Hakdamah/Introduction

As a brief introduction, the Ari’zal writes that one who does not sleep the night of Shavuot and toils in Torah is assured to live out the year and no harm will occur to him. Shulhan Arukh with Mishnah Brurah 494:1 There is a compilation of torah learning known as “Tikkun Lay’l Shavuot” which has the Zohar and the writings of The Ari’zal as its source, and many have the minhag to say/learn this on Shavuot night. Kaf Hachaim 106:7, Lev Dovid L’Hachidah. This compilation can be purchased at most Hebrew Book stores.

We here follow the Sefardic custom as appears in the Nahar Shalom version.

Traditional Kabbalah holds that women should not say the “Tikkun Lay’l Shavuot”. However, some say that a woman who counted all the days of  Sefirat Ha’omer may learn the portions of the Tikkun which are from Tanakh.

S’U Rav Poalim 1SY:9, Kaf HaHaim 106:8

One should not belittle the importance of this reading., and this Sefer Vehalav Tahat LeShonaik is dedicated to this venture. Even though it consists of simple verses and passages, this is a time-honored custom that should be respected and followed. The Tikkun generally takes approximately 2-3 hours (depending, of course, on the speed at which it is read), and after one completes the reading and the list of the 613 Torah Commandments, he is certainly allowed and encouraged to study the Midrashim and Zohars translated below.

The 24 books of the Torah correspond to the 24 adornments we prepare for the Bride (we Jewish people) for our marriage with Gd under the Huppah (Mount Sinai) with our Ketuba (the Torah). They are listed in Yeshayah 3:18-24 and are: shoe-bells, head scarves, moon-shaped ornaments, necklaces, bracelets, veils, bonnets, leg bands, hair ties, brooches, earrings, rings, nose rings, robes, shawls, kerchiefs, pouches, mirrors, linens, turbans, claps, belts, coiffure, and ornamental belt. We read a portion from each book to bedeck the Bride, which is her Tikkun–repair, hence the name Tikkun Lay’l Shavuot.

It is said that all were healed from the venom of the Garden of Eden Serpent when the Torah was received.

Guess what? The Torah is received anew every year. And if you are present and have learned the Tikkun, you have done a good start to heal yourself in the 24 areas corresponding to the 24 garments. By clothing the Bride we are healing ourselves. Even though it may not manifest externally, Kol Yisrael–the collective soul of Israel–is a very different creature after this come Wednesday morn.

Blessings on a night of renewed Torah: the Torah of the body, the Torah of the mind, the Torah of the soul.

For the elevation of the soul of my father Shmuel ben Mosheh Yaakov and for

Devorah Ester bat Yaakov, and the Yom Huledet Samayah (Shavuot) of Malkah Ester bat Rivka.

Rahmiel Hayyim Drizin

Revised version Sivan 5771

Complete Torah Learning for Shavuot Night

Table of Contents:

Hakdamah/Introduction….page 2

Mikveh Meditation before Shavuot….page 3

Psalm for Shavuot…..page 4

Shavuot Table Learning….page 5

Divre Hayamim for Shavuot Day…page 6

Taking the Crown: Seder Tikkun Leil Shavuot …page 7

Readings for Beresheet…..page 8

Mikveh Meditations….page 23

Meditations for Morning Meal… page 24

Ben Ish Hai’s request after learning the Tenakh…page 25

[which sections may be repeated at the morning meal with #1 above];

The 613 mitzvot read after the Tenakh sections….page 28

The Eyn Yaakov Shabbat 86-89 for Shavuot …page 46

The Midrash Rabbah Parshat Yitro….page 58

Zohar selections:

Emor 97….page 64

Beresheet 8….page 65

Mishpatim 122…page 66

R. Yitzchak Schwartz’s 32 approaches to learning Torah….page 70

HaRav Ariel Bar Tzaddok’s meditation….page 74

Complete Torah Learning for Shavuot Night

Matza-coated Mitzraim

Do we indeed leave Egypt this year or we just adorn our personal Mitzraim with a pretty Pesach theme?
The picture here is the unfortunate symbol of many Seders that might be conducted this year… Kosher-style, mehadrim min mehadrim, comfortably staying in personal bondage… Untouched pyramids of slavery coated with matza…

or

we can really make a difference in our lives…

by truly changing and Leaving Egypt for Good

The choice is ours.

