For instance, let’s take some big opponent of same-sex marriage. If I could set aside my hurt at seeing the bumper stickers on their car, couldn’t I pretty easily imagine the emotions that underlie their position? How difficult is it really to appreciate their very human fear of change, the fear of a world moving faster than one can cope, loyalty to tradition, a fear of letting go of what you know. Easy to imagine, because I feel those things too. And if they were inclined to try, how difficult would it be for them to perceive my very human hunger to belong, to have what others have, my desire not to be left behind, my hope not to have to beg for it.
Read moreShabbat Zachor - Forgetting, Remembering, Acting
Trying to forget someone puts you in very powerful and intimate relationship with them. Think of the friend or relative you no longer speak to. Think of how much more psychic space that person takes up in your life than many of the people with whom you're on fine terms!
Read moreSimchat Torah: Back to Zero
God inhales Moshe's soul with a kiss, and the next thing we know, there is God exhaling ripples onto the surface of the deep. But there is a moment in between. A moment of returning to zero, like a movie actor between takes, like a cross-fade through black. Moshe returns to that Oneness, that same emptiness, that preceded everything. And we go with him. And then bang - Big Bang - we're off and running again. B'reishit...
Read moreFor Tomorrow You May Live
We all imagine and sometimes wish for the lives we might have had, if we'd made a different decision at some important or unimportant juncture. What if. What if. But we also need to appreciate that right now we are living lives we might not have had at all, if we'd made a different decision at some important or unimportant juncture.
Read moreAt the Closing of the Gates
This is a chant that came through for me the other day in ancticipation of the Ne'ilah Service - the metaphorical closing of the gates at the end of Yom Kippur.
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