companion of our inner life. He is communicating with us if we are holding that "rope" to survive. With our heart and mind we must trust Him while He is holding us underneath with "everlasting arms"
I my "downs" of my life His assurance always come when I have started to fol lntellect, when I have started to keep of His 613 Commandments. My challenges I have felt that the law of Divine Justice and Divine Love I am a coworker win Reply

When searching for Him
Know well his place
Inside of soul
Outside of space

Climb levels of thought
To the height of your mind
Reach deep in your heart
And Him you will find

Learn with your head
Feel from within
And where to look
Is out and in.

Ezra House
Chabadnik from Riverdale, NY Reply

A Quiet Heart - Penny June 29 I agree with you ' wholeheartedly '. Furthermore, Binah/Heart is associated more with women so to speak. However, it seems to me that the article wants Chochma/Wisdom/Mind to overrule Binah. It is a wily way to promote Chochma which Chabad associates more with the male jurisdiction.

I could be wrong. I may not have learned it properly, but this is the picture i came away with. Anyone care to correct me ? It is not intended to be a sexist slant, but that is what i came away with. This premise follows from my posts of June 28 2011- "maybe " and then " Contexts ". Am only interested in gaining a more accurate picture if i am wrong. I am also aware of the Chochma - Binah- Daat triangle. If i have that correctly, Wisdom and Understanding combine to render Daat, a total unmistakable grasp of Knowledge. Example: G-d exists. You know it in your entire being. Daat is commonly associated with the heart. Every once in a while i feel like i am in over my head on these subjects. But it feels okay. Reply

A Quiet Mind My understanding is that we do not want to quiet the heart. We want to develop a "knowing heart" that emerges in Binah. Reply

A quiet heart If the heart is silent, quiet, then the mind makes the body move. The mind is capable of directing the body to move in accordance with the dictates of the Ego.
The heart is the place where G_D is..
"Follow your head, not your heart" has been the cause of broken relationships. Reply

to the WiseMomOf2 A Mom who can write this can only be a Wise Mom.G-d bless. Reply

Parental decisions Torah guides us to teach our children mainly from Chesed/love/stronger right hand more often than, and only as necessary from Gevurah/discipline/weaker left hand. That is part 1.

Part 2 is that Torah guides us to establish a Netzach-Hod bond, a steely resolve of trust between us and our children. Achieving this bond allows our children an easy acceptance of our teaching by Chesed and Gevurah, the bond in part 1.

These two parts are more naturally established by mothers. That is why mothers/women are better suited teachers in early childhood development. Better does not mean only. Men also play an essential role in the teaching process. Reply

Why do we tend to associate mind with coldness and calculation,and heart with warmth and spiritual wisdom?Is this association itself(perhaps subconsciously) the product of a mind controlled by the heart?Where the emotions dwell we denote by the name of 'heart',negative emotions as well as positive ones.Negative ones,when the heart is not quiet;positive ones when it is quite(speaking with Zorach:the lower heart when it is not quite;the Higher heart when it is quite).Resentment,as an example for a negative emotion,depending on the natural disposition of the person (or the collectivity)who is feeling it,can manifest itself as an impulsive hotblooded instantenous act or a well(!) thought-out coldblooded and refined strategic action plan.In both cases there operates a mind that is under the control of an unquiet heart.The mind,without the negative interference of the heart,has the innocence of a child's curiosity;nurtured by a quite thus divine heart,it reaches out to the Divine Truth. Reply

Contexts In Parsha Korach, two commentaries come to mind.

The wife of On did not want him to follow Korach, but rather Moses, and so she got her husband too drunk to participate and thus saved his life. Did she not follow her heart ? In earlier parshas, Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael out. The women at Sinai did not back the men making the Golden Calf. Are these not decisions of the heart/faith/belief ?

Korach's wife was the instigator for him to rebel. Korach does two things. First he devises a devious plan to get followers to join him in rebellion by attacking the higher level of holiness of Moses and Aaron. Secondly, he calculates that if his rebels can defeat Moses and Aaron, he, Korach, would likely be chosen Kohen Gadol. Are these not decisions of the mind ?

I realize that i am taking examples that thwart the idea that the mind must control the heart. There are probably far more examples where the mind decisions adroitly control decisions of the heart.

Am i mistaken ? Reply

A Quiet Heart B"H

As a mother, this truly hits home we discipline our children from the heart more than our brains, which always causes confusion in the home for everyone, not just from parent to child but from mother to Father as well. Reply

A Quiet Heart In quietness and trust is my strength: this convicts me through the years of life. But I believe my heart is the realm of my human spirit which seeks to agree with HaRuach. When a crime of passion occurs that emotion of the soul and the rational or actually irrational of the mind are not of that quiet heart in the first place.
Thank you rabbi Freeman. It is wonderful to start the day with your Daily Dose. Reply

Thanks for sharing Beautiful, rabi! Very true, indeed! I guess that's where the perfect balance lies. Deep truth. Reply

maybe This item made me think of the Nazis and their sympathizers. A time when Jews were abandoned by just about every country in the world, USA, Canada, England included. It was all so logical and heartless.

Belief in G-d: We apply faith and trust, even beyond logic.

Seems to me that every time an excuse is needed for anti-semitism, the old logic is drummed up, " Blame it on the Jews ".

On the other hand, when it comes to Israel and the ' Palestinian ' or Arab question ', i expect our leaders to use logic: make a treaty which guarantees peace for all time, backed up by pre-emptive strike capability, or no peace at all. No trial balloons. Sounds impossible. Nothing new.

I guess my point is that decisions are a balance. Big decisions make different demands. Visualizing is not so much logic. You ask your heart. You ask your mind. The one that hits 51 % is normally what you do, for better or worse. Nobody gets it right every time. Just ' ask ' Moses. Talk about decision making ... Reply

Likewise Concerning the Mind And likewise concerning the mind: highly intelligent people justify/rationalize all kinds of things based upon their intellectual reasoning and conclusions, such as the unabomber, and those who promote atheistic ideologies, including communism and fascism. So I don’t think we can rely on our minds and intellect for moral guidance either. Which begs the question as to what is a reliable source for moral guidance, and by what means do we “keep our eyes open”. Scripture is not the answer, because any claimed “revealed” scripture, including the Torah, can be, and has been, manipulated by the intellect to rationalize and justify just about any kind of action. However, I believe that our real conscience has Divine origins, and deep down, we know what is right and what is wrong. So yes, I do believe in the ability of humanity to tap into the source of true Divine Guidance, but I am not a naïve idealist, and recognize humanity’s many shortcomings and failings, so I will also keep my eyes open. Reply

A quiet heart Isn't it all about balance?

A head injury turned me into a "left-sided" thinker, very analytical, logical and somewhat cold (for lack of better word.)

My heart, however, gives me warmth and makes me, sometimes, a too caring person, often to the detriment of my own health and well-being.

The best times have been when my mind, heart and soul were in alignment, a straight line. It feels like harmony and I wish it happened more often. Reply

A quiet heart It is one of the most wonderful lines I ever read and it is the truth. Would every human being listen to the heart life could be much easier and more wonderful. May all the people around the globe read this lines and understand what they are saying. Reply