Awakening with Rabbi Ami Silver

Pesach Seder Prep

Hallel-Nirtzah: The Night That Shines Like Day

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder Prep

Barech: Embodying That Which We Hope For

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder Prep

Tzafun: Tasting the Hidden Light

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder Prep

Shulchan Orech: Being Okay

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder prep 

Maror-Korech: The Other Side of Bitterness

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

An overarching kavannah/intention for the Pesach seder - being free, making space for our pain, leaning into our weakness and redeeming it.

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder Prep, Steps 7 and 8

Motzi-Matza: Receiving Life Through and Beyond Constraints

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder Prep #6

Rachta - Cleansing Ourselves from Limiting Beliefs

We've told our story. Now we have a chance to bathe in the faith that our redemption is real.

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder prep 

Here we pick up the whole matzah for all to see and break it into two. This sets into motion the redemptive process that grows specifically from brokenness, and develops into the greater, hidden light that is nurtured through the lived experience of each and every one of us.

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Pesach Seder Prep

Karpas is the true beginning of the Seder experience, when we encounter the paradox of this night - the newness and pain, rebirth and suffering, growing and drowning. Here we begin to feel the expansive space that holds the totality of this moment, and becomes the ground from which we can hope to be redeemed.

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Spiritual guidance and preparation for the Passover seder. Finding Seder/"order" amidst chaos, creating holiness in the here and now.

The Sages teach that the salvation of Purim has something to do with Moshe being born and dying in the month of Adar. They also teach that Purim is the day of true acceptance of Torah, when the event of Mount Sinai was ultimately fulfilled. In this very personal rendering, R' Ami explores the themes of birth and death, of traumatic separation and loss of self, and the possibility of a Torah that emerges when a self is expressed on the other side of that trauma. 

Our liturgy speaks a lot about God as King or Melech, and even more intensively during the High Holidays. What is a Melech? How might we relate to this encounter with God when we have never stood before a King? Based on a Kabbalistic teaching on the meaning of the word Melech, this is an exploration of a way to come into contact with the visceral sense of a Melech within our own experience of being alive.

In honor of Lag Ba'omer, thoughts on making space for beauty to emerge, for secrets to be noticed and heard, and for love to be sought after.

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d66bYRaVxAy2lnWPS_zYiyOIpooL17RkHjPEdFGr9Lc/edit

*****

Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.

Audio is by David Kwan.

Many of us throughout the world are staying home these days due to quarantine and general guidelines around Coronavirus. Here Ami shares some thoughts and teachings about making a spiritual home, turning our house into a place of prayer, and our shared world into a house for God.

Episode 39

In this session we continue our exploration of the postures of prayer with the Maharal and a stunning piece from the Zohar, describing how we fall before God, and are lifted by none other than God.

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cOyQS0h0uwS_g3y_9DbSaJd8EHLOTHd_xZesUuxNgic/edit?usp=sharing

Episode 36 

“Tefillah is a space for me to not exist in a splintered reality… a place to unify my reality.. in Rebbe Nachman’s words, ‘to make the entire tefillah one’”. In this episode of Awakening, we explore approaching Tefillah as a way of coming into contact with our source of life, through savoring and attaching ourselves to the experience. Join Rav Ami as he guides us through teachings from Rav Kook and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. 

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kt15BhAm3waWRn8VrB8eWiSvaKCIBxZOsf37kJg4Lwg/edit?usp=sharing 

***** Please support Rabbi Ami and this podcast by contributing here, designating “Awakening”: https://www.paypal.me/shefapodcastnetwork 

This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. 

Music is by Rav Daniel Kohn. Help support him by purchasing his music. 

Audio is by David Kwan.

Episode 30 

Prayer is the centerpiece of our daily spiritual practice, and as we’ve been exploring in the previous sessions, it’s at the heart of what it means to be human. But is it a mitzvah? Is prayer actually a command, or is it something else? Rabbi Ami contemplates the nature of prayer and the relationship between human instinct, creative purpose, and religious obligation. 

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s_K3yKIMDMlTvgGNEnLu11rJarzusabGrYHJGt81znA/edit?usp=sharing 

***** This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute. 

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page. 

Audio is by David Kwan.

Episode 28  

On this episode of Awakening, Rabbi Ami explores prayer as part of our basic identity as human beings. The Jewish tradition teaches that we are born from the prayer of the universe. This is not merely a spiritual or mythic message - it carries a key to understanding our place in the evolutionary process, and guiding us in how we may take part in our purpose as part of this grand ecosystem.  

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CCtdqR4bhdO3wMs1MbUuacRAlhRRk5wZ0of6dzW71Fs/edit?usp=drivesdk  

*****  This podcast is supported in part from a grant from the Hadar Institute.  

Music is by Rabbi Daniel Kohn. To purchase, go to his cdbaby page.  

Audio is by David Kwan.

027

We often translate Tefillah as “prayer”, but what is the meaning of this word in its original form? This class explores a number of uses of this word throughout the Torah, and the way that its meaning is refracted through those stories and their interpretations. Once we can uncover some of the meanings of this word, we can begin to ask - how do we engage in Tefillah? Sources: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11JpDQ3vcNUWYaWw-Gl-pW9lo8ZXiLeoUdNhMqKnBMvU