Infinity: A perfect topic for my interview on this innovative podcast. It’s called PTR: Philosophy, Theology, and Religious studies. Or, if you prefer, “Poststructuralist Tent Revival.” PTR is hosted by Jacob Given, a doctoral student at Villanova University. Here we discuss ideas from my book The Infinity Inside: infinity, kabbalah, God’s existence, dreams, and mystical…
Teshuva Builds Community
Social scientists say: People who belong to spiritual communities are happier. Why? More opportunities for connecting. Giving. And learning, through ritual, how to be with others. Including the Ten Days of Teshuvah, a Jewish New Year ritual for healing ruptures between friends and family.
Synagogue Life in COVID-19: Care, Conflict, and Teshuvah
A family friend of ours died this summer, from COVID-19 complications. I was the officiating rabbi at his burial. No tahara, ritual washing of his body, had been permitted. We, a small group of twelve, gathered at the graveside. Each of us wore a mask and disposable gloves. We stood six feet apart. After the…
Trafficking Biblical Women
Sex trafficking. It’s in the news. A Q-Anon theory that sex trafficking is rampant. And only Trump can stop it. After all, “he” arrested Epstein and Maxwell. Anyone can argue that this is factually false. (See below.) But I’m not going to talk facts. Well, maybe briefly. But then I’m going to look at human…
Negative Thoughts, Be Gone!
Negative thoughts, be gone! I’m reading the handbook for combatting demons by Evagrius Ponticus, a 4th c. Christian monk. He clearly states that his demons are negative thoughts. And that he talks back to them–in Bible verses. Evagrius’s handbook is very personal. It’s a long list of his own habitual negative thoughts and the verses…
Creative Meditation
A creative meditation. Designed to connect you with the creative resources in your own psyche. It’s based on a creative reading of the Bible’s donkey stories. The typical donkey scene in the Bible stars a human character who isn’t sure where they are going or what they will do when they arrive. But, they saddle…
Shema: Something old, something new
Shema. Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It’s featured in this week’s Torah reading, and in the daily liturgy. It was inside a gift I gave my father before he died. And in one I gave my daughter as she left home last week. More about that, below. Moses says, Shema! Listen! God is infinite being. Love God with…
Forest: Cooperation, Not Competition
How do you see the forest? Is it a site of cooperation? Or competition? There’s just three letters difference between the words. But they are a whole world view apart. It can be weird to read an author with a different world view. They get all the facts right, but organize them oddly. It’s as…
To see with sad clarity
Towards the end of the Book of Job, Job finally learns to see. He says to God: “Until now, I only heard about you. Now I have seen you” (Job 42:5) What does Job mean? “I heard stories about you, God. But all about things that happened in the distant past, not in the living…
Aliens on Our Planet
Aliens were trending on twitter yesterday. No, not terrestrial aliens like the ones in the picture. (However, I’ll talk about them below). But EXTRA-terrestrials, the kind from another planet. Apparently, the New York Times reported on them yesterday. Well, on efforts to learn more about them. The US Office of Naval Intelligence is studying UFOs.…