The Foundations of Chassidus with Rav Shlomo Katz

What deserves to be at the center of our avodat Hashem — and what was only ever supposed to remain secondary?

Continuing the learning in Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David return to the framework of the Mesillat Yesharim and begins putting the pieces of avodat Hashem into their proper order. The question is not simply whether something is holy, meaningful, or even a good practice. The deeper question is whether we know what is ikar and what is tafel — and whether the things we add around our Yiddishkeit are bringing us deeper inside or quietly distracting us from the main thing.

Along the way, the learning moves through the language of kinyan, teachings from Rabbi Elimelech and Rabbi Elazar, the inner work of hitbodedut, and the danger of allowing external practices to replace genuine inner growth.

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00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsor Acknowledgments
02:10 The Five Parts of Avodat Hashem in Mesillat Yesharim
05:03 The Five Components of Serving Hashem
07:52 The Avodah of Effort
11:07 The Work Ethic of the Early Tzaddikim
17:40 What It Means to Make a Kinyan
19:39 When a Kinyan Becomes Part of You
23:07 When Spiritual Pursuits Become Distractions
24:18 Ikar and Tafel: What Actually Matters?
25:24 The Five Essential Categories
27:10 Stop Searching for External Add-Ons
28:25 Rabbi Elimelech and Rabbi Elazar
30:45 When Details Replace the Core Avodah
32:21 External Practice vs. Inner Growth
36:10 Marriage: The Basics and the Extra Expectations
38:19 When the External Distracts From the Ikar
39:29 Hitbodedut and Spiritual Focus
41:17 Half Measures vs. Wholehearted Commitment
43:34 Looking Ahead: Continuing the Learning

How far does בכל דרכיך דעהו (In all your ways, know Him) really go?

If the avodah is to invite Hashem into every part of our lives, what happens when the place we’re standing in is messy, compromised, or somewhere we know we probably shouldn’t be? And how do we distinguish between genuinely searching for Hashem from wherever we are and simply finding a holy-sounding way to rationalize what we already want?

Continuing Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn through the Imrei Noam, Malchut Shlomo, the Mei HaShiloach of Izhbitz, the Baal Shem Tov through the Me’or Einayim, and the Piaseczner Rebbe’s Mevo She’arim quoting Rav Asher of Stolin.

At the center is an extraordinary Chassidic idea: you do not have to wait until you have arrived somewhere spiritually perfect to begin looking for Hashem. ובקשתם משם — seek Him from there. From the place you actually are.

But “from there” does not mean everything suddenly becomes permitted. That tension — between never giving up on finding Hashem and never using Hashem to justify ourselves — is where this shiur lives.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsorship Acknowledgments
01:49 Hashem’s Endless Game of Hide-and-Seek
03:14 The Imrei Noam: Seeking Hashem Everywhere
04:25 Every Person Has a Different Path to Discovery
08:07 Inviting Hashem Into Every Part of Life
20:09 Where “בכל דרכיך דעהו” Has Boundaries
21:42 The Dangerous Voice of Rationalization
22:50 “Hashem, Don’t Let Me Become an Imposter”
24:20 When Repeated Sin Starts Feeling Permitted
26:18 How a Tzaddik Can Strengthen Your Avodat Hashem
28:17 Can You Find Kedushah in a Dark Place?
32:33 Yaakov, Esav and Why We Don’t Seek Out Nisayon
44:17 Protecting Yourself Without Running From Your Shlichut
46:35 The Bracha in the Middle of an Aveirah
47:54 Torah and Mitzvot Are the Framework — Not the Finish Line
49:29 The Baal Shem Tov: Seek Hashem From Where You Are
50:50 Why You Can’t Separate the Neshamah From the Act
52:30 בקשו פניו תמיד — Never Stop Seeking

What does it really mean to fulfill בכל דרכיך דעהו — “In all your ways, know Him”?

Beginning a new section of Yayin Yashan on Avodat Hashem, we learn through the Me’or Einayim of the Chernobler, Mesillat Yesharim, the teachings of Peshischa, the Divrei Binah of Biala, Malchut Shlomo, Orchos Tzaddikim and Rav Shlomo Carlebach to ask a very practical question: what are the things I have quietly become dependent on?

