Lectures on the Weekly Parsha
Women's Emor Class: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Emor,9 Iyar, 5782, May 10, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY. This class is based on an address delivered by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, on Shabbos Parshas Yisro, 22 Shevat, 5740, February 9, 1980; and on Tuesday Parshas Shlach, 19 Sivan, 5747, June 16, 1987. This second address was presented to the graduating class of Beth Rivkah girl's school, and to the counselors of thegirls camp, Camp Emunah.
Tazria Women's Class: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Tazria,26 Adar II, 5782, March 29, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Women's Mishpatim Class: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Mishpatim, 23 Shevat, 5782, January 25, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Women's Yisro Class: This weekly women's class by Rabbi YY Jacobson waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Yisro, 16 Shevat, 5782, January 18, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Women's Beshalach Class: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Beshalach, 9 Shevat, 5782, January 11, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Women's Vaeira Class: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Vaera, 24 Teves, 5782, December 28, 2021, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Women's Shemos Class: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Shemos, 17 Teves, 5782, December 21, 2021, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class/Sfas Emes Matos: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Matos-Maasei, 26 Tammuz, 5781, July 6, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Surfside Tower Collapse/Tuesday Women's Class: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Pinchas, 19 Tammuz, 5781, June 29, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY. It happened 88 years ago, in 1932. The Lubavitcher Rebbe came from Berlin to Riga to spend Sukkos with his father-in-law, the sixth Chabad Rebbe. On Chol Hamoed, the Rebbe farbrenged all night in the Sukkah of the yeshiva. But nobody ever had a record of the words. After the Rebbe's passing in 1994, his personal journals were discovered and published as the "Reshimos." There they found the Rebbes transcript of that 1932 address, a major part of it dealing with the Torah laws about searching for people trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. As the Mishna states (Yuma 83a), we never give up hope and never stop searching for anyone who might be alive. The Rebbe spent a few hours analyzing all the details of this halacha (which will be studied in the Daf Yomi this week), and then explaining it from an emotional and spiritual perspective, applying these laws to people living in a chaotic N What does it mean that a person is emotionally trapped under a collapsed building? How do we extract them? Do we ever give up? What are the signs of life we are looking for? Was the rebbe perhaps also addressing what would become his mission following the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history?
Women's Class Korach: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Korach, 28 Sivan, 5781, June 8, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class Shlach: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Shlach, 21 Sivan, 5781, June 1, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY. How do we understandMoshe's strange argument to Hashem:Dont kill Your children because of what the neighbors will say?! And why didnt repentance work after the story of the spies? The class is based on Sefas Emes and a talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Perhaps G-d was not punishing the Jews, only help them confront their reality.
Women's Class Behaaloscha: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Behaaloscha, 14 Sivan, 5781, May 25, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Siyum Mesechta Yuma/Likkutei Sichos Acharei Mos: Part two of a two part series exploring The Soul of Mesechta Yuma. This text-based class in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 17, Parshas Acharei, will be presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson onSunday evening, 6 Iyar, 5781, April 18, 2021.
Siyum Mesechta Yuma/Likkutei Sichos Acharei Mos: Part oneof a two-part series exploring The Soul of Mesechta Yuma. This text-based class in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 17, Parshas Acharei, waspresented by Rabbi YY Jacobson onSunday morning, 6 Iyar, 5781, April 18, 2021.
Women's Class: Sefas Emes Tazria-Metzora: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Tazria/Metzorah, 1 Iyar, 5781, April 13, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class Vayakhel: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Vayakhel/Pekudei, 25 Adar, 5781, March 9, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class Ki Sisa: This weekly women's class waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Ki Sisa, 18 Adar, 5781, March 2, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class - Sefas Emes/Terumah: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Terumah, 4 Adar, 5781, February 16, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class Sefas Emes Yisro: This weekly women's class on Sefas Emes Parshas Yisro waspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Yisro, 20 Shevat, 5781, February 2, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY. Every Jew is a witness to all of Judaisms claims. For its truths are imprinted in the core of every Jewish soul. The Torah is here to jog our unconscious memory, reminding us what we always knew about who we always are and who we will alwaysconduits for Divine infinity.
Women's Class -- Sefas Emes Beshalach: This weekly women's classwaspresented on Tuesday, Parshas Beshalach, 13 Shevat, 5781, January 26, 2021, live from Rabbi Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class -- Sefas Emes Bo: This weekly women's classwas presented on Tuesday, Parshas Bo, 6 Shevat, 5781, January 19, 2021, live from Rabbi Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Women's Class Sefas Emes Va'era: This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Vaera, 28Tevet, 5781, January 12, 2021, live from Rabbi Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY.
