Studied in preparation for Lag B'Omer which falls this year on Thursday-Friday 15-16 May 2025. This passage describes Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son having to hide from the Romans in a cave, and the spiritual process which they went through in their understanding of the interface between intense spirituality and life.

originally given 11 may 2025

https://files.chabadresearch.net/TalmudTourShabbat%2033b-34a%20Rashbi.pdf

Explores prayer and synagogue practices, detailing Abba Binyamin's teachings on prayer timing, bed orientation, and communal prayer. It discusses the Divine Presence in synagogues, Torah study, and judgment, emphasizing spiritual focus and the revelation of G-d's presence through these acts.

class originally given 27 April 2025

source sheet: https://files.chabadresearch.net/TalmudTour-Berachot%205b-6a.pdf

Berachot 5a-b concerns the topic of Suffering. Hasidic concepts are also discussed, such as Tanya ch.26, which speaks of apparent suffering coming from a higher spiritual dimension, Yud and Heh of the Divine Name.

class originally given 30 march 2025

sourcesheet - https://files.chabadresearch.net/TalmudBerachot%204a-5a.pdf

In the middle of the discussion about the prayers, the Shema, Ashrei and other prayers, the Talmud includes a brief passage on the origin of the Torah.  We explore this, examining other related texts from Talmud, Midrash, Rambam, Ramban, Tanya.

Class originally given 16 March 2025

The importance of Ashrei (Ps 145) which is said 3 times daily, saying Shema before going to bed, and battling against one's inner Yetzer Hara, the Animal Soul.

2 March 2025

Discussing the correct time to recite the Shema, the holiness of hebrew letters in the power of creation, praying with certainty for Moshiach

16 February 2025

The spiritual meaning of the three 'watches' of the night. The Divine 'roar' at the exilic state of existence. The dangers of entering a 'ruin'.

Class Material - http://files.chabadresearch.net/TalmudBerachot3a-b.pdf

From when does one say the Shema in the evening? The Rebbe explains how this first Mishnah in the entire Talmud hints at each of the six Orders of the Mishnah. 'Evening' represents a state of darkness, in which one injects a declaration of faith in G-d, the saying of the Shema.

Class Material: http://files.chabadresearch.net/TalmudBerachot2a&Intro.pdf

The Alef Kabbalah group (13 May 2008) explored the unedited Chassidic-kabbalistic discourse taught by the Lubavitcher Rebbe during the week of Parshat Behar 1986. This begins 'When you Come to the Land..the Land should rest" The discourse explores the fact that the Torah text first presents the idea of the Sabbatical year, the seventh year,when the Land rests, and only later describes the work that will be carried out on the land during the six years, ending with a full account of the Sabbatical year. This leads to exploration of the kabbalistic concept 'the end is joined in the beginning', from the ancient 'Book of Creation'. This Torah text gives an example of this (the image of the seventh Sabbatical year being present from the very beginning of the six years of labour) but it applies in all aspects of life, particularly in seeing the eschatalogical goal of Judaism at every step of our daily lives.

THE MILI G. KABBALA GROUP WITH TALI LOEWENTHAL, 14 July 2008. Discussing the Fifth Day of Creation.