Studies in Spirituality (Covenant & Conversation Book 9)

Which brings us back to Moses and Vayak’hel. By placing community at the heart of the religious life and by giving it a home in space and time – the synagogue and Shabbat – Moses was showing the power of community for good, as the episode of the golden calf had shown its power for bad. Jewish spirituality is for the most part profoundly communal. H

When our children follow our path we should be grateful. When they go beyond us, we should give special thanks to God. And when they choose another way, we must be patient, knowing that the greatest Jew of all time had the same experience with one of his grandchildren.

Regular attendance at a house of worship is the most accurate predictor of altruism,

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

10b). If you simply let things come to pass, you will find yourself exposed to the vagaries of fortune and the whims of others. But if you believe you are here for a purpose, your life will take on the directedness of that purpose. Your energies will be focused. A sense of mission will give you strength. You will do remarkable things.

Though others may lose faith in us, and though we may even lose faith in ourselves, God never loses faith in us.

A single life, says the Mishna, is like a universe.5 Change a life, and you begin to change the universe. That is how we make a difference: one life at a time, one day at a time, one act at a time. We never know in advance what effect a single act may have. Sometimes we never know it at all.

thrust upon

There can be happiness without meaning, and there can be meaning in the absence of happiness, even in the midst of darkness and pain.1