Spirituality & Faith / 24 Jan 2023
Tu B’Shevat Reflections: Grow Like a Tree
Lessons learned from the trees
Spirituality & Faith / 19 Jan 2023
Benjamin Franklin’s Contribution To Jewish Practice
The American founding father, who was born on January 17, 1706, has had a lasting impact on Judaism.
Mundane Into Sacred, This Week In Wisdom, Weekly Parsha / 18 Jan 2023
Being a Chief Listener
In my first job out of rabbinical school, I served as an assistant rabbi of a congregation of over 1000 families. As many new rabbis experience, I felt I should know everything and was embarrassed that I didn’t. On bigger points about the direction of synagogue programs, I guessed. I tried to create new things and make changes, but it didn’t feel like enough people heard or were inspired by my vision. This week’s Torah portion contains a story embedded in most Jews’ memories from years of Passover seders: the 10 plagues. Less memorable, perhaps, is the dramatic, if concise, first attempt to free the Israelites by starting a revolution directly among them. God tells Moses to tell the Israelites that God will redeem them from slavery, the implication being that they should get ready. However, the Israelites couldn’t hear this; they “would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage” (Exodus 6:9). God tells Moses to change tack: if talking directly to the Israelites won’t accomplish the change, then Moses will have to demand it of Pharoah instead. Here, Moses’ reaction is fascinating. That first attempt at leadership, to make change by going to the people, seems to have shattered his confidence. They wouldn’t listen, and he attributes it to his own failings. He tells God, “The Israelites would not listen to me; how then should Pharaoh heed me, a man of impeded speech!” (Exodus 6:12). The actual Hebrew words meaning “impeded speech” are a bit unclear, and Midrash Rabbah understands this to mean that Moses has a lisp, creating a back story from Moses’ childhood in the Pharoah’s palace. However, Rashi’s commentary on the verse interprets the wording to mean “blocked,” as in Moses’ speech doesn’t seem to arouse people to action. As a result, Moses…
Inspiring People / 17 Jan 2023
From Radical Amazement To Fierce Urgency: Rabbi Heschel And Dr. King
We stand in a moment of transformation of the soul and the world.
Hold Dualities Together, Inspiring People, Inspiring Story, Spirituality & Faith, This Week In Wisdom / 11 Jan 2023
Real-Time Reporting From the Stand and See Fellowship in Israel
A picture is worth 1,000 words
What would you do if forty days before your daughter’s wedding it gets called off?? In your disappointment, would you stew in sadness, would you cancel everything, try to get your money back? You don’t if you’re William and Carol Fowler. When their daughter Tamara’s wedding was canceled, the Fowlers called Hosea Feed the Hungry, a nonprofit organization that provides homeless individuals with services and resources, and invited 200 homeless people to what they called “The Fowler Celebration of Love.” William said he “prayed on it during the night and God had......
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This face could change our world and shape history.? Whether that happens or not, depends not only on him, but on you, and what you see when you see his face.? In part, what you see depends on whether or not you know to whom the face belongs, or if you simply see some religious guy – probably Muslim, or is that a Sikh turban?? But it’s actually bigger than that. What do any of us see when we see anyone or anything unfamiliar to us, “whatever religion ‘that guy’ follows”?? That’s......
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Relationships & Family, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 30, 2013
What the Looming Government Shutdown Can Teach Us About Relationships
The Federal government is poised to shut down in hours, but there is at least one bright side to this most recent round of ugly political theater:? it reminds us that playing the blame game is no way to sustain healthy relationships, or really succeed at getting anything of lasting significance accomplished. Elected officials are spending vastly more time and energy assigning blame for the impeding hardships which will result if the government shuts down, than they do trying to avoid the shutdown and avert the suffering.? Find that offensive?? Me too!......
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Spirituality & Faith, Videos, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 26, 2013
Video: Brad Hirschfield on Nairobi, Peshawar, and the Simchat Torah
From Odyssey Network’s Faith on the Record series: “This week saw two horrific acts of violence – a suicide bombing of a Christian church in Peshawar, Pakistan and the siege at an upscale mall Nairobi, Kenya – which left hundreds of people dead and injured.? Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, President of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, reflects on these events through the lens of Simchat Torah, the Jewish celebration of the end of the annual reading of the Torah and the beginning of a new cycle of reading the......
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Business & Education, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 26, 2013
3D Character Printing: Building Better People
Imagine a gathering of over ?”400 innovators, troublemakers, entrepreneurs inventors and transformation artists” where for a couple of days, thirty-two story-tellers from around the world from every field share their wisdom. ?Well this is BIF#9, the BIF Summit in Providence, Rhode Island – and I was as one of the storytellers. ?It was crazy, inspiring, creative, playful, purposeful and safe – a holy secular place at its best! Sitting there listening to amazing innovators (see this installment of Week in Wisdom) and engaging in conversations about identifying better ways to deliver value......
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News & Politics, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 25, 2013
Why Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Grandchildren Give Him Hope
On Monday night I had the honor of being at a dinner at the Plaza Hotel in NYC hosted by The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace billed as a “conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jewish American Leadership.”? About fifty people attended: Palestinian leadership, American political leadership including Martin Indyk, Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Jewish organizational leaders, and American Jewish notables including Professors Alan Dershowitz and Daniel Kahneman, Noble Prize recipient, and Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs. The meeting......
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If you found yourself in a position to make the choice, what would you choose to have for your final meal?? It’s an interesting question for any number of reasons, not only because it gets you thinking about what foods you love most, but about how we think about food, and the deep connections between what’s on our plates and what’s in our hearts. Last Meals, a recent article in Lapham’s Quarterly, got me thinking – yet again – about this question, and pointed me toward an oddly fascinating blog called Dead......
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Does it make sense to blame devastating floods in CO on the fact that State House Majority Leader Mark Ferrandino and his partner were kissing in public, and that the Denver Post covered their kiss?? Pastor Kevin Swanson certainly thinks so, and so did his radio co-host Dave Buehner.? Could they be onto something? Now before anyone starts screaming; let me explain what I mean, and why I think it may be useful to take their question seriously, even if I find their conclusion pretty much repulsive. I start from the premise......
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Which one of these sites would you more likely visit??Science is Awesome or I Fucking Love Science? Now, be honest. Well, It turns out these two sites are identical and are curated by the Canada-based self-made social media celebrity, Elise Andrew who recently was a guest speaker for close to one thousand ticket buyers at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC . According to Facebook, as of today the site Science is Awesome has 533,404 likes and 188,089 talking about this while the less elegantly titled site has 6,920,076 likes......
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When you think about what it means to be spiritual, find spirituality, or anything remotely approximating those experiences, what do you think of? Do you find your attention turning to experiences and images of relative solitude? Of solitary walks on the beach or perhaps, lonely mountain peaks? That is certainly one spiritual type. But not the only one. Perhaps, when you think of being spiritual, you imagine yourself amidst raucous crowds, at home in messy scenes replete with food and wine and loud singing. Do you find that your most spirited moments......
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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.
