If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
We are living in times of darkness, where change seems impossible. But there are small groups of people who are working to make a difference.
I'm looking down the barrel my five-year-old. All my pre-planned thoughts go out the window. I knew he'd ask, but didn't realize it would be quite this soon. I'd assumed he'd get curious around 10 and want real answers by 13, but I was wrong. He's five and he wants to know the truth.
There is always something -- a little spark of divinity, a little oil to make a ray of light to shine in the darkness -- something we can take hold of and use to re-build our lives. All it takes is a little light, a little hope to get started.
The Bible, with its vision of men one day beating swords into ploughshares and its promise of a future of eternal peace, sees war as savagery in every case but self-defense. The men of Arthur's roundtable may be born for adventure. But the biblical knight of faith is born for service.
In this pluralistic society amid many traditions, people might ask themselves, "What do I believe?" Behind the decorations, "In whom or in what do I trust above all things?" Going deeper into our beliefs can guide our devotion and actions.
As the attendant to the light, the Shamash is responsible for lighting all the others. So too, each of us is a light. We have the choice as to whether we live from that lit-up place or ignore our light.
They say miracles don't happen anymore. Miracles were only in the Bible. But a few of years back, around the time of Hanukkah, I experienced a miracle with my iTouch.
Many people in the midst of loss or facing a life challenge at this time of year have questions about coping with the holidays. How do you handle the holidays, especially if you don't feel like handling them at all? Read on for answers and a few great holiday suggestions.
Too often, the holidays have become commercialized and the season can feel pressured with shopping and rushing and planning. Taking a step back can offer the opportunity to connect with the wisdom of tradition and to rekindle the spirit of today and the hope of tomorrow.
We've already presented the best holiday light displays of 2012 and now we're serving up the most popular Hanukkah videos ever to hit YouTube!
Something in the human spirit survives even the worst of tragedies, allowing us to rebuild shattered lives, broken institutions and injured nations. That to me is the Jewish story.
I am a member of the tribe -- a.k.a. a Jew. Which means that while December is afloat in all things jingle bell and merry ho ho's, my kids and I are not able to revel in all its glory without feeling guilty that we're forfeiting our religion for another, if only for a month.
Usually when we speak of Hanukkah Gelt, we are referring to those gold wrapped chocolate coins that everyone loves this time of year. These cookies are shaped like those chocolates, except the gold is on the inside in the form of extra virgin olive oil.
Long after the glow-in-the-dark-magic-robot has lost his glow and the Barbie nail polish (in 20 different sparkling colors) has dried up, the gifts that don't fit under the tree live on. I am talking about the gift of an experience.
I was raised in a Jewish household, but because the Western world is very jingly-sprinkly-chocolatey-marshmallowy at this time of year, I harbored a humongous Jesus Envy.
We can rededicate the universal Temple of Planet Earth, as the Talmud describes the rededication of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. We can hold back the devastation that global scorching is already wreaking on our lives.
