Tag Archives: New Year

The Spiritual Significance of 2025

What is the significance of the alignment of the last night of Chanukah with the first day of 2025? What does it have to do with the upcoming Chinese Year of the Snake? And how is it all connected to the new month of Tevet and the current Daf Yomi tractate Sanhedrin? Also: Why was the Zohar revealed to the world in the year 1290? Which verses in Tanakh prophetically allude to the year 2025? What is the significance of the letters on the dreidel? And what happened when Alexander the Great presided over a lawsuit against the Jews?

See also ‘The Dragon, the Snake & the Messiah’ and ‘Chinese Zodiac in Judaism’.

The Puzzle of Rosh Hashanah

How do we know that Rosh Hashanah is really the new year for the world? And how do we know it is a judgement day if the Torah seemingly doesn’t say so? Find out in this class! Also discussed is the geographical location of the Garden of Eden, the identity of the Forbidden Fruit, the nature of Satan, and how the current generation is a return of the generation of the Exodus, as well as the connections between ancient Egypt and the modern world.

Origins and Secrets of the Tu B’Shevat Seder

This Wednesday evening we mark Tu b’Shevat, the “New Year for Trees”. While originally an obscure and mostly-unobserved holiday, Tu b’Shevat took on greater significance among the Kabbalists of the 16th and 17th centuries. As is well-known, an entire Tu b’Shevat “seder” emerged, complete with four cups of wine and a Haggadah of sorts. What is not so well-known is where this Tu b’Shevat seder actually came from, and the mystical foundations upon which it stands. Continue reading →