We can really learn how to effect the Tikkun by eating at the Pesach Seder

and look deeper into The Kabbalistic Psychology of Pesah

We can learn Pesach Korbanot, Mishnayot and Zohar

or Follow 15 Step Program The Passover Seder

We have all the tools… The Choice is OURS

Pesah Week Meditations

Translated and compiled by Rav Rahmiel Drizin:

Alef”Taf ; — The day of the week on which the first day (Alef) of Pesah takes place will also be the day of the week when Tisha Be’Av occurs. “With matzot and merorim (bitter articles) they should eat it” connects the matzoh of Pesah to Tisha Be’Av, a day of mourning, the most bitter day of our year.

Beit”Shin :— The second day (Beit) of Pesah will be the day when : Shavuot falls.

Gimmel”Reish — The third day (Gimmel)  of Pesah will be the day when first day of Rosh Hashanah takes place.

Daled”Kof — The fourth day (Daled) of Pesah will be the day of Kriat haTorah,

which is Simhat Torah, when we conclude the annual cycle of Torah reading and start again from the beginning.

Hei”Tzaddik — The fifth day (Hei) of Pesah is the day of Tzom, the fast of Yom Kippur.

Vav”Pei — The sixth day (Vav) of Pesah is the day on which 5 Purim has taken place a month earlier (in Adar). It is necessary to know what day Purim took place the month before in order to calculate the day of Lag BaOmer since Lag BaOmer and Purim always occur on the same day of the week.

Meditation for 15 Nissan: 1st Day of Pesah

We start with Alef”Taf — The day of the week on which the first day (Alef) ! of Pesah

takes place will also be the day of the week when  Tisha Be’Av occurs. “With matzot and

merorim (bitter articles) they should eat it” connects the matzoh of Pesah to Tisha Be’Av, a day

of mourning, the most bitter day of our year.

We read in the Haggadah right before the “Egyptian Hallel”:

He [Gd] took us from slavery to freedom,

from sorrow to joy,

and from mourning to festivity,

and from deep darkness to great light

and from bondage to redemption

So at our time of greatest joy, when we left Egypt, we recall our pain. It is sort of like a coin. On the one side there is the revealed good which we celebrate. On the other there is the pain of bitter times. But this is the same coin! These bitter times we are told are really concealed good. As it is said, Gam Zu LeTovah…this too is for the good.

Our job, perhaps is to keep flipping the coin to make sure we realize that when things seem bad, that they can become good in an instant. On Tisha Be’Av we sing a Kinnot/lamentation of unknown authorship, following the Alef-Bet that has been used to connect the ; Tav of Tisha Be’Av to the ! Alef first day of Pesah:

A fire of elations burns within me, when I recall in my heart what happened,

when I went forth from Egypt (in triumph);

But I will arouse lamentations so that I remember what really occurred,

when I went forth from Jerusalem (in chains)

