LET’S ASSUME FOR THE MOMENT that the Chanukah story is true (or at least as true as any myth or legend) … Basking in the glow of three candles a little while ago, it occurred to me that to the…
Tag: There’s a God in My Soup
Religious experience, or at least the experience of religion.
Solstice Prayer (2019 Reboot)
“WE HAVE REACHED THE DEPTH of darkness. Let us now make the long, slow, purposeful ascent back toward the Light.” –Barbatus T. Elder
365 Names: “G-d”
G-D is a bit of linguistic trickery. Because traditional Judaism teaches that the name of G?d (see what I did there?) is not to be erased, “G-d” is a way to write that Name without really writing it: on a…
365 Names: Flow
FLOW is preferred to The Flow, since “the” suggests separateness — “Thingness,” if you will — and as Flow cannot be reliably distinguished from that-which-flows, said usage would upset “the” carefully built phenomenological apple-cart. (And we certainly can’t have that.)…
The harder it became, the more I wanted to do it.”
— Female round-the-world sailor, from the film MAIDEN
365 Names: “Teacher”
TEACHER The active metaphor here is that G?d has set lessons all around us, and it’s our job to discover them; imagine everything in the Universe labeled with a great big “LEARN HERE” sticker. No one of us really knows…
If church worked, you’d only need to go once.”
— Pastor Rich Gantenbein, a”h
365 Names: “Shekhina”
THE SHEKHINA, or “Presence (of G?d),” comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to dwell” (it’s the same root as “mishkan,” the portable desert G?d-tent AKA “Tabernacle”). There’s a seamless distinction between the Presence of G?d and G?d Itself. Tradition teaches…
Right (of) Passage
ONE QUESTION THAT OFTEN COMES up during Torah study, especially the portions that concern the seemingly over-described sacrifices and Tabernacle (portable wilderness G?d-tent) and its holy furniture, is, “Does G?d really care about all these details?” One answer: “Who knows?…
Haiku: Timeless Time
IT”S SPACE ON THE CLOCK Between the Tick and the Tock. Have a good Shabbos!
“For My Next Trick, I Will Unite the Universe…”
A FUN WAY TO ENTERTAIN and enlighten early adolescents is via the following exercise: “What’s the first dimension?” you’d ask. They’d answer, “Length.” “The second?” “Width.” “Third?” “Height.” “Fourth?” “Time!” “That’s right. Now, for my next trick, I will unite…
To gain a yirah[awe]-inducing glimpse of the transcendent, you must sharpen your inner awareness to perceive divine Oneness wherever you look. You can practice shifting your inner vision to apprehend the scintillating divine presence in an apple, a table, a car, a baby’s eyes, anywhere in this world. When you make that choice and adjust your perception in this way, you have placed HaShem [that-which-some-people-call-G?d] before you, and yirah is sure to overtake your heart as if the floor beneath you had suddenly fallen away.”
–From the monthly YASHAR newsletter)