Today is May 25, 2019 /
Today is May 25, 2019 /
The hard truth I need to face during these 3 weeks is that I have become someone that I don’t want to be. I have fallen into an unhealthy spiritual routine. I have become full of anger, judgment, and self-righteousness. I have endless knee-jerk judgments. These responses are shallow, unnecessary, and do not help me Continue Reading »
The hard truth I need to face during these three weeks is that it’s time for me to get on with my life, to get back to being myself, as if I can. It’s been almost nine months since my father died and I’ve been coasting. It’s ironic that at a time of national mourning, Continue Reading »
What does a year of Ayeka bring? For the student, countless gifts: focused learning, spiritual reflection, exploration of the soul. And for the teacher? After a school year of teaching Torah with the help of Ayeka, educators on our faculty found that the most significant gifts emerged directly from the greatest challenges. What started as Continue Reading »
By: Adam Mayer, Ayeka Educator and Jewish Studies teacher & Beit Midrash Fellow at Kohelet High School As I approach Passover this year, like most years, I am overwhelmed! How can I possibly prepare everything in time? The cleaning and the cooking will get done; But how can I prepare myself to experience the freedom Continue Reading »
In our tefillot we emphasize that Shavuot is the “Festival of the Giving of the Torah.” The Slonimer Rebbe and author of Netivot Shalom wrote: “However, in addition to marking an essential event and defining moment in the history of the Jewish people, Shavuot is also a time in the year when we receive the Continue Reading »
One of the more challenging aspects of living an inspired life is experiencing meaning during those inevitable stretches that appear to be spiritually vacant. Many of us live our lives eagerly waiting for the next peak moment to arrive. We cross the days off our calendar in anticipation of the next big milestone, event or Continue Reading »
In the yearbook from my 8th grade graduation from Jewish Day School, we were asked to cite a quote we found meaningful. While I no longer remember the quote I chose, one student’s quote remains present until today. “The greatest impacts in life are the ones you never know you make”. My peer quoted his Continue Reading »
On a chilly winter evening in Tel Aviv, a group of women sit in a circle pondering a poem by Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran: “Your children are not your children They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, Continue Reading »
Angels, the Midrash teaches, attended our nation’s first educational experience at Sinai bearing gifts: two crowns. One was the crown of action, awarded to us for our commitment to do everything G-d asked of us. The second was the crown of understanding, bestowed in recognition of our promise to commit our minds to the comprehension Continue Reading »
Learning Torah as a training ground for developing habits of mind essential to thriving in the 21st century is a seed that needs nurturing. I will illustrate what I mean through two examples: First creative thinking and then paradoxical thinking. PaRDeS is the acronym for Torah interpretation: P’shat/plain meaninig is the straightforward, almost literal meaning Continue Reading »