A Mitzvah

In Hebrew, a mitzvah (often translated “commandment”) is not an order, but a commitment to be aware of what is holy and to act accordingly.

Self-Interest and World Repair

The Source implanted self-interest in humans in order that they might be able to repair the world.

Meet the Sloths

http://www.tvkim.com/watch/211/kims-picks-meet-the-sloths

Very cute.

Take Off your Shoes

Every moment of life is holy. Acknowledge it. Say a prayer and meditate. Take off your shoes.

The Road We Travel

While on the way, we often delay or rush or wish we were on another road. But this is the way appointed for us (Gen 45.24).

We are Energy

We are energy, body and soul, a stream of light in the body and soul of the universe.

Ruach

Often translated “wind” or “spirit”, ruach in Genesis 1:2 refers to the underlying force of existence and the universe: ” “Energy.”  It’s gender is feminine and is frequently understood in Jewish tradition (especially mysticism) as a feminine counterpart to a more masculine organizing creator.  Whether or not these gender connotations are useful or accurate in some way, they offer a picturesque and poetic way of describing the ultimate.

Ruach

Ruach is pregnant energy, partner of the Source in creation (Gen 1.2).

Dreams and What Matters

Instead of getting caught up in the trivia of day-to-day life, we may glimpse at what really matters through dreams.

We are Adam’s Kin

We are Adam’s kin, born out of earth’s womb, ready to return to her loving warmth.

Symbols and Meaning

Symbols are the path to meaning. They help makes us human. They allow us to connect to one another and to the universe.

Symbols

Symbols express the core of who we are.

Hermit Crabs as Social Networkers

http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2010/05_2/features/02/

This is pretty cool: Hermit crabs and human beings as social networkers.

Joseph and his Brothers

Joseph seeks his brothers (Gen 37:15-16). He does not really find them until they find one another at the end of Genesis.

Walking inside Ourselves

When we walk through a familiar building, our home or workplace, we are also exploring the pathways of our unconscious and of the Source.

Symbols Let Us Experience Life

Symbols are the vehicles through which we experience life. Daily activity gives us the illusion that events are tangible and symbols are codes. Dreams allow us to see symbols as they are: the force that channels energy into form.

Jacob Wrestles Again

Jacob wrestling with No-Name: Can we really put a name to most of our struggles? (Gen 32:23-33)

Jacob Wrestles

Jacob wrestling with No-Name. That’s what we all do most of the time, isn’t it? (Gen 32.23-33)

10 Tragic Moments in Food Propaganda

http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/06/10/food_propaganda/slideshow.html

“From Freedom Fries to Mecca Cola, a slide show of sadly politicized food to embarrass all eaters…”

Symbols and Feeling

Symbols express feeling at the most profound levels. If we do not interpret symbols, we are not fully in touch with our feelings. Without symbols, history describes people as automatons, stick figures empty of life.

Learning from each Person

There is always something to learn in every place and from every person.

Waking Anesthesia

Under waking anesthesia, life moves as a dream does. Time contracts. Moments take on greater meaning. Events do not flow from one to another, but from symbol to symbol, forming a poem and a painting.

Oskar Schindler Museum

http://jta.org/news/article/2010/06/09/2739531/exhibit-at-schindler-factory-site-recalls-nazi-era-krakow
Krakow (Poland) opens Oskar Schindler Museum at site of his factory.

Truth’s Wrinkles

Seeing Truth’s wrinkles helps me to stop making the same mistakes.

Wings of Gratitude

The wings of gratitude carry me to the present moment and allow me to enjoy it.

D-Day

http://www.army.mil/d-day/

“The U.S. Army remembers June 6, 1944: D-Day in Normandy, France. Video, audio, photos, posters, and maps tell the story.” A great moment.

Patience Takes me by the Hand

Patience takes me by the hand up to the summit of the mountain to view life’s panorama.

