This meditation explores the inner landscape that God is inviting us into in the call to Avram and to each of us to move towards “the land that I will show you,” to step out of our past conditioning and into an unknown land — together with God — to allow ourselves to open to […]
MEDITATION: To The Land That I Will Show you (Parashat Lech-Lecha) Read More »
In this meditation, we consider our own experience of being flooded and overwhelmed emotionally, and how building ourselves a safe place — like Noah’s ark — might help us learn to regulate and return to a state of calm. We take the time to imagine such a sanctuary inside ourselves and to feel God’s peaceful
MEDITATION: Building a Sanctuary For Your Internal Floods (Parashat Noah) Read More »
In this meditation, we explore the tradition that God is our mikvah, our ritual cleansing bath, on Yom Kippur, imagining all the prayer words and songs as water that we can immerse in, letting go of all our efforting and resting in God’s healing waters. Image by Pixabay at Pexels
MEDITATION: Resting In God’s Healing Waters (Yom Kippur) Read More »
In this meditation, I offer a reading of the Akedah (the Binding of Isaac) from the lens of the inner child, focusing on two pivotal moments in the text — the first, when Avraham and Yitzhak “walk together” and the second, when Avraham binds up his son. We explore these in terms of our own
MEDITATION: Learning To Walk With Your Inner Child (Rosh Hashanah) Read More »
In this meditation, we look at teshuva as “return” with its emphasis on relationship and connection as opposed to self improvement, considering that perhaps God’s primary desire is simply to be with us, that it is the connection itself that is the goal, and in all our focus on fixing ourselves we lose sight of
MEDITATION: Come Home, Just As You Are (Rosh Hashanah) Read More »
In this meditation, we look at the mitzvah of helping someone lift up their fallen donkey, considering carefully the words hakem takim imo which mean “you shall surely lift up with him” (Deutonormy 22:5). Rashi explains that “with him” means only if he participates, and this is our jumping off point for considering how it
MEDITATION: Rising up Together (Parashat Ki Tetzei) Read More »
In this meditation we explore the verse Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokeha (Deuteronomy 18:13), “Be wholehearted with Hashem your God” as an instruction to give yourself over completely to the simple but not easy task of being true to yourself and to God in you at all moments. We consider the stress of constant worry
MEDITATION: Be Yourself No Matter What They Say (Parashat Shoftim) Read More »
In this meditation, we look at the story of the daughters of Tzelafchad and consider the courage that it took to stand up and say their piece. We feel into our own conditioning into silence and the possibility of stepping forward and of God’s great rejoicing when we do, tasting the resounding “yes” that God
MEDITATION: God Says Yes To You (Parashat Pinchas) Read More »
In this meditation, we focus on the line from one of Balaam’s blessings, mah tovu ohelekha Yaakov, “how good are your tents, Yaakov, your dwelling places, Yisrael” (Numbers 24:5). Rashi comments that what Balaam saw in the Israelite tents that was good was that their openings were not set up to face one another, offering
MEDITATION: Staying In Your Own Tent (Parashat Balak) Read More »
In this meditation we look at the difference between God’s vision of how to get water from a rock and Moshe’s vision, the one being relational and honoring, allowing a process to unfold, and the other using aggression and force (Numbers 20:7-13). We consider how these processes apply to us internally and externally in our
MEDITATION: Not Forcing (Parashat Chukat) Read More »