409. A Rabbi’s Spirituality: Beginning Within
Aryeh Weinstein
Aryeh had trained to be a rabbi to lead people through his gift of speaking, but often on the way to synagogue, his childhood shyness would return, and he would pray for a miracle that would keep him from having to speak. His miracle eventually came, but not in the way he’d envisioned it.
Aryeh Weinstein is a recognized expert in the science of Jewish spirituality. He is the host and creator of the Beginning Within podcast and beginningwithin.com. He has served as the Rabbi of The Shul at Newtown in Newtown, Pennsylvania and as the director of the Jay Michael Swartz Jewish Learning Academy for the past 16 years. His style of teaching, which is a blend of psychology, spirituality, clarity and conviction, draws hundreds to his courses. He is a past member of the editorial board of the Jewish Learning Institute and has been a featured lecturer at the National Jewish Retreat. He is currently a second-term member of the Newtown Borough Human Relations Commission.
How Did You Start Using Your Talents?
“There was a certain passion I had sitting deeply within me, which I knew had been in me since a very young age. I consider that to be an enormous blessing. I wasn’t able to actually define it for many years, but it was a passion to make a difference in some way. The values that I was raised with led me towards having a positive influence on anyone I meet, and to always be the one who is creating the environment, as opposed to being the result of the environment, to be the thermostat rather than the thermometer.”
The Most Impactful Turning Point?
“I went to rabbinical college and I just knew that this was something I wanted to do. I enrolled right after high school and spent three years in rabbinical study. In the system I was in, our class of 60 guys was split into groups, and we would go out, on sort of like a mission to schools throughout the world. My group went to Miami Beach, Florida. I was there for two years. I would study our own course work for most of the day. Then, in the evenings, we would study with the community members, which was a tremendous opportunity for me to be teaching.”
The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?
“So many people today are trying to achieve certain things, instead of trying to actualize who they are. We are trying to create a life for ourselves instead of trying to discover the life that was given to us. When we have a value system that guides us in the purpose of life and in accepting and owning who we areas an individual, instead of trying to be something else, then I think we find far more happiness. It’s a really important part of what we emphasize through Beginning Within. We don’t begin by saying, ‘I want to be this, that, or the other,’ but we ask, ‘Who am I and how can I actualize this?’ Those who do that are the happy people, the people who are as true to themselves as they can possibly be.”
Steps to Success from Aryeh Weinstein
1. Discover who you were created to be by going within yourself.
2. Seek guidance to find and understand your value system and connect it to the life you live.
3. Live a life that is true to yourself and don’t be distracted by all the “shiny objects.”
4. Find a community of like-minded people who are seeking personal and spiritual growth.
On His Bookshelf
Top Tools on His Browser
Movavi.com – Makes it very easy for someone who is not into movie editing to do something creative and to get a message out there via video.
Connecting With Aryeh Weinstein
Email: info@beginningwithin.com
Website: http://beginningwithin.com/
Twitter: @RabbiAWeinstein
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RabbiWeinstein/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aryeh-weinstein-9a044a14
Free Gift
FREE GIFT: “Toward a Meaningful Life” audio course, which consists of six recordings of about 90 minutes each from Rabbi Weinstein’s live course. The first lesson is “Discovering Your Personal Compass,” which discusses finding one’s mission.
