To be religious means to be honest, kind, and thoughtful. Anyone who lacks these qualities is not religious, no matter how careful one is in ritual observance.”
— Rabbi Marc D. Angel, introducing chapter 6 of Pirkei Avot
Category: Torah
The Text(s), the tribe, the learning, the being. (With a bit of random spirituality mixed in.)
Never allow what you cannot do to control what you can do.”
— Rabbi Avi Weiss
Prophylaxis
THE MISSIONARY AT THE DOOR was polite but insistent as she tried to hand me a tract. I bowed my head and pointed to my yarmulke. “No thank you,” I said. Her eyes widened and her mouth made a little…
The Spiritual Seeker’s Ponder
“DO YOU WANT ANSWERS? Or better, more interesting questions?”
The Talmud is tough because it assumes holistic knowledge of the whole Talmud, referencing texts and rulings that come much earlier or much later without stopping to really explain what the rabbis are talking about. The Talmud was not meant for beginners.”
— Dr. Sara Ronis
Be not ashamed to learn truth from any source.”
— Rabbi Shlomo ibn Gabirol (1021-1058)
365 Names: The Encounterable
THE ENCOUNTERABLE IS A NAME I invented about three minutes ago (as of this writing: 2112.12 @ 2150), but is meant to express one understanding of the Consciousness inherent in the universe. As written elsewhere, I do not “believe” in…
Tree of Life’s members will do everything for the 11 dead except show up in their place.”
– Pittsburgh rabbi to Mark Oppenheimer, from the latter’s “The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood”
When we stand in awe, our lips do not demand speech, knowing that if we spoke, we would deprave ourselves. In such moments talk is an abomination. All we want is to pause, to be still, that the moment may last. … The meaning of the things we revere is overwhelming, and beyond the grasp of our understanding.”
— Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
365 Names: “Der Aibishter”
DER AIBISHTER IS FROM THE Yiddish word meaning “uppermost” or “the highest one.” It’s a good Name for at least two reasons: 1) you can never have too much Yiddish, and b) it’s a nice descriptor of the nondualist perspective.…
5 Thoughts: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
1. IT IS EXTREMELY LAME TO apologize to people electronically en masse. But I’m going to do it anyway.
L’Shana Tovah!
THE JEWISH LUNAR/SOLAR CALENDAR begins the New Year 5782 tonight at sundown. The classic understanding of that number reflects the years since the world’s creation, but many of us find that explanation somewhat problematic. On the other hand, humanity’s recorded…