This Week In Wisdom, Wisdom For Builders / 16 Mar 2023
The Adjacent Possible
Life has to be lived forward but can only be understood backward
Uncategorized, Wisdom For Builders / 16 Mar 2023
Ready… Set… Set…
It took G-d a mere week to create the world, but how often do we describe the eternity of preparation that must have preceded this watershed moment? Before G-d turned the light switch on, the infinite possibilities of what could be resided in an amaranthine packet of latent potential. None of it existed until G-d took that brave leap allowing the implicit to coalesce into the explicit. Hebrew has the same root for the word Universe (Olam) and Unknown (Alum). The margin between the abyss and genesis is both infinite and imperceptible. Perhaps this is also true, albeit in far more humble dimensions, for humans engaged in sacred work. Last year I finally launched The Amen Institute – an organization that brings art and Torah into conversation with one another. We have 4 programs that engage thousands of Jews around the world to achieve this in our: Rabbinic-Artist Fellowship High School Mentorship Program Weekly Art Circle Gatherings Educational Music Resources After spending a year and a half having conversations with artists and strategizing our approach, I witnessed my countless all-nighters materialize into an international center of Jewish culture. It felt like an eternity had preceded this landmark moment as I fine-tuned my vision and methodically made my pitch to prospective stakeholders – inviting artists, rabbis, teachers, synagogues, and funders to dream with me. We anticipated an explosive inventiveness that would result when Torah scholars are pushed to see new perspectives on the texts with which they were so familiar when the probing mind of a creative soul could animate their imaginations through the medium of art. Excitement is an infectious creature. As our tent widened and more keen individuals were introduced to our world, their enthusiasm egged me on and inspired me to think even more expansively. The possibilities kept…
Spirituality & Faith / 14 Mar 2023
Sisterhood Goals in the Torah
Here’s to an enlightening Women’s History Month for us all!
Spirituality & Faith / 06 Mar 2023
Purim Lament
May we see a real transformation from mourning to the fulfillment of the Megilla’s blessing of light, joy, happiness, and honor.
Book Club / 03 Mar 2023
Interview With Poet Jared Singer
A conversation with the 36-year-old New Jersey-based poet and sound engineer about publishing his first book, writing for the stage and the page, tattoos, touring and performing, putting on tefillin, learning Hebrew, and losing weight
Check out what I picked for this week’s top inspiring video:? Much work has been done in recent years on the science of happiness and one recurring finding is that expressing gratitude significantly increases our happiness.? Interestingly, the more specific we are about what we are grateful for the greater the increase in our happiness. Try doing this practice this week. 1.?? ?Think about who in your life has been really influential.? Who has had the greatest impact? Who did something really amazing or important for you? 2.?? ?Write down as much......
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Inspired by this article, “Thanksgivukkah: This November 28th, Celebrate Abundance and Possibility” and courtesy of Odyssey Network’s Faith on the Record series: This week, America sees the convergence of Thanksgiving and the beginning of Hanukkah, a rare quirk of calendar synchronicity that hasn’t happened in over a hundred years and won’t happen again for thousands more.? At first glance, these two celebrations don’t seem to have much in common, but look deeper at the stories of the Pilgrims and the Maccabees, says Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, “Each is a celebration of possibility and......
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Fr. Claude Burns is a Catholic priest who raps under the name Fr. Pontifex, and just released a new album – The Symphony and The Static.? I actually love the idea of religious leaders bending their sense of calling and expanding their appreciation of where it can take them, and for that I give the good Father props.? But his concerns about the absence of God in people’s lives, and his claim to have the answer, actually reflect anything but a fresh and healthy take on faith and the human search for......
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This powerful poem by Marge Piercy invites us to ask the key question to a meaningful life.? I recently re-read this poem and reflected on what the world needs from us. To Be of Use ? The people I love the best jump into work headfirst without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half submerged balls. I love people, who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy......
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Inspiring People, Videos, Wisdom Warehouse |
November 23, 2013
Video: Reflections on JFK and Flawed Heroes
From Odyssey Network’s Faith on the Record series: “On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield reflects on the concept of the “flawed hero” in the Bible and how the extreme scrutiny of politicians in America today makes no allowance for flaws.??? Rabbi Hirschfield asks if we can embrace the flawed heroes around us and strive to be heroic ourselves, in spite our our own flaws.” Odyssey Networks tells the stories of faith in action changing the world for the better.? Their stories explore a......
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If you’re reading this then you are probably like me: among the economic top 2% in the world. We enjoy more security, food, shelter, clothing, physical safety, health care, education. We also enjoy more luxuries; meals in restaurants, 500 channels of TV, vacations, leisure time.? And we do so more than any human beings in history for whom scarcity was the rule. It turns out however, that the ethical and psychological challenges of abundance are quite different than scarcity. Two psychologists from Berkeley, Dacher Keltner and Paul Piff have shown that higher......
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Being tempted by people, things or behaviors which may not be so good for us is part of being human.? I even think that succumbing to those temptations is part of being human, and not necessarily in a bad way, either?- at least not always.? But clearly, there are plenty of times when we want to resist, when we need to resist, or when we regret not resisting.? What helps in those moments? How do you deal with being tempted by something that you would otherwise not want to do or be......
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We are coming into the holiday season and something is badly out of whack in America – beyond our ongoing economic and political crises.? Take Hawaii State Representative Tom Bowers who, sledgehammer in hand, walks his district’s streets and parks looking for shopping carts used by homeless people, which, he then smashes to bits.? Bowers is “disgusted” by homeless people and is so proud of his tough guy approach that he allows himself to be filmed engaged in his grassroots effort to rid his district of the homeless. When asked if he......
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A recent study about people with relatively new significant others has come to the conclusion that being in love essentially makes you stupid – or, rather, less capable of distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information. We’ve all had romances, relationships or other emotional issues distract us from the task at hand. Is that type of preoccupation the equivalent of becoming dumber? Or could it be us getting smarter and re-focusing on our true priorities? According to one researcher, the results of the study prove that if you’re in a relatively new relationship, you’re......
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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.
