Just when I started to come up for air, remove my mask, feel a bit of sanity returning, the horror of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. The devastation is shocking and fast moving. I have an urge to play ostrich, but I know I dare not look away.

As we approach the 2-year anniversary of Covid’s arrival I've been sensing a deepening weariness that many of us are feeling. Just looking around, we see a landscape transformed…

As we (in the Northern Hemisphere) approach the dimmest part of the year, I’m reaching out to all of you around the globe with wishes for Light, inner Peace and Centeredness. Here’s a teaching from Kabbalah that may be helpful amidst these times…

Five years ago, I spent Thanksgiving week at Standing Rock and witnessed a burgeoning culture alive in this country. I had pictured a few tents and a tepee or two. But I found hundreds of tepees, yurts, and a thousand tents spreading as far the eye could see…

Standing again at Sinai, at the foot of the mountain this year means to ground ourselves on this good earth, and recommit to our people's highest principles, and to the Torah's unchanging values of tzedek, justice and fairness, tzelem Elohim, the inviolable dignity of all human beings, and emunah, faith, that our prayers, study, and good acts truly matter, have weight, and will have a ripple effect for good…

For six weeks, since Passover, we have been on a journey, preparing ourselves for receiving Torah anew on Shavuot. With each sephirah that we have blessed and internalized, we have, in effect, been making ourselves into a more open container. As Reb Zalman would say, the Omer count helps us to sand down our ego’s barnacles, polishing the rough edges of our personalities, opening ourselves wider so that we can better receive…

In Kabbalah, Yesod gathers together all the energies of the upper sephirot and directs them for the good of the lower realm. So imagine Yesod as the actualized YOU, a chariot driver with the reins of three wild horses in your right hand and three wild horses in your left hand, mastering all with grace and finesse!

Hod is the response to Netzach. They are a pair that cannot be disconnected from one another. Like two legs walking, Hod and Netzach require one another for stability and forward thrust. Netzach thrusts into life with enthusiasm and verve, but it cannot make its way without the follow through and balance of Hod…

Netzach takes the beauty of the heart found in Tipheret, and energetically brings that beauty into full expression. The week of Netzach is about the energetic YES! needed to fulfill our purpose…

Tiferet, which literally means BEAUTY, lives at the center of the Tree of Life, and as such, sits at our own center point: the heart…

Over the past two years since publishing Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma, I have received countless accounts of ancestral healing, trauma recovery, and family legacies reimagined. I am especially grateful to be able to share a particularly moving account from Nyati Evers here as both a video account and her written story.

During the week of Passover, we felt and prayed for an increased flow of dew and richness, faith and love, to come down to us like a waterfall, or invisibly as dew in the night. Now, during this week of Gevurah, we work to establish the structures, grounding, and discipline to carry and deliver Chesed energy into our lives in useful ways…

Longing for God. How often do we allow ourselves to say those words? The Zohar teaches that when we allow ourselves to feel our longing—to belong, to be known, to be cared for—it makes the river flow…

As spring blossoms throughout the land, let us journey together to gather the deep root medicine of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical path, as a guide for our hearts and a balm for our souls. The ancient tradition of counting Omer — the seven weeks between Passover and Shevuot — begins today, March 29. Each week, I’ll be sharing teachings to help us use these weeks to meditate on the divine presence in and around us, and to cultivate our own goodness…

As we approach the first anniversary of COVID lockdowns around the world, the possibility of accessing vaccines brings some relief after a year of civil, economic, and racial upheaval. Here in the U.S., as we embark on a more hopeful era under the Biden-Harris administration, we look ahead for ways to put an end to the “uncivil war” that came to a violent head on January 6.

Last night, as the moon floated in her dark ocean and owls called to one another across the naked landscape, a celestial summit occurred. Two great beings—Jupiter and Saturn—came together in a Great Conjunction, elegantly coinciding with the Winter Solstice.

In Kabbalah, these two ancient planets Jupiter and Saturn are associated with Chesed and Gevurah, respectively. Chesed (blessings, mercy, loving kindness) and Gevurah (structure, discipline, capacity to hold) are like two wings of a great bird. Both are needed to fly…

Happy new moon of Cheshvan! This Shabbat is a time of renewal when we re-scroll the Torah to begin again at Genesis—and revel in the ongoing powers of creation.

We will need it! Our 2020 election is 18 days away, and any way we slice it, these will be formidable times. They require each of us be grounded, steady, and connected to our highest values.

Our souls communicate in images, Jung said. And right now, our country is galvanized by one image: the brutal murder of George Floyd. It is one image amidst a sea of images, one hate crime amidst an endless tally of white supremacist hatred. But this week it was one too many.

Life has changed radically in the past few days. As the COVID-19 virus spreads throughout the world, we are being forced to recalibrate our lives, our habits, and the speed at which we travel.