Alef Adventure

Take a magical journey inside the letter Alef and experience its deep, beautiful secret of Oneness. 

(Based on teachings in Kabbalah & Chassidus) 

*in the chassidic discourse 
Basi Legani, י׳ שבט תשכה - for this year - 
The Rebbe quotes the writings of the Baal Shem Tov, how Hashem created the world, investing Himself first into the letter alef and then continuing through all the rest of the letters. 

Transcript

Let’s begin by laying down, closing our eyes,

And taking some nice deep calming breaths

Breathe in through your nose, feel your tummy rise with the breath

And let it out through your mouth feeling your tummy go back down

Again, in through your nose 

Tummy rising 

Out through your mouth, tummy falling 

And one last time breathe in 1, 2,3

And out 1,2,3

 relax your forehead, drop your jaw, let your head sink deeper into your soft pillow

Feel the calm peacefulness flowing down your shoulders, to your elbows, through your hands, and each finger one by one

Like a soft wave flowing Down your legs, over your knees, through your ankles

Your feet and each toe, one by one 

Now it’s time for tonight’s very special journey. 

In your imagination, picture a little alef. 

The little yud up on the right 

The long slanting line that goes from the other side at the top, down to the bottom

And the little yud on the bottom left 

See the beautiful alef. Glowing

and

Growing bigger 

It seems to be dancing 

The edges are shining 

What a beautiful perfect and mysterious letter

And then did you hear that?

 the alef speaks

Come, it says, 

I have so much to show you

Would you like to Come take a look inside me?

Wow. The alef looks like a magical place. 

You wonder what it will feel like to go inside the alef! 

You suddenly feel very small standing next to this huge beautiful alef and can’t imagine where you’d even begin 

You then notice a soft white fluffy cloud right next to you

the alef says, 

that’s your ride! 

We start at the very top 

So you settle into the soft fluffy cloud and relax as it gently drifts upward to the top yud of the alef. 

As your cloud ride rises higher,  getting closer, do you feel that?  the temperature getting warmer and warmer . And the light. Getting brighter and brighter 

So warm its actually hot! And so bright! You can hardly see!

By the time your little cloud ride has dropped You off inside the top yud you realize that the best thing to do is to simply

Close your eyes and feel. 

Soaking in this golden light that is so warm 

So huge so powerful 

Shining and shining 

Its so stunning, you can hardly feel yourself

You are being absorbed into this warmth and light 

This is none other than Hashems light. 

Hashem has all kinds of lights. This light is a never ending bright shining warming energy. Or Sovev. Or means light. Sovev means surrounding 

in this other worldly space Of light, You can forget that you are even you 

Take some time to just soak and bathe and enjoy this incredible energy. 

This Warm white golden light surrounding you surrounding everything. Surrounding the whole world 

…..

After a long while You feel a gentle coolness on your arms and see your little fluffy cloud is next to you, ready and waiting to take you to the next part of the amazing alef. 

Settling in and cooling off

 its very pleasant to cool down from the intense heat

You rest on your cloud 

Enjoying the gentle breeze 

As drift over to the top of the slanting vav line 

Wow can you see that? It looks like a slide 

in a playground! A glorious colorful slide

Once you’re in it you realize it’s 

A slide made out of all the words of the Torah 

And as you start to slide down you can see that what from a distance appeared to be a bright mix of colors  

is actually made of moving images all along the sides of the slide -  what are these images of? 

people doing all kinds of mitzvahs! Whizzing by you as you slide down 

are Shabbos candles, there’s someone praying, 

next is a person doing a favor for someone else - it might be their sibling or a friend, 

then there’s two people hugging each other, 

Look someone is crying and another person is saying sorry for hurting them 

there’s kosher food, 

and people making blessings on the food before eating , 

there’s someone giving tzedaka 

and on and on this wondrous slide of Holy Torah learning and good deeds, 

and so many many acts of kindness. 

As you slide on through, you can think about your own life and how you fill it with special things, with love, with ways to feel Hashems light in this world. 

There are so many ways to do it. 

613! 

You’re doing so many already 

and there are so many more  beautiful possibilities just waiting for you 

…

now the fluffy cloud has come to take you to the last part of the alef 

Settling in, feeling the deep soft cool fluffy cloud surrounding your skin once more

This time you don’t get off the cloud 

The cloud sinks into the bottom yud of the alef 

And you realize that in this part of the alef 

is you. 

Your family, your friends, your community 

Your home. 

As you lie here in your soft cloud bed you can see sparkling little lights everywhere. In everything, in every person. It’s Hashems light! 

You remember that huge powerful hot light up there in the beginning of this adventure. 

You realize these little lights are Hashem too. packed into tiny bits, just the right amounts of energy to make everything alive! 

You think about the whole incredible journey you went on. So many many things, so many different things all in this one alef. They are not all so different after all. It’s all one. 

All in this on letter alef. Alef the first letter of the alef bais, and the letter that also means the number one.

Just like the “vav slide” in the middle of the alef connects the yud above to the yud below -  down here in our yud we can reach for those Torah and mitvahs of the middle Vav rainbow slide to connect to the great powerful loving holy energy of Hashem that’s up in the top yud. 

Now you start to understand  the very special magical secret of the first letter of the Alef Bais. 

Hashem is One. Everything is Hashem. Everything is One. Whenever you’re feeling scattered or overwhelmed. 

Like the world is so huge 

and theres so many different feelings inside of you, 

and so many people, 

and so many things to do…  

Come back to one. Come back into alef. 

Let the soft cloud Take you on the Alef Adventure, 

remember again how to feel the warm light of Hashem glowing and sparkling in everything 

and most importantly,

 inside of you