PurimBurst, 2006 / 5566Sarah Yehudit Schneider Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command…and the king was very angry, and his anger burned in him…And Memucan answered,…”Vashti, the queen, has not only insulted the king, but …all the men of the kingdom… For their women will do likewise and it will create an upsurge of contempt and wrath.”… In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, guards of the threshold, wer

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

Tu B’Shvat, 5767 / 2007 A Still Small Voice המליך אות צדיק בלעיטה…שבט בשנה וקורקבן בנפש HaShem made the letter tsadik rule over fressing (indulgent eating), Shvat in the year and the gizzard in the soul. So, based on this tradition from the Sefer Yetzira, we all know that this month brings lights for the rectification of eating, although it’s interesting that the word used is לעיטה, and not אכילה. לעיטה is more gluttonous. It’s the word that Essav uses when he comes in from

PurimBurst, 2007 / 5567Sarah Yehudit Schneider Based on the teachings of R. Isaac Luria as presented in Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine.[1] “This opposite this HaShem created the world.”[2] Everything holy has a dark counterpart somewhere in the universe. And so, in the Purim story every character has its alter-ego from the other side. Mordecai has Haman, Esther has Vashti. And even HaShem has Ahashverosh.[3] The secret is that if you follow the s

Pesach 2007 / 5767 Thoughts on Slavery, Redemption and Matzah Based on teachings by the Freidiker Rebbe of Chabad As formulated by A Still Small Voice At a certain point on Avraham’s spiritual path, HaShem revealed to him some unpleasant details concerning the fate of his descendents: Know for a certainty that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and shall be afflicted by them for four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they

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