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Essays on the weekly Torah portion, the holidays and Jewish thought.
Parsha Vayakhel-Pikudei – Voluntary Commandments Some love volunteering. Others celebrate the opportunity to serve G-d unconditionally. To create a home for G-d in this world requires both a spirit of volunteerism and sense of obligation. PIKUDEI PIKUDEI Parsha Vayakhel-Pikudei – The State of Our Union Is Strong! PIKUDEI PIKUDEI Parsha Vayakhel-Pikudei – When Counting Counts We count material items. But we deeply value spiritual experiences. The best of both worlds will be when we will have a spiritual experience even as we count our physical objects. PIKUDEI PIKUDEI Parsha Vayakhel-Pikudei – Whose Building Is It? What is the test of true friendship? When small things that affect the other matter to you, even when they don’t matter very much when it comes to your own interests. PIKUDEI PIKUDEI Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Dangers and Distortions Mysticism is, first and foremost, the belief that there is more to life than meets the eye. Belief in G-d is primarily a mystical notion, because it asserts the existence of "something out there" that we cannot see or relate to through our senses and faculties. Mysticism… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Our Essence Revealed We have discussed how the Jews' state of spiritual unconsciousness necessitated the introduction and popularization of the secrets of the Torah. We have also discussed how the accessibility of these supra-rational secrets to every human mind was enabled by the revelation of… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Preparing Us for the Future We have discussed so far how the dire situation of the Jewish people necessitated the dissemination of Kabbalah, despite the reservations expressed in the past about doing so. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – The Hidden Treasure People have always sought the mysterious and the mystical. We climb mountains, open new frontiers and explore outer space, constantly in search of other worlds "out there." Our inner space beckons us, too. That's why books on New Age spirituality and science fiction top the best… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – The Uniqueness of Jewish Mysticism Having discussed the dangers associated with mysticism, we will be able to appreciate the qualities unique to Jewish mysticism which make it a less dangerous mystical system. But to better appreciate the differences between Jewish mysticism and mysticism in other traditions, we… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Transcendence Now that we’ve explained why it was imperative that the teachings of mysticism be disseminated to the entire world, we are left with perhaps the most difficult question to resolve. Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Why Was It Kept Secret? The Torah often refers to Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah, as "sod," meaning the esoteric or secret dimension of Judaism. It is also referred to metaphorically as the "Wine of Torah." Besides the fact that wine, like mysticism, brings joy to the one who imbibes, wine is used as a… Kabbalah Safe Kabbalah – Why Was It Revealed For over three thousand years, Kabbalah was entrusted to an elite group of saintly people, who zealously guarded these secrets. At Mount Sinai G-d revealed the Torah to all the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the experience they had was the experience of the most hidden and sublime… Pesach Haggadah – All Dressed Up and Ready to Go Pesach Matzah and Maror Passover - the Passover-lamb that our fathers ate during the time of the Beit Hamikdash - for what reason [did they do so]? Pesach Haggadah – Chad Gadya One of the hymns sung by many at the end of the Seder is the Chad Gadya hymn, although it is not included in the Chabad version of the Haggadah it is nevertheless considered to be a holy hymn with deep symbolic and spiritual overtones. Some of the greatest sages of the last few… Pesach Haggadah – Ask, Child On all nights we need not dip even once, on this night we do so twice! Pesach Haggadah – Four Cups Plus One This week’s Torah portion features the four expressions of Redemption: “I will take you out...rescue you...redeem you...take you... bring you to the land, and give it to you as a heritage.” The four cups we drink Passover night at the Seder were instituted by our sages as a… Pesach Haggadah – Innocent by Association Blessed is the Omnipresent One, blessed be He! Blessed is He who gave the Torah to His people Israel, blessed be He! The Torah speaks of four children: One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple and one does not know how to ask. Pesach Haggadah – It’s a Command! The wise one, what does he say? "What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws which the L-rd, our G-d, has commanded you?" You, in turn, shall instruct him in the laws of Passover, [up to] `one is not to eat any dessert after the Passover-lamb.' Pesach Haggadah – Magid Tell the Story Freedom of Speech Pesach, our sages tell us, is more than just a commemoration of an ancient people’s drive for independence saga. One of the salient themes of the Seder is the need to feel as if we are actually the ones who are going through this liberation process. Quoting the Mishnah, the… Pesach Haggadah – Reach for the Highest: The Sky Is Not the Limit It happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarphon were reclining [at a seder] in B'nei Berak. They were discussing the exodus from Egypt all that night, until their students came and told them: "Our Masters! The time has come…