As the Spirit Moves Me

Yesterday was Christmas Day, but at our home, it felt a lot like Shabbat. Actually, it felt more like Shabbat than most Saturdays. I really hate to admit that fact, but truth be told, most Jewish holidays, Chanukah included, fall during secular work days or at times when secular activities occur. For example, on Friday afternoons, [...]

December 26th, 2008 | Tags: Christmas, relaxing, Sabbath peace, Shabbat shalom | Category: Christmas, Shabbat | Leave a comment

The story of Chanukah revolves around two main points:  The success of a small Jewish army over a large Assyrian one in a fight for religious freedom or, maybe more accurately, against assimilation and the miracle of the sole jar of oil found in the temple that burned not for one day in as expected [...]

December 22nd, 2008 | Tags: aish, candle gazing, candle gazing practice, Chanukah, chanukiah, chashmal, light of candle, light of chanukiah, nogha, soul as God's candle, why Jewish women cover eyes when lighting candles | Category: Chanukah, conscious creation, Jewish holidays, Jewish mysticism, miracles, spiritual practice | Leave a comment

Have you ever noticed how we create huge tangles of our lives? Maybe we just take one strand – a relationship or a job or a particular way of thinking or a small lie or a debt that gets larger over time – and we knot it up until its a total mess. Or maybe [...]

December 19th, 2008 | Tags: ana b'choach prayer, Chanukah, creating change, cutting whale loose, Prayer, tangled whale, untying tangles of life, using ana b'choach prayer as a spiritual practice | Category: Chanukah, creating change, God's hand, Prayer, religious practice, spiritual practice | Leave a comment

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve been studying human potential and personal growth for years. I’m always looking for tools and techniques to help people – myself included – reach their fullest potential and live fully as well. Plus, I like to put all of this into a Jewish context if I can. So, when [...]

December 16th, 2008 | Tags: conscious action, creating change in your life, Jewish human potential and self-growth methods and tool, Jewish self-help methods, living fully, Mussar, reaching full human potential, responding vs. reacting, Tanya | Category: conscious creation, creating change, human potential, living fully, personal growth, self-help methods | Leave a comment

I’ve been feeling a bit melancholy lately, as well as grateful for my children despite the fact that they are driving me absolutely crazy. In the last month, three children have died in Los Gatos, the town where I live. A middle school boy took his own life, possibly because his girlfriend broke up with [...]

December 12th, 2008 | Tags: dealing with the holidays when you are mourning, death of children, holiday season, how to be happy, mourning, Shabbat, Shabbat as a time of joy, suicide, teen deaths | Category: death, Gratitude, happiness, how to be happy, Shabbat, when bad things happen | Leave a comment

I was at my mother’s home in New York the Friday after Thanksgiving, the day notoriously known as “Black Friday.” People hit the post Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas sales that begin traditionally on this date. The local outlet mall, Woodbury Commons, even decided to open their doors at 12 a.m (midnight) this year to boost sales and [...]

December 9th, 2008 | Tags: Black Friday, Chanukah shopping, Christmas shopping, Giving, giving gifts, holiday gift buying, holiday gifts, holiday shopping, holiday spirit, shopping after Thanksgiving, trampled shoppers | Category: Chanukah, Christmas, Giving | Comments (1)