This year, the great September Equinox coincides with the New Moon, making the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, so much more potent and significant. If ever the world were in need of powerful praying, it is right now!
Next week, the Shofar will call each of us forward to claim our own Divinity and stand as our empowered GodSelves in ways we have never known. We will be asked to rise to fulfill our destinies as Human Beings, and become God’s partners in healing our world.
The High Holidays come each year to set before us the great questions of our existence: Who are we and what are our lives? Over this past year, have we aligned ourselves with Divine qualities of Compassion and Kindness, Hope and Gratitude, Awe and Peace – or have we somehow set ourselves against our own inner Grace and Beauty? Have we brought more Light and Love into our world, or have we somehow diminished those around us? How have we chosen?
Rabbi Diane Elliot’s husband, Rabbi Burt Jacobson, was able to finish his life’s masterwork just months before he passed away in June 2024. His magnificent book, Living in the Presence, is about the Baal Shem Tov, the father of Hasidism, the greatest mystic, wonder-worker, and teacher in Jewish life in the 18th century (1700-1760).
Rabbi Wayne thought Rabbi Jacobson’s book a masterpiece, and wanted to bring it to as many people as possible. He decided to teach a course on the Baal Shem Tov and teach as much as he could from Rabbi Jacobson’s In the Presence. In March 2025, Rabbi Wayne was two weeks into a four-week course on the Baal Shem Tov, when he died. And his beloved students never got to receive the final two weeks of Rabbi Wayne’s great teaching.
When I asked him what he wanted his Legacy Piece to be for these High Holidays, there was no hesitation: Rabbi Wayne pointed to the last two weeks that would have concluded his Baal Shem Tov course — and is also the heart of Rabbi Jacobson’s teachings on the Baal Shem Tov in In the Presence.
You may remember that it was impossible for Rabbi Wayne to teach anything without accompanying all of it with his holy chants, and of course, they were a part of his course outline. So, I’ve included those here, and perhaps you can sing them as you read this material — and know that Rabbi Wayne is right with you, chanting alongside you in spirit!
This New Year will be the Jewish year 5786. In numerology, it is the number 26. The number 26 is the numerology (gematria) of Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay, one of the Names of God, Who is seen as the Creator expression of AnochiFullSource. Amen, in this New Year, may we, together with the Divine, co-create a New World of Peace.
With overflowing Gratitude for the great blessings you are, I wish you rich and meaningful Holidays and a New Year flowing with good health and well-being, joy and holiness, Love and Peace.
Ellen, continuing the work of the Elijah Minyan
In Living In The Presence,
Rabbi Burt Jacobson
Briefly Summarizes
The Ten Tenets Of The Baal Shem Tov
QUESTION 1. WHERE DO WE FIND GOD?
1. Everything that exists comes from God — the single mysterious Source of existence that lies beyond anything that we can ever know.
2. Nonetheless the reality of the world we live in is not separate from God, for the essence of Divinity hides within each of the creations, and in every event and thought. And This everything is Divine at its core.
3. Because a benign providence guides everything, there is an underlying order in the world, and there is a reason for and a positive meaning to every event that occurs.
Sheh’hakol ni(h)yeh bi-d’vaRo
EveryOne by God’s Word
EveryThing by God’s Word
All Is by the Word of God
QUESTION 2. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BEWEEN THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND EVIL?
4. Since God is present in everything, there can be no absolute evil. The evil things we encounter and experience have, at their deepest core, an absolute goodness; it is this that gives them their reality.
5. Human beings do not experience evil as being an aspect of divine goodness because our awareness is limited. To us it seems that the divine power that gives evil its “reality” has been severed from the wholeness of the Divine. But that spiritual power does not appear, because nothing can exist — not even something evil — without the vitalizing presence of God within it.
