REGISTER NOW: High Holidays 2024 – Jewish New Year Interfaith Zen Retreat in Burlingame, CA – September 14, 2024

I would like to take the opportunity to invite you to the daylong interfaith Zen retreat for the Jewish New Year coming up this September 14 in Burlingame, CA. You may register now!

As the summer winds down and we experience the cooler temperatures in the morning, we are reminded that the season is turning. Fall will soon be upon us. It is time for a New Year and new experiences.

July 12, 2023August 8, 2023

What is “Beginner’s Mind”? And Did Heschel Describe It?!

If you are anything like me and either enjoy reading books or grabbing a bargain, take a look! I noticed today that the kindle version of one of my favorite Zen books is on sale this month on Amazon – Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.

July 10, 2023August 8, 2023

REGISTER NOW: High Holidays 2023 – Jewish New Year Interfaith Zen Retreat in the Bay Area

Come celebrate Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish New Year on this contemplative interfaith Zen retreat in the Bay Area! You may register now!

Rosh Hashanah is a holiday of waking up. We awaken from the deep slumber of selfishness, conceit, and putting ourselves above others and awaken to something different. On Rosh Hashanah, the Divine calls out to wake us up from the darkness of ignorance and to open our eyes and hearts to the truth and awe that is always surrounding us and that which also makes up the very fabric of our ordinary life.

July 3, 2023July 4, 2023

What is “Jewish” Meditation? Is Meditation Even “Jewish”

What is Jewish Meditation - Is It Even Jewish

Sometimes questions are more simple than we know. Often times, questions are also more complicated than we hope.

One such question is “What makes meditation Jewish?” This question might just be simple AND complicated to answer?! I write about this elsewhere (here and here), though allow me to answer this question here as simply as possible, albeit with a complicated caveat.

December 1, 2022June 8, 2023

Have You Only But One Blessing?!: Stealing Birthrights and Giving Voice to the Voiceless

The characters in the Bible are far from perfect. Yet this makes sense, as we too are just as far from perfect. What occurs in this week’s parasha is simply wrong. While it might be applauded as heroic in the tradition, if what happened in the Bible happened in your family, I imagine you would be disturbed.

November 20, 2022November 21, 2022

Falling Head Over Heels in Love: How to Find First Love and Genuine Intimacy

Do you remember your first love? Your first kiss? Your first embrace? How you and they met? What they wore that first day? What they were like? How you felt meeting them? Or perhaps your first love is your current love? The Hebrew Bible tells us such a story…

November 9, 2022November 20, 2022

The Sacrifice of Isaac: Beyond Obedience… is Love!

The binding and sacrifice of Isaac is one of the most disturbing, gruesome, and hellish koan in all the Bible. How can God ask Abraham to raise his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice? It is astounding! Yet, if we penetrate this koan fully, we are invited to raise our most compassionate heart-mind and not only save Isaac’s life, but Abraham’s and God’s lives too! And perhaps even our own!

November 2, 2022November 8, 2022

Leaving Home: A Lifelong Koan

What do the heavy metal band Guns N’ Roses, the Hebrew Bible, and the Chasidic masters Rebbe Nachman and Simcha Bunam all have in common? They each beg us to ask and answer the question, “Where do we go now?” As we shall see, this question is as old as God and man.

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022

Outfoxing God: The Tail End of Amends and a Warm Welcome to the Human Race

Outfoxing God - The Tail of Amends and a Warm Welcome to the Human Race

There is no way around it. No one can outfox God. No matter how smart we think we are or how hard we try, there is no outsmarting the Divine. Yet… we try! And try we do! Perhaps even must?!

September 4, 2020May 14, 2021

Betzelem Ish v’Isha: Are We Created in God’s Image? Or Is God Created in Ours?

In this week’s parashah, God tells us that life and death, blessing and cursing, are placed before us, and that we should choose life so that we and all of our children and our children’s children shall truly live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Living and Dying

God places blessing and cursing right in our face and the power to give and take life with just who and how we are, the look in our eyes and our facial expression or smile, and through how we see ourselves and one another.

God places before us life and death and asks us to choose. God places before me and before each individual person living and dying and begs me, you, and us to choose living. When we choose life, we choose to live and to enliven our life and those of others. Only then do we—only then can we—truly become alive.