Complete Pesah Week Meditations in PDF

Pesach Reading from the Zohar

Many Sefardi Haggadot list this to be read before Maggid. The following (26th) commandment is to relate the praise of the exodus from Egypt, whichis incumbent upon every person always to relate these praises. We have explained thatevery person who relates the exodus from Egypt and rejoices when relating that account isdestined to rejoice with the Shekhinah in the World to Come, which is joy from all sides.For such is a person who rejoices in his Master, and the Holy One, blessed be He, rejoicesin his story.     At that time, the Holy One, blessed be He, gathers His whole retinue, and says to them:’Go and listen to the account of My excellency that My children are relating, rejoice in Myredemption.’ At that time, they all gather and come and join with Yisrael to hear the storyof the praise. They rejoice with the joy of the deliverance by their Master, and come tothank and praise the Holy One, blessed be He, for all these miracles and mighty deeds, andthank Him for the Holy Nation that He has on earth that rejoices in the joy of thedeliverance of their Master.   Then His strength and power are increased above. By their recounting, the children ofYisrael give power to their Master, like a king whose strength and power are increasedwhen his strength is praised and he is acknowledged. All fear him and his glory rises aboveall of them. Therefore, it is incumbent to praise and relate this story, as we learned.Similarly, it is the duty of every person to relate before the Holy One, blessed be He, andpublicize the miracle among all these miracles that He did.     One may ask why it is obligatory; does not the Holy One, blessed be He, know everything,everything that was and will be in the future? And wherefore this publicity before Him ofwhat He did, if He knows? Surely one has to make the miracle known and relate beforeHim all that He did, because these words ascend and all the company above gather and seethem, and give thanks before the Holy One, blessed be He, and His glory rises over themabove and below.   It is the same with he who relates and enumerates his sins, of everything that he did. If youask why this is necessary, it is because the Accuser is constantly before the Holy One,blessed be He, in order to recount and seek retribution for the sins of people, and todemand Judgment against them. However, when the person enumerates each and everyone of his sins beforehand, he does not leave any pretext to the Accuser to exploit. And theAccuser can not demand any Judgment against him, for he always demands Judgmentfirst, and afterwards enumerates and accuses. Therefore, the person should take his owninitiative before the Accuser and enumerate his own sins.   As soon as the Accuser sees this, he has no pretext to complain against him, and then takesleave from him entirely. If he repents, well, but if not, the Accuser rests on him and says:’So and so who came before you unashamedly, he kicked his Master, his sins are such andsuch.’ Therefore, it is advisable that a person be careful in all this, so that he should beconsidered a faithful servant before the Holy One, blessed be He.LaShon Hakamim (Vol 1, p. 171) suggests this learning upon one’s table during the meal in apleasant voice, which consists of collections from the Holy Zohar.Peace to you Holy Holiday!  Peace to you Holy Hag!  Peace to you Holy Guest!  You arecalled Holy!  You are an appointed time called Holy.  You are crowned and desired.  Andyou  are sanctified and praised with joy.  You are considered the deep of the depths.  Riverscome and flow from you.  And Yisrael  who are called Holy  receive you with glowing facesin joy and in praise.  They appoint you and prepare for you a rich feast.  They set theirtables with complete preparation and beautiful vessels. This is the joy and praise to theHoly One Blessed be He.The Holiday of Pesah corresponds to the right arm. How beloved and precious are you! On you Yisrael went out from a foreign domain to that of a Holy supervision. On you itsays ” For seven days leavening shall not be found in your homes.”  The bread is calledMatzah,  for it subdues and subjugates; namely, it chases away the evil ones of all sides andmakes a quarrel with them, just as the name Shadai of the mezuzah chases away the evilspirits and demons that are at the gate. So, too, Matzah chases them away from all thedwellings of holiness, and makes a quarrel and a fight with them. How beloved are your days which are days of joy! These days rise to the the supernalhonor.  In you is the joy of Yisrael who rejoice in the redemption of their Master. In youYisrael praises the might of the Holy One blessed is He and gives strength to above.  In youthe Holy One blessed be He rejoices  in His story  and praise.On you Yisrael eats the food of healing.  On you they eat matzah which is the curative toaid in coming into and knowing the secret of Faith.  This is the bread of wisdom in whichYisrael receives the supernal wisdom of the Torah and brings them on Her path.  On youall Yisrael needs to guard and protect from Hametz and leavening at all times.  And alltheir food and drink all are protected.