Not everything material is a problem. But when I begin to tell myself that I need the right circumstances, the right comforts, the right possessions — maybe even the right spiritual experience — before I can really serve Hashem, something has gotten between us.

And from there we move into one of the most beautiful images in the shiur: being pulled toward Hashem like iron toward a magnet. Sometimes He has already been pulling us for years. We just had a completely different picture in our heads of what that pull was supposed to look like.

00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsorships
01:27 What Does It Mean to “Know Hashem”?
03:00 The Chernobler: Why the World Was Created
04:25 Yichud: Oneness and Your Unique Avodat Hashem
11:31 The Purpose of Creation: Knowing Hashem
13:47 When Material Things Become Spiritual Barriers
23:19 Being Pulled Toward Hashem Like a Magnet
24:54 When Miracles Don’t Look the Way We Expected
26:25 Marriage and the Expectations We Bring With Us
27:28 Aliyah and the Reality We Didn’t Picture
29:01 Can Someone Far From Torah Still Feel the Pull?
30:33 The Friends Who Hold Back Your Growth
31:37 Living Every Day With the Purpose in Mind
32:45 When Even the Shulchan Aruch Becomes Avodah Zarah
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
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What if the emunah we spend so much of our lives searching for is not something we need to acquire at all?

Continuing Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David enter the perek האמונה היא בירושה — Emunah Is an Inheritance, moving through teachings from Torat Avot in the name of Rav Noach of Lechovitch, the Baal HaTanya, Pele Yoetz, Bnei Yissaschar, Rebbe Nachman and the Maggid of Mezeritch.

The sources describe a place of emunah already embedded in the Jewish neshamah — inherited from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov — which can become covered, dormant or difficult to feel, but is never actually absent.

From there, the question changes. We are no longer asking, How do I get emunah? We have to ask: What am I doing with the emunah I already inherited? How do we awaken it, shepherd it, talk about it with each other, and leave that same yerushah to our children?

Along the way, Rav Shlomo reflects on Rav Leo Dee’s extraordinary words of emunah after tragedy, the life of Reuven Halevi, a survivor of Buchenwald singing Ani Ma’amin, and the teaching that stood at the entrance of the Maggid of Mezeritch’s Beit Midrash.

The lesson is clear: Chassidus is not here to give you something you do not have. It is here to reveal what is already yours
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
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What does Ahavat Yisrael demand when the Jew standing in front of you thinks, votes, speaks, or lives in a way that genuinely bothers you?

Continuing Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David move through teachings from the Chiddushei HaRim, the Arizal, Sfas Emes, Divrei Binah, Rav Avraham of Kalisk, Maor Einayim, Rebbe Nachman, the Beis Yisrael and Reb Simcha Bunim of Peshischa to explore the singular place of every Jewish neshamah.

Every Jew has a tikkun no one else can accomplish, an illumination no one else carries, and even a unique da’at Hashem that cannot simply be replaced by somebody else’s.

And then the learning becomes uncomfortable. If the 600,000 root souls correspond to the letters of the Torah, what happens when we decide one Jew no longer belongs? What does Ahavat Yisrael mean across the deepest religious, political and ideological divisions in Am Yisrael? And can we get beyond saying that we “love” every Jew and learn how to actually like one another?

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Chapters
00:00 Opening and Sponsor Acknowledgments
01:27 Continuing Daf Z and the Foundations of Emunah
02:54 Am Yisrael: From the Klal to Every Individual Jew
05:54 The Individual vs. the Klal: The Danger of Conformity
08:59 The Arizal: No Two Souls Have the Same Tikkun
16:21 The Five Words That Saved the World
20:07 600,000 Root Souls and Ahavat Yisrael
21:49 Rabbi Riskin’s First-Date Pomegranate Story
23:41 Who Belongs to the 600,000? The Chareidim Question
25:28 Loving Is Easy. Actually Liking Someone Is Hard
26:43 A Personal Tefillah About Drivers and Torah Connection
27:43 Zionism, Chareidim and Writing Off Other Jews
34:55 Every Jew Has a Unique Da’at Hashem
38:06 Rabbi Schraider, Da’at Torah and the Influencer Poem
40:05 No Jew Is Unnecessary — The Yitro Insight

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David begin the second perek of Yayin Yashan, Ma’alat Yisrael — and enter a series of teachings that are much harder to simply “know” than they first appear.

