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 […]
Growth With Empty Space
“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 second snowfall of the season […]
Spirited Dialogue
“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 his father to the cemetery […]
How Does One Chase A Thousand?
The letter Alef, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet has the numerical value of one. With different vowel points, the word Alef is pronounced Elef which means one thousand. In the system of gematriyah (numerology) proposed by Kabbalah the letter Alef can be assigned either the value of one or a thousand.
Practice in Consciousness
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 feedback loop to your consciousness […]
Receive and You Shall Give
Do you recognize this man? I was just turning five years old when Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom debuted on television. Marlin Perkins was the host and he quickly became one of my grandfathers. A question I had, but was embarrassed to ask my parents was: What is Mutual of Omaha? I understood why the […]
Power of Connection
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 […]
The Possibilites of Change
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?
Constant Connections
By the time you read this blog I will have a new hip. It is made of ceramic. When it comes to hip replacements you could say the hip (ceramic) bone is connected to the earth. From earth we are created and unto the earth we will return. The body can only go so far […]
Rectify our Hearing
The current Hebrew month of Av has as its spiritual sense the sense of hearing (all months are endowed with a special spiritual sense according to Sefer Yetzirah). Generally, Av is seen as a month of mourning because many tragedies befell the Jewish people. The origin of the ‘curse’ of this month is faulty hearing. […]