Sarah Yehudit Schneider Everyone knows that this pre Rosh HaShana period is a time for intensive soul searching. There are many advices about what this entails. It’s important to seize the moment, for on Rosh Hashana we receive our allocation of spiritual resources for the coming year (both individually and collectively). The great CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in the sky gives each one of us a budget of “lights,” based on our past performance, and our proposals (our praye

This Elul teaching was sponsored by Jerry Krivitzky and is dedicated to his rabbi, R. Joel Soffin in gratitude for his instruction and modeling of how to live by Jewish/Torah values. An Elul Teaching, 2006/5767By A Still Small Voice These forty days between Rosh Chodesh Elul and Yom Kippur are called days of grace. They correspond to the forty days that Moshe again spent with HaShem receiving the second Tablets (replacing those that Moshe shattered in his outrage at the Golde

A Rosh HaShana Teaching, 5768 (2007)from A Still Small VoiceBased on R. Tsadok HaKohen, Rosh Hashana 9 When Elul (the month before Rosh HaShana) arrives we begin to exchange well-wishes for a good, sweet, healthy, joyful and bountiful year. One of the recommended practices to prepare for Rosh HaShana, is to create a prayer-vision of the best that could possibly unfold for this new year: What will it look like for ourselves and loved ones to live our lives in the most God-serv

Rosh HaShana, 5769/2008by Sarah Yehudit Schneider Like a shepherd…whose sheep pass beneath his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living…who will live and who will die…who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted. But repentance, prayer and char

A Rosh HaShana Teaching, 5770/2009by Sarah Yehudit Schneider R. Isaac said: Why do we sound the shofar on Rosh HaShana? …To confound the Accuser (TB RH 16a/b).[1]Resh Lakish said: Great is teshuva that it turns premeditated sins into errors… But did he not say that teshuva turns premeditated sins into full-fledged merits. There is no contradiction: The former is the power of teshuva when instigated by fear, the latter is the power of teshuva when prompted by love (Yoma 86b).

Rosh Hashana 2010 / 5771 Teaching by Sarah Yehudit SchneiderR. Kruspedai said in the name of R. Johanan: Three books are opened [in heaven] on Rosh HaShana, one for the wicked, one for the righteous, and one for the benoni.1 The thoroughly righteous and the thoroughly wicked are inscribed straightaway, the former in the Book of Life and the later in the Book of Death. The benoni’s fate hangs in the scales until the final reckoning on Yom Kippur. If he uses that time to gener

Rosh HaShana 5772 / 2010Sarah Yehudit Schneider Eliyahu Dessler teaches that there are three levels of prayer, which can be reformulated as three ways to approach Rosh Hashanna.1 The first level is to cry out to HaShem like a child and pray for relief and redemption. The power of that prayer is its pure, simple faith in HaShem as the one-and-only source of bounty. There is one address for yearning and there is no prayer that HaShem cannot fulfill. To know this and to pray fro

Rosh HaShana 2013/5774 Sarah Yehudit Schneider Our Rosh Hashana avoda—its soul-searching, lengthy prayers, and special mitzvot—is all directed toward one mysterious aim called “sweetening the dinim”, a holy endeavor that serves both man and G‑d alike. The obvious question is what are these dinim and how do you go about sweetening them and why is it so important at this time of year? The simplistic answer is that dinim are harsh judgments—punitive decrees from on high—that w

Rosh HaShana, 5775 / 2014 Sarah Yehudit Schneider And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month…it is for you a day of teruah(sounding the shofar).[1] : וּבַחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ …יוֹם תְּרוּעָה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם The essential obligation of Rosh HaShana (from the Torah) is not to pray all day, or to get dressed up and have a big family meal, but rather, simply, to hear the shofar. Yet what exactly does Hashem have in mind with this command? Would a short

