The Four Questions
The hagada is transmitting lights and instructions on many levels. There is information about history and many deep secrets about how the universe works and what freedom really means.
Pesach Through the Years
Pesach teachings over the years (2003-present.)
A Kabbalistic Kavanna for Eating Matzah at the Seder
Pesach 2021 / 5781 by Sarah Yehudit Schneider Matzah on Pesach is a powerful remedy that penetrates to the soul’s depths and heals ancient wounds.
Pesach Through the Years
Pesach teachings over the years (2003-present.)
Converts: Unsung Heroes of the Oral Torah
Shavuot 5778 / 2018
“And you shall know the soul of a convert, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Symbolic Resonance Permeates the Seder
Pesach 5778 / 2018 We start the seder by pronouncing the fifteen steps that comprise the ritual which marks the birthday of our peoplehood.
A Chanukka Meditation from the Zohar
Those who seize this occasion to meditate on the Chanukka lamps will be changed by it, says the Zohar.
Blessed Be the Makom…Blessed Be the Giver of Torah…
Pesach 5777 / 2017 HaMakom refers to the womblike vacuum produced by the cosmic tsimtsum that hosts the unfolding of creation from Bereshit till the end of time.
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.
Elijah the Peacemaker
Pesach 2015 / 5775 Who is Elijah? What does he have to do with the seder? Why do we recite verses of vengeance when he arrives?
“…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.
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.
Lavan the Aramean
Lavan becomes the prototype of the irrational component of anti-semitism, the Jew-hatred that pops up for no good reason.
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.
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.
The 17th of Cheshvan: When the Great Flood Began
HaShem was hoping to bring down the Torah in Noach’s generation. All the pieces were there, including the soul of Moshe Rabbenu.
The Inevitable Fall From Grace: Pesach 2009
The sedar is a ritual meditation—a symbolic reenactment of our journey from exile to redemption. The whole point of a ritual is to bring light, fixing and healing into the deepest layers of the soul.
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.
Matzah: Bread of Humility
The Ari declares that “on sedar night a conception occurred, and seven days later was the birth.” Yet what is this Kenesset Yisrael that was “conceived” on sedar night and born at the sea?
Slavery, Redemption and Matzah
Thoughts on Slavery, Redemption and Matzah;
Based on teachings by the Freidiker Rebbe of Chabad
The Removal of Chametz
Everyone knows that on Pesach, the removal of all chametz (leavened grains) from our household mirrors the removal of inflated ego states from our personalities.
“Pesach is the Conception”
On Pesach eve, the soul of Israel made contact with its body, i.e., the 600,000 families then under Moses’ charge. The Mystical Body of Israel was conceived on seder night.
The Secret of Eating at the Seder
Rabbi Tsadok HaKohen says that humanity’s first sin was not Adam and Eve’s eating of forbidden fruit, but rather the way they ate it.