The Intimate Picture
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 […]
Holding Your Opposite
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 […]
Objects in the Mirror
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 […]
A Broken Halleluyah
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 […]
Naming Rights: What Name Will You Adopt for 2018?
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 […]
Evening the Evening: A Practice For Winter’s Darkness
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 […]
Humaneness
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 […]
May You Live to 120
Have you heard of the 110 club? This exclusive club boasts no annual membership fee and has only one criterion— you remain alive. Violet Brown of Jamaica was the eldest member of this club until her death last month at the age of 117. Predeceased by her son, Harland Fairweather, who died last spring at […]
Never Doubt the Power of One
Kabbalah entreats us to look for origins, to journey back and discover the source—the seed that starts the flow which results in an outcome. When you square a number, it has an “exponential” effect (32 x32 =1024) but when you square the number one you return to the source—back to “square one” because 1×1 still […]
Colorful Vibrations
Kabbalah is a study of unseen reality and unseen potential. If we limit ourselves to experiencing the senses of the physical body we perceive only a fraction of the world that we can connect with, feel and know. Science has been an incredible tool to uncover what is beyond our normal senses. When early humans […]