Jewish Independence Day
Has a Hebrew name
פסח
Deliverance as guaranteed
To Avraham Avinu
Autonomy meant to facilitate
Requesting and embracing the Torah
Fifty days later
At Har Sinai
Hatikva
Ignores Hashem
His Torah
Tzaddikim
And halacha
Actually hopes they all just go away
לישועתך קויתי ה׳
The Baal Shem Tov Says
If you want to denigrate
That’s great
Denigrate yourself
If you want to praise
That’s also great
Praise Hashem
The world asks the obvious
Why not denigrate evil
And why not praise all that’s good
Guy In Shul Forgot The Day Of The Omer
You tell him what yesterday was
Why not tell him what tomorrow will be?
Ask Rabbi Akiva Eiger next time you visit the Shulchan Aruch…
Pesach Approaches Yerushalayim
Raging fire consumes chometz
Outdoors
Smoke envelops holy spaces
Teeming with Chassidim
Bedecked in festive regalia
Including shtreimels
The same fire rages indoors
Baking matzos mitzva
Hallel fills their perforation
Now is the time
For Korban Pesach
Chometz metamorphoses
Into Matza
All it takes is fire
The furnace of Avraham
Chag Kasher v’Sameach
Rabbi Nachman Is Offering A Masters In Pesach
The required text for study:
Story 5 in his סיפורי מעשיות (see attached)
1-Parshas Tzav is Shabbos HaGadol (96 pesukim)
2-The Zohar reveals the simcha of Pesach on page 96a
3-The letters וצ near the end of אנא בכח are the basis of Story 5
It’s in style to scream out during the seder
Rabbi Nachman was on this centuries ago (LM 201).
Get your masters
Earn real gadlus
Avraham Avinu
Was king of the world
Why bother?
Avraham Avinu
Launched two millenia of Torah
What for?
Avraham Avinu
Composed an autobiography
Sefer Yetzira
שלהבת קשורה בגחלת
Scale the heights of unity
Bring דעת to worlds
Of fragmentation
סופן בתחלתן ותחלתן בסופן
Shabbos HaChodesh Shalom
Mesechta Megila
Begins with מגילה
And ends with ירושלים
Two days of Purim
One sponsored by ואהבת
Next one by יום הכפורים
כי יד על כס יה
3 x מגלה = הויה
Yom Kipur is Yerushalayim
One place in the world celebrates יה
לשנה הבאה בירושלים הבנויה
Amalek
Stands between the Jew and Har Sinai
Amalek
Monetizes reality
Amalek
Detests tzaddikim
Amalek
Detests God even more
Amalek
Is not a religion
And is no longer a nation
Amalek
Is an ideological disease
Which infects unwary hearts
Even A Jew’s
Shabbos Zachor Shalom
Purim Appears Twice In The Zohar
Once For each day
In שלח we’re taught
Esther wore לבוש לויתן
Achashverosh died when he saw her
Why?
Mordechai wore it too
People were awestruck
But didn’t die
Why?
Mordechai wore the עטרת זהב גדולה
Not Esther
Why?
What do we wear
Special for Purim?
Tikunei Zohar 21 says
Leather shoes
Why?
Esther did her job
Then Mordechai did
Now it’s our turn
Shabbos Shalom
Taste Your Shabbos Before It Begins
טועמיה חיים זכו
We say this during musaf
Before attaining נשמה יתירה
And it refers to erev Shabbos activity
Tosefes Shabbos is before and after
Not during Shabbos
Yosef HaTzadik ordained musaf
Before the Jews received Shabbos
Floating into the kitchen looking for a snack
Does not yield טועמיה
Looking for a taste of the world
You’ve made for yourself – is
You make your own food for Shabbos?
Or rely on others
Anticipating their olam haba?
Or your own
רב ספרא מחריך רישא
רבא מלח שיבוטא
טועמיה is of what you’ve made
Made out of yourself
לעשות את השבת
הקב״ה מראה לצדיקים עד שהן בעוה״ז
מתן שכרן מה שהוא עתיד ליתן להם לעתיד
Shabbos Shalom