Chassidus: Torah Ohr Lo Teheye Meshakela #5: This class was presented on Monday Parshas Terumah, 29Shevat, 5780, February 24, 2020, at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY
This class was presented at Ohr Chaim, Monsey, NY, on Sunday Parshas Vayakhel Pekudei, 21 Adar, 5777, March 19, 2017. It is a strange story. Moses seemingly distorted what G-d told him, telling the craftsman of the Sanctuary to first build the furniture and only afterward the outer structure. It was Betzalel who reminded him of the simple truth that you first build a house before you furnish it. Upon deeper reflection, this incident captures the story of our lives. Many great thinkers, writers, and artist, produced extraordinary works. Their content was great, their message potent, and their talent exceptional. What they lacked was the exterior structure for their souls lavish output. Sadly, in our world art needs a proper frame. Lacking the frame, the art may remain in its corner and melt into oblivion. The great argument between Moses and Betzalel was which came firstthe energy or the container, the vision or the structure? Moses was a visionary; Betzalel was a man of action. In conclusion, we discover, they were both right: In the world of thought and strategy, art precedes the frame; in the world of action and implementation, the frame precedes the art. In the world of light, vision takes precedence. In the world of shadows, your dreams must follow your actions, not the other way around. The class continues to explore another perspective by Reb Tzadok of Lublin. Judaism consists of two componentswhat G-d gives us and what we give G-d. The Written Torah and the Oral Torah. One is Divine; the other is filtered through human creativity. But are they really different? Depends from whose perspective.
Likkutei Sichos Terumah/The Three Weeks: This text-based class onLikkutei Sichot, vol. 21, Parshas Terumah, explains in anovel way the reason for the Rambam giving us a history lesson about the Holy Ark in his halachik work: "When King Solomon built the Holy Temple, knowing that it was destined to be destroyed, he built a place in which to hide the Ark, [at the end of] hidden, deep, winding passageways. It was there that King Josiah placed the Ark twenty-two years before the Temples destruction. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon in the year 2928 from creation (833 BCE), and was destroyed410 years later, on the ninth day of the month of Av, by the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Seventy years later it was rebuilt; the second Temple stood for 420 years, until its destruction by the Romans, also on the ninth ofAv, in 3829 (69 CE). From the Rambam's words about the Ark we discover that the core of the Beis Hamikdash (the Holy Temple) was never destroyed. What is more,it means that the first, second and third Temples are not three different structures, but the continuum of a single edifice. The class also tackles the question of why we allow ourselves to make such destructive mistakes. It turns out, we are the ones who do this to ourselves, for a very healing reason.
This class, presented to women on Parshas Terumah 5768 (2008), explores a majopr debate about the Cherubs hver the Holy Ark. Foremost among the commentaries compiled by our sages on the Torah are those by Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105) and Nachmanides (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1194-1270). Rashi defines his goal by stating: I come only to explain the simple meaning of the verse. On the other hand, Nachmanides, a noted mystic and kabbalist, often uncovers a deeper stratum of significance in the Torahs words, exposing its students, as he puts it in his introduction to his commentary on Torah, to delightful things, for those who know and understand the hidden wisdom. Rashi and Nachmanides often differ in their interpretation of a particular word or verse. One example of this is their different conceptions of the kapporet and the keruvim. Rashi sees the ark and the kapporet as two different objects. The Sanctuary contained various vessels, each with a designated function (e.g., the menorah, the altars); according to Rashi the ark and the kapporet are two different vesselsit is only that the designated place of the kapporet is atop the ark. Nachmanides, on the other hand, sees the kapporet as the cover of the ark (indeed, the word kapporet means cover)as a component of the ark itself, rather than another of the Sanctuarys vessels. Another difference between the interpretations of Rashi and Nachmanides concerns the form of the keruvim. According to Rashi, these were two winged figures, each with the face of a child (a boy and a girl). Nachmanides is of the opinion that they were a representation of the celestial figures seen by the prophet Ezekiel in his vision of the divine chariot. This class explores the underlying argument behind them, and their dramatic relevance to our lives today.
Trees of Hope -- Prehistoric Cedars: Yaakovs grove: a source of lumber and comfort, in Egypt and today
What Was the Real Shape of the Menorah? - Why did the Rambam depict a different Menorah than everybody else?
An Ode to the Businessman: Sometimes being far makes you close, and being on the outside puts you inside . Studying the book of Torah Or Terumah Maamar Mi Yetencha -- Class 3 of 3
"In this weeks Torah Portion the Jews are charged with mission impossible: Build a finite home for an infinite G-d. Yet, G-d chooses to rest in this relatively humble abode, and most intensely in the Holy of Holies, the location of the Ark. The Ark was a gold-plated box containing the Tablets, the Torah, given to Moses at Sinai, and had two poles, one on either side which enabled the Kohanim, the priests, to carry it during travel. " "In this class, we will analyze the timeless spiritual meaning behind the enigmatic prohibition forbidding the removal or dislodging of the Arks two carrying-poles."
Angels or Demons: The Secret of the Cherubs. Haman: A Psychological Profile
When You Learn Torah You Bring G-d into the World - Studying the Book of Torah Or Terumah Maamar Mi Yetencha -- Class 2 of 3
The Meaning of the Cherubs. Studying the book of Torah Or Terumah Maamar Mi Yetencha -- Part One
The Kabbalah of the Cherubs: Divine Masculinity and Femininity. Torah Or Maamar "Beuir L'einyan HaKeruvim." An Overview of the Mystical Writings of the Alter Rebbe