Ep. 577: What Is the Practical and Personal Significance of Yud Shevat?

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics: Rosh Chodesh Shevat • What is the significance of this month and what should be the main focus of our avodah in this time? 02:36 • What do we learn from the mazal of Shevat – bucket (d’li)? 02:36 • What does the word Shevat mean? 07:20Bo • What lessons do we learn from living with the times, with this week’s Torah parsha? 10:42 • Why does this parsha combine both the end of the exile and the beginning of the redemption? 11:04 • Why does it mean that during the plague of darkness, there was “light among the Jews”? 14:30 • Why did that light not dispel the surrounding darkness? 17:39 • Why did Pharaoh survive the plague of the firstborn? 21:22 • Why did the exodus begin with the mitzvah of HaChodesh Hazeh Lochem, establishing a lunar based calendar, and why was this the first commandment in Torah? 23:03 • What was the significance of offering the Pascal Lamb and what was the process? 27:16How can we benefit today from the fact that the Jews left Egypt with great wealth? 30:44Vaeirah • What is the story behind the maamar of the Alter Rebbe called "Der Frumer Vaeirah”? Follow-up 35:18Yud Shevat/Basi L’Gani • What is the significance of this day in practical and personal terms? 44:28 57:24 • How does Basi L’Gani describe the purpose of our lives (in the first 10 chapters), and the treasures we are given to fulfill this purpose (in the last 10 chapters)? 44:28 57:24 • What is a summary and chiddush of this year’s chapter 16 of Basi L’Gani? 44:28 57:24 • Why are all sevenths beloved, when the number eight represents a higher, transcendent level? 01:00:33