42. Paying The Debt Over The Gift of Life

If Hashem gave you another breath this morning, what will you do with it?

In this culminating teaching on Chapter 17 of Bnei Machshava Tova, Rav Shlomo Katz brings us into the heart of the Rebbe’s piercing truth: life is not a right. It’s a gift. And with that gift comes a quiet debt, not for our sins, but for our very existence. Every moment, every breath, every interaction is an opportunity to pay that debt by simply being real, awake, and wholehearted.

Through deep Chassidic imagery, fierce honesty, and a call to inner presence, this shiur reminds us that tamimus is not naive. It’s courageous. When we live with awareness that life itself is a matanah, we stop performing, we stop calculating, and we start living with a heart unveiled.

What is Bnei Machshava Tova?

Diving into the essays by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, in which the establishment of a “conscious community” is promoted and aimed at attaining spiritual growth.

Why is there a need for a “conscious community”? Could the individual not achieve this aim on his own? R. Kalonymus insists that belonging to a chavura is a precondition for self-improvement and chasidic service: “That which can be achieved by the group cannot by any means be achieved by the individual.”

The group is open to anyone seeking to draw close to God – people who have had enough of their mundane, contemptible lives of “lowly spirit”; people who are ready for uncompromising psychological and spiritual exertion.

The shiur was recorded at Shirat David (Efrat,Israel). To learn more about Shirat David and various learning opportunities:
www.shiratdavid.com, [e-mail]