Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Hold Dualities Together, Longform, Spirituality & Faith, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
January 20, 2022
Like a Hibernating Frog…
Waiting for the thaw...
Continue Reading
Another Way Of Looking At Things, Breaking False Dichotomies, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Soul Writings, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
January 14, 2022
When Faith Preempts Facts
Our Torah is filled with stories of remarkable courage, leaps of faith, and ventures into the unknown. From Abraham leaving his homeland at God’s behest to his near-sacrifice of his son, we learn from our very first patriarch the ways that faith – often of the “blind” variety – is central to our collective story. But for all the dramatic leaps taken by our ancestors in scripture, one of them stands out among the rest. One of them, in fact, that isn’t even explicitly mentioned in Torah! After a treacherous race out......
Continue Reading
Another Way Of Looking At Things, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
January 07, 2022
The Plague of Uncertainty
Throughout Moses’ showdown with Pharaoh, there is one overarching, emotional plague that God wreaks upon the Egyptians: uncertainty. They do not know when the litany of discomforts, outrages, upsets, frustrations, pains, and fears will end. We gain insight into the Egyptian mindset just after Moses pronounces that God will bring locusts to eat whatever remains of the crops after the hail. Moses departs Pharaoh’s court and then we read (Exodus 10:7): “Pharaoh’s courtiers said to him, ‘How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let the people go to worship......
Continue Reading
Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
December 22, 2021
Here We Go Again?
I breathe slowly to calm my mind, I am breathing the air of March 2020. The doors feel like they’re closing once more....
Continue Reading
Another Way Of Looking At Things, Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Relationships & Family, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
December 15, 2021
Everything I need to know about dying with dignity I learned from a houseplant
Life lessons from a dying plant...
Continue Reading
The other night, my wife and I were watching TV when a Christmas ad came up, telling people about “holiday specials.” “But our holiday is over!” I somewhat snarkily said. Christmas simply dominates the American landscape, and I still can’t decide if I prefer whether someone accidentally wishes me “Merry Christmas” (implying it’s something I celebrate) or “Happy Holidays” (which is both bland and eliminates Christians’ religious connection to the holiday, even as the color schemes are all red and green). Even if you’re deeply secure in your Jewish identity, Christmastime reminds......
Continue Reading
Hold Dualities Together, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
December 03, 2021
Have We Stopped Dreaming?
In times of prolonged pain, be it emotional or physical, our world constricts and perspectives contract. We focus on the moment-to-moment or the day-to-day. Right now, this describes many of us. The waves of pandemic (and waves of variants) evoke waves of trauma that we have yet to process. We have long since put aside aspirations of self-actualization and seek merely to preserve aspects of ourselves from two years ago. Uncertainty of the future is itself a source of pain, and we have stopped dreaming about what it might hold – or......
Continue Reading
Book Club, Historic Profiles, Interviews With Wise People Of Today, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
November 23, 2021
Inviting Kids To Make History By Reading About Hanukkah: A conversation with Emily Singer, author of Gilgul
Emily Singer is the author of a new book — one receiving good attention in many quarters, including a warm review in a recent edition of the Jerusalem Post. The book is called Gilgul, and while it’s intended for middle-school-age readers, and would make a great Hanukkah gift for same, it carries a message we could all use — one combining great pride in ethnic/national/religious identity and genuinely embracing the idea that each particularity must connect with something larger than itself. I had the opportunity to “sit down” with Emily, despite the......
Continue Reading
The Covenant between God and Noah, as a representative of humanity, is often seen as a beacon of hope and a universal connection between the Divine and human beings. After the great flood, which destroyed most life, God rebuilds with the promise never to destroy the earth through a great flood again. Genesis 9:13-15, God solemnizes the promise: I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears......
Continue Reading
Breaking False Dichotomies, Compassion and Empathy, Grief & Coping, Longform, Longform, News & Politics, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized |
September 13, 2021
When Grief Turns to Rage – Shabbat Shuvah and 9/11
Leadership also involves compassion for others...
Continue Reading