12-12-12 and Moving into the Consciousness of Gratitude and Giving

mayan calendar

My flight for Newark, NJ, took off almost an hour and 45 minutes late. Or maybe it was on time. The exact moment of flight was 12:12 p.m. EST on 12/12/12. The world did not end. In fact, in that moment I felt everything was beginning anew. And a huge wave of gratitude swept over [...]

When and How do You Experience Joy?

When recently have you experienced pure joy?  I had to ask myself this very question as I watched a recent episode of Oprah Winfrey’s new Lifeclass. Leave it to Oprah to get me thinking. In this Lifeclass she showed several episodes of the Oprah Show when people experienced “joy rising,” including one I wrote about [...]

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers (Part 2)

As I wrote in yesterday’s post, we must give as well as receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. We also become “like God,” since God is the Giver and we are the receivers. We, therefore, move closer to God, reducing the separation we tend to feel [...]

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers (Part 1)

One of the major premises in my work, both my writing and teaching, revolves around the need to give as well as to receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. Yet, we don’t want to give in order to receive. When we give, we make room to [...]

Why It's Important to Give Gifts

Two weeks ago I attended the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference. There I met an amazing woman: Cami Walker. She authored the book 29 Gifts and started 29Gifts.org. Cami lives with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. While she suffers from many of the symptoms and for a while could hardly walk, she now mostly [...]

Be Careful What You Wish For…

Have you ever heard the saying, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”? Sometimes the wish is fulfilled in usual ways. You have to be open to seeing the wish fulfilled no matter in what form it appears and to receive it even if it comes in a shape you didn’t [...]

Jews Can Dream Big on MLK Day

Today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jews can have a dream, too. We can dream of peace in Israel. We can dream of religious equality for Jews all over the world. We can dream of an end to anti-Semitism. (For more on this, click here.) We also can have more personal dreams. Do you [...]

A Kabbalistic Approach to Becoming a Change Agent in 2010

With the Blue Moon rising, tonight we ring in not only the New Year, but a whole new decade. And we do so at amidst a time of change. We’ve seen climate weather, world economic changes and political and government leadership changes. In spiritual, mystical and metaphysical circles, everyone is talking about and predicting change, [...]

What Do You Have and What are You Worth?

Today I was reading a commentary written by Rabbi Label Lam on this weeks parsha, the weekly torah portion. It happens to be about the reunion of Jacob and Esau, but it pertains to the giving and receiving, an important Kabbalistic concept that typically comes to the forefront of our minds during the holiday season. Just when [...]

Everyone has to be a Teacher

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 [...]