Judaism for the Thinking Person

Holiness in Time not Space: Holidays and Daily Blessings Explained

There are a handful of foundational Jewish principles that are still in the process of changing the world and the very way we think.  Some are more familiar, such as universal human rights (tselem elohim extends beyond gender, citizenship, caste, financial status, race, even species).   One of the less familiar is the highly abstract, revolutionary concept that --despite the Bible's often misleading language-- God inhabits the dimension of time, not space.  History is God's abode, not the Temple:  and we enter holiness through the doorway of time, not the doorway of a structure.  While our brains are almost too primitive still to properly grasp this, this lesson starts us in the right direction, and then teaches a quick introduction to each holiday.

Is belief in God necessary to be good Jew?

Torah Study Feb 7: The Invisible not the Supernatural

In order to finish the story of Judah and Tamar, we examine the big issue of the role of karma (or "measure for measure" or "poetic justice") in our lives, and whether this means God is sending us a message since we are God's conern, or rather we're learning how to live in God's story.  How do we walk the line between Godless naturalism and narcissistic supernaturalism?

Dreaming, Your Two Souls (nefesh & neshamah), and Do You Know Who You Are?