Love Your Neighbor

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Yourself” is not your I, but your divine spark, the authentic you. (Lev 19:18)

Integration

Integration: Making sense of opposites; living in diverse realms; finding a way to enjoy eating chocolate, garlic, sushi together: ONE

End of Oxford One-Word Exam

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/world/europe/28oxford.html

The end of the one-word exam at Oxford.

The Flotilla Incident and My Frustration with Israel

Israel clearly has the right to defend itself by maintaining the blockade against a country whose government is committed to annihilating it, and Israeli soldiers were confronted with a violent response on at least one of the ships.

I still find this situation demoralizing and depressing.  How come Israel was not better prepared to handle the flotilla?  Israel is supposed to have the best military and the most sophisticated counter-insurgency techniques.  It sure did not look like that here.  When the commandos descended on to the Turkish ship, they looked like sitting ducks for a an angry mob.  How could the Israeli military have so badly misjudged this situation, putting their own soldiers at risk and giving the anti-Israel crowd an enormous PR victory?  The flotilla organizers were not about giving aid to Gaza.  They want to break the Israeli blockade and move public opinion against Israel.  They may not have broken the Gaza blockade (yet), but they succeeded in turning world opinion against Israel, its supporters, and the global Jewish community once again.  Israel looks like a bull in a china closet and is finding itself increasingly isolated.  From a PR point of view, the flotilla was a great victory for those who want to destroy Israel.

No matter what the legitimate justifications for Israel’s actions, they don’t matter in the end.  What matters is public perception as filtered through the media and the internet.  Pro-Palestinian activists understand this.  The Israelis and their supporters seem clueless.  While Israel takes a reactive posture, focusing on tactics in individual incidents (and the tactics were a failure here, a screw-up by the military), the pro-Palestinian activists take a longer, strategic view of turning the world against Israel (and Jews).

When will Israel and its supporters learn to use the media and the internet to their advantage?  When will Israel act pro-actively and cultivate a strategy that looks at their long-term interests?  If events keep piling up in this form, Israel will find itself in an untenable position.  For its sake and our sake, I hope somebody gets the message.

Anxiety

Anxiety: millennial residue; protection, also subversion; when transformed, a gateway to self-discovery, community renewal.

Calm

Calm: Long-sought after, so difficult to attain, yet right in front of us.

Opening Our Eyes

Opening our eyes is often difficult, but worth it.

High-Five Etiquette

http://www.tvkim.com/watch/205/kims-picks-high-five-etiquette

“It may be the friendliest greeting ever invented. The high five is less professional than a handshake. But it’s more personal than a simple wave. It’s reserved for the closest of friends. But what’s the right way to do it? What if you mess one up? Don’t worry. Learn proper high five technique in thi…”

High-Power Repairman

http://www.tvkim.com/watch/116/kims-picks-high-power-repairman
I found this moving. This high power repairman is one of those people that makes possible the lives we live. We often forget that, what we take for granted, requires others to have complex skills and courage

Meals as Holy

The Source is an honored guest at every meal. Show it hospitality by taking pleasure in good food and by eating with gusto (Gen 18).

We are not our Habits

We are not our habits, our patterns, or our roles. We are something else altogether.

A Human and a Gorilla Reunite

http://www.tvkim.com/watch/203/kims-picks-gorilla-encounter

A beautiful video story of a human and a gorilla reuniting.

Hidden Anatomical Sketches in Sistine Chapel?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=michelangelos-secret-message-in-the-2010-05-26
According to some interpreters, the Sistine Chapel paintings contain hidden anatomical sketches

What Underlies Existence

A beating heart, light breathing, oxygen, carbon, the earth, a puff of wind, the hum of life, gravity, quantum waves, dark matter: that which inconspicuously allows existence to exist.

Crackling Fire

The crackling fire inside you is your passport.

Oneness

Many paths, many truths, One Source

Gulf of Mexico Disaster

Gulf disaster: When we wreak havoc on the earth, she vomits back.

