Posts tagged vulnerability
Shabbat Eikev

It is too easy in normal times – when we feel safe, healthy, undisturbed to mistakenly think we are self-sufficient, to, in Isaiah’s words this week, “walk by the blaze of [our own] fire.” During times of great disruption, like our ancestors faced, like we face today, we see the walls of the familiar structures around us laying in ruin. We confront our own vulnerability, our deep dependence on each other; are reminded anything that happens to any part of the great web of life in which we and the natural world are bound, affects all of us.

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Transforming our Curses into Blessings

In (and out of) synagogues, campuses, JCCs, summer camps and religious schools, people are developing opinions about hot-button issues. As a rabbi, I am painfully aware of how fraught discussions of Jewish identity, inclusion of interfaith couplessame-sex religious ceremonies, and Israel/Palestine can be. All too often, our communities erect a tense wall of silence around these issues. On many sides of the debate, people advocate for themselves on either side of this wall without the ability to truly see whomever is on the “other side.”

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Click (Everyw)here

At the end of the week, I embark on a weeklong meditation retreat. As the retreat starts, and for its duration, I will not be permitted to check e-mail or use my phone. Though I’ve gone on over a dozen silent meditation retreats, the prospect of a week away from these distractions still frightens me. I will miss seeing what news stories my friends are interested in and sharing on Facebook, and being able to text friends and family to say “hi,” or wish them a Shabbat Shalom. On the other hand, I worry sometimes that all this focus on building up my virtual self—“Liking” and “Sharing” the right things, posting enticing photos on Facebook, and trying to respond to all of my e-mails—prevents me from experiencing the world around me.

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