Nina Amir's Thoughts on Human Potential, Personal Growth and Practical Spirituality
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
From the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, until the end of Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentence, Jews have 10 days to return or turn back–t’shuvah–to their best selves. How do you do this? Here’s an excerpt from my workbook, Get Ready, Aim, Shoot, and Hit Your Bull’s Eye This Year that [...]
This evening begins the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Jews all over the world will go to synagogue and pray, beginning the yearly cycle of teshuvah, or return. Return to what? To God and to our best selves. We review our lives and behavior over the last year and we make amends with God, with [...]
Over the last two weeks I’ve spent a lot of time with my daughter preparing her for college and helping her deal with leaving behind a boyfriend she cares about deeply. These two teens maturely choose to end the relationship to allow each other freedom while they live on opposite coasts and experience life in [...]
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, usually falling near the end of summer. Based on a lunar calendar, the dates of Ramadan vary, moving backwards about ten days each year. This year Ramadan begins on August 11th and continue for 30 days until September 9th. In North America, it begins on August [...]
I find that we as a society have moved away from celebrating most holidays in a meaningful or spiritual manner. I emphasize taking what I call empty holiday observances and filling them with meaning and spirit. That means getting away from the commercial influences that want us to simply buy something to fulfill whatever obligation [...]
On Monday we celebrate Memorial Day. This holiday started off as a somber day of remembrance, a day where we in America went to cemeteries and placed flags or flowers on the graves of those who died in battle or in some way during the course of war. We remembered our ancestors, family members, loved [...]
Everyone has a mother…or had a mother. We are all born into this world from a mother, but some of us may be orphans, adults whose mother’s have died, or estranged from our mother. Even those of us in these situations can celebrate Mother’s Day. We need only think outside the box a bit. One [...]
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