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Freud & The Baal Shem Tov: The Holiness in Addiction

A Two-Rung Approach to Addictive, Dysfunctional, and Distracting Thoughts

2 hr 10 min

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“And a man who takes his sister… and he sees her nakedness… it is a chesed, kind act, and they shall be cut off…” the Torah states in Kedoshim, in Leviticus 20. This is beyond strange. Incest is a kind act?!

Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), the founder of Chassidus, revealed the “unconscious” dimension of Judaism, conferring upon it a new depth and sophistication. One of his most fundamental teachings was that G-d was not a force above the world controlling it, but rather G-d is the very truth and essence of Reality. Therefore, in every thought there was meaning, in every experience—joy, in every encounter—Divine energy. You can find G-d in all.

This class takes us on a journey into one of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings on how to deal with alien and destructive thoughts that inundate us during prayer and meditation. 150 years before the birth of psychoanalysis, the Baal Shem Tov taught us how the external manifestation of a thought may eclipse its inner meaning, how the egg may contain live chick. Every thought needs healing and sublimation. Yet there are exceptions. To be able to perceive in the spirituality in your addiction, you must be free from its toxic entanglement.

Freud & The Baal Shem Tov: The Holiness in Addiction

A Two-Rung Approach to Addictive, Dysfunctional, and Distracting Thoughts

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