"Who can restrain the light of the highest Divine love that constantly beats in the hearts of the righteous remnant, the devotees of holiness, the upright of heart? As a clear wind filled with a tender fragrance, and yet roaring like the roar of the sea to its waves, so is the soul stormed by the breath of the sweetness of the highest shinings of pleasantness. And the desire for this highest tenderness broadens and expands with all the spiritual traits and dispositions of the soul, and every soul is made holy. Anything that has even a distant contact with the light of the holy souls of these heroes of G-d is raised up. All of the Torah, morality, commandments, deeds and learnings come only to clear away the obstacles, so that this love of all the worlds can spread and extend to all the realms of life. And the branches that come from the roots of the holy-of-the-holiest love, are all the good traits, and the uprightedness, specific and general, individual and collective -- until the world will be judged in righteousness and the nations in straight ways." -- RAV KOOK, MIDOT HA'RA'AYAH, AHAVA 12
"…choose life, so that you may live -- you and your seed. To love Hashem your G-d, to heed His voice, and to cleave to Him…" -- DEUTORONOMY 30:19-20
"And through what will you find G-d, whether in good or in bad? Through the Torah, which is called shalom, as is said, "And all it's ways are shalom (Proverbs Ch.3)." -- REBBE NACHMAN, LIKUTEY MOHARAN 33
Rav Raz Hartman
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Rav Raz Hartman, born to Israeli parents, grew up in Southern California. He was attending U.S.C., majoring in Music Peformance, when he met Rav Natan Greenberg. That meeting eventually result in Raz's coming to the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, where he studied for six years and was given Semichah in 2003. He is married to Leah, and they live, with their three children, in Nachla'ot, Jerusalem. Raz serves as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, and founder of the v'Ani Tefillah minyan. He has produced several albums of Jewish music. |