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
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
The Midrash on Esther presents free will and determinism as the central theme of our Purim tale.
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.
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.
This is a teaching about prayer as conveyed by the Komarna Rebbe
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
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 Teachings Through the Years (1988 – Present).
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.
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.
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
Purim, 5777 / 2017 R. Tsadok HaKohen broadens the definition of Oral Torah and it’s not at all surprising that Esther was our trailblazer.
Relationship is a dynamic endeavor for it combines two contradictory poles—merging and differentiating—that are both essential to its survival.
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.
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?
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.
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.
PurimBurst 2010 / 5770.
One is obligated to drink on Purim until you don’t know the difference between cursing Haman and blessing Mordekhai.
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?
“Let the king and Haman come this day to the wine banquet that I have prepared for him.”
Based on the teachings of R. Isaac Luria as presented in Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine.
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.
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.
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.
PurimBurst 2003. Then the King conferred with His sages, experts in reading the times, for such was the King’s practice, to consult with the masters of law and judgment…
Mordekhai replied, “If you persist in keeping silent at this time relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from some other place while you and your father’s house will perish.”
PurimBurst 2001 / 5761. And the king loved Esther more than all the other women… so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen…
PurimBurst 2000/5760. And it was in the days of Achashverosh… when the king sought to display the richness of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty, that he hosted a seven day long wine party.…
PurimBurst 1999/5659. A burning issue is how to uncompromisingly devote oneself to truth, and yet share space with those who adamantly assert a conflicting truth, and even a false one.
Each life’s journey is filled with crossroads that rarely have signs to mark G‑d’s way. Each person must find the G‑d–serving truth that applies to this unique circumstance and this moment in time.
PurimBurst 1997 / 5757 In our generation the war with Amalek is an inner war, and Haman’s is the voice of our narcissism.
PurimBurst 1996/5756. Whenever Israel is about to access a new revelation of Torah, Amalek comes to sabotage the event. His murderous intentions always terrify, and always backfire.
Why is this holiday called Purim? Why is it called after the lots cast by Haman to determine how best to kill the Jews.
There is a real place that exists right now, on an inner plane, in the mind’s eye of the Creator, where Israel is a righteous nation, and every Jew a perfect tsadik.
Every “thing” and moment, both ancient and modern, has its source in the Torah. The sages ask, “What is Haman’s root in Scripture?”
PurimBurst 1992. Lots (purim) are our primary means of accessing pure Divine influence, of evoking guidance untainted by personal attachments and preconceptions.
PurimBurst 1991. The miracle of Purim is different. HaShem revealed that nature itself is nothing but an instrument for His conscious and compelling desire to bestow good.
PurimBurst 1989. The question of WHAT TO BE ON PURIM is not just for children! It is the secret of conscious determination–the power of vision to define reality.
PurimBurst 1988. “Mordechai left the King’s presence clad in royal apparel . . . and the city of Shushan was cheerful and glad.”