Jyoti’s Light
I looked at those faces of young boys in India holding up placards No Rape and wondering what they understand about rape. As a boy I was introduced to the existence of rape rather early on—the bible has a number of stories about rape and to my teachers’ credit these stories were not glossed […]
Without a Calendar
The prediction that the world would end this past year on December 21st was an inaccurate portrayal of the Mayan culture’s very intricate and sophisticated solar calendar. Granted, the 13th baktun ended on that date (a baktun is 394 years) and all that is listed in the Mayan calendar is baktun 1-13. There is little […]
Life of Pi
I don’t get out much and felt it a great holiday treat to go to a theater to watch The Life of Pi, based on the book I read many years ago that remained in my memory. It took director Ang Lee 4 years to make the film—perhaps this helps explain why other directors passed […]
If you dream it
“I am asleep but my heart is awake.” This verse from the Song of Songs is the message of the Hebrew month of Kislev (Chanukah begins on the 25th of Kislev falling this year on December 8). In the earliest text of Kabbalah, Sefer Yetzirah, each month of the year is designated to a […]
Infant Morality
Not a typo. The most prevalent question in classes today was, “Did you see the piece on 60 minutes last night about infants and morality?” This past Sunday, a segment on 60 Minutes featured a wife-husband team at Yale University whose experiments with infants provide compelling evidence that babies know the difference between […]
A Zohar in Every Nightstand
Daniel Matt, professor, scholar and student of Jewish mystical teachings arrives this Sunday at DIA. Dr. Matt’s scholar-in-residence week is a joint effort for the new Jewish learning collaborative of the Loup Jewish Community Center, Denver University’s Center for Judaic Studies and Kabbalah Experience. If you have time to ask only one question of […]
No Regrets
Can we live a life with “no regrets”—I would answer, “If we have acted on our regrets.” One of the first steps in atonement, after acknowledging whatever it is we are atoning for, is a deep sense of regret. In this third week of Elul we must feel our regrets but not become stuck in […]
50 Days of Repentance Week 2
When I was in graduate school studying Freud I came across a short paper by the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber in which, if I recall correctly, he takes Freud to task for advocating that the psychoanalyst’s role is to relieve the person of the “burden” of guilt. Buber was not concerning himself with Freud’s view […]
50 Days of Repentance
Those who follow this blog know that in the spring of each year we count together the 50 days from Passover to the next major holiday—Shavuot. This is called the counting of the Omer. Many teachers of Kabbalah draw inspiration from a small booklet written by Rabbi Simon Jacobson on the counting of the Omer […]
Vision Statement
News item from Jerusalem — It’s the latest prescription for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who shun contact with the opposite sex: Glasses that blur their vision, so they don’t have to see women they consider to be immodestly dressed. Glasses with special blur-inducing stickers on their lenses are going for the “modest” price of $6. The […]