Tu B’Shvat, 5771 / 2011 Sarah Yehudit Schneider The Mishna informs us that there are actually four New Year’s days in the Jewish calendar as well as four Judgment Days[1]. It then proceeds to explain the significance of each. There is a subtle quirk in the Mishna’s language that begs interpretation. Among these eight red-letter days, three apply to fruit trees. The 1st of Tishrei marks the New Year for saplings[2]; the 15th of Shvat (Tu B’Shvat) marks the New Year for buddin

PurimBurst, 2011/ תשע”אby Sarah Yehudit Schneider1 The descendents of Haman study Torah in Benei Brak, and R. Shmuel bar Shilat is [is the most illustrious] among them.2 (TB San. 96b [Ein Yakov, Para. 163]) מִבְּנֵי בָּנָיו שֶׁל הָמָן לָמְדוּ תּוֹרָה בִּבְנֵי בְּרַק ומנו רב שמואל בּר שילת: Everyone knows that we are built from shattered vessels, as the Torah hints in its second verse which describes the fallen state of reality before it was refurbished in the six creation day

Pesach 2011 / 5771 A Pesach Teaching, Based on Zohar 2:25b-26a and R. Tsadok HaKohen, Likutei Maamarim, ot 11 The sedar is a ritual meditation—a symbolic reenactment of our historic (and continuous) journey from exile to redemption that began nearly three and a half thousand years ago when we were born as a nation on this very eve. The whole point of a ritual is to bring light, fixing and healing into the deepest layers of the soul. Its choreography of movements, prayers and

Sarah Yehudit Schneider When a person sees 600,000 (or more) Jews gathered in a single place s/he recites the following blessing: Blessed are You, G-d, Sovereign of the Universe, Knower of Secrets. It is no coincidence that 600,000 is the approximate number of Israelite families who experienced the revelation at Sinai.[1] It is also the number of root souls in the universe, according to the Ari. Every person and creature is hooked up to one or another of these 600,000 spirit

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

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