Breaking False Dichotomies, Hold Dualities Together, Inspiring Story, News & Politics, This Week In Wisdom / 15 Aug 2022
A Gnawing Feeling
The FBI was the enemy, and now it is a potential savior.
Soul Hack, Spirituality & Faith, This Week In Wisdom, Weekly Parsha / 12 Aug 2022
From Heartbreak to Hope
Blessings for First Steps.
Daily Life, Grief & Coping, Inspiring Story, Weekly Parsha / 11 Aug 2022
Cross and Not Crossing
The translation that “God was cross with me” seems most thoughtful and sensitive to the resonance between Hebrew and English.
Art & Culture / 08 Aug 2022
The Lamentation of Venice: Hearing Shylock on Tisha B’Av
The antisemitism of Shakespeares’ “Merchant of Venice”.
Hold Dualities Together / 05 Aug 2022
Ukraine, Poland, and Me
Ukraine presents me with an interesting dilemma. I am moved by the tragedy of Russia’s war of aggression and the brutality with which the Russians prosecute it. For them, human suffering is a consideration to the extent that it can persuade their enemy to surrender. The Ukrainians are victims and pawns. But there is more to it than that. When the war began, a group of rabbis in Philadelphia went to the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to attend Vespers on the eve of Lent and show our support for the Ukrainian people. As we approached the entrance of this beautiful space, a colleague quipped, “you know, historically, this didn’t end well for us.” And in fact, Jewish history in Ukraine is one characterized by Anti-Semitism. But our purpose was to show solidarity with those who are suffering. I admittedly have held an anti-Ukraine bias. My personal experiences there soon after the fall of the Soviet Union showed little change in attitudes towards Jews. Furthermore, I was from this place. My namesake fled the persecution for a life in the New World. My great-grandfather, David, worked hard from the moment he arrived here. In America, he had the opportunity to get ahead, feed his family, and keep them safe, at least from the next pogrom. Besides my prejudices, the war was over there, afflicting a bunch of people who weren’t very nice to mine. But the story is yet more complex. I am an American and a Jew, benefiting from the blessings this land has afforded me, not the least of which was the ability to become a rabbi offering spiritual and practical leadership. My rabbinate, serving as a chaplain and teacher, and my commitment to helping others make meaning through human relationships meant that historic grievance was not a valid reason…
Daily Life, Videos, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 02, 2013
Overcoming Pessimism – How Do Things Get Better?
Rabbi Irwin Kula speaks with Rev. Welton Gaddy about how to break out of a pessimistic mindset, and why we are morally obligated to do so. Kula says that “when we get scared and fearful and sad and depressed, take a little perspective – I mean, that’s why we need sabbaths, I don’t mean the Sabbath of a literal Sabbath necessarily of any faith tradition, but a sabbath as a moment of saying, ‘The whole of creation is a hell of a gift, and we’ve been evolving, and as difficult as life......
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Business & Education, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 02, 2013
Attitude Adjustment: Bringing Positivity to the Workplace
What is your attitude towards work? This isn’t a trivial question, as how we approach our work is often the difference between being happy or miserable and always effects how people, be they colleagues or customers, family or friends, perceive us.? It is important that our work challenges us and is productive, that it adds value to the world and that we are remunerated fairly, but our attitude is determinative. Recently I experienced two people doing the exact same job with radically different attitudes. Brad and I were flying from Aspen to......
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Hearing the news of James Gandolfini’s sudden and untimely death unnerved both me and millions of other people who never met the man.? What’s up with that?? Why do we care so much?? The answer, at least for most of us, comes down to two words: Tony Soprano. Mourning a mobster – a man whose life was predicated on intimidation, extortion and murder – may seem odd. Odder still, when the mobster in question is a fictional character. ?But that’s what all those so effected by the actor’s death are doing. Before......
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Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg created an expected firestorm of national debate. As a “sort of feminist manifesto” (her words) about women in the workplace, lamenting the dearth of females in leadership positions and urging women to be more assertive in their professional ambitions, Lean In evoked a range of responses from praise of Sandberg as the new voice of feminism to questioning whether someone whose net worth numbers in the hundreds of millions and who Forbes ranks the tenth most powerful woman......
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“It’s 11 o’clock. Do you know where your children are?” It sounds quaint by today standards; my 21-year-old came home at 4:15 the other… morning. But the question of who is responsible for our children remains a serious one, hinted at in the recent controversy over an ad in which MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry argues the U.S. should invest more in public education. America doesn’t invest enough in public education because “we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children,” she says. Harris-Perry laments insufficient appreciation for child-rearing’s communal nature, saying......
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Spirituality & Faith, Wisdom Warehouse |
September 01, 2013
Thinking About ‘God the Father’ on Father’s Day
The notion of God the father (or God as father) can be found in many traditions. Central to many Christian theologies, and often present in Jewish liturgy, the idea invites many possibilities – not all of them necessarily positive, but all especially powerful when we celebrate Father’s Day. I’m not suggesting that people bring Father’s Day cards to church or synagogue in the way that children send letters to Santa at the North Pole. I do however think that – in addition to being a time to focus on how well we......
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While recent labor market reports may indicate that the employment picture is improving across the country as a whole, there are still plenty of people looking for jobs.? What’s more disconcerting is many people remain “underemployed” or have simply stopped looking for a job because of the long, unanswered months or even years of job searching. This is tough stuff. The fact is, losing a job, is more like the loss surrounding death than most people will allow themselves to admit. ?This may be because doing so makes the experience that much......
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Rabbi Brad Hirschfield talks with Sean Herriott about the use of theology when speaking about natural disasters. Listen here. This content originally appeared on clal.org on November 15, 2012. ...
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News & Politics, Wisdom Warehouse |
August 31, 2013
Why America Should Celebrate Both Its Secularist and Its Religious Roots
As the old saying goes, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.? And now people entering the Bradford County Courthouse in Starke, FL will be able to have a gander at both a monument featuring the Ten Commandments and another one which will feature quotes celebrating secularism as well.? And why not? Having lost the battle to have the original monument to the Ten Commandments removed, the national organization, American Atheists, has decided that it will simply erect an additional monument – one which celebrates its animating ideology.? The......
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Spirituality & Faith, Wisdom Warehouse |
August 31, 2013
Getting the Most Out of Christmas When You’re Not Christian
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield shares with Rev. Welton Gaddy his experience navigating Christmas while being Jewish in America and his thoughts on a deeper shared sense of purpose this time of year. Listen here. With Rev. Welton Gaddy from State of Belief, December 22, 2012.? This content originally appeared on clal.org on December 22, 2012....
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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.
