Embracing Aging and Mortality: A Personal Transformation
by Rosemary Lohndorf
Retirement, initially, was very challenging. I stepped up to care for my uncle, at the same time, realizing there were five elders in our family and I had no skill set or road map for helping them on their aging journey, let alone their end-of-life path…
Kaddish for My Rebbe
by Amitai YRK Gross
In the Summer of 2014, I was desperately in need of a vacation, after months preparing to manage a week-long summer program for 250 screaming high school students. Nothing sounded better for my mental health than a week of the exact opposite, so I signed up for a silent retreat….
The Path to Sage-ing: Rediscovering Passion and Purpose in Retirement
by Rosemary Lohndorf
More than a decade ago, I stepped away from a busy life as a teacher and then as a principal. For years, I had worked six days a week. I answered emails on the weekends and caught up on paperwork. I felt burned out from work yet didn’t know how to help myself…
From Catholic Nun to Jewish Mystic: Living Deep Ecumenism
by Maryrita Wieners
When I first heard Reb Zalman’s teachings about Deep Ecumenism something moved deeply in me. I knew a Light, a deep understanding! Walking the Deep Ecumenism path has allowed me to interweave the richness of being Catholic with my choosing to come to Judaism. …
From Conflict to Collaboration: My Journey with Deep Ecumenism
by Rabbi Victor Gross
Growing up in a relatively small city, I often heard accusations hurled at me from students at a parochial school as I walked by, implying that, yes, I had killed Jesus. In my own school, I encountered anti-Jewish sentiments.
In response …
The Secret to Peace of Mind
by Rosemary Lohndorf
About fourteen years ago, the call came…my 85-year-old aunt had passed away suddenly. My uncle, with no children, was left alone. I stepped in to assist him, and took him out to lunch once a week. As time passed, we began to notice signs of Alzheimer’s developing. One day, he handed me the checkbook …
What Are We Doing?
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
What have you done?! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the earth.
These are the words spoken by God to Cain after he murders his brother, Abel…And I am asking: What are we doing? The blood of our brothers and sisters, our cousins and friends cries out from the earth!
Malchut/Shechinah
by Yoreshet Joan G. Kaufman
Malchut is the last and bottom-most sefirah on the Tree of Life. From Malchut we receive the sensitivity to feel divine presence, to feel God, to feel holy, to have mystical experiences. It is the sense of God in our presence; the aspect of God that we can feel, pray to, talk with and wrestle with…
Yesod – The Connector
by Yoreshet Ruach D’vorah Grenn, PhD
The sefirah or divine/human attribute of Yesod on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life represents Foundation, Connection, Generativity, Creativity, Communication, Personality, Grounding and more. Yesod integrates and balances the perseverance of Netzach and the humility of Hod. It is said that Yesod functions as the connector…
Hod Space: Contains and Adorns
by Yoreshet Faith Ward
The Tree of Life is an unfolding continuing flow of Creation through the Sefirot. We participate as co-creators with Divinity in this creation whether we are aware of it or not. Hod provides the space to deepen our awareness and discover how we participate in the co-creative process. We each have a unique contribution through our actions and words…
Netzach: An Alchemical Reframing
by Yoreshet Me’ira Gale
When we are facing obstacles and battles in our lives we call on Netzach. When those of us who have career and business challenges, serious or chronic health issues, family and relationship dilemmas, battles for justice and safety or any situation which requires effort to overcome, we call on Netzach energy, and we do battle. And who does not have some of these things …
Balancing With Tiferet
by Yoreshet Havi Mandell
Tiferet is the living, breathing heart center that creates harmony and finds beauty in all things. It recognizes that as we live the polarities within ourselves and our lives, as we are willing to know and flow with all of our perspectives and experiences, we weave all of them together into a new creation, a new reality, that is exquisite in its harmony…
Dancing With G’vurah
by Rabbi Nadya Gross & Yoreshet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
In this next week of the Omer the flow of Chesed is caught and contained in G’vurah. Who wants to be stopped and held back when blissfully being carried on an ever-flowing stream of love? And yet, life teaches us that an overabundance of anything can become overwhelming and destructive.
CHESED – Re-Discovering Love
by Yoreshet Ruach D’vorah Grenn & Rabbi Nadya Gross
Every year, at this time, we follow the creative pathways from Chesed to Malkhut/Shekhinah, week by week, and in each day of the week, that sefirah dances with the other attributes on the Tree. And so we begin with Chesed. The Great Love that liberates us on the first night of Passover …
Malkhut/Shekhina
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
Shekhinah is She Who Dwells Within… Shekhinah is God as the Presence, mother, nurturer, protector, Sabbath Queen, the Moon…the Torah, compassionate one and so much more…Rabbi Leah Novick notes that She “hovers over all creation as the guardian of truth and justice”
Yesod – The Promise of Perfection
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
This year I am watching the dance of the sefirot through the Omer counting. As we arrive at the week of Yesod [foundation], the attributes we’ve encountered all come together once again. They are like circle dancers drawing together toward the center of the circle. They form the foundation on which the world, as we know it, is built.
Hod on the Tree of Life
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
The Sefira of Hod on the Tree of Life is fascinating, and non-binary. It is vibrant and engaged, yet other times quiet in its brilliance; deliberative in its self-reflection; prophetic yet humble. It has the capacity for spiritual leadership, yet is able to acknowledge others’ contributions and step back when needed.
