Nitzotzos: Inspiration to Keep Your Spark Alive with Rav Mordechai Burg

Vayera — How Do You Face a Shattered World Without Losing Yourself?

What happens when you look at the devastation in front of you and realize that something you cared deeply about is gone? How do you let yourself feel that pain without lo

Vayera – He Touched Heaven. Then He Came Back for Those Still on Earth.

Avraham comes down from the Akeidah after an encounter with Hashem that we can barely begin to imagine. Waiting below are Yishmael and Eliezer, who couldn’t even see what

Vayera - When Running Away Runs in the Family

You walk away, and the tension eases. But what happens when leaving becomes the only way you know how to cope? And what do your children learn from watching you? In this

The 17th of Cheshvan - When You're Afraid of What You Need Most

What happens when the very thing we need most becomes the thing we are most afraid of? When someone has been deeply hurt in a relationship, the desire for connection does

Vayeira - Why We Hold On to What’s Destroying Us When We Know We Need To Walk Away

Why do we hold on to things that are destroying us, even when we know we need to walk away? When Lot was rescued from Sedom, the Torah tells us that he hesitated. Even wi

Lech Lecha: There's a You the World Hasn't Met Yet

What happens to a person who grows up feeling that certain parts of who they are are simply unacceptable? Over time, we learn which parts of ourselves earn love and appr

Lech Lecha - You Did Everything I Asked. So Why Do I Feel So Alone?

Sarah gives Hagar to Avraham as a wife. But when Hagar becomes pregnant and begins humiliating Sarah, Sarah turns to Avraham and declares, "Chamasi alecha" — this is your

Cheshvan - The Last Jew

In this shmooze, delivered at Mevaseret Mishmar, Rav Burg explains one of the most extraordinary expressions of Ahavas Yisrael found in Chazal. Eretz Yisrael desperately

Cheshvan - The Stories We Tell Ourselves When Hashem Feels Absent

After the extraordinary spiritual heights of Tishrei, Cheshvan arrives with an unsettling silence. The Yomim Tovim are over, the inspiration begins to fade, and we are le

Cheshvan - When the Music Stops: Who Are You Without the Inspiration?

What happens when the inspiration fades? When the music of Tishrei stops, the Yomim Noraim are behind us, and the spiritual energy that carried us through the Yamim Tovim

Bereishis - The First Murder: When Someone Else's Existence Becomes Unbearable

What happens when another person's success makes us feel like a failure? Why can someone else's significance threaten our own sense of worth? And how does our need to fee

Bereishis - Help I Have Fallen And I Can't Get Up!

In this shmooze, delivered at the first Mevaseret Mishmar of the Zman, Rav Burg explains that the problem was not that Adam HaRishon sinned but that he his behind the Eit

Hoshana Rabba - Yearning For An Embodied Relationship With Hashem

The soul is always searching for home. We spend so much of our lives trying to get closer to Hashem. We seek inspiration, clarity, healing, spiritual intensity, and the

Succos - Safe Enough to Look Up

What does it mean that the sukkah is described by the Baalei Chassidus as Hashem’s embrace? Delivered at the Mesorah Simchas Beis Hashoeva, in this short shmooze Rav Bur

Succos - Yes But Do You Still Love Me? The Embrace of the Sukkah After Yom Kippur

If the Ananei HaKavod first surrounded the Jewish people when they left Mitzrayim, why do we celebrate Sukkos in Tishrei? The Gra explains that Sukkos commemorates the cl

Succos - When You Find Yourself, There’s Room for Everyone

Why is it sometimes so difficult to make room for someone who is different from us? Given to NCSY 4G advisors as part of their chinuch development, in this shiur Rav Bu

Yom Kippur - No Jew Left Behind: The Yom Kippur that Ronnie Greenwald z"l Spent in the Lobby

Right before Kol Nidrei, we make a startling declaration: we permit ourselves to daven together with the transgressors. Chazal go even further and teach that a communal f

Yom Kippur - The 955th Gate

What happens when it feels like the door has closed? Acher hears a Bas Kol say, “Return, wayward children, except for Acher.” Neilah itself is the moment when the gates

Aseres Yemei Teshuva - Inviting In Your Unwanted Guests: An IFS Approach to Teshuva

We often imagine Yom Kippur as a massive cleaning operation. Get rid of the jealousy, anger, shame, and desires we would rather not admit to. Make the house presentable.

Rosh Hashana - The Satan Knows What You Did But He Doesn’t Know You.

The Satan has heard the shofar for thousands of years. Why should hearing it once more leave him confused? In this shiur, delivered at Mevaseret Mishmar, Rav Burg explai