Paradigm Shift (pt. 5) : "From My Flesh, I Behold the Divine"

Episode 018

"Kabbalah bent the heavens so that a person could glimpse the Divine through their mind and intellect… but Hasidut spread the heavens out even into the street, the house, the attic and the basement, and crowned the divine within the human being." 

In the final episode of this series, the Piaseczner articulates the radical shift in the way that Hasidic teachings relate to the body and the physical world. Whereas Kabbalistic literature speaks of the body as a parable for Divine reality, in the writings of the Hasidic masters the body is not a parable, it is an emergent Divine expression that is not distinct from what exists "on high."  Rabbi Ami ends this episode and series with a powerful story and passage from the Piaseczner's own life and experience that illustrate this path of avodah/devotion in practice.

Sources: Mevo Hashe'arim ch.4, Tzav Vezeiruz 29 

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This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.  

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. 

Audio is by David Kwan.