In parshat Lech L’cha God commanded Abraham to leave his home, his father’s house, and the land of his birth. He also commanded Abraham: v’heyeh bracha (“Be a Blessing). Here’s a song and a poem. The song is from my album, “Be a Blessing” and the poem was just easier to write than prose. Here’s the song: V’heyeh Bracha […]
Jewish Teachings
I want to be able to say God’s name
I was checking my email when the front desk called. There was a young man who wanted to speak with me. Of course, send him back. A 5th grade boy walked into my office, clearly stirred. What’s up? After a moment… He asked, How can I become holy enough to say God’s real name? This […]
To be is to be seen
When I was in high school my philosophy teacher, Mr. Linn (yes, I had a philosophy teacher in high school) told me that the quote, “To be is to be seen” is attributed to Jean Paul Sartre. At least I think he said it was Sartre, I might be mis-remembering. I could look it up, […]
Love without reward
Here’s a quote I found that is attributed (I hope rightly) to the Jewish/French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas: “Faith is not a question of the existence or non-existence of God. It is believing that love without reward is valuable.” Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about spirituality. For the purposes of this post let’s say that […]
When opportunity knocks
Recently I’ve been thinking about how important it is (and how good it feels) to be ready when opportunity knocks. This has come up for me in a number of personal and professional areas, one of which is music. If you’ve read more than a post or two of mine then you may know how […]
Tearing down and building up
There’s a Jewish teaching that I associate (I think correctly) with Rebbe Nachman of Breslov: “If you believe that we can break something then you must also believe that we can mend it.” Unfortunately, it’s much easier to break things than to mend them. It’s much easier to tear down than to build up. It’s much easier […]