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Shabbat Chol Hamoed: Torah Reading

Torah Reading: Exodus 33:12 – 34:26: The Jews had sinned with the construction and wild worship of the Golden Calf. God explained to Moses that He could no longer maintain a direct relationship with the people. They

Tags: Shema, Spiritual Realm

The Music of Halacha: Succot: It’s Beautiful!

Orach Chaim 646: 9: If the top leaves of the Hadas, the myrtle branches, are not fresh but wilted and

Tags: Music of Halacha

Table Talk:Succot – Exile

“May it be Your will, God, my Lord, and the Lord of my ancestors…may this be reckoned for me as if I have wandered afar…” The above text is part of the meditation we recite each night of

The Dance of the Lulav

The Midrash understands the verse, “David and all the House of Israel were playing before God, ” as meaning the people were shaking their Lulavim! There is an element of play. They expressed

Tags: Hallel, Hashkafa, Kabbala, Midrash, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Skills, The Foundation Stone

Succot, Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah (Transcribed Lecture)

One of the first ideas to understand is the number seven. One of the most familiar associations with the number seven is the seven days of the week, representing the completion of the

Tags: Etrog, Four Species, Lulav, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

A Sukkeleh

In response to numerous requests for the words to Avraham Reisen's famous Yiddish poem "A Sukkeleh" we post the words and translation. Enjoy!

Tags: Etrog, Four Species, Lulav, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part One: “As If”

If you would examine the Mitzvot from a halachic perspective, from a purely halachic perspective, of all the mitzvot which is the one that halacha considers mechanically the most difficult?

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Two: The Possible and The Not So Possible

The gemara in Succah, “yud aleph,” eleven, describes this debate between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva. When the verse says that we should remember the Succos that Hashem provided for us when we were in the

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Three: A Place for The Shechinah

We have learned the concept of ‘as if.’ But then we learn of this machlokes between Rabbi Eliezer, who says learn the impossible from the possible and Rabbi Akiva who says, no don’t reach for the impossible. I believe that

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Four: Conversions

So we have the 'as if' idea which is that we can be whatever we were. We have the idea of being able to create the impossible. And once we have 'as if', and once we have the halachic reality of danim efshar me she e-efshar,

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Five: Under His Wings

So this idea of being able to take the Shechina and use it as a reality is halchically true and it’s someone who converts. Someone who’s made a life-changing decision, a choice, for someone who wants relationship with G-d, is choosing

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Six: Recreating The Mishkan

The Jews had the opportunity with the first Luchot, and they made a serious mistake, they made the eigel. And when they made the eigel, they lost everything. They lost the luchot, they lost this unbelievable level, the intensity

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Seven: The First Cloud

We’ve spoken about approaching Succos now, 'as if', as if I can do anything. As if I can continue to be who I was on Yom Kippur, as if I could continue to daven with the intensity that I davened on Yom Kippur. After going in

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Eight: Beginnings

Where else do we have this concept of going back to the moment of creation of the human being? There is one other place. Where else in our regular service of Hashem do we have a physical acting out of the formation of a human being?

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Nine: Hovering Over The Nest

What else do we do with the Mizbei’ach on Succot? We take the aravos and the aravos we take - enormous Arava, or willow, branches, enormous willow branches and we draped them over the Mizbei’ach

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Succot Lecture Part Ten: Where Everything Is Holy

Question: Is that consistent with what you are saying about the shechina and the analogies of the mizbeach to sleep in the succah, for example, I’ve heard that the chabad has a custom not to sleep in the succah?

Tags: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Succah, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkot, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph One

“Praise, you who serve God! Praise the Name of God.
Let the Name of God be blessed from now and forever.
From sunrise to sundown,

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Two

“The Sea saw it and ran away.” It is interesting how God made Moshe a public and active participant in the splitting of the Sea. God didn’t need Moshe, but wanted him to be the one who brought about the great miracle.

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Three

“Not we, God, not we,
but Your Name deserves honor for Your kindness, Your truth.
How can the pagans ask, “Where is their God?”

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Four

“God remembered us and will bless –
Bless the House of Israel –
Bless the House of Aaron

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Five

“I love that God hears the voice of my prayers,
that I am listened to when I call!
Ropes of death strangled me

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Six

“What can I respond to God
for all the good He has given to make me independent?”
Rav Shlomo Kluger

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Seven

"All you nations; Praise God!
Sing compliments, all you peoples!
For His kindness overpowers us,

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Eight

“This is the day God made; let us sing and be happy with it.” The Talmud applies this verse to the day when David, the rejected son of Yishai, was anointed as the future king of Israel. All the troubles of his past, all the fluctuations

Tags: God, Hallel, Prayer, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, The Foundation Stone

Mistakes: Latznu

In “Meditations on First Philosophy,” Descartes set out to determine how and if we can distinguish false beliefs from true knowledge. He began by noting that there is theoretically no limit to how wrong we could be,

Tags: Confession, Elul, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Repentance, Teshuvah, The Foundation Stone, Vidui, Yom Kippur

Mistakes: Tafalnu Sheker

“Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before God! Why did you

Tags: Confession, Elul, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Repentance, Teshuvah, The Foundation Stone, Vidui, Yom Kippur

Mistakes: Maradnu

“Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of God with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to

Tags: Confession, Elul, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, Repentance, Teshuvah, The Foundation Stone, Vidui, Yom Kippur

Categories

Shabbat Chol Hamoed: Torah Reading

The Music of Halacha: Succot: It’s Beautiful!

Table Talk:Succot – Exile

The Dance of the Lulav

Succot, Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah (Transcribed Lecture)

A Sukkeleh

Succot Lecture Part One: “As If”

Succot Lecture Part Two: The Possible and The Not So Possible

Succot Lecture Part Three: A Place for The Shechinah

Succot Lecture Part Four: Conversions

Succot Lecture Part Five: Under His Wings

Succot Lecture Part Six: Recreating The Mishkan

Succot Lecture Part Seven: The First Cloud

Succot Lecture Part Eight: Beginnings

Succot Lecture Part Nine: Hovering Over The Nest

Succot Lecture Part Ten: Where Everything Is Holy

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph One

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Two

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Three

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Four

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Five

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Six

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Seven

Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Eight

Mistakes: Latznu

Mistakes: Tafalnu Sheker

Mistakes: Maradnu

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