As we approach Rosh Hashanah, here's a reminder that our spiritual ancestors knew what neurobiologists only recently figured out. Emotion is catchy – and a good thing, too. In the 1980s, scientists discovered that the brain is wired with mirror neurons that fire when we perceive others' emotions. These neurons mirror in us what we sense others experiencing,… Continue reading The Gratitude Virus

Perhaps nothing seems more obvious than what's "good" or "bad" – or, as this week's Torah portion (Re’eh) puts it, what's a "blessing" or "curse." At this time in the Jewish calendar, when the approaching High Holy Days prod us to examine "good" and "bad" in our lives, a famous story challenges our sense of… Continue reading This Too is For Good: The Power of Hope

The secular calendar says mid-summer, and my Northeast home swelters for an umpteenth day above 90 degrees. The timing is right: on the Jewish spiritual calendar, the great gear shift has come. It's time to start turning inward towards the heat of our hearts and souls. Probably few of us instinctively respond with delight. After… Continue reading It’s Your Turn

In this moment of high political drama in U.S. and European history, politicians are claiming moral and even spiritual mantles to advocate causes.  This week's Torah portion (Balak) focuses us on that political use and misuse of spiritual authority. Balak was king of Moab, through whose desert territory the Israelites had to travel en route… Continue reading Separation of Shul and State

Some fear is healthy ("don't stand in a busy highway"). Other fear is insidious, paralyzing, hope-draining and soul-snatching – and existential fear can be toxic if left to fester. This week's Torah portion (Shlach) calls us to see existential fear what it is, and move through it as a core commitment of Judaism. This week we learn… Continue reading When Fright Makes Right

Next weekend (June 11, 2016) is Shavuot, Festival of Receiving Torah, when we evoke standing together at Sinai to receive anew the wisdom we call Torah. As preparation, this week's Torah portion (Bamidbar – "in the wilderness") comes to remind us how to open ourselves to receive that wisdom anew. The lesson, it turns out, is about wilderness itself.… Continue reading In the Wilderness: How to Receive Torah

One of the greatest blemishes on Biblical tradition is how it treats the so-called "blemish" of those who might be called into spiritual service. This week's Torah portion (Emor) shines this challenge directly in our eyes, dares us to flinch and calls us to make a repair. In ancient days, a "blemish" (Hebrew, mum) disqualified a… Continue reading Blemishes, One and All

Next time you are in a synagogue, gaze at the eternal flame atop the Ark.  Its symbolism represents the beating heart of spiritual and community life, if we make it so. Our spiritual ethos, hope, aspiration and calling is that the light never goes out – or so we tell ourselves.  This week's Torah portion… Continue reading Keeping the Light On

Pretend you're designing and building a new state Capitol. Imagine in precise detail the stones, woodwork, glass, tools, glue, joints, wiring and metalwork you'd need: such immense architectural plans could fill books. Now imagine getting the materials – not with tax revenue or apportioning needs directly to people able to fulfill them, but simply by saying the… Continue reading Building the Trusting Heart

Perspective is everything. How we see the world – our point of view – shapes how the world affects us and thus how we live. The opposite also is true: how we live shapes what we see. The two come together in a holy handshake, with profound implications for Jewish spirituality, what Jews believe and how we… Continue reading A Space for Spirit

It never fails. At first we feel gratitude for gifts and blessings, but memory fades and gratitude drains. We're not ingrates, but recall and attention are limited: life naturally gets in the way. Forgetfulness is the human condition: let's call it spiritual amnesia. For most of us living workaday lives, spirituality isn't what drives us… Continue reading What Have You Done For Me Lately?

It's that time again – retrospectives on the secular year now ending, Top 10 lists, New Years resolutions, new calendars, the Baby New Year myth become childhood cartoon, renewed diets and gym routines perhaps soon forgotten, the Rose Bowl parade, maybe a hangover or two. Among the social values of New Years is a sense of renewal… Continue reading Everything Old is New Again

"Hope springs eternal," wrote essayist Alexander Pope. This sentiment forms the spiritual core ofChanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, and (not coincidentally) also this week's Torah portion, Miketz. Hope, by its nature, transcends perceived reality however bleak. Hope is what remains when the night seems most dark, when the chips seem most down, when the deck seems most… Continue reading Becoming the Light

Every Jewish house of worship echoes the iconic scene in this week’s Torah portion (Vayetze). Jacob takes a rock and places it under his head for a pillow. He dreams of a ladder rising from there to heaven, with angels ascending and descending along it. Jacob wakes with awe and calls the spot Beth El,… Continue reading Every Rock: The Art of Awe

  Beginnings tend to be messy: ask anyone who's ever given birth, tilled the soil, sculpted, composed, or built something to last. By their nature, beginnings tend to begin unformed and void, at first dark and uncertain, then haltingly lurch toward something-ness. Each year, Jews recycle Torah and begin its reading anew. This week we… Continue reading False Starts and the Art of Renewal