Pause. Adventure. Change.
by Melanie Gruenwald I’ve been reflecting on the value of pause, adventure and a change in scenery. PAUSE. My 14-year-old son has become an avid cyclist, and I try to keep in shape so I can take on miles with him. I love to ride with him, with my husband, and with anyone who will […]
Exit Wounds
by Dr. David Sanders All the world’s a stage, All insults and injuries perpetrated, Have their entrances and exit wounds, And children have endured them all. I wrote these words last Yom Kippur to inspire those attending services to retract the “parts” they played falsely. The phrase “exit wounds” was a word change from […]
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by Dr. David Sanders Are you risk averse or do you welcome risk? Do you weigh your options or just go for it? My daughters and I been playing WORDLE for almost 3 months. We settled on starting to solve the word puzzle with the word ALIEN each time. At some point ALIEN will be […]
Saying Yes to Yourself
I was recently speaking with my therapist about how exhausted I am from the busy-ness of life, the running around, trying to get it all done, and finding it hard to find time for self-care, because I am so tired. She asked me bluntly- “Do you like yourself?” And I answered, “Of course.” “Do you […]
Passover Prep
by Dr. David Sanders P is for examining the past, for procrastination, for purging possessions, for preparation, purpose, possibility. For Passover. With the passage of time we are enjoined to not be passive. Passover, at its essence, is a time to examine what we have accumulated and become accustomed to. According to Jewish tradition we […]
Concealing and Revealing, a Purim Reflection
by Melanie Gruenwald Today we mark the Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim is a story of many layers. One of the main characters of the story is Esther, a commoner who enters into a beauty contest to become the next queen of Persia. Esther hides her Jewish identity, puts on the mask of “beauty queen”, […]
We were also strangers.
by Melanie Gruenwald Transformative Kabbalah reminds us to pay attention to seen and unseen reality- to connect the finite to the infinite, and recognize how they are each held in the other. In our Soul class- we explore the Ohr/ infinite-light-energy that is sourced in creation and the Kotnot Or/ physical ‘garments of skin’ that […]
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 […]