Writings

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

Sarah Yehudit Schneider We are about to observe our one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-forty-first (1,941st) Tisha b’Av fast. That amounts to a lot of hope…and a lot of disappointment. Although mashiach1 could come in any moment, the Talmud declares that Tisha B’Av is the day most suited to his birth.2 Each year our hopes rise, and each year they have been dashed. The natural tendency, with such a precedent of disappointment, is to grow cynical and stop hoping. Sadly, many have d

Inspired by R. Rafael Moshe Luria [1a]Chanukka 5780 / 2019 Sarah Yehudit Schneider “All our holy days will be nullified in messianic times, except for Chanukka and Purim.”[Ateret Zekaynim on Shulchan Aruch, siman 675, citing Maharshal][1] What an odd assertion, since Chanukka and Purim are only of rabbinic origin, whereas Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot etc. are instituted by the Torah itself, which (being of Divine origin) is the ultimate authority. And what does it mean that they

A Shavuot Teaching (2021 / 5781) Sarah Yehudit Schneider …וברא את עולמו בשלשה ספרים בספר ספר וספור: (ספר יצירה א:א) [HaShem] created His universe with three ספרים (sefarim):סִפרָה (symbol) – the Torah of Bereshitסֵפֶר (scroll) – the Torah of Sinai, andסִּפוּר (story) – the Torah of souls. [SY 1:1] The Torah, says Sefer Yetzira, is really three in one. There’s the Torah of Bereshit, the Torah of Sinai, and the Torah of souls. Our job, says the Baal Shem Tov, is to unify these