Another Shabbat approaches, another week has gone by. Part of the beauty of Shabbat is letting go, part of the beauty of life is holding on. In that spirit, here are a few life lessons I’m carrying over from my week and into Shabbat: Every day is somebody’s birthday. Meanings aren’t fixed. Instead, we construct […]
Daily Life
Two affirmations of humanity
This week I had two separate series of experiences that reaffirmed two aspects of our shared humanity that I think are of great value. The first affirmation was an affirmation of the creativity capacity within each person. As human being we want, we yearn, we need to and can’t avoid engaging with our creativity. […]
talking to my 4 year old daughter about death
Last night I had one of those life defining experiences that no parent looks forward to: talking to my 4 year old about death. A tragedy has struck our community. A young father lost his battle with cancer. He has a child in my daughter’s preschool class. It’s a Jewish preschool and all of the […]
#Trust– #BlogElul Day 10
Trust. Judaism has a lot to say on the topic. To summarize– individual and communal trust in God is the key to a happy life. But what does that actually mean? What does it mean to trust in God? Here are a few possibilities: 1) Believing that God has a plan. A plan for […]
#Count– #BlogElul10
Counting is a basic human activity. How we count says a lot about what we value and how we live. Do we count based on quality or based on quantity? Quantitative counters might ask– How many emails did I receive today? How many voice messages? How many hits did my website get? How much new […]
#Hear– #BlogElul8
My beloved teacher and friend, Rabbi Jim Ponet, once told me, “Everything is either an expression of love or a cry for love.” I agreed then. I agree now. Since then I’ve tried to retrain my ear to hear the cacophony of the world as that expression or that cry.