I feel drawn once again to the idea of not forcing, to the power and the effectiveness and the fundamental truth of not forcing. To hit the rock as Moshe did, not once, but twice (Numbers 20:11), in order to obtain water, is to use force, aggression, to assert one’s will, to coerce the rock […]
QUICK THOUGHT: Not Forcing (Parashat Chukat) Read More »
In this meditation, we look at the story of the snake bites and Moshe’s placement of a snake on a pole for the people to look at in order to be healed. We explore what this story teaches us about how to pray for physical and emotional healing — the need to see very clearly
MEDITATION: How to Pray — The Snake Story (Parashat Chukat) Read More »
The hole that swallowed up Korah and his band is a hole we are familiar with. For us it is not a hole in the earth, but a hole inside us, the gaping hole of wanting, the relentless sense of lack, the core emptiness, that surely also lay behind Korah’s actions, that made him and
SHORT ESSAY: The Legacy of Korach’s Hole (Parashat Korach) Read More »
In this meditation, we explore the feelings behind Korach’s rebellion, the sense of not-enoughness, of lack, of wanting, that in some way we all feel inside, the sense of a hole inside, which for Korach, manifested outside him as the earth swallowing him up. We spend our lives dealing with these holes as Korach did,
MEDITATION: The Hole Inside Us (Parashat Korach) Read More »
In order to quell the fear and the doubt and the terrible feeling of not knowing, the groundlessness of uncertainy, we try to gain some certainty. We try “latur,” to scout out information . . . (Click image to read more)
WOW (Word of the Week): לתור, To Scout Out (Parashat Shelach) Read More »
In this meditation, we explore the story of the scouts. We connect to the fear and the doubt that the 10 scouts and the Israelites felt. We find those places inside us that are terrified of new things, that feel like grasshoppers in some way. And then we also touch the place of the “yud”
MEDITATION: Holding Both the Fear and the Yud Inside Us (Parashat Shelach) Read More »
Coming face to face with the strength of God in you, with this mighty, courageous, light-filled force, the fear, the judgment, the doubt, they relax a little — oh, someone is in charge, they see — they step back; they give space. (Click image to read more)
In this meditation, we explore the passage that is bracketed by upside down “nuns” in the Torah, a passage whose text is familiar to us from the Torah service in shul. First, we explore the feeling of rising up in divine power and having our internal “enemies” scatter in the face of that strength, and
MEDITATION: Vayehi Beneso’a Ha’aron: To Journey and To Rest (Parashat Beha’alotecha) Read More »
May God shine God’s face upon you. It is like the face of a parent gazing at a newborn baby. Total delight and amazement and warmth. (Click image to read more)
SHORT ESSAY: God Delights In Us (Parashat Naso) Read More »
In this meditation, we work towards a sense of inner peace, the end of the priestly blessing, by first fully experiencing the middle line or heart of the Priestly Blessing, the sense of God’s face shining upon us. We take this shining face inside as a way to welcome all parts of us and to
MEDITATION: The Priestly Blessing and Inner Peace (Parashat Naso) Read More »