Moses dies. People grieve. Writers praise. That’s how the Torah ends. “No other prophet arose in Israel, as great as Moses, who was known by God face to face…for the mighty hand and great terror that Moses performed.” (Deut. 34:10-12) So beautiful. And so confusing. Because I would expect Torah’s conclusion to summarize. Not to…
Category: God
Believe in Forgiveness: A Yom Kippur Reflection
I believe in you. That if you set your mind and heart to do something, you can do it. I believe in God. That God can…what? Today is Yom Kippur, so I suppose I believe that God can facilitate forgiveness. But how? In our liturgy, God is a character. A superhero. The seer of consequences.…
Argumentation for Theological Scholars
A slide lecture for research students at the Vancouver School of Theology. This was a fun project! A great opportunity to revisit my foundations in philosophical thought.
Eye of the Animal: Kallah Class Poem
Want a ride to the other side of your vision of me so you can see who I really am? Beyond a fanciful procession of animals entering the ark bathed in light? I’m a head that’s one-third eyes a winged body that can soar power hides within I’m eyes of the horse round and profound…
Spiritual Practice for the Spiritual-But-Not-Religious Seeker
Spiritual practice is the art of getting to know your spirit. Spirit can include your emotions, character, moods and attitudes. Your motivations, ideals, beliefs, and (or) sense of God. Read more about basic spiritual practice here. Spiritual practice expands your consciousness. Consciousness has many dimensions, so many. But we turn our attention towards so few of them! Spiritual…
Sacred Text: Do the first few lines tell the whole story?
A sacred text begins carefully. Powerfully. Precisely. As it should — because the opening lines introduce a spiritual tradition. Just how much is revealed in the opening lines of Torah, New Testament and Quran — even to the casual reader? Let’s see! Beginning of Torah: Sacred Text of Judaism In the beginning of God’s creating…
A spiritual not religious experience deepened my religious faith
Spiritual not religious. Did I briefly flirt with it on Mount Seymour? That’s where Charles and I forgot about God. We felt part of the cosmic unity of creation. We had no need for religious concepts. Was our experience at Mount Seymour spiritual? Of course it was. Spirit is our experience of being alive. Our emotions,…
Beyond Opposites: Tiferet
Don’t contradict yourself. It’s either A or not A. The law of the excluded middle. A thing is itself, and not its opposite. A = A. It’s the identity principle. But these logical rules don’t operate in Kabbalah. Or in human psychology. Kabbalists teach that the Divine Itself violates this rule. God is Eyn Sof …
Boundaries by Design: Gevurah
Sephirat Ha’Omer: seven weeks of spiritual practice, taking account of the elements – the sephirot — of spirit. Remember the Periodic Table of the Elements from basic Chemistry? It’s a simple graphic, listing the elements of matter, arranged from the most rarified to the most dense. Kabbalistic tradition offers something like it: two diagrams of…
Limits of Rationalism (Vayikra)
God tells Moshe: people will bring offerings: cattle, goats, sheep, birds, grain. Make sure Aaron and his crew know how to prepare each kind for the altar! After giving those instructions, God explains which circumstances require which offerings (Parshat Vayikra, Exodus 1:1-5:26). And here, medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides throws in the towel. It’s true, he…