Pesach is the season of freedom, humility, and telling the Pesach story to children who mostly do know what’s about to happen but still perplexed with all the ceremony. For most children, parents are their most trusted source of guidance during their formative years. Hear several esoteric essays of the Sefas Emes about this pinnacle chapter of our Nations' birth.
Besides cleaning the home before Pesach, the chance for purifying your heart is also close at hand. There were four ancient rivers that flowed from Eden. Each symbolizes a glittering attraction that pulls us away from God. From this, Mrs Heller explains the idea of why four cups of wine.
Which universal character trait generates flexibility of thinking plus extra energy to act? And how does making the effort to shrink one's ego relate to the central elements of seder night? Rebbetzin Heller walks us through the basic stages of the Seder, tying together many of the threads using humility and freedom.
The soul-changing path of Counting the Omer extends from Pesach until Shavuos, from the despair of slavery to the magnificent light of Sinai, and how the seven s'firos of kaballah take us from personal change to redemption. Rebbetzin Heller brings practicality and depth to these seven primary traits, and wonderful stories to touch the core of your soul.
The name Pesach is quite literal. It was named at the time Hashem 'passed over' the Jewish homes during the 10th plague. Likewise, this chag of freedom helps us leap over our own obstacles to growth that are more difficult to reach otherwise. Once again Rabbi Krohn entertains us with his boundless enthusiasm and razor-sharp stories.
A good story can often hammer home the point of a lesson. And who can better teach us how to tell a powerful story than master teacher and storyteller Rabbi Pesach Krohn. Hear how to make a story a knockout, how to build up your repertoire of tales, and how to know which story to tell 'when' and 'to whom.' A great skill for communication in general.
We are enjoined to say the Hagaddah out loud on Seder night. Rabbi Kelemen asks the following, “Why not instruct us to say over Fantastically Deep Wisdom (FDW)?” FDW, explains Rabbi Kelemen, is essentially frum TV – which entertains and leaves you high, but does not promote real 'change.' Exactly what change is he referring to, and how does saying the seder story drive the message of change home?
The very first commandment we were given as a nation was to sanctify the new moon, which carried with it the responsibility for the dates of the holidays that fall within each month. What connotation does the cycle of the moon and our relationship to it carry about our spiritual greatness, and how does it connect to the holiday of Passover that this portion precedes?
On this night, we are told: Tell your children all the events of our redemption from Egyptian bondage. The Pesach Seder is the optimum time for embedding our beliefs into their lives. Hear the rock-bottom, essential message that children need to hear - mainly from their parents, and throughout the year as well.
Rabbi Zweig identifies the two methods of speech we use on the Seder night – one a soft language of storytelling, and one that is harsh and demanding. Don’t the two contradict? Pesach night can be a time of glorious memories of freedom, but the night can’t stop there. How do we direct it toward the future?