Holiday
Resources

In “Purim: The Role of a Lifetime,” Holiday Fellow Avidan Halivni presents a short story which explores the connection between Purim and performativity, using sources ranging from Judith Butler to Hasidic stories.

Tu B'Shvat 5785

In Eating Redeemed: a Tu B'Shvat Seder Companion, Holiday Fellow, Avidan Halivni translates a teaching from R. Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin for those seeking a textual exploration that connects the Tu B’Shvat Seder to a redemptive eating practice. This text is paired with a visual representation by Eva Sturm-Gross of the spiritual ascent through the Four Worlds of Kabbalah.

Hanukkah 5785

Avidan Halivni explores the ethical implications of how Hanukkah teaches us to treat the Other. By putting a Baal Shem Tov teaching in conversation with the thought of 20th century philosopher Emmanual Levinas, he argues that “to welcome the guest.. is to create an encounter with the Divine Light that the guest embodies.” And it is that Divine Light in the Other, Halivni teaches, that the Hanukkah candles represent.

Read Here

sukkot 5785

Avidan Halivni, Holiday Fellow

Starting at the end of Sukkot, we traditionally add a prayer for rain, geshem, to the Amidah. In this short essay, Avidan Halivni explores the connection between geshem (rain) and gashmius (materiality).

Primary Sources

MShem MiShmuel, Shmini Atzeret 5677 (1912)
Tzemach Hashem LeTzvi, Ekev 2
R. Gershon Henoch of Radzin, Sod Yesharim 25:1, Shemini Atzeret

Read Here

rosh hashanah
& yom kippur

5785

Avidan Halivni in his first release as Gashmius Magazine's Holiday Fellow, offers us a beautiful short story to mark the transition into the high holiday season.

Source from:

R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Avidan Halivni

Read Here

Haggadah Companion

pesach 5784

A selection of sources – classical and contemporary, from a wide variety of Hasidic and other Jewish traditions –to enrich your traditional haggadah and stimulate deeper reflections around the values of Passover in the modern world.

Haggadah Companion