Louis Kahn, the great American architect, died in 1974 in a washroom at Penn Station. He was alone when his heart gave out. His only son, Nathan was eleven. A shadowy figure in his life, his famous Dad was busy at work, travelling abroad, and unbeknownst to Nathan, a father to his half siblings with…

Which is it—grey or gray? Isn’t it fitting that there isn’t a black and white answer. Turns out they are both acceptable ways to spell my favorite color. Gray is a great color to represent ambiguity and grey is also a great color to represent ambivalence. The fourth principle of awareness: Hold opposites and recognize…

Awareness principle four: Live by setting intention. Be open to possibility—one door closing opens another. Measure success by effort not by outcome.   In the Tree of Life this awareness principle is connected with the Sefirah energy called Netzach-Hebrew for the words Victory and Orchestration.   Sometimes victory, such as the young shepherd boy David,…

The voice synthesizer fell silent, the screen turned black. The vast network of neurons in his brain, much like the stars in the sky at dawn, began to recede from view as Stephen Hawking took his last thought with him beyond the space-time continuum.   The screen reads: ACCEPT REALITY AS IT IS   Hawking,…

  If it was simple to be (fully) present “now” would we need so much instruction on how to be in the moment?   Kabbalah places our relationship to time at the foundation of our awareness practice. Being fully present is an integration of past, future, and present as exemplified by the ineffable name of…

Over the next 11 blog posts, we will look at one of the 11 principles of awareness, which we link with the Sefirot of the Tree of Life. We start at the bottom and work our way up—ascending in awareness. The most basic awareness principle is to pay attention to what shows up—which includes who…

Rabbi Koby Gruenwald z”l died this past Friday, January 19, survived by his father and mother, sister and brother. His bereft congregation and community mourned his loss this past Sunday. He was 13 years old. Rabbi Koby is remembered for the dignity and kindness he extended to all who crossed his path, his exuberance for…

Have you ever had this thought: “I am never going to get those 30 minutes back?” It may be more time or less time, and the regret may be over watching a video or reading a blog, engaging in a conversation, argument, or fight that went nowhere, or choosing to take the other highway only…

Have you ever been in a desolate area, on a cloudless night, enveloped by darkness and look skyward at the vast expanse of stars? Darkness is a contrast to light. Despite it being counterintuitive, darkness is an illuminating highlighter in the same way that absence makes the heart grow fonder. The Book of Radiance, Zohar…

Leave it up to humans to language benevolence toward animals as “humane” and a lack of compassion as “inhumane.” It reflects that tendency humans have to see things (only) from a human-centric point of view. Knowing what we now know of the benevolence and compassion of many animals for other animals, species-specific or for other…