Shavu’ot

MEDITATION: Learning to Return to Stillness at Sinai (Shavu’ot)

In this meditation, we explore a midrash that teaches that at Mount Sinai, at each divine utterance, the people’s souls flew out of their bodies and had to be returned, and also that at each utterance, the people ran backwards 12 mil and angels had to be lead them back. We explore our own tendency

MEDITATION: Learning to Return to Stillness at Sinai (Shavu’ot) Read More »

QUICK THOUGHT: What We Saw at Sinai Was Ourselves (Shavu’ot)

In the glow of the intense light of the divine presence at Mount Sinai, what we are capable of seeing is not just God, but ourselves, our own divine essence. (Click image to read more)

QUICK THOUGHT: What We Saw at Sinai Was Ourselves (Shavu’ot) Read More »

MEDITATION: Seeing Your Divine Essence at Sinai (Shavu’ot)

What did we “see” at Sinai? What was revealed? The Sefat Emet says that, as part of this intense revelation of God and Torah, what the people saw was their very own essence; they saw the divine part from above that was placed inside them. They realized who they really were. The Torah is like

MEDITATION: Seeing Your Divine Essence at Sinai (Shavu’ot) Read More »

SHORT ESSAY: On Kabbalat HaTorah and Learning to Receive (Shavu’ot)

Kabbalat HaTorah —  to receive the Torah.   That is our goal on this holiday.    What does it mean to receive?  How does one go about receiving? We tend to worry primarily about giving, about what we are contributing to this world, what we are doing to earn our precious lives.  These pursuits often

SHORT ESSAY: On Kabbalat HaTorah and Learning to Receive (Shavu’ot) Read More »

SHORT ESSAY: Approaching the Arafel (Shavu’ot)

Ki shamah, ki shamah Elokim. For there — there — that is where God is. So goes the chorus to Shuli Rand’s song “Arafel.” There, in the arafel , in the thick cloud, in the fog, in the darkness, there, that is where God is. This line is based on the Torah’s description of the Har Sinai experience

SHORT ESSAY: Approaching the Arafel (Shavu’ot) Read More »