Complete Pesach reading from the Zohar in PDF

Seder Korban Pesah: The Order of the Pesah Offering

Mishnayot Pesahim

Blessing of the blossoming trees in Nissan

Compiled and translated by Rav Rahmiel Drizin

See the full version of the post here in PDF format

Compiled and written by Rav Rahmiel Drizin

Hakdama – Introduction

Hakdama IntroductionWe are so fortunate to move to yet another special area in our Jewish Life cycleof organic time. For just as the Northern Hemisphere becomes its mostphysicallly dark, we Jews each become beacons of light, dignifying the darkwith 8 nights of light, nights in praise of Nissim/miracles. For the Baal ShemTov, the founder of the Hassidic movement, Hanukah was his “favorite” holiday– for Hanukah is the holiday of light, a light that fills the soul and warms theheart.We praise the miracles when we light, we praise the miracles in the addition tothe after-blessing for bread and the Amidah, we praise the miracles by therecitation of the full Hallel each day. We therefore are taking a “short course”in miracles just in fulfilling our halakhic daily requirements for Hanukah.It appears to me with the help of Heaven, that a more expanded Course inMiracles is required. Two years ago in Sefer Yair Panav Elecha veYechunekha,we daily meditated on one of the 13 Attributes of Mercy and derived personalmeaning from them. Last year, in Sefer BeHallel uveHodot we againconcentrated on the first blessing of the candle lighting ceremony, this timecontemplating the Sefirot from Binah to Malkut, one each day. This year inSefer She’asah Nissim, as will be explained, we turn our attention to the 2ndblessing, now focusing on the previous energies in reverse order, from Malkutto Binah, reflecting on the miracles in our life related to the Sefirot.

Our Sages established these eight days to express praise and thanks to Gd’s

great Name [from Al HaNassim addition], so it behooves us to make it personal,

to look within and to express praise and thanks to Gd for the miracles in our

life. To this extent, we with the help of adapted writings from various Internet

sources, will explore the nature of miracle as they appear in our 24/7 on this

amazing earth plain.

Some may wish to bypass these readings, and to go to the section on Mystical

Miracle Musings towards the end of this document.

What is the Jewish standpoint on miracles?

How important or unimportant is miraculous phenomena to the Jewish believer? Perhaps we

should rephrase the question in the opposite manner: “What is the Jewish standpoint on

nature? or How important or unimportant is natural phenomena to the Jewish believer?”

Gd manages every aspect of creation at every given moment. There are no rules He must

follow. There are no forces He must contend with. All is in His hands

Nonetheless, He chose to create a system called “nature.” An arrangement of fixed rules. An

order of causes and effects. Why did he create nature? In order to conceal His identity and

hide His footprints. He wanted a world in which things would appear as if they run on their

own, and thus, force Man to discover G‑d on his own. In fact, the very word for nature in

Hebrew, “tevah,” also translates as “sunk.” Nature is G‑d’s way of submerging His presence

under a sea of scientific laws and patterns. And Man is a deep-sea diver given the task of

finding G‑d’s hand which lurks behind the veil of nature.

And so, life is very similar to a game of “Hide and Go Seek.” But every now and then, G‑d

emerges from His hiding place and breaks through the self-imposed shackles of nature. The

sea is split. A scientific rule is broken. Mother Nature is proven wrong. Perhaps, a child is

cured from an incurable disease. Or our nation is saved from a seemingly hopeless situation.

And it is through these supernatural events that we realize that nature too is merely a creation

of G‑d.

continue to complete Sefer Of Miracles

סֵפֶר שֶעָשָה נִסִים

An Obstacle

not even from people but from circumstances around us.

Are those Obstacles the Sign from Above that we are on a wrong path and should use our resources differently?

or, may be otherwise, those obstacles are simply an opposition to holiness and should be fought tooth and nail until they are overcome ?

The answer depends on where the opposition comes from.

If the source of the opposition is our own soul, then we are on the wrong path and need to quickly re-route our efforts into other channels.

If however the source of the opposition is the Other side, one definitely needs to add more efforts to break through the obstacles no matter the cost!

The question is: how to distinguish between the two?

Simple but fool-proof answer is Tefilla, tefilla that is properly directed and not highjacked by the ego.

We need to divest ourselves from ego to the maximum and direct our prayer to empower our soul, asking to clarify the situation.