Netzach is Eternal
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
Netzach literally means perpetuity, everlastingness. I remember a conversation with Reb Zalman where I was expressing my judgment about the practice of naming spaces and whole buildings after the donor – wondering aloud if they would give as much if they weren’t rewarded in that way. Reb Zalman looked at me with such loving concern and asked …
Tiferet
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
Tiferet is another beautifully multi-faceted, divine, and human attribute on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It represents and embodies balance, harmony, beauty, compassion, truth, the heart and more. Tiferet also plays a role in creating divine union with Shekhinah, the Presence, Sabbath Queen on Friday nights, as we enter the holy temple in time…
Cultivating Gevurah
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
Why does Gevurah get such a bad rap? When people are first introduced to the Tree of Life, this is often the Sefirah that they love to hate.
It’s no wonder. The Wikipedia entry for Gevurah reads, in part:
Gevurah is understood as God’s mode of punishing the wicked and judging humanity in general…
Choosing & Cultivating Chesed
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
How do we develop more love when reserves run dry, when hatred would rather stay put, or love cannot overtake our disdain, resistance, and fear? Can we address the source of the hatred? Can we find a way to meet the person or situation and open dialogue…
Tisha B’Av – First, We Grieve
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
My last posting to this blog was in the final week of the Omer count. I left us all in Malchut/Shechina – the manifest world. There, we confronted the truth of an imperfect Creation, acknowledging the essential design flaw that occurs when this realm…
Shavuot/Pentecost: Forever Revealing
by Hazzan-Maggid Steve Klaper
Starting on the second day of Passover, traditional practice requires Jews to begin counting seven weeks, 49 days, which conclude with the celebration of the festival of Shavuot [weeks]. Originally an agricultural holiday, the idea of …
Living the Omer – Manifestation
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
And so we come to the close of our counting – at the end of this week, we will have completed seven cycles of seven and followed the pathways of creation, carrying the divine attributes on the Tree of Life into the manifest world.
In Yesod, we found the complete ..
Living the Omer – Foundation
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
Yesod, you ground me, bring me back into balance. Every time I call on you, I sink into you as Foundation, Rootedness, Stability; I am brought back, at least for a few moments, into alignment. Although one of your attributes is Ego, you often take me out of my egoic Self and into …
Memories of Lag Ba’Omer
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
My earliest memories of Lag Ba’Omer take me back to grade school in Israel. There was a grove of trees that we walked through to get to school. On that day, following the lead of the older kids, we all gathered fallen tree limbs as we returned home at the end of …
Living the Omer – Splendor
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
I love the attribute of Hod. As a human being, I am in co-creative partnership with the Creator and all of Creation. Furthermore, I love to create rituals that transform energy and create sacred space. I often turn to Hod for guidance. This week the flow of creative energy ..
Living the Omer – Perseverance
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn
This has always been one of my favorite sefirot, the divine/human attributes on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Netzach is an energy I thrive on – that has also gotten me into trouble. Its laser focus on a particular goal has caused me to at times throw caution..
Living the Omer – Compassion
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
Our journey began in overflowing love, the attribute that makes everything feel possible and good: Chesed – on the right hand. Yet the energetic flow on the Tree of Life teaches us that the love must be contained and given direction so that it remains healthy and does not overwhelm.
It Could Be Any Night…
by Maggid Amitai Gross
As Imams stare into the sky, watching the clouds pass over the moon, interpreting the cycle and declaring, with pious certainty, that the Ummah [community] has entered the last ten days of the holiest month, they know that one of these nights will be Laylat al-Qadr, …
Living the Omer – Discernment
by Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn, Ph.D
In the second week of our journey, we engage with the sefirah (attribute) of Gevurah (discernment, strength). I used to see this sefirah on the Tree of Life and never liked it. It meant judgment, and I already had judgmental people in my life; why would I invite an attribute…
Living the Omer – Loving-kindness
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
On Seder night(s), we celebrate freedom. One of the questions we asked at our Seder was: “Freedom from…” or “Freedom to…”? We explored how freedoms come with responsibilities, and how the exercise of “my freedom” can become the enslavement of another if …
Determined to Live in the Light
by Pastor Larry Block
The unholy residue of our human experience. We are wounded and we wound. We are complicit in the suffering of humanity, in the injustice and darkness of this physical world. In Lent through Holy Week, we acknowledge our participation, intended or unintended,…
The Promise of New Life
by Reverends Janet and Phil Kettering
Through the gift of deep ecumenism birthed from our relationship with Rabbis Victor & Nadya and the Pardes Levavot Jewish Renewal Community, our lives of faith and understanding continue to be deepened and transformed. Resonating with Rabbi Nadya’s recognition of ….
From Calumny to Transformation
by Rabbi Victor Gross
Today is spy Wednesday. For one side of the equation a spy is a hero. On the other side a traitor. It references the story found in Matthew 26:14-16 where Judas “went to the chief priests, and said to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? But they game him …
Like a Kernel of Wheat
by Rabbi Nadya Gross
One of the images that Reb Zalman used in teaching Deep Ecumenism was a group of circles overlapping in the center, each circle representing one of the world’s religions. We mostly see our differences – the outer parts of the circles – and focus on …
Cleansing the Temple
by Maggid Amitai Gross
This year, Holy Week and the lead-up to Pesach coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This convergence is a unique opportunity for a “Spiritual Spring Cleaning.” Each day of this week, we offer you a brief teaching on this auspicious occasion.