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Purim Secrets

Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jews from the wicked Haman’s scheme to exterminate all the Jewish men, women, and children living in the Persian Empire in the year 357 B.C.E., which essentially meant all the Jews in the world. Some of the commandments of Purim, such as hearing Megillat Esther, which recounts the Purim story, and enjoying a festive meal, are obvious ways to commemorate this deliverance.

Other commandments and customs have no apparent connection to what happened on Purim. Why are we required to give charity to the poor, send two food items to a friend, and get so drunk that we do not know the difference between Haman, the villain, and Mordechai, the righteous hero of the story? (This last commandment, I understand, is very rigorously kept in college dorms all year round.)

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SOUL-UTIONS To Pain

There are times when we are simply exploring the philosophical meaning of pain. And then there are times when we are personally in pain and struggling to understand why. When we are merely discussing pain then we can find a philosophical understanding of pain. But when we are in pain, we must accept that there really are no satisfactory answers.

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Who are we in relation to God?

You are an expression of the Divine.

Right at this very second you’re connected to the Divine – we all are – the problem is that we could forget that truth.

What we need to work on is to become aware of how connected we are to the Ultimate. And how we’re already connected to each other. And that’s really the ultimate choice in our lives. Are we going to think, speak and act in ways that cause us to forget how connected we are? And how incredibly wonderful all can be because all is set within the Divine, all is an expression of the Divine and there’s really nothing but the Divine.

Want to explore this further? Join me.

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Unmasking Nature: G-d’s Love is Here and Now

According to Jewish Tradition, as soon as the Hebrew month of Adar begins we must increase our joy because the miracle of the Purim Story happened on that month. Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jews in the year 357 BCE from the wicked Haman’s scheme to exterminate all the Jewish men, women and children living in the Persian Empire, which meant all the Jews in the world at that time. In the Purim story, however, there were no miraculous divine interventions. There were no supernatural plagues and no splitting of any seas. In fact, G-d’s name is not even mentioned once in the entire Purim story recorded in the Book of Esther (Megillat Esther).

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Who & What is God?

Who is God?

The word ‘God’ does not appear in the Torah.

What is God?

There is no such thing as ‘God’ – no such thing in existence because the Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey that we read in the Torah IS existence.

The word and common concept of  ‘God’ in many societies comes from a poor translation of the written Torah without taking into account the Oral Tradition. And that misconception conjures up all kinds of crazy and somewhat childish images of some guy in the sky who’s got some control issues and who has basically made anything that’s fun forbidden.Continue reading“Who & What is God?”

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What Good are YOU?

What good are YOU?

You are a certain kind of good, you bring into the world a specific kind of good, and you need to determine what that unique goodness is that you’ve been sent to this world to serve.

What if you don’t feel like serving God? What if Judaism doesn’t make you happy?

What is happiness anyway? And, what is the secret to attaining it?Continue reading“What Good are YOU?”

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The Prize IS the Surprise!

We’ve all done it… we feel hungry, open the refrigerator and see several options, yet we stand there peering in, waiting for something to speak to us. Sometimes we close the door, walk away and minutes later repeat the process as though something new might appear inside and jump out at us (admit it, you’ve done this, right?)!

In this video interview with Yehezkel Lang, Rabbi Aaron explains:

What we’re looking for is not something to eat. We’re hungry and we have this infinite thirst for the Infinite. Continue reading“The Prize IS the Surprise!”

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To Love Fully

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”  How’s that even possible for me to love my neighbor?  I don’t even like him.  I can’t stand his ideas, he talks too much, and his behavior is embarrassing.  Love him?  No way.  At best, maybe I can force a smile when he comes around. …