Our current goal in question should become completely irrelevant for us during this Tefillah, as our only desire should be to submit our will to One Above and channel our energy for our Soul’s disposal.

If after that we see the obstacles weaken or disappear, we know to add more efforts to achieve our goal and break the opposition.

If however, our soul  was the source of the blockage, we will see clearly that the  endeavor is to be abandoned.

To arrive to this clarity however the Tefillah has to be structured  properly – under no circumstances we should pray for the obstacles to disappear on that first stage -

not even a hint of this desire should be in our Tefillah, or it can lead to  misleading results.

After we had confirmed that our goal is positive from Hashem’s perspective, we can and should use Tefillah to achieve it with all our energy, with both physical and spiritual effort.

This principle is simple enough, however to actually apply it on a daily basis, we need to start seeing the situation in perspective.

We need to learn to stop before we throw all our resources against any opposition we meet,

being that people or circumstances, and check: do we really fight the right party ?

Do we have a hard time because our ego is having major fun here? Do we battle our own soul?

The above might look a bit simplistic since it doesn’t address the subconscious blocks and programs,

this topic however is for another post.

The truth is, Tisha B’Av is the lowest day in the Jewish calendar, however precisely because of its gloomy nature it is the most suitable day to rectify all the falls that happened on that day, in this time of the year.  Any day when Hashem allows and helps us to get closer to him is a very good day, so why not celebrate Tisha B’Av?

It is a mistake to “suffer through” the day and think that we did what is required of us on Tisha B’Av.

The power of Tisha B’Av is exactly in the fact that it’s so low and deep.

Using the Springboard Dynamic, we can propel ourselves into astonishing ascent, towards  Tu B’Av, through the great opportunities of Elul, into the holiness of Tishrei and beyond!

To accomplish this jump we have to identify the reasons for the Destruction of our Holy Temple and our low spiritual state – reasons that are most relevant to us and rectify those flaws with Tefillah to the best of our ability.

Looking at the events that created and shaped the Tisha B’Av

(Incident with ten spies who caused the entire generation to die in the desert instead of inheriting Eretz Israel, Destruction of the First and the Second Beit HaMikdash)

- we see lack of Emunah ( belief  that absolutely everything is from Hashem),  idol worship, licentiousness, murder, and baseless hatred to another Jew.

None of those issues was completely rectified and they still remain and are  up to us to fix.

The grief over the destruction is only the first step. Grief and anguish over the loss of our intimacy with Hashem needs to be transformed into the constructive effort of Tikun – to fix the relationship between us and other Jews, relationship between us and Hashem, rectify what was broken on Tisha B’Av!

Article by Rav Yitzchak Schwartz provides great tools for this re-channeling.

May we be successful in doing our part and may Hashem bring our Redemption with joy and light, speedily, in our days,

Amen

1. The essence and power of grieving over the loss of the Holy Temple

We are less than 2 days away from  Tisha B’av—the day of the destruction of both Temples

YEARNING FOR THE BEIT HAMIKDASH [meditations and prayers]

2. The Return Home

3. The Unifying Principle

Tefillah at the Kotel

Tefillah is extremely potent spiritual tool, however like every tool it needs proper tuning and usage skills – that’s what we’ll try to cover in this posting.

There is a tremendous amount of literature dealing with the topics of prayer and meditation, however there is a lot of ambiguity in the meaning people give to those terms.

Here is the Wiki definitions:

“Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional connection to some greater power in the universe through deliberate practice”

“Meditation is a holistic discipline by which the practitioner attempts to get beyond the reflexive, “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness”

Those definitions might be culturally accurate but they give little insight into the principles of how Tefillah and Meditation work.

The working definitions that help us would be:

“Prayer is an active act of changing the reality through changing yourself”

This definition is the resolution of the Paradox of the Prayer.

The paradox is frequently presented as this argument:

“If G-d knows what’s good for me, he will give it to me anyway as loving Father would – why would I need to pray? On the other hand, if something is not good for me, he won’t give it to me anyway even if I ask for it, so why pray?”

