“…Until there are no stragglers in the marketplace.”
When is the time for lighting Chanukka candles? The earliest time is sunset but one can still fulfill the mitzvah until pedestrians disappear from the street.
Sisera’s Mother Sets the Tone for our Rosh HaShana Shofar
Rosh HaShana, 5775 / 2014
The essential obligation of Rosh HaShana is not to pray all day, or to have a big family meal, but rather, simply, to hear the shofar.
Like it Or Not, We Are In This Together
Shavuot 2014 / 5774 One could depict the whole course of history as the process by which Israel assimilates its Torah into the heart, bones, cells and the spaces of its being.
Plagues by Land…Plagues by Sea
Pesach 2014 / 5774 How deep did the lessons of the plagues absorb into the nerve net of the Egyptians and bring tikun there?
Remember Amalek…Don’t Forget
PurimBurst 2014 Who is this Amalek that three of our 613 mitzvot revolve around him? How do we “remember to eliminate the memory” while also never forgetting it?
A Tribute to Wheat for Tu B’Shvat
It is customary to eat fruits in celebration of Tu B’Shvat, and to admire each fruit and speak its praises before you eat it. A Still Small Voice presents a tribute to wheat.
Chanukka and the Feminine
The deepening union between the Shekhina and HKBH occurs in a very different way on Chanukka than on any other day of the year.
Sweetening the Dinim: Rosh HaShanna
Rosh HaShana 2013. Our Rosh Hashana avoda—its soul-searching, lengthy prayers, and special mitzvot—is all directed toward one mysterious aim called “sweetening the dinim”.
Master of Prayer: Tisha b’Av 2013
During the three weeks our obligation is to decrease simcha. We focus on what is missing, bewail those lacks, and downgrade our devekut. That is what it means to mourn.
Tsafun—Afikoman
Pesach 5773 / 2013 The 12th step in our seder, Tsafun, marks the time for “dessert” which, at the seder, means our last portion of matzah, called the Afikoman.
A Tribute to Wine for Tu B’Shvat 2013 / 5773
The path that grapes traverse in their odyssey of becoming wine parallels our cosmic journey of expanding consciousness.
Paradox — A Hanukkah Dilemma
Hanukkah holds the secret of how to survive exile and how to accomplish the purpose of it. And that brings us to the paradox of “isolation and integration”.
Hillel says to move toward many; Shammai says to move toward one
Hillel says to start with one candle and add another each day until there’s eight; Shammai says to start with eight and remove one each day until we’re left with one.
I-Centers: A Circle of Ways to See the World
TISHA B’AV 5772 / 2012 By searching out the sliver of truth in contrary perspectives we acquire daat (the joiner of polarities) and build the Temple in our day.
Shavuot (Inspired by Meor v’Shemesh)
Jacob’s ladder reaches up through the worlds to the inwardness of G-d called the Infinite Light.
Lavan the Aramean
Lavan becomes the prototype of the irrational component of anti-semitism, the Jew-hatred that pops up for no good reason.
Esther, the Mistress of Prayer
Not all supplications are the same. Some are mighty and pierce to the core, while others reach only the lower heavens and get processed there.
Tu B’Shvat, 5772 / 2012 by Sarah Yehudit Schneider
At a Tu b’Shvat seder How do you decide which fruit to make the focus of your brocha, for only one out of all gets the privilege?
On Chanukka Everyone’s a High Priest
When the High Priest lit the menorah his intention was actually a prayer, that the lights now kindled should impart to the people an even deeper understanding of what it means that G-d is one.
The Inner Search for Pure Oil
Our world view, our sense of truth, our vision of perfection, our vision of what’s possible… all this is tainted by our long years of exile and association with foreign cultures.
Three Levels of Prayer: Rosh HaShana
Eliyahu Dessler teaches that there are three levels of prayer, which can be reformulated as three ways to approach Rosh Hashanna.
Tisha B’Av 5771 / 2011
How do we hope for mashiach with certain faith that he REALLY could materialize at any moment and yet also find a way to embrace our present moment with unconditional acceptance.
Shavuot 2011 / 5771
Every person and creature is hooked up to one or another of these 600,000 spiritual dynasties who received the Torah at Sinai.
Tikkun of Speech: Pesach 2011
On Pesach, our bodies were released from slavery and we literally exited the country, but a more fundamental deliverance unfolded beneath the surface.
Amalek is a Branch of Our Family Tree
A synchronicity of courage, grace and circumstance converge to produce a hero who turns his or her soul-wound into a mission of helping others and changing the world for good.