blogs/brentspodek

Every screaming child wants something. A bottle, a toy, a parent. Every adult wants something too, something out of reach. Who is happy in the Jewish tradition? One who is happy with her lot. But few of us are at that level of equanimity, few of us are that happy.

But more than simply wanting something, we want - by definition - something we don't have. We humans are imperfect and every imperfection, every lack, is the source...Read more...

For most of the past year, I've begun our newsletter with some thoughts on the weekly parsha, or Torah reading. For the next ten weeks, I am going to try something a little different - I hope it will be nourishing for everyone involved.

Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, one of the Hassidic masters to whom I regularly turn, taught that ten psalms - 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150 - comprised a ???? ?????/Tikkun HaClali or...Read more...

We fear pain. 

We fear events that twist our hopes, catastrophes that strain our bodies, indignities that weary our spirit. When we suffer, our pain becomes all we can see, so that the best we can do is grind on, endure, make it from today till tomorrow.

We carry these terrible burdens on our backs like 100-pound weights and more than anything, we hope someone will help carry them, even if just for a little...Read more...