All Classes

This class, present to women (in 5773, 2013), explains the Talmudic dictum that when a women generates a flow first, a boy is born; when a man generates the flow first, a girl is born.

This class, based on a discourse by the Alter Rebbe, Likkutei Torah Tazria, dissects the secret to intimacy between woman and man, by each of them discovering the opposite gender within themselves.

A hilarious and depth-filled talk on the true meaning of marriage and relationships according to the Torah and Kabbalah, delivered at Chabad of the Upper East Side, February 23, 2015.

At this lecture at Chabad of Aventure, Florida (8 Nissan 5774, April 8, 2014), Rabbi YY Jacobson explains how the Passover Seder is an opportunity to access freedom in our personal and collective lives. It consists of an intense fifteen-step program, a blueprint toward psychological, emotional, and spiritual liberation. This lecture consists of a brief description of the inner work taking place during each of the fifteen steps.

We say in the Haggadah: "Rabbi Eliezer says, every plague that G-d brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt was comprised of four plagues. Rabbi Akiva says:Every plague that G-d brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt was comprised of five plagues.”

What is the logic behind the argument? In this Sicha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Likkutei Sichos Vaeira vol. 16), taught by Rabbi YY Jacobson in 1998 in Monsey, NY, shows how this debate mirrors a larger debate about the meaning of chametz on Pesach. Finally, we explore this argument in the psychological and spiritual life of the human being.

self-abnegation, self actualization, and rebirth The Torah calls it “The Festival of Matzot.” Twenty-two generations later, when the hundred and twenty members of the “Great Assembly” formulated a text for the daily and seasonal prayers, they added the name, “Season of our Freedom.”

Ultimately, however, the festival came to be called by the sages of the Talmud and everyone else by yet a third name—“Passover.” Why the three names? What do they represent? In truth, these three names reflect the three-step program toward freedom.

Tzav-Pesach - Maamar Lehavin Mah Shekasuv Behagadah Matzah Zu - Class 2

Who are the four children of the Haggadah? Why are they central to our Passover experience? What are their questions and why are these questions so important?

The premise to answering all of these questions is that these four children are not external to us; they are within each of us: within each of our hearts, there are “four children” who ask four distinct questions.

What are the four biggest questions on Judaism? 1) The strange laws that we simply cannot wrap our brains ahead. I get the justice aspect of Judaism, but black boxes on my head? 2) How can small people really believe that G-d cares about their actions? 3) I lead my own life and define my own destiny. I don’t need G-d. In our world of science and technology, the old needs are gone. 4) I simply don’t care.

The class explores the famous question of the Minchas Chinuch (By Rabbi Yosef Bavad), if the mitzvah the eliminate chametz before Pesach is fulfilled through the active action of destroying chametz, or perhaps via the passive reality of not having chametz.

The class discusses the ramifications of this in Halacha, and then explains both perspectives from a spiritual point of view. The two views represents two paths in the service of G-d.

This textual class in Likkutei Sichos explores a strange Rashi about a Community Sin Sacrifice. We discover the infinite love of G-d even to the sinner and explores how G-d reacts to Jewish sins.