
Shalom, to my brothers and sister in Torah. Now that we have made it though the season of the witch, we await our true new year which is around Passover. It has been four years since we last celebrated a secular holiday. At first it was hard watching everyone around us in the holiday spirit, but the keyword is “spirit”. People may look happy, but are they really? When the Ruach rebukes that spirit, it no longer feels natural. Every year it gets easier to say “no” to that unnatural spirit. Because we are born in the sinful nature, sin starts to feel natural to us. We look around and everyone is doing it, your family and the ones you love all partake in it. The spirit forces us to come out of our carnal nature. We know that denying the flesh hurts. When we deny ourselves food, our flesh hurts. When we deny our feelings and emotions, it hurts. We need the discipline Torah affords us, to tame the flesh and its earthly desires. I’m here to tell you that it gets easier. Now I crave discipline in everything. There is right and wrong way to do everything, contrary to what the world has told us. Don’t follow your heart but what Abba has instructs us to do. Shalom!