Prophecy, Anyone?
Last Shbbat I offered a Dvar Torah in honor of my mother, Sarah Harmelin, ז”ל, who passed away a little over a year ago. The portion of the week was Beha’alotcha (בהעלותך).
One of my mom’s favorite books was The Good Soldier Švejk, by the Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek. Švejk is a funny shleymazel soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War 1, and through his seeming foolishness we get to know ourselves better.
Slavery and Freedom
עַבְדֵי זְמָן עַבְדֵי עֲבָדִים הֵם –עֶבֶד אֲדֹנָי הוּא לְבַד חָפְשִׁי:
Slaves of time are slaves of slaves;Only God’s slaves are free.
All I wanted to do during my teenage years was to break free from my jail. I thought that once I got to university, things would be better; but no. Instead, I was becoming more acutely aware of how much
Vayigash: Teaching of Non-Duality
This week’s Torah portion, vayigash (Genesis 44:18 – 47:27) is the third weekly Torah portion devoted to Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son. At this stage of the story, Joseph serves as Pharaoh’s viceroy and is the de-facto ruler of Egypt.
Dying The Hindu Way
At the end of last year (2017) and beginning of this, my wife Lisa and I spent some weeks in India, on a pilgrimage of sorts. It was a journey that left us enriched and deeply impacted, and will take a long time to process. I intend to share here some of our experiences.
Taking Responsibility from Within
These days it is in vogue, in certain circles, to speak with anger about Trump. Everywhere you go it’s Trump, Trump, Trump, with email accounts flooded with petitions against him of all kinds, Facebook posts of yet another indication of how terrible he is, and impeachment becoming the mantra-de-jour.
In Memory of Abbaleh (Daddy)
My father, Zvi Harmelin, was born on Nov 2 1917; had he been with us today, we would have celebrated his 100th Birthday.
I’m trying to imagine how he would have looked at 100. Surely, he would have appeared to be quite different than he was when he passed away, almost 30 years ago, only a few years older than I am now. Already then, at 72, he was quite frail, somewhat underweight and much slower than the daddy I remember in my childhood and youth.
Embarking on a Spiritual Journey
Was just interviewed by Thomas Walters of the Zen Commuter site. Thanks, Thom, for the interview! You can listen to it here.
Thom and I spoke about meditation, about spirituality vs. religion, and about the need to embrace oneness in a fractured and divided world.
The Path of a Foster Mom
As part of our preparation to become adopting parents, my wife, Lisa, and I have been speaking to many foster and adopting parents across the country. So many people have inspired us with their heroic, yet matter-of-fact selflessness.
An Amazing Bill Clinton Story for our Times
Of the many wonderful people I met in recent years, one of my favorites is a sweet, wickedly clever and funny rabbi by the name of Michael Paley. In certain circles of liberal Judaism he is very well known, both in the USA and beyond. And it so happens that we frequent the same synagogue on Shabbat mornings.
We’re Adopting
Yes, we’re Adopting.
If I was Politico or Washington Post, I’d call this blogpost: “Breaking: We’ve Decided to Adopt.” It’s breaking for us—breaking inertia, breaking our frame of reference, breaking how we think about ourselves and about our lives. It’s breaking our life as we know it.
Religious Practice as Activism?
For years, religious dialog in our society has been usurped by right-wing ideologues. This it true in both in the USA and in Israel. The following cartoon is an excellent commentary of what religious “dialogue” has devolved into:
Does Money Really Make the World Go Round?
My brother-in-law inquired: “The communists have a labor theory of value, while the capitalists maintain that the source of value is land, labor, and capital. What is the spiritual theory of value?”