Make like a desert and become hefker, ownerless. A midrash on the start of our parsha suggests that in order to recieve the Torah, we need to do just that, become as hefker — as free from being owned — as the desert in which the Torah was given (Bamidbar Rabbah 1:7). In this meditation, […]
MEDITATION: What Owns You And How To Let Go (Parashat Bamidbar) Read More »
What voices do you assume are from God that might not be, that might actually be just smoke and mirrors? (Click image to read more)
ESSAY: Is God In the Thunder and Lightning? (Shavu’ot) Read More »
In this meditation, we consider the possibility that God is not in the thunder and lightning, but in the “still small voice” as Elijah discovered, or in our narrative, in the arafel, the thick cloud of fog that Moshe entered, and in the silent alef of the divine revelation. We explore the loud voices within
MEDITATION: Is God In the Thunder and Lightning? (Shavu’ot) Read More »
Will we be a Ruth towards ourselves or an Orpah? Will we turn towards ourselves or away from ourselves? (Click image to read more)
ESSAY: Learning From Ruth Not To Abandon Ourselves (Shavu’ot) Read More »
Will we be a Ruth towards ourselves or an Orpah? (Click image to read more and to listen)
MEDITATION: Learning From Ruth Not To Abandon Ourselves (Shavu’ot) Read More »
We, like the people at Har Sinai, spend a lot of time running away from where we are. But it is when we come into stillness that we meet God. (Click image to read more)
ESSAY: Learning to Return to Stillness at Sinai (Shavu’ot) Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »