Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

Jew­ish Lights is releas­ing a new book by Rab­bi Ker­ry Olitzky in July with inspir­ing quotes from Jew­ish sources and per­son­al reflec­tions to help one focus on their spir­i­tu­al life: Life’s Dai­ly Bless­ings: Inspir­ing Reflec­tions on Grat­i­tude and Joy for Every Day, Based on Jew­ish Wis­dom. An appro­pri­ate book for these dif­fi­cult times! We’ve received per­mis­sion from Jew­ish Lights to offer you a dose of today’s Dai­ly Bless­ing” from Rab­bi Olitzky’s new title:

Find­ing the Path
April 21
Give me direc­tion on life’s roads.
PSALM 16:11

This is one of the great psalms from the book of Psalms. It is also one of the psalms in what Rab­bi Nach­man of Breslov called a tikkun k’lali, a gen­er­al rem­e­dy.” Reb Nach­man taught that if this group of psalms (16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, and 150) were read in this order, the indi­vid­ual could actu­al­ly be deliv­ered from sin. But the indi­vid­ual must also make a com­mit­ment to not return to a pre­vi­ous life of sinning.

When fac­ing major deci­sions – or even minor ones – some peo­ple sim­ply pray to God and ask for direc­tion. Some peo­ple pray for the answer to a spe­cif­ic ques­tion. Oth­ers ask for more gen­er­al insight. But all these approach­es have one thing in com­mon: dia­logue with the Divine brings clar­i­ty to our own think­ing. Maybe that is why this text is part of Reb Nachman’s gen­er­al rem­e­dy. It is a bless­ing for all that ails you.

Bless­ing is from Life’s Dai­ly Bless­ings: Inspir­ing Reflec­tions on Grat­i­tude and Joy for Every Day, Based on Jew­ish Wis­dom © 2009 Ker­ry M. Olitzky (Wood­stock, VT: Jew­ish Lights Pub­lish­ing). Per­mis­sion grant­ed by Jew­ish Lights Pub­lish­ing, P.O. Box 237, Wood­stock, VT 05091www​.jew​ish​lights​.com.

For more infor­ma­tion about the title, please vis­it here.

Orig­i­nal­ly from Lan­cast­er, Penn­syl­va­nia, Nao­mi is the CEO of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. She grad­u­at­ed from Emory Uni­ver­si­ty with degrees in Eng­lish and Art His­to­ry and, in addi­tion, stud­ied at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don. Pri­or to her role as exec­u­tive direc­tor, Nao­mi served as the found­ing edi­tor of the JBC web­site and blog and man­ag­ing edi­tor of Jew­ish Book World. In addi­tion, she has over­seen JBC’s dig­i­tal ini­tia­tives, and also devel­oped the JBC’s Vis­it­ing Scribe series and Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Conversation.