Making G-d's Will Ours
"Behold you have sinned against G-d. And you your sin will find you." ~~ Numbers 32:23
THE PROCESS OF 'I'-DENTIFYING
If G-d were the sun each of us would be a ray of His divine light. The goal of the spiritual disciplines of daily Torah (Bible) life - study, prayer, meditation, and the performance of mitzvas (religious duties; plural formitzvah), is to serve G-d and, thereby, become one with our true essence. Through these practices we experience our self an aspect and individualized expression of the Timeless Universal Self - G-d.
The 20th century Kabbalist Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains in his book Inner Space that in order to feel this powerful truth, we must learn to disengage our inner self from its outer trappings. In other words, we have to get in touch with our soul as distinct from our persona, thoughts and feelings.
The goal of disengaging the self from the outer trappings is to realize that you are not your thoughts, your emotions, your body, your money,...
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What makes leaders willing to sacrifice everything?
This week marked nine years since my cousin Benjy Hillman fell in battle leading his men into combat in the second Lebanon War in 2006. One would think by now, the tears would no longer flow so easily and the memorial ceremony at his grave would be less gut-wrenching. But watching his mother Judith...
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Can You Forgive G-d?
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~~ Anne Frank
This imperfect world is the perfect place for a dynamic life filled with challenge, growth and love. That...
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When the Loser is a Winner
The Talmud teaches that King Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes after he saw prophetically that his kingdom and the Temple that he worked so hard to build would be destroyed. Imagine what a devastating realization that must have been to know that what you invested your entire life will be destroyed. We can understand why he bemoaned, ...
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There is no more tragic figure in the entire Torah than Moshe Rabbeinu (our ultimate teacher).
And there is no part of the story of his life in the Torah that is more confounding and more mysterious than the story, in this week...