Through the Ramchal, Baal Shem Tov, R’ Baruch of Mezhibuzh, the Tanya, Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Shem MiShmuel, Maor Einayim and Ohev Yisrael, Rav Shlomo looks at one of the foundations of emunah: what a Jewish neshama actually is, what happens in the higher worlds when a Jew learns, davens or performs a mitzvah, and why even the Jew who looks completely covered in schmutz never loses the essential kedushah within.

Along the way, the conversation moves from Moshe Feiglin’s response to Tucker Carlson, to Jeremy Boreing’s recent Shabbos visit, to the Alter Rebbe’s astonishing teaching about what happens when ten Jews simply stand together. But underneath all of it is one question: what would our lives — and the way we looked at another Jew — actually look like if we had even a clue?

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

00:00 Opening Greetings and Dedications
01:40 Ma’alat Yisrael: A New Foundation of Emunah
02:43 The Baal Shem Tov: Why Jews Are Compared to Stars
05:14 Moshe Feiglin, Tucker Carlson and Explaining What a Jew Is
06:29 Why a Jewish Neshama Is Greater Than an Angel
07:41 Stop Thinking Only About What You Haven’t Done
09:23 How Do We Actually Internalize These Teachings?
12:18 Seeing the Greatness in Every Other Jew
13:07 Your Torah and Tefillah Nourish the Higher Worlds
17:12 Hashem Is Waiting for Your Torah and Tefillah
18:01 You Are a Ladder Reaching Heaven
18:54 Jeremy Boreing, Shabbos and Righteous Gentiles
21:41 What Happens When Ten Jews Stand Together?
24:11 The Alter Rebbe: An Angel Couldn’t Withstand Ten Jews
25:47 Kedushat Yisrael Is Part of Who You Are
27:46 Gerim and Full Inclusion in Am Yisrael
29:43 This Is a Principle of Emunah
30:06 A Jew Can Never Lose This Kedushah
31:25 The Precious Stone Covered in Schmutz
32:06 Rav Shlomo Carlebach and the Rebbe’s Mikvah Story
33:35 Simmy Green Finds a Hidden Jew in London
34:45 Every Jewish Soul Will Ultimately Be Rectified
36:42 Hashem Does Not Want a Single Soul Lost
38:17 Gilgulim, Tikkun and the Final Redemption

In this shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David continue learning Yayin Yashan and move through an extraordinary chain of teachings from the Chafetz Chaim, Chovot HaLevavot, Reb Aharon Karliner, the Me’or Einayim, Ma’or VaShemesh, Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, the Imrei Elimelech, the Baal HaTanya, and Yosher Divrei Emet — all circling one foundational point: what it means to actually believe in Hashem’s love for every Jew.

These sources push us far beyond the idea that Hashem’s love is something earned through performance. They ask us to believe that His love and compassion are beyond our measurements, that every Jew can give Him real נחת רוח, and that even the smallest act of Torah, tefillah, or connection carries a weight we barely understand.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

In this opening shiur of a new series on the sefer יין ישן by Rav Nissan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David begin where everything begins: Emunah אמונה.

Not the thin version of faith. Not just whether God exists. But the kind of Emunah that changes how a Jew walks through the world — how we think about Hashem’s greatness, His closeness, His presence in the smallest details of life, and the love He has for every Jew.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

CHAPTERS

00:00 Memorials and Sponsorships for the Breakfast
03:58 Winter Greetings and Thanks to the Community
07:17 Embarking on a Journey of Foundations and Learning
10:49 Understanding the Two Aspects: God Far and Near
23:53 Divine Providence: The Concept of Hashgacha Pratit
26:24 Private Divine Providence and Personal Insults
28:42 Stage Incident and Unexpected Blessing
33:31 Rabbi Shlomo's Trials and Resilience
36:13 God's Love Beyond Comprehension
37:58 Finding God in Natural Beauty
39:56 Jewish Concept of Faith
41:31 Upcoming Sessions and New Books