COVID-19 has thrown some of us closer together. But not always for the best. At least, not in my neighbourhood. I live in Vancouver, Canada, in a trendy urban neighbourhood. Here, small one-family homes crowd close together. Old trees and thick hedges surround them. Crows, ravens, woodpeckers, and songbirds fill the landscape. So do racoons,…
Category: Psychology
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…
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…
Fear, Fire, Focus, Moses
Moses at the burning bush. A symbol of hope in response to fear. Last week, I saw how it works. We live next door to a wonderful family. Two parents and three sons. One son is a teen, and two are young adults. The parents live upstairs. And the sons live in the basement suite. Last…
Jacob and Joseph: What Does It Take to Heal?
Jacob and Joseph. Biblical heroes, father and son. Two generations in a single story of hurt and healing. A father who feels himself a failure. And places hope in his son. A son who cannot soothe his father. But learns how to heal himself. Imagine yourself in Jacob’s story. You felt bullied by your older…
Atonement: Must you repent & forgive first?
Repentance. Forgiveness. Atonement. Sounds like a chain of cause and effect. And maybe sometimes it is. If you repent, then I’ll forgive, and then God will grant atonement. But sometimes there’s no chain. Just three different kinds of inner work. Three challenges for three different actors. It’s helpful sometimes to remember. And to focus on…
Love: Uncover It Through Teshuvah
My father of blessed memory did love to write. His handwriting was elegant, precise, and unique. I know it well. Because, for 23 years – from the day I left home until the day he died – my father wrote me a letter almost every day. After he died, his letters showed up in my…
Ego Insatiable: Who can teach you that you are enough?
Jealousy. Greed. Ego. So pervasive. Sometimes I feel like a failure as a spiritual teacher. “Be happy for your friends’ success,” I say. “Don’t be jealous. Donate your money to organizations. Give some away on the street. Don’t be greedy. When you feel slighted, ask yourself why. Remember the world does not revolve around your…
Individuation in Genesis: From Abraham to Joseph
Psychological individuation. What is it? Why might it be a main theme of the Book of Genesis? How do key characters succeed and fail at it? And how does Joseph wrap it all up in the book’s last section? C.G. Jung’s Concept of Individuation Individuation, in Jung’s psychology, is a process of becoming – becoming more…
Lot of Sodom: Do you feel sorry for Abraham's nephew?
Does Torah’s narrator dislike Lot of Sodom, nephew of Abraham? Or does she feel sorry for him? Does she think we should, too? The narrator, of course, is circumspect. Literally. She circles around Lot’s story. Turn by turn, she introduces him. Orphaned as a young child Terach fathers Abram, Nachor and Haran. Haran fathers Lot,…