Lessons on Additional Lessons

Rav Kook on: "It's Best to be Normal People"
Ein Aya, Shabbat 2, 239
We find various rabbis in rabbinic literature who built their spirituality through fasting and depriving themselves of physical pleasure. Rav Kook explains that this is like "shock treatment" or bitter medicine, which healthy people don't need. In Torat Eretz Yisrael, the Living Torah most applicable to the modern world, the approach of unity is to reveal the harmony between the physical and spiritual worlds. In Israel, where even the physical is spiritual and the atmosphere is Jewish, it's much more conducive to living a life of modern orthodoxy without the dangers of losing our proportions, priorities or getting influenced by western society. Accordingly Rav Kook explains the machloket between Rava & Abaye in Masechet Shabbat.
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Cheshvan 2 5781

So What’s the Goal of Life?!!
We all know that if you don't have a goal, you can't score! We all have many goals, but is there one which encompasses and is the common denominator of them all? Such a definition will prevent us from feeling torn between the many goals and roles we have. One theory is that the goal of life is pleasure, which is the common denominator of all people. On the other hand, all those people also have an ideal for which they are willing to forego all of their pleasure, inferring that ideals supersede pleasure! The class suggests that these 2 theories are 1 and the same, for we all want pleasure, but ideals are not 3rd class (short-term) pleasure, nor 2nd class (long-term) pleasure, but rather 1st class, eternal pleasure.
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Elul 24 5780
Life Always Interferes
Rabbi Berel Wein | 5770
Hospitality
Rabbi Berel Wein | 27 Shvat 5768
Writing under influence of Shabbat
What is the basic obligation and purpose of living? Why are we here and what are we supposed to do with our existence on earth?
Rabbi Berel Wein | Kislev 5768

Do I Have to Tell the Truth?
The great importance of speaking the truth and only the truth. There are a few cases when one may not tell the truth...
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Kislev 5768
Letting Emotions Flow
Some believe that putting the intellect in charge means suffocating the emotions and limiting their flow. The opposite is true. The intellect's job is to allow emotions to flow freely, while at the same time directing them into the correct channels.
Rabbi Moshe Berliner | 5765
