Last year, being faced with hosting my first big seder, and finding every Haggadah different than how I use and wanted to share Passover ritual, I decided to write my own. In it, I curated my approach to Judaism/ritual/passover, striving for relevant meaning and connection using old rituals. As my approach is often different, yet […]
AUTHOR: Josh
Both Kabbalah and Yoga have informed and expanded the ways that I think about, and use, the other in my practice. This is me sharing a little about how, specifically focusing on Chakras and Sefirot.
Purim is fun. It’s the Jewish holiday where everyone dresses up (think Halloween/Mardi Gras), recounts the story of Purim (while boo’ing the villain Persian Haman, and cheering the great Jew Mordechai), and gets wasted (to the extent of being “obligated to drink on Purim until he does not know the difference between ‘cursed be Haman’ and […]
Our interacting primarily online for years has had many negative effects, but one that I found people rarely appreciate – and in my opinion needs to be actively countered – is what it’s done to eye contact. Zoom culture has made eye contact more rare and uncomfortable – and even as we’re coming together more, […]
As most of you know, I think (and talk) a lot about perspective – how the narratives with which we approach life determine our experiences. Quick kid story: My 10-year-old daughter knows my thoughts around perspectives well. She told me the other day: “It was hot today but I was fine. It’s weird how some […]
Once upon a time – but maybe not a time that was, but a time that is, or will be – there was, or is, or will be, a somber town, full of somber people; a town that exists in hues of grey. Magnificent hues of grey, mind you. The mercury-colored river that traverses the […]
For my daughter’s 10th birthday, I gave her a fluffy stuffed dog with rainbow-colored fur, and this story to go along with it… Once upon a time, there was a dog born with no fur. No fur?!? That’s right. No fur. Just skin. And really wrinkly, spotted skin. He wasn’t a pretty dog. Sounds pretty […]
[Effectively Part 2 of “Everyone is Right”] Everyone is right: so what do you want to be right about? The crucial piece of this philosophy, and in everything being contextual, is that we each have control over our subjective reality. In other words: we have control over what we believe. It may be hard as […]
A friend called me out recently for one of my philosophies with which she absolutely disagreed: Everyone is right. This friend cited the offensive statement where it showed up in Dak (my novel). And while it’s fiction, and I generally vehemently distance myself from agreement/alignment with viewpoints of my characters, I admitted to her that […]
“To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” A Short Story About My Father, and Heartache My father and I sat as we always did, outside of the times we were playing cards, or dice, or backgammon: next to one another but apart, in large tan leather chairs, facing the television. Our legs were slightly bent, […]