This simplistic approach doesn’t take into account that our life is a reflection of who we are on all levels of our soul and our body; our experience is a mirror of our entire self, which is the sum of all levels of our consciousness.

Since Hashem reflects to us exactly who we are, the way to change our reality is to change ourselves. The Change takes energy – the deeper is the level of the change, the more energy it takes.

Tefillah, prayer, is the primary tool for any change, spiritual and physical.

In order to use Tefillah, we need to focus and channel energy along the pathway of our desire, desire to change ourselves.

So our desires define the channels along which the energy of the Tefillah is directed and flow, the more refined and holy are the desires, the deeper and more elevated will be the change.

Ideally, during Tefillah our Higher Self, our soul takes over and gives us the direction to pray.

This is the meaning of short verse from Tehillim (51:17) we say before the Amidah prayer:

“Hashem, open my lips that my mouth may declare your praise”.

Our Lower Self (body/nefesh) supplies the energy for the Tefillah, our Higher Self gives us the desire/direction, and the process works in the unison towards the same goal of elevating the world, changing all of “me” and all of reality.

In a wider sense we can view “me” as the handle to the reality. Since everything is connected, our self is an integral part of the entire creation and the entry point into all levels of existence.

This is another perspective why changing the “self” is the only way to change the reality:

We can’t open a door by banging our head against the wall (unfortunately that’s how most people are trying to change the reality), we have to find the door (realize there is a proper way of changing the reality – Tefillah), grasp/turn the handle (learn to use Tefillah dynamics), open the door and come through.

The energy for Tefillah sometimes might come from above as well – particularly on Moadim and Hagim – Jewish holidays, so we can use the tremendous wave of holiness descending on those days to power up our Tefillah. Every special time (Moed) has it’s own energy flavor and helps to rectify/change the respective area of our soul (Pesach supplies energy of freedom, Shavuot is great for “upgrading” to higher level of consciousness, Succot allows us to achieve the state of joy, etc. )

Speaking about receiving energy from above, brings us to the second part of the whole -

Meditation and the role it plays. Without getting into the definitions and semantics of what word “meditation” means to different people, we’ll say that meditation is conducive to entering into the state of internal balance, the state of being connected to the subconscious part of mind, state of being nullified and open to receive from above.

If Tefillah can be very forceful, pushing and channeling energy with one’s will,

This state of meditation is completely opposite – it doesn’t allow any tension or forcefulness, it’s completely let go, opened and relaxed, like a flower under the sun,  all one’s body, mind and soul tuned in to receive.

It is said in Gemora that Chassidim Rishonim (Early Saints) would spend three hours each prayer service:

An hour for Pre-Tefillah meditation, an hour for the Tefillah itself, and an hour for after-Tefillah meditation. If we view meditation as the “recharge” operation and Tefillah as the energy-spending act, it is very probable that Chassidim Rishonim would accumulate energy before the Tefillah and restore it afterwards.

Hence Tefillah and Meditation have been two inseparable practices in Jewish tradition from the ancient times; those two are as breathing in and breathing out, being two sides of the same coin. Tefillah is working according to the male principle (in Kabbalistic definition), actively changing reality, Meditation according to female, passively receiving energy (to beused for the active stage). When one’s Tefillah/Meditaton is structured according to this male/female dynamic, the result is harmonious spiritual growth.

One of the reasons for the tremendous power of Tehillim (Psalms), is that they seamlessly combine both modes. They draw the energy from the spiritual realm and this energy is channeled towards the target of reading the Tehillim (being another person or situation).

Most people however have emphasis over one or another mode, frequently not even realizing the second mode even exists. So the neglected mode is happening subconsciously somewhere on the background, which greatly slows down one’s spiritual growth.

One has to be aware of this male/female dynamic to feel when is the right time for which stage. The high-energy stage is asking for the male Tefillah mode and energy-depleted or mellower state is conducive to the female Meditation mode.