6. As human beings, we have the ability to transform the evil of our world through our prayers. But we should not offer prayer for our own personal needs and concerns, because those kind of prayers center on human ego, narrowing our awareness. The true reality is that it is the Shechinah Herself who is suffering and the afflictions each of us individually experience are only part of universal suffering. Therefore, all prayer should be offered on behalf of the Divine Lifeforce, that is the Shechinah who dwell within us and inhabits all things.
Darshu tov v’al ra l’man tich’yu
Seek good and not evil, that you may live
Shechinah
QUESTION 3. HOW CAN A HUMAN BEING MANIFEST THEIR ESSENCE?
7. Like all the creations of the universe, each person’s life is a miraculous experience of the Divine, an actual Torah, a unique and complete revelation of Spirit. Yet one can realize this truth only when one lives in a sacred way.
8. Human beings are able to experience both passion and desire, and even the temptations of sin, because these are natural gifts of being alive. They are sent to us by God, and meant to awaken our willpower and determination. Our responsibility is to guard ourselves from wrongdoing by channeling these energized into the service of the Divine. For we have the ability to sanctify our passions and desires so they will become gateways that will open us to God.
9. Because our passions are God’s gift to us, we are called to awaken ourselves to the service of God, not through ascetic practices which require self-denial, but through the longing to bind ourselves to the goodness of the Source of life.
10. When one binds oneself to any of the dimensions of being, one is binding oneself to God, because all dimensions of being are Divine.
V’taher libeinu l’ovd’Cha b’-emet
Make our hearts pure so that we may serve You in truth.
Chen, Va’Chesed, V’Rachamim
Grace, and Love, and ComPassion
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh
Holy, Holy, Holy
V’shavti b’veit Adonai
I place mySelf in God’s care
The Quest
On Rosh HaShanah, the Baal Shem Tov would tell this parable to his community before the sounding of the shofar.
There was once a monarch who possessed great magical power. And with this skill, he wove a spell, enclosing himself in a great illusory castle, surrounded by an illusory wall, tower, gate, and moat. And around this wall, the king created another illusory wall, and it too had a tower, a gate, and a moat. And then he created a third wall, and a fourth, and a fifth, and on and on. And then the king commanded that gold be placed before each of the myriad gates. Finally, he invited all of his subjects to visit him in his castle.
Now all this may seem quite strange, for if the king had really wanted his subjects to visit him, why then did he encircle his castle with so many walls, towers, gates and moats? But he had his reasons: he wanted to know how deep was the love of his subjects for him, how fervent their desire to see their ruler — how strong their perseverance, and how much effort they would expend to reach his presence.
Hearing the summons, all of the king’s subjects set out for their sovereign’s castle. Soon, a large throng had gathered before the first wall of the castle, and they spotted the treasures at the gate of the first wall. There was great excitement, and a few of them sought and found a way across the moat. The entire assemblage followed the leaders. When they arrived at the gate, many of the king’s subjects collected all the gold that they could fit into their pockets and then turned around and made their way back to their homes. Others, however, remembered the king’s summons; they passed up the gold, and entered the first gate. And then they encountered the next wall, tower, gate, moat, and gold. Some of them got through the moat, took the gold, and returned to their homes, while others stayed the course. They met gate after gate, and at each gate the heaps of gold became larger, and the temptation all the greater. More and more of the king’s subjects were overcome by their desires, taking all the gold they could carry and returning home.
Finally, only one seeker continued on his quest to the king himself — the king’s own son. After tremendous effort, he came into his father’s very presence. And then all the walls, towers, gates, and moats disappeared, and there was no longer any separation between them.
And when the Baal Shem Tov had completed his parable, he would explain its meaning to the congregation: God hides behind many barriers, and is veiled in many garments. But what is true is that “the fullness of the whole earth is God’s glory.” Every thought, every movement comes from God. Everything is made of God’s own essence. Those who truly understand this know that walls, towers, gates, moats, gold, and castle are only God in hiding, “for there is no place devoid of the Divine.”