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…
“Come and hear: The father of Samuel had some money belonging to orphans deposited with him. When he died, Samuel was not there and did not ask his him where the money was kept. People derogatorily called him, ‘The son who consumes the money of orphans’. So he went after Read more…
The sound of a door being closed consciously I have been waiting for the ‘right time” to recommend to you an important practice in consciousness that we can all equally and easily participate in: When entering and exiting Kabbalah Experience be mindful of opening and closing the door gently. The Read more…
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…)
Brewery Creek, a few miles west of Villa Grove, Colorado, is as beautiful as any place on Earth. A few miles from the continental divide, within sight of eight fourteeners, rushing downstream through meadows of wildflowers and wild animals galore. So dark at night you understand how the Torah can compare the number of stars to the number of grains of sand on the beach. It’s hard when you’re there to not see God. We need not even wax poetic; King David left us a full vocabulary in Psalms to translate what we are seeing and feeling (the heavens tell the glory of God, the earth proclaims his handiwork; the sun comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber; the mountains skip like rams; I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence does my help come?) Certainly we recognize the way nature recharges our batteries.
Many Jews may visit, but few practicing Jews live in places like that. We have a few stories of our people living isolated lives in the country. Moses lived in the desert to escape and get inspiration — but only for forty days. Shimon bar Yochai – one of our greatest Rabbis and Kabbalists – lived an isolated life in a cave for twelve years — but nearly went crazy. (more…)
Suspecting that change is coming, how do you prepare for it? Tighten your muscles, squeeze your eyes shut, hold your breath? Welcome it with a pulse of excitement? Laugh with pleasure at the unexpected twist of a punchline?
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…)
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