Category: Spirituality
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Heretic in the House podcast
I’ve been listening to the “Heretic in the House” podcast hosted by Professor Naomi Seidman. It’s a short series of about five episodes that explores attitudes towards people who leave the Orthodox Jewish Community to live a life that is “Off the Derech”, or “Off the Path”. https://www.hartman.org.il/program/heretic-in-the-house/ It is a really interesting and engaging…
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My Chanukah highlights
While most of the world was gearing up for the Christmas (or Christmas analog) holidays, we celebrated the festival of Chanukah, my favourite festival of the year. I thought I’d share my Chanukah highlights in a series of photographs. I usually take photos on each of the eight days of the candles, and this year…
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Sitting with difficult emotions
I noticed this quote on Tumblr. I’ve noticed on the few occasions I’m able to just sit with difficult emotions in a meditation, they tend not to be as monolithic as they otherwise seemed beforehand. On a related note, it’s been a while since I read anything by Jack Kornfield. I really enjoyed his book…
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We can be more considerate towards each other in prayer too
Shoshanna shared this tweet about her friend who went to shul to say Kaddish for a parent: It’s a reminder that there’s always room to be more considerate towards each other, especially in prayer. I’m not particularly religious, but when something means so much to someone, we can slow down a bit, and be more…
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Tragedy and Inspiration in Jerusalem
My friend visited me recently, and I took some time off to spend with him. One of our day trips was to Jerusalem, primarily to visit Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. We started off by taking a relatively new train to Jerusalem from the Ben Gurion Airport. This train takes about half an…
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You can now read important Jewish texts like the Talmud online
This story appeals to me on so many levels. Perhaps the biggest reason why it excites me is that I’m very much in favour of important works like the Talmud being made freely available online, if anything, as an important cultural and historical resource. After a prolonged negotiation process, and a substantial gift from the…
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A return to a sense of belonging and the tragedy that preceded it
If anything, the global Jewish community should be looking for more ways to unite, no push each other away. Tanya’s story about her return to a sense of belonging is heartwarming.
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Raising a Jewish family is very much a journey
My wife contributed a post to the All Things Mom Sydney blog titled “The Religious Effect: Raising children within a Jewish Family” which describes many of the decisions we have made.
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