Studies in Spirituality (Covenant & Conversation Book 9)

It is the gift we bring to what and whom we love.

Where there is hierarchy, there will be competition as to who is the alpha male.

Rene Girard, in his classic Violence and the Sacred,3 says that the most basic cause of violence is mimetic desire, that is, the desire to have what someone else has, which is ultimately the desire to be what someone else is. Envy can lead to breaking many of the other commands: it can move people to adultery, theft, false testimony, and even murde

We may not be born great, but by being born (or converting to become) a Jew, we have greatness

No religion has ever held God higher, but none has ever felt Him closer. That is what Moses sought and achieved in chapter 33, in his most daring conversation with God.

The Jewish people remains a family, often divided, always argumentative, but bound in a common bond of fate nonetheless. As our parasha reminds us, that person who has fallen is our brother or sister, and ours must be the hand that helps them rise again.

For love is as strong as death,6 and the good we do never dies.7

“So thank Him every morning for the gift of life. Say the Shema twice daily for the gift of love. Join your voice to others in prayer so that His spirit may flow through you, giving you the strength and courage to change the world. When you can’t see Him, it is because you are looking in the wrong direction. When He seems absent, He is there behind

It was a prophetic work. In it he argued that the breakdown of family, community, and faith had left us fundamentally insecure, deprived of the traditional supports of identity and worth. He did not live to see the age of the selfie, the Facebook profile, designer labels worn on the outside, and the many other forms of “advertisements for myself,”

Crowds are moved by great speakers, but lives are changed by great listeners. Whether between us and God, or us and other people, listening is the prelude to love.