Lifecycle

The Age of Bar Mitzvah & Mental Maturity

The Age of Bar Mitzvah & Mental Maturity

An Essay on the Spiritual, Emotional and Physical significance of the Age of Bar Mitzvah

Read more...
Upsherin: The transitional age of three

Upsherin: The transitional age of three

There is a custom that has been practiced by many Jews throughout the entire world for generations, a ceremony celebrating a boy’s first haircut. Essentially, the primary purpose of the haircut is to reveal the peyos/sidelocks. Every age, every movement of change is marked by a ceremony, the reason being,

Read more...
Between Heaven & Hell

Between Heaven & Hell

Heaven – paradise - Gan Eden is seen as a place/state where one experiences oneself devoid of ego, aggression, and resentment, the purity of the transcendence. Conversely, Hell- Gehenom is viewed as a place/state where one experiences the tension of knowing the need to relinquish the tenacious bound with the

Read more...
Mortality and the Afterlife

Mortality and the Afterlife

Humans are the only creatures on earth -at least this is what humans think- who are aware of their own mortality. We are finite, and being conscious of our finitude we quest for immortality. True, on one level we realize that even after our physical demise we will continue to exist

Read more...
Yizkor: Remembrance

Yizkor: Remembrance

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, a custom developed to raise the memory of our lofty ancestors so that their merit should stand by us now and for our offspring in the future. Everything that exists on a physical level corresponds to what exists on the spiritual level—physical is

Read more...