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.
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.
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?
The different terms for love
The different terms for love and how they organize into a series of milestones that mark out a spiritual path.
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.
Shavuot, 5770 (2010) Based on Sod Yesharim (Radziner Rebbe)
Every Jewish soul carries a memory trace of that Sinaic encounter. Somewhere, deep down, our soul remembers that earth-shaking event and the obligations it undertook at the mountain’s base.
Tu B’Shvat: The New Year for Fruit Trees
Tu B’Shvat is the New Year’s day for fruit trees but it is important to note that this is not their day of judgment—that occurs months later on the holiday of Shavuot.
The Evolving Feminine: An Enlightened View from Kabbala
The Ari’s “The Seven Stages of Feminine Development” describes a stepwise path of growth that moves from diminishment toward fullness of stature which he presents as the universal pattern of feminine development.
The Messianic Vision of Equality and Beyond
The Voice of the Bride
by Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi,
Presented and Elucidated by Sarah Yehudit Schneider
The Underside Of Creative Expression
G‑d’s creation of reality becomes the prototype of all creative expression. Every similar endeavor must follow its precedent, step by step, detail by detail.
Tisha B’Av 5769 / 2009
In the month of Av, says Sefer Yetzira, the sense of listening is up for tikun. Our test is to not get hypnotized by voices that claim authority but do not embody Torat Emet.
Shavuot 2009 / 5769
Shavuot, the anniversary of the Torah’s revelation, is called the marriage ceremony between the Jewish people and HaShem.
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?
Chanukka, Greece and Democracy
There is no person or nation that does not have at least a miniscule sliver of holiness. Otherwise it could not exist.
Tisha B’Av 5768 / 2008
The spies understood that crossing into the holy land would initiate a new era—now they were princes, but across the border, in the new world, they’d become obsolete.