In Jewish tradition, we think of prayer as tefillah, self-examination; shevach, praise; and bakashah, request. Traditional bakashot are unselfish general requests that benefit many: healing, world peace, good weather for…
Category: Torah
Reading Between the Lines of Isaac's Binding
“God said: please take your son, your only one, whom you love, Yitzchak…and offer him there for a burnt offering.…
Vayigash: Prejudice and Projection
NOTE: I wrote this in 2009; I would write it quite differently today! Judah approaches the Viceroy in charge of…
Our Name is Gratitude
When Leah’s fourth son is born, she names him Judah. In Hebrew, that’s Yehudah: gratitude. Yehuda‘s name honours the miraculous…
What's in a Name?
In Parshat Vayetzei, twelve babies are born and named by their legal mothers Leah and Rachel. For each boy, Torah…
Nature, Nurture, or Choice?
For the first half of their lives, Jacob and Esau do not get along. How did they become so difficult? Heredity or…
Dream on Three Levels
Jungian therapist and spiritual director Bonnelle Strickling speaks of three levels of dream interpretation. The same dream can have something…
Your Face is God's Face
Philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, a holocaust theologian, knew what it meant to call out to God but get no response. In…
Know Where You Are Going
Pirkei Avot, a book of foundational principles of Jewish Ethics, teaches, “Know where you come from and to where you…