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…
Locust: Mutations of Consciousness
I would like to talk about insects. And I would like to move freely between the levels of peshat – simple narrative…
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…
Dreams in Torah
“Jacob dreamed: a ladder was standing on the ground, and its top reached up toward heaven. God’s angels were going…
How to Honour a Woman
About 1500 years ago, our sages paired each weekly Torah reading with a specific reading from the prophets. The reading…