Purim High Council Prayer and Meditation Happening for Women
We are Inviting women from around the world to join the actual Jerusalem-based event via zoom (enabled by Shifra Hendrie who has offered her expanded zoom link for the occasion). And…
Sharing the nusach/script of the ceremony so you can prepare for the event and, if you are unable to join our Jerusalem ceremony, you can create your own High Council, either on your own or with friends.
Purim Invite 2025
AN INVITATION…To Women Far and Wideto Participate in a Ground-Breaking, Soul-Awakening Event:The 34th Annual “Purim High Council Prayer and Meditation Happening for Women”(that will also be available via Zoom) In this part of the world we are preparing for Sarah Yehudit’s 34th annual open-house Shushan-Purim-Dance-and-Learn-Seuda-for-Women featuring the Purim-High-Council-Prayer-and-Meditation-Ceremony. However, this Holy Purim Assembly has grown […]
DIALOGUE WITH DESTINY (reprint)
The Midrash on Esther presents free will and determinism as the central theme of our Purim tale.
Post October 7th: Zohar on the “Three Cries” as a Model of Trauma
There are a million ways to make space for new light. But sometimes the light coming through is just bigger than who we are in the present. The Zohar characterizes that tribulation as a serpent shedding its skin.
Post October 7th: Anger Drives the Plot
Survival has required us to perfect the capacity to transform the intensely concentrated lights that scatter like shrapnel from anger’s discharge; to digest these pellets, extract their nutrients, and convert their death-wish into life juice.
Worlds, Souls, Divinity: Purim 2023
This is a teaching about prayer as conveyed by the Komarna Rebbe
Purim 2021: Who is Charvonah…
Charvonah is a seemingly insignificant character in the Purim story. He is one of the king’s attendants who appears at the beginning with those who convey the kings fateful summons to Vashti and then again at Haman’s demise. It is here, in this second mention, that he delivers his single line:
Turning Noga into Chashmal
Chashmal thus becomes the codeword for embracing paradox by skirting back and forth between opposing perspectives and admitting the truth that’s present in each.
Purim Through the Years
Purim Through the Years Purim Teachings Through the Years (1988 – Present).
Keter – Malchut
The feminine’s teshuva journey is thus the polar opposite of her male counterpart. Whereas the masculine strives for ego-transcendence, the feminine cultivates holy selfhood.
From Eden to Purim: Simcha shel Mitzvah
Purim 2018 / 5778 To succeed in our mission we must become connoisseurs of pleasure. That was our failing, and it remains our front of tikun.
From Eden to Purim: Simcha shel Mitzvah
Purim 2018Sarah Yehudit Schneider The Talmud asks: “Why did the Jews of that generation deserve extermination? Because they derived pleasure [נהנו] from the feast of that wicked one [Achashverosh].” [TB Megila 12a] The Talmud doesn’t say “because they ate” – this the Jews could justify by claiming they were subject to royal decree and would […]
When the Body Gives Light to the Soul
Purim, 5777 / 2017 R. Tsadok HaKohen broadens the definition of Oral Torah and it’s not at all surprising that Esther was our trailblazer.
Topsy-Turvy Gluon Dance: Purim 2016 /5776
Relationship is a dynamic endeavor for it combines two contradictory poles—merging and differentiating—that are both essential to its survival.
Masters of the Saf: Purim 2015 / 5775
The only thing that will make us happy is to finally become whole, which cannot happen without facing our shadow and processing its unseemly content.
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?
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.
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.
The Obligation (on Purim) of Inebriation
PurimBurst 2010 / 5770.
One is obligated to drink on Purim until you don’t know the difference between cursing Haman and blessing Mordekhai.
The Power of a Good Eye
PurimBurst 2009. Esther inspired affection in the eyes of all who saw her… (Megillat Esther 2:15). What was the secret of Esther’s extraordinary (even supernatural) grace?
If Your Enemy is Hungry Give Him Bread
“Let the king and Haman come this day to the wine banquet that I have prepared for him.”
The Book of Esther is a Map of Feminine Development
Based on the teachings of R. Isaac Luria as presented in Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine.
Anger Drives the Plot
Every moment is a story, and every story has a motor that propels its forward motion. In the Book of Esther, rage drives each stage of the plot.
A Time for Silence, A Time for Speech
Since the genocidal decree would not take effect for close to a year, it did not justify a life-threatening exploit. Yet Mordekhai insisted that Esther go now, unbidden.
I Am the First, I Am the Last
The Book of Esther is an historical narrative, that occurred between the years 367 – 357 BCE. Yet there are moments in time that are nearly transparent.