Finding My Way Back to Meaning-Full and Spirit-Full Practice

Spiritual practice should be meaningful

I hate to admit it, but over the last few years have found myself not practicing anything very spiritual. I haven’t practiced my religion. I haven’t practiced meditation. I haven’t practiced rituals. I haven’t practiced connecting to anything “higher” with my Tarot or Kabbalah cards or my pendulum. I haven’t observed Shabbat on a regular [...]

The Biggest Sin of All: Not Living Up to Your Potential

Have you sinned this year?

As a Jew, I’m now in the midst of Days of Awe, the 10 days between the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah and the Day of Repentance, Yom Kippur. During this time we are supposed to take an accounting of our sins and repent for them. However, I think the biggest sin of all is [...]

How to Observe a New Year in the Autumn

How to observe the Jewish New Year

The Jewish New Year comes in the autumn, at a time when things are not new at all but old. Here in Northern California, everything is brown and dry from the drought. Around most of the United States. the trees are turning colors and dropping leaves. Everything is going dormant. It’s a bit like a [...]

Don’t Run When God Calls, Go Fulfill Your Purpose

“And the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city…” How often in your life have you heard God’s voice? Ever? Once? Many times? For me…It’s a still small voice…very small…I have to listen hard. I hear it if I pay close attention. When the [...]

Why You Should Practice Surrender for the Rest of Your Life

I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about as a Yom Kippur, Day of Repentance topic. This Jewish High Holy Day typically brings up issues of forgiveness. I didn’t really want to delve into that once again. Then I watched an Oprah Winfrey Master Class video about surrender, and I knew. That’s my [...]

Restoring Your Computer Programs for the High Holy Days

laptop from dreamstime

My computer crashed a week and a half ago. It required that I take it into the shop and have it checked out. There was nothing wrong with the hard drive. The technician said it passed the diagnostics test. The actual computer worked fine. It had a software problem. To solve the software problem the [...]

Finding Consolation in a New Translation of Psalm 23

On Erev Yom Kippur, my rabbi, Eli Cohen, gave a moving sermon about Psalm 23. This psalm is most often read after someone dies, so for most of us it bears a negative connotation. Yet, it is meant to offer us consolation during difficult times in general, not just when someone has passed on. If [...]

Death on One Shoulder, Life on the Other

As I prepare dinner for Erev Yom Kippur’s meal and think about going to services tonight, I remember the liturgy of the High Holy Days and of the Day of Repentance. I always feel I have death sitting on one shoulder and life sitting on the other. What will this year bring for my family [...]

God Noticed Me on Rosh Hashanah

My Jewish renewal community has a traditional of doing group aliyot. In other words, instead of calling up one person to say the blessing before and after the Torah reading, they create a theme around the parshah, the Torah portion being read, and call up anyone that feels drawn to that theme to say the [...]

10 Days and 10 Ways to Return to Your Best Self: A T'Shuvah Guide

hoodie girl iStock_000008720540Small

Last year I ran a series of 10 posts during the High Holy Days to help people with the t’shuvah process, the process of returning to their best selves. I have compiled those posts into an ebook called 10 Days and 10 Ways to Return to Your Best Self, A T’Shuvah Guide, that is now [...]