Rosh HaShana 2015 / 5776 Sarah Yehudit Schneider A true story: A woman brings yards of lacy fabric and the sketch of a wedding gown to a seamstress who has nearly two weeks to finish the job. The dressmaker (a stranger till that day) prays while she cuts and sews, asking Hashem to guide her work. The dressmaker thinks to herself, really I should be praying for this couple to be happy, fruitful on all levels, and that peace should fill their hearts and home… and I really do w

Rosh HaShana 2016 / 5777 Based on R. Tsadok HaKohen, Tikanat HaShavin 5:10-12, Tsidkat HaTsadik [40]Sarah Yehudit Schneider There are three categories of tikunim, says the Leshem, and every person has some portion of each on their cosmic to-do list[i]. The first category are tikunim that only happen when we do the right thing. We keep taking the test until we get it right. This is what we generally think of as a tikun. The second category is more mysterious. These tikunim on

This essay presents Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Gellman’s exploration of the Mei HaShiloach’s teachings on the Akeida that appears in his book “The Fear, the Trembling, and the Fire.” There may be some embellishments but all the primary elements of the thesis are his.[1] Torah Reading for Second Day Rosh HaShanaRosh HaShana 5778 / 2017 Sarah Yehudit Schneider The Akeida is a tale of incomprehensible faith. As the story goes: The Holy One commands Avraham to build an altar and offer his

Rosh HaShana 5779 / 2018 [1] Sarah Yehudit Schneider Divine perfection, in order for it to be infinite, must include the possibility of perfecting…a never-ending process by which perfection becomes even more perfect (without implying that its previous state was ever less than perfect). It’s a paradox and we’ll leave it at that.[2] The mechanism HaShem devised to accomplish this perfecting is called teshuva, a term that means literally, return. The Talmud reports that HaShem c

Rosh HaShana 5780 / 2019 Sarah Yehudit Schneider יאמר א/להים נעשה אדם. במי נמלך?…רבי יהושע דסכנין בשם רבי שמואל אמר בנפשותן של צדיקים נמלך… נפשות של צדיקים שבהן נמלך הקדוש ב”ה וברא את העולם And G-d said, “Let us make Adam” [Gen 1:26] With whom did HaShem consult? [For “let us…” suggests there were others involved.]…R. Joshua of Siknin said in R. Levi’s name: He took counsel with the souls of the righteous… It is they with whom He consulted before creating the world. [Genesis

Rosh HaShana 5781 / 2020 The 18th day of this month of Elul marks the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov (R. Yisrael ben Eliezer), the revolutionary founder of the chassidic movement. The Baal Shem Tov was certainly a brilliant thinker but this was not his prime distinction. Rather, he translated the most exalted mystical ideas into a practical worldview that could be followed by accomplished scholars and simple-folk alike. Chassidut stresses the profound importance of prayer, lov

A Rosh HaShana Teaching Inspired by the Igeret HaTeshuvah of R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (excerpted below) You might be surprised to hear that addiction is as old as humanity itself…literally. The midrash picks up subtleties that are invisible to most readers. In the Genesis story it notes a glaring Freudian slip with grave significance. After Adam and Chava’s eating from the forbidden tree, the following conversation ensues between Adam and HaShem: And the HaShem called to Ada

Rosh HaShana teachings over the years (2004-present).

You might be surprised to know that Rosh HaShana is not only Day of Judgement and the Day of Remembrance, and the Day of Trua (the shofar blast) but it is also, says kabbala, the Day of Nesira (surgical uncoupling). This is a short teaching about that profound dimension of Rosh HaShana.

Rosh HaShana, 5786/2025[reprint] Sarah Yehudit Schneider You might be surprised to learn that not only is Rosh HaShana the Day of Judgment (יום הדין), the Day of Remembrance (יום הזכרון), the Day of the Shofar’s Blast (יום תרועה), and the Culmination of Creation with the appearance of Adam (יום בריאת העולם)… but it is also, according to the Ari, the Day of Nesira (נסירה), which means literally, surgical uncoupling. This is a term used to describe the spiritual surgery, the s