Surrender Your Dogma
The sefirah of Hod (the sefirah of this week’s Omer count) feels misunderstood. Yet she is too humble to make a big deal about it. There are those who translate her as a false face, others as the ecstasy of a ride in a Ferrari and still others as the delight in the variety of […]
Unbreakable Spirit
We had a beautiful evening celebrating Kabbalah Experience this past Thursday night at the Loup JCC. Many people asked me over the weekend whether I was still floating in the clouds. The decorations were balloons in the shape of clouds, simulating a dreamlike atmosphere for hearing about Dreamwork from our speaker, Rodger Kamenetz. Karen’s […]
Welcome Rodger and Dreamwork to Denver
In the excitement of a day off due to the “storm” I had an extra day to work on the LIST of my procrastinations. Patti Levine suggested that I share an example or two of what I am working on during this year’s counting of the Omer. I have not been procrastinating about it, having […]
The Container Within
This week of the counting of the Omer focuses on the energy of Gevurah—setting limits and establishing firm boundaries. There are a myriad of concepts contained in Gevurah—including that it itself is a container. Today, the 9th day of the count is Gevurah in Gevurah. So what is a container within a container? The image […]
Passover Proaction
This week of Passover is distinguished by what we eat and what we don’t eat. We remove Chametz (all leavened products) and eat the flat bread—Matzah. Kabbalah provides a number of explanations as to the inner meaning of matzah and chametz. The most common explanation, also alluded to in traditional Jewish teaching, is that […]
A Serious Rabbi
There will be memorial services here in Denver to honor the life and accomplishments of Stanley Wagner, Rabbi, educator and risk taker who died this week. To me he was a serious man, a characterization that speaks to both his public demeanor and his drive to make a difference. It is therefore wonderful to relate […]
Children and Violence
The petition circulated to you at the end of last week NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW. Please take 3 minutes (I timed it—it will require you to type a code in and then the White House will send you a link to add your name to the petition). The petition goes live once it garners 150 […]
Sandersize and other Eponyms
I woke this morning with the word “ferberize” on my mind and then a string of associations to words such as sanitize, fantasize, compartmentalize and a whole string of words ending in “ize.” I then returned to ferberize and realized that what was intriguing me was that a word, in common English usage, was […]
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 […]
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 […]