Passover | David Solomon

The mystical interpretation of the festival of Passover (Pesach) is the focus of David’s latest podcast episode, a concentrated Kabbalah lecture delivered this week during chol hamoed Pesach.

Kabbalistically, Pesach marks the birth of a nation, following its liberation from slavery. But it also represents the beginnings of the creative project of the people of Israel, tasked with placing transcendent divine consciousness into a pre-existing world.

David explains the mystical manifestation of Pesach as the concept of da’at, a term best translated in this context as ‘conscious awareness.’ It is one of a number of advanced kabbalistic ideas and descriptions contained in this talk.

Drawing on ideas and insights from Rabbi Isaac Luria, David maps out the mystical relationships between past, present, and future and how this relates to the eternal connection between the Jewish people and the Divine.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:49 — 36.1MB)

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Every year Jewish people come together in homes around the world to share in the mitzvah of the Passover seder. But what are the essential elements of the seder? What do people need to know in order to fulfil this mitzvah? In this podcast episode, David Solomon discusses the key things people need to understand about the Passover seder, including what they are commanded to do in relation to the festival of Passover, in general, and the seder specifically. David also provides background to the Haggadah (the telling of the Passover story) and the requirements for performing this commandment.

This lecture was recorded at Ealing Synagogue in 2009.

Image: ‘Passover’ by Arthur Szyk 1948. Image supplied by Centre for Jewish History (for reuse rights see https://www.cjh.org/about/copyright-information)

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