Sand and Stone
Write your hurts in the sand and carve your blessings in stone One of our students this week used this quote to describe her father’s remarkable attitude to life. He was fourteen when he arrived at Auschwitz. At wars’ end he and his brother were the sole survivors of their family. Next Thursday we welcome […]
Heartflakes
We must begin by melting the ice in the heart of man to use our knowledge wisely. Angaangaq, www.Icewisdom.com The snow had just begun to fall last Thursday evening as the weather front, predicted to shut down Denver, rolled in. The city though was in full preparation with the promise that not only […]
The New Year for Trees
You could wait for Friday April 20th. That is when Arbor Day is celebrated in Colorado this year. Arbor Day in the United States is a local custom and it varies greatly. In Jewish tradition the New Year for Trees was designated long ago as falling in the month of Shevat—our current month on the […]
A Sign from God
There are plots and subplots. Which is which is often impossible to discern. Former Denver Mayor Bill Vidal is our next speaker on Aha Moments. The plot is laid out in the title of his talk: An Immigrant’s Journey and in the copy we have prepared: “Born in Cuba to a wealthy family, Bill […]
Living in the Present
Today marks a very important moment. It is a day to thank Diana Kaplan for her wonderful service to our organization for the past three years. It is the day she is leaving us for other rewarding endeavors. No matter what, Diana welcomes with a smile. Her warmth and generous spirit will be missed. Thank […]
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.
Stringing Together
I would like to develop a notion of strings, in honor of the owner of the Strings Restaurant in Denver, for our KE community. This is not a colored string some Kabbalah communities encourage individuals to wear, it is a string that we can develop—an invisible string– stronger even than any rope with knots.
Coming and Going
“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 we come from the public […]
Uncontrollable Laughter
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 Sarah are informed that they […]
11/11/11
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 number 11 in the spices […]