The Gifting Tree
by Dr. David Sanders When he was 9 years old, Felix Finkbeiner planted a crab apple tree in front of his school. It was the culmination of his presentation on climate change. Inspired by a woman in Africa who had the vision to plant millions of trees, Felix wondered if he could enlist children to […]
Light, Darkness, and Meow Wolf
by Melanie Gruenwald My family recently visited Meow Wolf, an immersive art experience that opened in Denver, September, 2021. Stepping into the exhibit was like traveling down Alice’s Rabbit Hole- a place where time and space were transcended. According to the Meow Wolf website, participants: Discover immersive psychedelic, mind-bending art and an underlying rich narrative […]
Catching Up with the Kabbalist
by David Sanders My trajectory into the study of Kabbalah would not have been easily predicted. I grew up in a Jewish home and community that venerated the study of Torah and Jewish legal texts—the Talmud scholar was the pinnacle of one’s aspirations as a young man. Among my cadre of friends were Nate and […]
Come and See
by Melanie Gruenwald Come and see: Nefesh- lower arousal, cleaving to the body like the light of a candle. The lower light, which is black, cleaves to the wick, never parting from it, arrayed by it alone. Once arrayed by the wick, it becomes a throne for the white light settling upon the black light. […]
Half-Baked
by Dr. David Sanders Jürgen Krauss is not a household name but you would certainly want him over for dinner if he offers to bring dessert. We were late, but got hooked like so many before us on the GGBO—The Great British Bake Off show during the pandemic. There are so many reality shows of […]
Believe.
by Melanie Gruenwald My family and I have been watching Ted Lasso, the popular new show on Apple TV about an American football coach, who is recruited to be a soccer (football) coach in England. Ted Lasso is an unlikely hero, who has no experience on the soccer field. He hangs a sign above the […]
Time and Space
by Dr. David Sanders I planned on writing a blog this week about how to address climate change and had a perfect segue from the late night comedians banding together and dedicating their monologues to the urgency of this global crisis. I was going to title it: Comedians of Doom. It just didn’t progress, so […]
Hineni, Hineni
by Melanie Gruenwald According to the Torah reading over Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year)- Abraham is called on by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham’s response to God is “Hineni,” or in English, “I am here.” And when Isaac calls to his father to understand what is happening, Abraham responds again, “Hineni.” God’s […]
Changing the Narrative
by Dr. David Sanders “And God said to Eve, ‘It is not good that you should be alone, I will give birth to a man so that you will have a companion.’ And God brought the man to Eve and she said, ‘I will call him, Partner, for God has given me the gift of […]
The Masks of Simone Biles
by Melanie Gruenwald Simone Biles, the 24- year old GOAT (Greatest of All Time) world-champion gymnast, withdrew from the Olympics this past week. After concerns about a physical injury, we were curious to learn more when we heard she withdrew due to mental health concerns. In Transformative Kabbalah, we study ‘masks’ as those we are […]