Tree of Awareness
Allen Afterman begins his book Kabbalah and Consciousness by declaring that “as much as Kabbalah is a philosophy it is even more a map of transcendent experience.” There are two important ideas that Afterman touches upon. The first is that Kabbalah is a philosophy. This may come as a surprise to some because Kabbalah emerged […]
A Call to Arms
On election night 2016 those who are good at math were the first to realize that the “path” to being elected President was red and not blue. It became progressively clear that the math would not add up for Hillary Clinton. Even if she would wind up with more overall votes the state Electoral College […]
Ob-Jecting
It started this week with a teacher talking about her student’s objection to her defining a noun as pertaining to a “person, place, thing or idea.” The student, a Buddhist monk trying to learn English, asked: What about animals? Her suggestion that animals are nouns because they are “things” The monk objected to the teacher […]
A Woman Precedent
In her world filled with unicorns, ponies and flying Pegasus a 5 year old girl looked up to ask, “A woman running for President?” Had my daughter lived in Pakistan, India, Israel, Germany of Great Britain, her incredulity would have been tempered by the women who served (and serve) those countries as heads of state. […]
The Spiritual Revolution
Copernicus did not have it all figured out. Neither did Galileo. They had the right instincts but got caught up in circles. Kepler refined it by thinking elliptically but it took Sir Isaac Newton to finalize the heliocentric view of our solar system with the discovery of gravity. Why did it take so long for […]
Olympic Spiritual
Every two years athletes from around the world gather for a ritual called the Olympics. The events, whether winter or summer, are predicated upon sacrifice and culminate in a solemn ceremony of the victorious; the ritual of standing upon a podium to receive an Olympic medal. For the gold medal recipient the ceremony includes the […]
Governing Bodies
Amidst the many controversies that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) governing body dealt with leading up to the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, one that has not garnered as much attention is governing the bodies of transgender athletes. For the first time in Olympic history the IOC has ruled to allow trans-athletes to complete according to […]
The Heart of the Matter
President Obama came to Dallas to help heal the broken hearts of family and friends of the five police officers murdered by a gunman at a Black Lives Matter rally. His opening words of comfort addressed the character of each of the slain policeman, naming them and speaking about them each as men of valor, […]
Old Friends
Many years back I was in contact with an elementary school classmate who I had not seen in years and suggested to him that we organize a reunion of our 8th grade graduating class, there were 90 of us and it would have marked 30 years. We began to track people down but quickly found […]
Feel the Jewish
He has not asked me to come to his defense. But he is “family,” so I feel obliged to at least speak up. The issue at hand is larger than Sanders, whether that be Bernie or David. It is not about politics. It is about identity, about family, about relationships. I would like to suggest […]