I’ve been thinking a lot about teachers lately. In Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers: Chapter 1, Mishna 6, “Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Perachya says, ‘Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend, and judge each person favorably.” Leaving the latter part of this teaching for another time, I’ll focus on the first […]
The Importance of Making for Yourself a Teacher Read More »
The first question, and also the shortest question, God ask in the Torah has just one word. “Ayeka?” In English, this means “Where are you?” For an all-knowing God, this seems a silly question, but the query has little to do with physical location. And it’s a question not asked to locate someone physically but
Ayeka? Where are you? Read More »
With the Blue Moon rising, tonight we ring in not only the New Year, but a whole new decade. And we do so at amidst a time of change. We’ve seen climate weather, world economic changes and political and government leadership changes. In spiritual, mystical and metaphysical circles, everyone is talking about and predicting change,
A Kabbalistic Approach to Becoming a Change Agent in 2010 Read More »
Most people don’t realize that through its choice of words, the Old Testament places emphasis on goal setting. In fact, it seems that God expects us to set targets for ourselves and at least to try to hit them. In other words, we are supposed to take the time to come up with resolutions or
Put Jewish Ideas to Use on the Secular New Year Read More »
I’ve spent an enormous amount of time over the last week throwing away all sorts of stuff. Primarily, however, I’ve thrown away accumulated papers. I can’t believe how many papers I seem to save and collect. I have piles and files filled with papers of all sorts. Most of these papers I must have thought
Making Room for Change Read More »
On Christmas Eve, I’m once again, like every year, struck by the wonderful example Jesus provides all people – Jew and non-Jew alike – of a human being who achieved full spiritual and human potential. (I wrote a short piece about this earlier today in my Examiner.com column, but I wanted to expand upon the
Jesus Provides Model for Achievement of Spiritual and Human Potential Read More »
The other day I met with a friend. He told me that 90 percent of the time when he met with me he had a great time; the other 10 percent of the time it broke his heart. He hated seeing his friend not doing the things she loved and not being the person she
Seeing Myself Through Someone Else's Eyes Read More »
I couldn’t let the last night of Chanukah pass without posting some sort of teaching. (I know I already posted a blog today…) I knew I had read something somewhere about the importance of the eight night, and then I remembered! My friend Rabbi David Zaslow posted this on Facebook: The symbol for 8 is
On the Eight Night of Chanukah the Miraculous Becomes Evident Read More »
Today I was reading a blog about this week’s parshah and came upon a teaching from Rav Kook, the former chief rabbi of Israel. He said the moment you were born is the exact moment that God decided the world could no longer function without you. So, your moment of conception had to be predestined and,
You Were Born When God Decided the World Couldn't Function Without You Read More »
The Kabbalists talk a great deal about the “light.” Through our actions we draw this Divine light into the world, thereby, increasing the light—or we push the light away, cover it up, and diminish its presence. In the Zohar, the mystical text of Kabbalah, there is a teaching that says that everything is new when
Chanukah Light Helps Us See Miracles Read More »
Trust is an interesting thing. Once it’s gone, it’s very difficult to regain. If you lose it, it’s difficult to find. When you stop trusting someone-for whatever reason, you tend to put up a wall to protect yourself…or at least I do. Then I have to really work at letting them back in. They have
As we get ready to light the first candle on the chanukiah, marking the first night of Chanukah, I want to remind everyone that afterwards we are supposed to place it in the window to shine its light outward into the world. This is a way of reminding the world of the possibility of miracles
Shine Your Own Light This Chanukah Read More »
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