Tu B’Shvat

On Tu B’Shvat we celebrate our generous and magnificent fruit trees that selflessly nourish the world for no other reason than that it’s what they are designed to do. May we honor them back by [...]

Tu B’Shvat teachings over the years (2007-present).

The Still Small VoiceTu B'Shvat Hagada, fifteen years in the making, is finally available for public enjoyment.

The word for etrog (אתרוג) relates to the Hebrew root, רגג, which means, “to long and desire.”  For this reason etrog corresponds to to the heart area, the center of conscious emotion and desire.

“If the Torah had not been given, we would still have learned modesty from the cat, industriousness from the ant…” and many important instructions-by-example from the plant kingdom. [TB Eruvin [...]

Tu B’Shvat, 5778 / 2018 Sarah Yehudit Schneider All the trees of the field (שִֹיחַ הַשָּׂדֶה) did not yet exist on the earth, and all the wild plants had not yet sprouted. This was because God [...]

Tu B’Shvat, 5777 / 2017 Sarah Yehudit Schneider God made grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to look at and good to eat, [including] the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden, [...]

By Sarah Yehudit Schneider The first of Shevat is the New Year for trees, says the School of Shammai. Beth Hillel disputes this and rules that it falls on the fifteenth of the month. [Mishna RH [...]

Sarah Yehudit Schneider It is customary to eat fruits and drink wine in celebration of Tu B’Shvat, the Rosh HaShana of fruit trees. And it is fitting to admire each fruit and speak its praises [...]

It is customary to eat fruits and drink wine in celebration of TuB’Shvat, the Rosh HaShana of fruit trees. And it is fitting to admire each fruit and speak its praises before you eat it. In that [...]

People who are accustomed to follow the kabbalistic Seder of fruits and wine on Tu B’Shvat organize their (thirty) fruits according to certain criteria. There are three intersecting (and somewhat [...]

Tu B’Shvat, 5771 / 2011 Sarah Yehudit Schneider The Mishna informs us that there are actually four New Year’s days in the Jewish calendar as well as four Judgment Days[1]. It then proceeds to [...]

This Tu Bi’Shvat teaching is dedicated to the complete and speedy recovery of Shoshana bat Sarah and was sponsored by some of her friends. Tu Bi’Shvat is the New Year’s day for fruit trees [...]

Countdown to Perfection: Meditations on the Sefirot From the second day of Passover until the harvest festival of Shavuot there are seven weeks, each of seven days. Jews commemorate these [...]

Purim Bursts This day is called Purim because its inner service is ‘lots’. There is a large body of teachings about how to cast these lots. Every spiritual practice requires this [...]

Humanity’s first sin, teaches Rav Tsadok HaKohen, was Adam and Eve’s eating without right intention. The Tree of Knowledge, says he, was not a tree or a food, or a thing at all. [...]

Kabbalistic Writings On The Nature Of Masculine And Feminine Kabbalistic Writings presents annotated translations of kabbalistic texts that paint an authoritative and enlightened vision of how [...]

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“The underlying principle of homeopathy is the “law of similars,” whereby one paradoxically uses either the disease itself or something similar to the disease to affect a cure. This [...]

1. What is “time trekking?” Briefly describe its art. 2. Discuss the implications of the adage, “Redemption comes in the blink of an eye,” as it relates to the service of rega. 3. What does it [...]

Lesson One …This next course is called Time Trekking. It is about the fourth dimension. Science calls it a “new frontier” yet nearly three and a half thousand years ago the Torah revealed a [...]

Explain Rav Ginsburgh’s statement, “Time is the progressive illumination of  that singular and perfect Divine image.”  From this perspective, what is the purpose of religious practice?  Which [...]

Lesson One …It is quite interesting that the Hebrew term, olam, means both world (i.e. the totality of space) as well as eternity (the totality of time.) Thus built into the Jewish [...]

1. What are the positive benefits and negative effects of the “high” that often accompanies spiritual practice? 2. What are the four levels of interpreting the Bible? Why is the date [...]