Nina Amir's Thoughts on Human Potential, Personal Growth and Practical Spirituality
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 [...]
Many of us spend a lot of time working on ourselves. We go to counseling. We take human potential, personal growth and self-improvement classes. We read books on these subjects as well. We analyze our relationships and ourselves. We exercise. We try to eat right. We journal. We meditate. We try new spiritual practices. We [...]
Lately I’ve been feeling stuck. I want to be unstuck. Ever been there? I’ve tried prayer. I talked to God. I cried to God. I pleaded with God. I tried counseling. And I got really honest with myself and with others, baring my deepest feelings. Today in the car I decided to follow Rebbe Nachman [...]
I know the uselessness of anger. I know the damage it causes both emotionally and physically. Yet, sometimes anger proves the most difficult emotion to change. Once it comes over me, it feels like it attaches itself to me like a vice with no removal mechanism. I’m left to watch the negative results set forth [...]
Today Jews all over the world celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. On this day, the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, they commemorate Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. This holiday also is known as the Festival of Weeks named in Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:16. Shavuot is celebrated seven weeks and a day [...]
Each year as Passover approaches I’m given reason to consider my fears and how I deal with them. I do this because I remember learning about how fearful the Children of Israel felt at the shore of the Red Sea as the Egyptians approached. I was at an event near my home in Silicon Valley [...]
I’ve written about fear a lot, however, when a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hits somewhere in the world, in this case in Chile, it brings up some fear in me. You see, I live in California. My home sits between two fault lines. The earthquake in Haiti brought up some fear, too. So do the little [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about teachers lately. In Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers: Chapter 1, Mishna 6, “Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Perachya says, ‘Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend, and judge each person favorably.” Leaving the latter part of this teaching for another time, I’ll focus on the first [...]
Today I was reading a blog about this week’s parshah and came upon a teaching from Rav Kook, the former chief rabbi of Israel. He said the moment you were born is the exact moment that God decided the world could no longer function without you. So, your moment of conception had to be predestined and, [...]
Today I’d like to share a teaching of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov’s that truly speaks to me, especially since I do go out and teach. In fact, Rabbi Nachman’s wisdom, in this case, gave me permission to go out and teach what I knew. He taught me that everyone is a teacher, and we should [...]
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