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New Year: Change & Transformation

The Hebrew word Shanah, as in Rosh Hashanah, is translated as Year (Rosh is Hebrew for Head—hence—the Head of the Year, New Year).  The meaning of Shanah though, as a Hebrew root, is “change”—and the Hebrew letter Shin with which the word begins connotes transformation. Shin in Kabbalstic teachings also reflects our capacity for creativity—a creative solution flows from looking at things differently, a change of perspective engenders new possibilities.

There is a very poignant prayer that has crept back into the High Holiday prayer book—to say before the beginning of Rosh Hashanah. The prayer which comes from the Sephardic tradition is entitled in Hebrew, “Tichleh Shanah ve’ Kelilotehah” –let the year end (pass by) with its curses! With a title like that you might not wonder as much why it lost its popularity and was omitted from the liturgy. (more…)

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Receive and You Shall Give

Do you recognize this man? I was just turning five years old when Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom debuted on television. Marlin Perkins was the host and he quickly became one of my grandfathers.  A question I had, but was embarrassed to ask my parents was: What is Mutual of Omaha? I understood why the show was called Wild Kingdom—those were words I could figure out. But what was a “Mutual of Omaha?”

As a child I was intensely interested in language—where did words come from, how did people come to call this with that name? At age 5, I distinctly remember holding a door open for a woman and as she passed by me and looking in my eyes, said, in a slow and deliberate manner, “Thank you.” It dawned on me. Thank you was not ‘thankyou’—a nonsense sounding phrase that people said—it meant she was thanking me.

This was an early Aha moment for me. I have them daily. How does one develop the capacity for Aha moments? Should one even attempt to analyze Aha moments? Is it like training to be spontaneous?

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Constant Connections

By the time you read this blog I will have a new hip. It is made of ceramic. When it comes to hip replacements you could say the hip (ceramic) bone is connected to the earth.  From earth we are created and unto the earth we will return. The body can only go so far until it returns to its source. So too, in our Jewish tradition, the soul goes forth but never leaves its source.

We celebrated another year at Kabbalah Experience with our annual party, this past Sunday at the home of Sally and Tom Stich. It was a perfect setting for celebrating how our KE community continues to grow. Rita and I are so fortunate to be a part of your overflowing warmth and caring and now Eva and Isabel join the KE community.  We bestowed Hebrew names for each in the presence of all.  Isabel’s name in Hebrew is Zahava Pa’amon which translates as Golden Bell and Eva’s Hebrew name is Chava Rimon which translates as Eva Pomegranate. The derivation of these names comes from a description of the High Priest’s vestment worn in his service in the Temple. His outer garment was adorned on its fringe by bells inside pomegranates so that the High Priest could be heard moving to and fro inside the Temple.

Nachmanides (a Kabbalist from the 13th century) comments that the bells were inside of a hollowed out ivory pomegranate. It is a bit difficult to depict in the mind’s eye what either the pomegranate shapes or the bells looked like, at least until a month ago. After 2,000 years a tiny golden bell was discovered in a drainage ditch in Jerusalem.

 

The lead archeologist on the team could not be definitive but offered that the most likely history of this tiny golden bell was that it was one of the 72 bells on the hem of the High Priest’s robe. How did it get to the drainage ditch? Was the High Priest outside the temple when it fell off or did it fall inside the temple and find its way flushed out into the streets of Jerusalem? (more…)

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Rectify our Hearing

The  current Hebrew month of Av has as its spiritual sense the sense of hearing (all months are endowed with a special spiritual sense according to Sefer Yetzirah).  Generally, Av is seen as a month of mourning because many tragedies befell the Jewish people. The origin of the ‘curse’ of Read more…

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Reincarnation Double Take

“I, the victim of Auschwitz, figured out that I had the power to forgive,” Mrs. Kor said. “No one could give it to me and no one could take it away.  I, the little guinea pig, had the power to forgive the God of Auschwitz. I immediately felt the pain lift from my shoulders. Finally I was no longer a prisoner of Auschwitz.”

The day following Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av) commemorating the tragedies of the Jewish people, thirty people participated in our annual Kabbalah Experience Reincarnation workshop. There are a number of books specifically addressing the reincarnation of souls of those who were murdered by the Nazis. “A generation comes and generation goes” is interpreted by Rabbi Akiva as a generation that already has come. In this regard his words pertain to the re-generation of our people from the Holocaust until now.

As I was recounting a number of stories of reincarnation from the Holocaust, my mind and body became very still—perhaps unnoticed by those listening –as a sensation, inchoate at first but then pulsating, entered my consciousness.

For the past few months I have often heard; “so it must be you?”—a second set of twins. Until yesterday I placed no meaning on this. I discounted people’s comments knowing that there is no scientific basis for the genetics of a father having fraternal and identical twins.  The blessing of twins I saw as coming from the Divine, if cause was important to discern, it was more spiritual than genetic.  It had not gone further than that until yesterday. (more…)

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From Tzfat to Denver

May we continue to grow and fulfill the teachings of the ARI in lifting the sparks of holiness in the world. We will do it though in an egalitarian way in which each individual, no matter what their background learns to be a part of the tikkun (rectification) as promoted by the spiritual insights of the Kabbalah.

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Funereal Inspirations

Yesterday was the start of a Jewish period of mourning that lasts for 3 weeks—it starts with a fast (the Fast of Tammuz 17) and ends with a fast (the Fast of Av 9).  I went to the funeral of Michael Nowak, husband of our student Nancy to be with her and to honor Michael. I left with great inspiration. There is a famous quote from the book of Kohelet-Ecclesiastes: “Better is it for one to attend the house of mourning than to attend a festivity—for this is our common end.”  Is this the musings of a melancholic preacher or sound advice for the soul?

I don’t believe King Solomon (the author of Kohelet) was moribund in his approach to life—though Kohelet is filled with fatalistic philosophy. Funerals, as was Michel Nowak’s, are often the one time in a person’s life that they hear from those who knew them best how much they meant to them—how celebrated a life they lead in the eyes of others. (more…)