It’s been three weeks. Three weeks since they screamed, Begging to be saved. Three weeks since they bled, Entire families slain. I want to write. I want to find the light. Chanukkah is coming, Not Tisha B’av. I can’t find the words, the momentum. I feel snuffed like chaff Thrown to the wind, Blown about in a storm. All that comes to me are snippets. Moments. A line here, a thought there. Broken, like our home. Pieces missing Like the souls ...
Judaism
Stand with Israel, Stand with Jews
Since Saturday morning, I've succumbed to a barrage of emotions. What should have been a day of joy and celebration for the holidays suddenly turned to one of sorrow and despair. By now, most of you should have heard of the horrific war which has broken out in Israel. If you haven't, you live under a bigger rock than me. This war is the result of an organized terror attack by the terrorist organization, H@mas, in southern Israel. Women have been raped and murdered, hostages taken, small ...
Joy Comes in the Morning
A new year has come and gone, and with it I hope the sorrows of the past. This time of year always brings with it a flood of emotions, but none are more potent than my joy mingled with grief. Last year was probably one of the most painful of my life. Even now, as I write, I’m still grieving; hoping, praying it will be fully released by the end of Yom Kippur next Monday evening, so that I may enter this new year fully revived and content. And yet, though there has been great pain, there has ...
Embracing the Pain
Three weeks ago, my father was rushed to the hospital due to severe swelling, weeping of the skin, traumatic ulcers, and pain in his left leg. A few days later, he underwent an arterial bypass where they inserted a stent. Essentially, as I confirmed with a RN friend, he had a "heart attack" of the leg. During this time, my main concern other than supporting him by being present as often as I could in the hospital with him was caring for my mentally disabled mother. You know, the one who ...
Coexisting in Harmony
The sages teach us that beauty is found within the balance of mercy and judgement; when gevurah is balanced with chesed, there is tiferet. Beauty exists in their harmony. This is a Kabbalistic understanding of how three of the ten sefirot---or emanations of the Divine essence, of the Infinite [Ein Sof]---are manifested within the world. To define what this beauty, what tiferet, is would take me much longer than this blog post will allow. (Good thing I wrote a fantasy novel to explore it ...
