Moshe Gersht: ‘The world of mysticism begs for practicality’

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The opening of this shiur, in 18Forty’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Rabbi Moshe Gersht, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, an incredible spiritual teacher. You grew up in LA, now you are living in Israel. It's such a privilege and pleasure to be sitting together with you here in Jerusalem. Oh, thank you so much. Pleasure is mine. Always wonderful to sit with you. So Rabbi Gersht, tell me, what is Jewish mysticism? Jewish mysticism. Yeah, it's the path towards the inside. And what the inside is, the inside of yourself, the inside of this world that we're living in, the inside of reality. It's touching back to truth. I think we can probably say a lot on that question. Jewish mysticism – you might think Kabbala, you might think Chassidut [Hasidism], you might think of a lot of different rabbis and different traditions along the way. But they all bring you to the same place, which is inside, a level deeper than where you were when you started. So, how did you get to this place? How were you introduced to Jewish mysticism? It is actually an interesting story. The beginning of my journey was – I was born and raised spiritual, not religious. My family came close to the world of Torah significantly later. I was probably almost 10 years old at that point and then I was thrown deep into what you might call the mainstream of observant Judaism. In that world I saw a lot of Torah, but it didn't resonate as universal truth. It didn't hit me as cosmic. It hit me as a nice set of ideas, some morals and a bit of a compass to live by. And it took – I was

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1. 0:01Rabbi Moshe Gersht, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, an incredible spiritual teacher. You grew up in…
2. 4:22for God is spelled yud, hey, and then a vav and then a hey. And the…
3. 9:11with these things. How do you view prayer? The simplest way that I would look at…
4. 13:30people lead with their mind and I get that. That's a way forward. But your inner…
5. 18:27and just as many women who fall in love with the world of Torah. So it's…
6. 22:42Rambam, Maimonides, and if you go to one of the most well-known Hasidic teachers, Rabbi Nachman…
7. 27:32one idea too much, you start to lose the magic. So remaining open is important. But…
8. 31:58doesn't actually change. But the language we use does. How much time and effort do you…
9. 36:56you in the wrong direction? There are certain ideas in mysticism that talk about a oneness…
10. 41:19second relationship you wanted to refer to? That’s right. Maximizing the potency of the beginning of…

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