Video: On Yom Kippur, Leave Your Begging Bowl at the Door
The Sod Yesharim suggests a very powerful practice to get the most out of our highest of holy days, Yom Kippur.
The Link Between Shame and Baseless Hatred
We are defining shame as the discomfort produced when the ego feels diminished or deflated. We are defining sinat chinam as baseless hatred, meaning hatred that has no justification, that has no basis to it.
Achdut, A Tisha B’av Video by Sarah Yehudit Schneider, 2024
An inspiring and practical teaching on Tisha B’Av 2024 by Sarah Yehudit Schneider
Tisha B’av Video by Sarah Yehudit Schneider, 2023
Explores the metaphoric question of, “Does God cry?”
Addiction and Higher Teshuvah: Rosh HaShana 2023
You might be surprised to hear that addiction is as old as humanity itself…literally.
Tisha B’av Video by Sarah Yehudit Schneider, 2023
Explores the metaphoric question of, “Does God cry?”
SHADOWS AND LIGHT: CHANUKKA 5783/2022
Chanukka lights bring healing to the corruptions of power that surround our light and lively Chanukka observance.
Video: Sarah, Sarai, Yiska
Sarah is the Matriarch of the Jewish people. Tradition ascribes superiority to her Divine Inspiration over Avraham’s.
A TEACHING FOR THE FAST OF TAMMUZ
This Torah of Atzilut is what we received at Sinai, but forfeited when we betrayed its calling.
Malchut Sh’b’Malchut
To describe the king as “entangled in the tresses” is to assert that there is a level of G-d that is entangled by our conceptions and projections of Him/Her/It.
“This Opposite This” HaShem Made the World
The whole drama of geopolitics comes down to “who eats who?”: In the end, whose narrative is going to prevail, and absorb everyone else into its story line.
Sifra, Sefer, Sippur
The Torah is really three in one: the Torah of Bereshit, the Torah of Sinai, and the Torah of souls. Our job is to unify these three Torot with every word we speak and breath we take.
The Chinukh of Chanukka
Chanukka 5781 / 2020
This holiday is called Chanukka because it is training (chinukh) and practice for the future redemption. How so?
The Reward of a Mitzvah
The Zohar is teaching that HaShem (so to speak) looked into Him/Her/Itself and articulated a will for a creation that would revel in the glory of G-d.
Black Fire on White Fire: Torah of Atzilut
This Torah of Atzilut was what Adam would have received had he not opted for duality, and what we received at Sinai, but forfeited when we too betrayed its calling.
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.”
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.
The Torah of Atzilut: The Torah of Souls
Shavuot 2016 /5776 At Sinai we got the Torah of Atzilut—the Torah of Unanimity, a searing revelation of presence.
“HOW MANY FACES HAS THE HOLY ONE…”
Shavuot 5775 / 2015 Elokim is more a pathway than an entity. It meets us where we are but it also reels us in.
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 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.