1. Last week I threw a curve-ball at you. I explained how the basis of
Avraham's selfless giving was really Holy selfishness. I've decided to keep
things simple and straightforward this week - [most people seem to like it
better that way].

2. This week's Parsha, more than any other, highlights Abraham's trait of
Chesed which is selfless giving. Despite personal suffering after his
circumcision and unbearably hot weather conditions, Abraham anxiously
anticipates the 1st opportunity to provide hospitality to anyone who crosses
his path. The details as to how he provides hospitality could make up a
virtual guidebook on the art of selfless giving. Another chapter in this
guidebook would elaborate on how to pray to prevent the immanent destruction
of a society of Sodomites. Their contribution to the world is the  trait of
cruel-selfishness which is the diametrically opposite trait that Abraham
represented. Further chapters depict Abraham practically single-handedly
defending in a war, underdog nations and also bestowing maximal honor to
the dead......  and the list goes on and on.......

3. We stand in awe of Abraham, but what about us?! The stories of the
forefathers and their personalities and for that matter all the rest of
the 5 Books of Moses as well are not meant to be merely  history lessons.
Rather they are meant to reflect to us what our souls are made up of and
what we can manifest in our own lives with the right doses of clarity,
inspiration, hard work and good techniques. Sounds great, right? But pray
tell, how am I going to bring out the Abraham and the selfless giving inside
of me for real?!

4. Kabbalah teaches that one of the Sefirotic personality traits of
'Keter' - [which is the deepest underlying motivation of our psyche], is to
take pleasure. In other words, in order to maximally activate any part of
my personality, I need to 'groove' on doing or being that trait!!

Here's the tool:
A.  Choose a 5-minute slot in your day anchored next to a 'permanent' time
slot such as wakeup time or morning-prayer time  or breakfast...etc...

B.  Use these 5 minutes to groove on giving as follows;        Contemplate
how wonderful it is to give to others and how wonderful you feel about it
and project yourself giving to someone later today and how you will
groove-out when you're doing it... Groove on the top 10 selfless givers in
your life and on the top 10 giving experiences in your past...etc.. etc... you
get the idea, don't you - just go wild and ecstatic on the trait of giving!

Even though for realistic purposes I'm prescribing doing this at this point
for 5 minutes a day, ultimately the goal of this tool [and all other tools
for that matter] is to develop a 24/7 grooving-on-giving consciousness!