All Classes

This class, presented to women in 2010, explores the juxtaposition of two stories at the end of Behaaloscha: the story of two prophets, Elded and Meidad, who begin prophesizing without permission, and the story of Miriam and Aaron discussing the woman their brother Moshe married. Rabbi Klonimus and the Arizal, two 15th century mystics of Tzefas, offer two very different explanations for these stories.

This class was presented on Sunday Parshas Behaaloscha, May 31, 2015, in Ohr Chaim, Monsey, NY

This advanced text-based class, a Sicha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Likkutei Sichos vol. 7 Parshas Bechukosai) dissects the underlying perspectives of Reb Yehuda and Reb Shimon concerning three areas where the term "Shabbos" is used. The question is what are we to do with "evil beasts' & the ego: Do we seek obliteration or transformation?

This class, by Rabbi YY Jacobson, was presented to Jewish women in Melbourne, Australia, on 25 Iyar 5771, May 29, 2011. It explores the methods of marriage in Judaism, and the two paths of passion vs. commitment in building a relationship. It explains the story and reincarnations of Ruth, and the story of an infertile couple who came to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. It explains the difference between masculine and feminine Judaism and the need for both.

Reb Meir, the second-century Talmudic sage, was seen as one of the greatest scholars of his day. Yet, unlike his friends, he chose to remain loyal to his teacher, Elisha ben Avuya, who became a heretic. Why?

There are three schools of thought. We are a victim of our past; we are the fathers of our futures. The unique position of Judaism extends man’s reach not only forwards, but even backward in time. We can retroactively redefine or recast our previous bad deeds into good ones, by peering through the “husk” of the negative and seeing it from the vantage point of the Divine. This was the secret of Reb Meir.

This radio show, broadcast on May 2, 2015, explored the theme of forgiveness. Drawing on the stories of Simon Wiesenthal in Sunflower, Nelson Mandela, and German Jewish Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, it asks when to embrace forgiveness and when to deny it to your enemy.

The laws of burning Ketores (incense) on Yom Kippur, stirred a major debate between the Sadducees (Tzedukim,a group of Jews active in Judea during the Second Temple period, starting from the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. They ultimately died out) and the Pharisees (Prushim – the Rabbinic Sages, the representatives of the Oral Tradition of Judaism). The Sadducees believed that the smoke should be created outside of the Holy of Holies; the Pharisees maintained that only once the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) entered the inner sanctum should he place the incense on the coal.
What was at stake in this argument? What is the path to generate a "refined aroma", a pleasant human experience? The Sadducees held we look for inspiration on the "outside," and then take that "inside," into the Torah. We acclimate Judaism to the outside trends. The Pharisees held that inspiration for a Jew is found by and in Torah. This class explores other ways of understanding this debate both historically and spiritually.

This text-based class, a Sicha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Likkutei Sichos vol. 32 Tazria), dissects, in great detail and depth, the disqualification of a Kohen with poor eyesight to examine tzaraas (leprosy).

The Sicha introduces two ways in which we can understand the definition of this law, explaining an argument between Toras Koahnim and Mishnah, and the practical ramifications. It concludes with a mystical and Chassidic insight on how the blind Kohen who peers into deeper places of the soul is incapable of declaring the leper as impure.

Rabbi Akiva taught his students to love. But they could still not learn to respect their colleagues. Why?

How does Jewish law and Jewish mysticism view the reality of the collective vs. the individual? An analysis by the Rogatchover Gaon on the view of Rabbi Akiva in various Talmudic laws reveals a pattern of thought: The collective is not only a sum of many individuals joined together; but there is a transcendent reality in which all of the individual details melt away in a single integrated oneness.

There are two charged terms in the Hebrew language: Love and respect. The first comes from a sense of oneness; the latter is born from a sense of distinctiveness. Can it be that the students of Rabbi Akiva knew how to love but not how to respect?

There are people you like but you don't love; there are people you love but you may not like. There are people that you love and you like, and there are people, well, that you don't love and you don't like either. You love your parents. You love your brothers. You love your sisters. But you don't necessarily like them… Sometimes you love your husband, but you have a hard time liking him. What is the difference between "liking" and "loving"? What is the difference between anti-Semites who hate Jews and Jews who dislike Jews? Why do we count both "day" and the "week" in the counting of the Omer? Why are there so many couples who “fall in love,” but after some time, they find themselves so far apart? What happened to the love? Most of us love our children. But do we respect them?