David Sanders
Kabbalah & Tim Tebow
Tebow did it again. Whether he and the Broncos win or lose from here on, I want to share what I experienced in the ending moment of last week’s game. It contained so many basic teachings from the Kabbalah.
Tebow did it again. Whether he and the Broncos win or lose from here on, I want to share what I experienced in the ending moment of last week’s game. It contained so many basic teachings from the Kabbalah.
“And write these on the doorposts of your house and your gates.” The basis of placing a Mezuzah on exit and entryways is to affix the central teaching of Judaism (the Shema prayer) wherever and whenever we come and go. Our movements can be conscious or unconscious—purposeful or unintended. When Read more…
I asked one of our second year students, Gretchen Koplin, if she would be so kind and share a story with all of you—it is a story of synchronicity about thanks, giving and the harvesting of stem cells.
Best wishes for a special time of thanks for family, friends and the fellowship of our community.
David
Gretchen’s story:
A little over two years ago, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), and my recommended treatment regimen included a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. I was lucky enough to have four viable donors, including two who were a 10 out of 10 match for me. Going into the transplant process, the only thing that I knew about my donor was that he was a 42-year-old male who lived outside of the U.S. Given that the cells must be infused into the recipient within 72 hours of being harvested from the donor, this meant that my transplant process needed to be a feat of coordination involving on-time international flights and a courier with my new cells in an Igloo cooler. (more…)
First a request: Someone mentioned to me a while back that they either knew the author Jonathan Safran Foer, they were related to him or knew his relatives in Denver? Please let me know if you are the one who mentioned the connection. In last week’s Torah portion Abraham and Read more…
The very first question I was asked about gematriyah (the numerology of Kabbalah) was the significance of the number 11? In class we teach about your “awake number”—a number that signifies and signals to you that your are following your destiny—connecting with the fragments of your puzzle. We find the Read more…
“For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds / Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” Wallace Stevens Tomorrow night we start our third season of Kabbalah Live! This year the theme is Aha Moments. As I sit looking out at the Read more…
Have you registered for Kabbalah Live! next Thursday, November 3rd? Tickets are going fast, so get yours now before we are sold out! Click Here to Learn More Click Here to Register Kabbalah Experience is pleased to announce the first speaker in the 3rd annual Kabbalah Live! Lecture Series: Rebecca Read more…
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…)
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…
“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…)