Touched by a Torah
A few years back I received a call from then assistant Rabbi of Temple Sinai, Jay Tel-Rav, wondering if I could take a look at a manuscript. He was not sure what is was but he was definite: it was a Kabbalah text. I had a few moments between classes and he was but a […]
Developing the Negative
There is an old and odd traditional prayer said at the beginning of the New Year—it is found in the Sephardic liturgy and it’s refrain is: “Let this year and its curses (come to an) end.” In the past we have heard of murders and rapes, we have listened to people’s accounts of atrocities and […]
Chasing Peace
For those wanting to access a copy of the KE Rosh Hashanah Prayer Book it is accessible here: http://bit.ly/Y4jV3x I received two emails yesterday, the next to last day of the year 5774 in Jewish Time. One was from a man who was in class with me for a very brief time some six […]
Eyes Wide Shut
In preparation for next week’s KE fall festival our faculty has been reviewing the teachings of Reb Zalman. He was a prolific writer and speaker (you can listen to some 1400 of his talks by accessing this audio collection http://bit.ly/1lYzXaN). He is not the most “accessible” writer especially around topics, which he gladly engaged […]
Leap Frog
Who has not heard this one: If you put a frog in boiling water it will jump out, but if you gradually increase the temperature of the water it will let itself be boiled. Happens to not be factual. Frogs indeed jump when the temperature of the water becomes too warm (well before it […]
Dear KE Community
Dear KE Community; Amidst all the challenging and tragic news it is easy to fall into despair about our human journey. We need to keep at the work we are engaged in—the more aware we are of the absolute necessity for us to evolve spiritually the more chance we have to survive. This is […]
Be in Touch
One day, a master asked her disciples the following question: “Why do people yell at each other when they are angry?”’ “We yell because we lose our temper,” said one of them. “But why yell, when the other person is right next to you?” asked the master. “We yell to make […]
They are Connected
I usually start the process of writing this blog by reflecting on what has “crossed my awareness” this past week. This week I was contacted by three people that I have not spoken to or thought about for decades. One is a man I used to run with early mornings in Philadelphia, one was a […]
Learned Helpfulness
Delta is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet. The fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the letter Dalet. Each one of the Hebrew letters has a meaning connected with its original pictogram. For Dalet the pictogram was a door (the Hebrew word for door is Delet). Dalet also refers to a poor or […]
Come Together
I stood less than 5 feet at age 16 when I started college. There were women in my class and students from all walks of life. We were given a reading list for freshman Intro to Sociology and asked to select a book we would report on in class. I chose Will Herberg’s Protestant, Catholic, […]