Ten Mitzvah Practices
Through practice, our lives are transformed and enriched.   The Torah gives us 613 mitzvahs, but we are often asked what are the key acts by which one can come to know the Divine?  Though each practice of Gd is sacred, what are the main pillars of our day to day action? 

 

Tefilah (Prayer & Meditation): Every person is created in the image of Gd.  This reality is always within us, yearning to be expressed and known.  Through meditation practices  we reside in passionate equanimity.  Prayer is the cultivation of personal relationship with the divine. Through using holy words of praise,  or spontaneous prayer, our intention is to open the mind and heart to the One.
Hadar (Beauty): Music and Art  actualize Gd in the world.  They have the power to awaken the channels (spherot) which convey; holy energy.  Through creating and utilizing art we know the true self.  This process continues until we begin to see that any action we take in the world, whether doing the dishes, paying taxes or mowing the lawn can become an art in and of itself.
Limud Torah (Learning): Learning and study in the lineage of the holy texts, grounded in the Torah, is the process of using our cognitive and critical faculties in the service of spiritual practice. By applying ourselves to the wisdom of our lineage teachers, we are brought ever closer to the earth-bound cycle of  life.
Kashrut (Conscious Consumption): This refers primarily to the sanctifying of food.  It is an agreement with Gd and ourselves that we seek to be stewards  of the earth and help it remain healthy.  It also refers to how we dress and act.  That is, to avoid sweat-shop labor, to try and show by our apparel that we are sanctified to the Divine (by wearing a star or a chai, a kippah, tzitzis, etc.), by growing some of our own food and being sanctified through the land.
Yichud (Unifying Counsel): The insight and active blessing of our teachers help us resolve knots in our progress.  Embracing the words of our teachers can move us more rapidly on  our spiritual path. Face to face contact with a teacher is very precious and helps us clarify the work.
Mussar (Directed Self-Inquiry and Action): Spiritual action in the world is rooted in self understanding  and internal inquiry.  Realizing that Gd is within us requires periodic self-examination in an ethical, personal manner. This is done in solitude, with  the community or with our teachers.
Tzedakah (Generosity): Generosity is concerned with how we view ourselves and how we deal with each other. Generosity is fundamental in creating a connection to the source of mercy and grace, for it recreates the cycle of the universe which continually gives to us, as well as receives. To be generous is sometimes difficult for it touches many of our most sensitive, emotional and fearful buttons.  Even so, being generous with ourselves, with other people and toward the community is a fundamental truth of Torah. 
Messirah (Self-less Service): Similar to generosity, Mesira seeks to personalize the act of giving-over of ourselves to the Divine. All such surrender must come from the place of love.  It is done for its own sake (lishma), and not with the expectation of rewards.  It provides a constant opportunity to experience Gd in our lives (and our own obstacles!). Through our act of selflessly giving ourselves to our community and to the larger community, we help bring about redemption, which is the ultimate Tikkun.

Chesed (Loving Kindness): Through the daily recitation of blessings and the random opportunities that arise for acts of loving kindness, we actualize spiritual truth.

Shabbat (Sacred Time): Shabbat and the Holy Days are holiness made concrete in time.  Through celebrating them we learn how to live a life of holiness and passionate, engaged joy. A holy calendar is the simplest and most demanding of all the practices.