What is the most awesome, inspiring, jaw-dropping moment of all? This may be as close to a universal accord as one can find. Surely the answer must be: the birth moment. The moment a baby comes into the world; the first tender slips of a bud; the emergence of infant mammals; the transformation of the chrysalis. To […]
Individuals, communities and nations are exercising compassion these days, on a global scale. To have compassion is to expand one’s consciousness beyond limits. It is a pouring out of the ineffable capacity to care-beyond – beyond one’s own needs, beyond one’s own identity, beyond one’s own tribe, beyond one’s own benefit. We sometimes call such […]
I pen these words today bathed in the light of the full moon of Kislev, figuratively speaking. This is the 14th day of the Jewish month, and so if the clouds permit, tonight we’ll really be en-light-ened by the reflected light of our winter sun. The leap from the light of the Kislev moon to […]
When preparing class outlines for Introduction to Judaism courses, I sigh each time I see the heading “Jewish Calendar.” It’s complicated, as we often say about so many difficult matters. We – and the majority of Jews in Canada and the U.S. – do not necessarily live in “Jewish time.” We overlay or integrate Jewish […]
On the night of Saturday November 4, 1995 (12 Heshvan 5756), Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin traveled to Kings’ Square in Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of supporters massed to assure him of their enthusiastic support for his peace efforts. They rallied with wild enthusiasm under banners that proclaimed “Yes to Peace – No […]
The Jewish year cycle can be understood as an object lesson in extremes, at least at the beginning of the calendar year. Maybe we should call this Jewish month XTishrey, and all the holiday events our XTishrey Games! We start in joy, celebrating a new year, and wishes for sweetness, but shaded in the colors […]
During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes, and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or rituals. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally-specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Our fourth theme is tied to selihot, from the root meaning […]
During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes, and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or rituals. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally-specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Yay! This is one of three primary purposes of Jewish prayer. […]
During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes, and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or rituals. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally-specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Thanks: the very first word in the litany of daily Jewish prayer; […]
During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or prayers. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Encountering these hot days of summer on the new moon […]
