Jewish Holidays

A fundamental question about sefirat ha-omer is whether the mitzva is mandated by Torah law or rabbinical enactment while the Temple no longer stands.

There are some people, in Israel for the most part, who oppose the use of the Gregorian calendar in their every-day interactions, and choose to use the Jewish calendar instead. Let us delve into and explain the importance of the Jewish calendar.

Hoshana Rabba is one of the least understood days of the Jewish calendar. What is the source of her specialness, which isn't mentioned at all in the Torah? The class deals with the ancient sources for 3 different aspects of Hoshana Rabba which in fact, overlap and harmonize to give us a deeper understanding of this final day of Sukkot, as the "final appeal" sealing how our year is going to look!

The other-world Ushpizin guests are: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, David and Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef is not mentioned specifically in the Zohar - as opposed to Miriam, the sister of Moshe and Aharon - and so we should ask: Why was Yosef, of all our many righteous forebears, chosen as one of the guests? (We will also relate below to why Miriam is not included in our Ushpizin.)

"Rabbi Alnekaveh told a story he heard once from an etrog-seller who used to bring Rav Eliyahu etrogim to check: "It is well-known that Rab Eliyahu could look at an etrog for mere seconds and immediately discern its advantages and defects..."

The Sukkot holiday is full of mitzvot (good deeds), including the mitzvah of the lulav, the four species. Our Sages say that the four species are similar to weapons - the lulav is similar to a sword, or perhaps a rifle, the etrog maybe to a grenade. In any event, the Sages intend to tell us that there are spiritual wars and there are physical wars, and Man in this world must confront various pests and ward them off.

The “3 Festivals” (or “R’galim”) have connections between them- such as the ‘Hekish’ (connection) between Pesach and Succos.

Music has a tremendous power - for the good or the bad. It all depends on the soul of the composer and the musician.