Friendship Between Lion, Tiger, and Bear

http://planetsave.com/2009/12/21/friendship-between-lion-tiger-and-bear-video/

The Wizard of Oz comes to life.

Stability

Maintain stability in the face of volatility.

Learning Another Language

Learning another language is an acting exercise. You practice feeling yourself in another’s skin and move to a new beat.

Copernicus Reburied

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10719548
A moving story, at least for me. A scientific hero, Copernicus (who proved that the earth and other planets orbit the sun), finally gets his due.

Languages and Rhythm

Languages echo the pulsating rhythms of life. To speak or read another language is to feel another rhythm.

Life Pulses

Life pulses to a medley of rhythms.

Martin Heidegger and the Jewish Question

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/books/review/Kirsch-t.html

Two very different approaches to Heidegger’s association with the Nazis. Heidegger is one of the most well-known philosophers of the the 20th century (very influential on post-modern thought) and a leading existentialist thinker

Dreams Flow

Dreams flow from the warm currents of an unseen ocean.

The Real Meaning of University Libraries

http://chronicle.com/article/Marian-the-Cybrarian/65570/

(via Deirdre Good)”Through the many twists and turns of Darnton’s book, one major point emerges: ‘Libraries were never warehouses of books. They have been and always will be centers of learning. Their central position in the world of learning makes them ideally suited to mediate between the printed and the digital modes of communication.'”

Horned Moses

The reason Moses has horns here and in other art works is because Exodus 34:29-35 describes Moses’ face as “qaran,” which is normally translated as “radiant” or “shining.” The Septuagint (Greek Bible) translates it this way. But Hebrew “qaran” also looks and sounds like “qeren,” which means “horn.” The Latin Vulgate version (4th cent. CE) of the Bible translates the description of Moses’ face as “horned” (cornuta). Because of the influence of the Latin Vulgate in European Christianity, the “horned” Moses became the predominant image of Moses in Europe.

I don’t believe that there was anything originally antisemitic in this interpretation, because there are scholars (including Jewish ones) who recognize the possibility of “QRN” as having something to do with “horns.” I’m not even sure that “horned” is a complete mistranslation. Later the reference to horns became part of a stereotypical antisemitic myth, when the horned Moses morphed into the horned Jew. There may still be some in rural areas in the US who believe that Jews have horns. I once jokingly told someone that the reason Jews don’t show their horns is because they’re retractable. We press a button to make them come out.

Happiness in the 21st Century: Dalai Lama

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/05/20/4315193-dalai-lama-21st-century-will-be-much-happier

An Oasis in the Wilderness

Sometimes I wander in a desert looking for an oasis. Other times, I have too much water to drink. Now I see: Staggering in the dry sand, I give the desert time to prepare my refreshment.

Social Networking and the Movement of Money and Power

With global social networking, money and power move much more effectively and faster horizontally than they do vertically in traditional structures.

Triumph of Social Networking in Politics

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37468.html
I’m most interested here in social networking and its synergy with media. The triumph of social networking activists on both the left and the right shows the diminishing power of long-established political institutions and traditions. Money and power move faster horizontally than they do vertically. Fast-growing social networking promises just as fundamental changes for other institutions as well: business, education, religion, media, newspapers, publishing, transportation, environment, etc. Organizations that do not transform themselves in fundamental structural ways will find themselves replaced by others that understand the new dynamics.

Breath

When I feel my breath, I feel the presence of the Source. Awake and asleep, I inhale and exhale divine scents.

Watching Whales Watch Us

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12whales-t.html
Here’s another article on whales. This one discusses the high level of intelligence and sociability of whales. I have certainly found the experience of a whale on the ocean a spiritual experience and deeply moving. The one I saw was exploring us as much as were exploring it. It seemed close to an encounter with a highly intelligent alien being. The article suggests that perhaps whales are now willing to deal with humans after their long struggles with whaling.

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