Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:
 15th of Shevat 

• Why do we celebrate the New Year for Trees? 
• Why don’t we celebrate it on the third day of creation, when trees and vegetation were created?  
• How do trees celebrate their new year? 
• What is the basis of Shammai and Hillel’s different opinions of when we celebrate the new year for trees? 
• Can it serve as an analogy for stages in the revelation of Moshiach? 
• Was this day celebrated in Biblical times? 
• What is a 15th of Shevat Seder and how do we conduct one? 
• What are some lessons we learn from trees? 

• Is there a source that Shevat is the acronym of sheyihi besuros tovos? 
• Why is Shevat considered a month of good news when sad events took place in it, such as the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka? 

• What lessons do we learn from living with the times, with this week’s Torah parsha? 
• How do the three major events in the book Shemos – Exodus, Matan Torah, building the mishkan – reflect three key stages in our personal, collective and cosmic journey? 
• Why is Matan Torah in Parshas Yisro?
• How would you describe G-d? 
• Is G-d aware of His own existence? 
• Why did the giving of the Torah begin with the Ten Commandments? 
• How did Matan Torah change the world? 
• Why were they not allowed to approach Mt. Sinai, but today anyone can climb that mountain? 
• Why are the Jewish people called a “kingdom of priests”? 
• Is Mitzrayim compared to the meitzar ha’goron, the narrow neck?   

• Why was there a need for the parting of the sea, when their path to Israel did not require going through the Red Sea? 
• Was the parting of the sea an actual event or a metaphor? 
• What is the significance of the people singing the song of the sea after it was parted? 
• What is the power of song? 

Shevat Yisro Beshalach What lessons do we learn from the car ramming into 770 on the night of Yud Shevat? 
 
How do I know if I am doing the right thing in launching a new training program based on Chassidus?