by Dr. David Sanders With the outbreak of the Coronavirus in the United States and Canada, professional basketball and hockey were postponed indefinitely and Major League Baseball is at best contemplating a fan-less truncated season. Die-hard football fans are still hoping that any given Sunday the National Football League will Read more…
“Are you wearing the mask, or is the mask wearing you?” In our second year course on Masks: Who are you?, we explore the many layers of masks we wear- in a sense of awareness and connection to our souls. We wear our given masks, and we wear masks we Read more…
by David Sanders I have a thin monograph of The Plague, by Albert Camus, in my bookshelf for some 40 years. Set in the spring of 1947 in a town on the coast of Algeria, a virus spreads uncontrollably from animals to humans. Despite quarantines and efforts at isolation, the Read more…
What do yawning, laughter, enthusiasm, and kindness share in common? They all can be referred to as infectious. Neuroscientists have measured through brain scans the contagious impact of viewing others acting with kindness. While the neural basis for contagious yawning is still not understood, the phenomena are not limited to Read more…
One of the beautiful arrangements of my teaching schedule this semester, is that I teach ‘Soul: Intro to Kabbalah’ of the Year 1 curriculum immediately before ‘Masks: Who are you?’, its parallel in the second year curriculum. I deeply appreciate the themes that are woven between the classes, and the Read more…
Does it matter so much about the accuracy of recollections or more about the impact of what happened? Every year, around this time, I listen to Martin Luther King’s final speech. He was murdered the next day on the balcony of his Memphis hotel room. The speech is titled from Read more…
On Thanksgiving, our family joined hundreds of others in downtown Philadelphia, bringing Thanksgiving meals to the less fortunate, with an organization called “Manna.” We traversed the city in two cars- with three generations- to use our time together to make a difference in the community. Alongside our children, we knocked Read more…
The innovations of the Kabbalists in Tzfat some 500 years ago were often based on observations that led to their intuitive insights. In this regard, they were as much social scientists as they were mystics. One such naturalistic observation was the presence of people in their community who we would now identify as transsexual or transgender. They spoke about these people as “men with female souls” and “women with male souls.” The outside appearance was not reflecting an inner awareness. Their bodies were not conforming with who they knew themselves to be.
When we meet someone who challenges our preconceived categories of human expression it can be quite disorienting. We are, after all, not just social scientists gathering data. Out naturalistic observations can become quite personal. We are not observing a phenomenon—we are getting acquainted with, learning from and loving people who are “men with female souls” and “women with male souls.”
Joy Ladin, formerly Jay Ladin, a tenured English professor at Stern College for Women, had always felt her body didn’t match her soul. (more…)
Oneness and Interconnectedness underlie both Science of Mind and Kabbalah The key prayer — the Shema, said daily — is framed as: “Pay attention, God’s Name is One,” explains Kabbalah Experience founder and director Dr. David Sanders. “Any other name for God is just a mask. Behind the masks is Read more…
As my family and I move from our first High Holiday season without our son Koby,(z”l) into our second, I am keenly aware of the energy that is manifesting around us. Over the past five years, the High Holidays have been an experience of incredible vulnerability, and intimacy with life Read more…