Rav Binny Freedman – Patterns in Time

By learning about the Jewish holidays in one shot, you can begin to see a pattern. In this first class, Rav Binny gives an overview of the Jewish year and warms us up for the coming journey which begins with Pesach.

Why and how does Pesach set the stage for all of the year’s festivals? How is the Seder night the quinessential celebration of freedom? What is the purpose of freedom?

Continuing, Rav Binny looks at the mitzvah of mezuzah as it applies to the exodus from Egypt and at the central role of the home in this festival.

Why do we count up, rather than down, during the Omer period? What are the relationships between matza/bread and wheat/barley? How do you appreciate the ‘barley’ days in life?

The Jewish people are lauded for their willingness, sight unseen, to accept the Torah on faith alone. But is faith without understanding necessarily a virtue? Does Judaism value our willingness to abrogate our intellectual obligation to understand that which we do? This discussion explores Judaism’s perspective on the relationship between faith and reason, which lies at the very essence of the festival of Shavuot.

What happened on Rosh Chodesh Elul that makes the whole month of Elul such a powerful time for preparing for the High Holy Days? Rav Binny begins this two-part class with a look into the historical, spiritual, and agricultural nature of Elul, as well as the difference between the solar and lunar calendar, finishing off with an introduction to teshuvah, which will be continued in Part Two.

Here in Part Two, Rav Binny continues exploring the process of teshuvah and illustrates the process par excellence with the story of Yehuda and Tamar. Have a fruitful and meaningful Elul.

It all begins with Rosh Hashana. In this first part of two classes, Rav Binny gets the ball rolling with a very good question: Why do we start our year with The Day of Judgment? Then paradoxically, why is Rosh Hashana called a Festival? And what is it about that shofar?

From the discussion about the shofar, Rav Binny shifts to the issue of carrying the shofar on Shabbat, and how that gives us insights into the relationship between Rosh Hashana and Shabbat.