This week, I happen to be teaching a course to rabbinic students called Losing God, Finding God: Jewish Responses to…
Category: Philosophy
A Dog at the Seder? Lessons from philosopher Emmanuel Levinas
As a child, the great Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas noticed that dogs appear in Torah at a crucial moment. On…
Knowing the Unknowable
How do you speak about the unsayable? Represent the unrepresentable? Make conscious what is, by its nature, unconscious? Here is…
Your Kabbalistic Creativity
How do you use your creativity to explore your spirituality? You could probably answer this question in two seconds. You…
Everyone Wants to Be Jewish
Judaism is in fashion in the U.S. — and in Canada, too. Non-Jews are happy to join Jewish families. Christian…
Inner Eclipse
Traditional European philosophy says: we know our selves intimately. Ideas, images, associations, and feelings present themselves clearly and immediately. We…
Paradox of Free Will
Free will or determinism? Parshat Miketz asks the question. Or, rather, it sets out two different answers. Thus, it tempts…
Terror in Afula
A numinous dream, last Wednesday: I am on Kibbutz Ein Dor, near the city of Afula in Northern Israel, visiting…
A Mystical Vision
Last week, I had a mystical experience. As I took my seat on an airplane flying from Toronto to Vancouver,…