Spirituality & Faith / 21 May 2020
Why I’m Struggling Without In-Person Synagogue Services
Can we ever return to how things were?
Art & Culture / 19 May 2020
Graduate Together 2020 Showed A Future Defined By A New Generation
Only the future can shape the future.
Another Way Of Looking At Things / 18 May 2020
The COVID Pandemic Lesson We Should All Remember
What will we remember when this is all over?
Grief & Coping / 14 May 2020
How Wild Writing Heals In A Pandemic
How “Wild Writing” is helping me process my feelings during the pandemic.
The devil is in the details. We’ve all heard it said so often. Less frequently heard, the original formulation was that God is in the details. Both are true! How? Why is it details can be sources of sacred insight and wisdom, yet also sources of hellish frustration? How can even the same details be absurd picayune minutiae sometimes, and fascinating particulars at other times? According to some wisdom traditions, details are the very things which we are meant to rise above. And yet, according to others, they are the very things......
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News & Politics, Videos, Wisdom Warehouse |
January 21, 2014
Video: On the Sacredness of the Superbowl
From Odyssey Network’s Faith on the Record series: “We now know that the Denver Broncos will meet the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII. According to a recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, nearly half of Americans polled see some supernatural forces affecting the outcome of sports events. So does God pick a winner?? Who knows, says Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, but there are elements of the sacred in and around the Super Bowl.” Odyssey Networks tells the stories of faith in action changing the world for the better. Their stories......
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News & Politics, Wisdom Warehouse |
January 21, 2014
What’s Good for the Duck Is Good for the Gander
The season five premiere of Duck Dynasty aired this past week and posted its first season-to-season drop in ratings: among adults 18-49, the show was down 33%. The two back-to-back episodes marked the first appearance of the Robertson family since Phil the patriarch’s less than politically correct, unfiltered, unconsciously hateful comments about gay men and blacks in GQ.? While still huge numbers for cable, the drop is “newsworthy”. But I’m interested in the visceral reaction to this negative statistic.? Are you happy? Indifferent? Perplexed? Here are a number of possibilities explaining the......
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Can “true religion” be a basis for hatred or division among people? Based on the historical record, it seems clear that the answer is, yes. Of course, that answer puts me at odds with many people, including the Prime Minister of India, who insist that “true religion” is always warm, peaceful and loving. It’s not. Or, if you prefer, the whole notion of “true religion” is a poor way to address the issues which seem to concern the PM. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked people this week to battle religious fanaticism. About......
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Relationships & Family, Wisdom Warehouse |
January 16, 2014
‘Friday Night Tykes’: How Much Should We Push Our Children?
When the NFL says a broadcast about football is difficult to watch because it is too violent, you know there is a problem. This is what the league said about Esquire Network’s Friday Night Tykes, a reality series following several teams of 8-and 9-year-olds in the Texas Youth Football Association.? The trailer shows ranting coaches and obsessive parents, who are essentially fast-tracking kids to head trauma. I kept thinking: I guess in Texas, as long as you pray, you can play to kill. This network’s portrayal of young boys engaged in grueling......
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We need outliers, and we need their ideas. We need the involvement in our lives, especially in the big projects on which we work, of those who see the world differently and think about things in ways which will surprise, if not discomfort us. For those who will quickly say that they already embrace diversity and discomfort, let them appreciate that those are their comfort zones, and they need the input of others, others who privilege uniformity and comfort. Whatever our default position is, be it political, social, spiritual or psychological, we......
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Governor Christie has committed trafficide. As fast as he rocketed to presidential hopeful, he has fallen to being “compared” to Tony Soprano. All I know is what I have read in the papers. Two of Christie’s aides have been fired for shutting down lanes of the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey and New York and is the busiest bridge in the world. For four days, thousands of commuters were terribly delayed in order to create a shutdown of the roads leading to the bridge in the town of Fort Lee?-......
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Business & Education, Wisdom Warehouse |
January 13, 2014
Hackschooling: No More Teachers, No More Books?
In the 21st century, the notion of hacking involves much more than some computer aficionados spreading viruses and breaking into official websites. Hacking is a mindset, a way of thinking. It’s really something anyone can do by challenging traditional systems. Teenager Logan Laplante isn’t home schooled, private schooled or public schooled – he is hackschooled! His education revolves around the study and practice of being happy and growing up healthy and nurturing creativity, things which Logan and his parents believe are outside the focus of traditional education. Here’s a kid who doesn’t......
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Regret can be good. At the very least, regret is a part of every life, and something that each of us will deal with at some time or another. Who among us does not look back at decisions we have made, paths we have taken, and not had the feeling that we wish we had made some other choice? I sure have. It’s part of being being human. So is how we deal with it. While we probably all have some regrets, they need not make us as miserable as they often......
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Political struggles over pregnancy, the right to terminate it, when life begins, and who gets to make those decisions, are nothing new.? A case unfolding in Texas however, brings those struggles to a new level, one which invites us to ask important questions about the politics of pregnancy, and the value of planning for as good a death as possible. Marlise Munoz was 33 years old when she died on November 26th.? She had been placed on a ventilator in the course of the emergency response to a probable blood clot in......
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Latest Video
Listen To The Names Of The Victims First
A video where Brad Hirschfield lists the victims names in the recent Orlando shooting. Because first we need to internalize a tragedy before we jump to speak.
