Tag: There’s a God in My Soup

Religious experience, or at least the experience of religion.

365 Names: “Ain Sof”

AIN SOF is the Name given by Jewish mystics to G?d’s most transcendent (read: non-immediate) aspect. Meaning, literally, “without end,” it falls short of describing the Indescribable by admitting with honesty that it can’t be done. “There is no way to praise G?d in a manner that is suitable, ” says Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. “But a little is also good.”

Once upon a time, in 2011 in fact, The Metaphorager aspired each day to feature a different name for that-which-passes-for-God. Some were creative, others traditional, each unique; so we’re going to attempt that project again (though not every day) until we run out of the names we’ve collected so far. If you want to see your favorite here, but haven’t, send it along with the subject line “365 Names” and let us know whether or not you want to be credited.

“Different Models for Different Muddles”

EACH PERSON’S PERCEPTION OF TRUTH is different. This one has a broader outlook, this one a narrow outlook. But the sincerity of each one’s devotions is all that counts.”
— Reb Nosson: Plato to Rebbe Nachman’s Socrates

A Talmud of Civility

When faced with [a piece or opinion of Torah] that is on its face absurd or contradictory, the rabbis do not dismiss it, but actively work to understand it. What would it look like for us, when someone says something apparently illogical and absurd, to assume that they are making some kind of internal sense and actually thoughtfully work to understand their reasoning?”
— Sara Ronis, “A Daily Dose of Talmud (Pesachim 78),” @myjewishlearning.com

Writers’ Blocking

If my audience will feel that these interpretations are also relevant to their perceptions and emotions, I shall feel amply rewarded. However, I shall not feel hurt if my thoughts will find no response in the hearts of my listeners.”
— Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith

Fixing a Hole

RECENTLY, I RECEIVED SOME SPAM from Chosen People Ministries (one flavor of the Jews-for-Jesus-ers). When their website’s response-form asked why I wanted to unsubscribe from future mailings, I wrote, “Exodus 20:3; 1 Kings 18:21. Go play with someone else.”

They shouldn’t take it personally. Although I am in love with my own religion, I have a soft spot for other kindly faiths and their faithful. Jewish tradition itself avers that “the righteous of all nations have a place in the World to Come,” which I interpret to mean that deep truths are to be found everywhere humans of goodwill congregate. Continue reading “Fixing a Hole”

On Writerly Spirituality: Yom Kippur Edition

THIS DAY IS STEEPED IN regret — and resolve.

Yom Kippur is not as joyful as Pesach or Shavuot, which respectively mark the exodus from Egypt and embrace of the Torah[1], but it’s a day which carries its own spiritual riches. It is both comforting and discomforting to take stock of one’s last-year deeds, deciding what to build on and what to discard; call it one soul-bending enrichment experience. Continue reading “On Writerly Spirituality: Yom Kippur Edition”

5 Thoughts: It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Teacher

1. EVANGELICAL ATHEISTS LIKE TO STATE two reasons why the Torah is irrelevant: 1) It was written in the Bronze Age, and 2) it’s festering with contradictions.

2. Leaving aside the point that many of our species’ current intellectual systems also date from the Bronze Age, I’d like to address the so-called contradictions. Sure, they exist. But my argument is that they’re not accidental, but intentional. Continue reading “5 Thoughts: It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Teacher”

365 Names: God-Who-Sees

GOD-WHO-SEES is, in spite of titling a music video, also a fairly accurate descriptor of the non-dual mindstate: “All is seen, but No-thing is seen,” as one seeker-after-the-Divine put it. The Hebrew version, “El Roi” (lit.: “G?d Who sees me“) comes from Genesis 16:13; it’s what Abraham’s concubine Hagar said during her first Divine encounter — after Abraham’s wife Sarah kicks Hagar out of the family tent, and before she gives birth to Abraham’s son Ishmael. Per that, it’s also a nice reminder that just because we may feel far from the Mystery, the Mystery is not far from us. Something to keep in mind as these strange, strange days continue their origami-like unfolding.

Continue reading “365 Names: God-Who-Sees”

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