BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

My counselors and therapists told me this over and over and over 7 years ago: DON'T KEEP TOXIC SECRETS I fought and argued with them repeatedly about this for a good 18 months or more, until the stark truth came to me. They were right. Secret keeping is TOXIC. I am not talking about privacy here. Things like your personal information, your intimate life and so on aren't this topic. This is about things that people try to shut you up about. Or things that you learned to be in active denial or 'cognitive dissonance' about. I went on many spiritual learning quests over the last 15 years or so. I have been twice to Sedona, Arizona for meditation and retreats. I've seen healers and spiritual teachers. I went to lectures at the Kabbalah Center. Lectures at the Open Center. While each and every one of these experiences was restorative and instructional, not one touched on the sickness that was eating away at my (and many other people's) personal founda...

Spirituality as a Means of Coping with Chronic Illness A few years back I was told by a couple people whom I assumed cared about me, that they thought I was useless or didn't want to deal with a sick person. I turned to the one entity who I knew would never abandon me. When you have a disability or chronic illness, many times there is nothing you can do about curing yourself - but there is plenty you can do about coping. M. Michelle Rowe Individuals with chronic illnesses often deal with intense physical and psychological stressors as a consequence of living with an illness. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between spirituality and coping ability. Participants with various chronic illnesses completed the Spiritual Involvement and Belief Scale (SIBS), the Coping Styles Scale, and a demographics questionnaire. A significant positive correlation was found between spirituality and the ability to cope. However, only one coping style, Intrusive Positive Tho...

By Tali Loewenthal Kindness is often presented as a central virtue of the Jewish people. Abraham, the hero of our parshah, together with his wife Sarah, is a paradigm of kindness. One sees their hospitality to wayfarers at the beginning of the parshah, and later G-d says that He loves Abraham because "he will instruct his household after him to keep the way of G-d, doing charity and justice" (Genesis 18:19). "Charity and justice" signify acts of kindness, and the Talmud cites this verse when it declares that there are three distinguishing features of the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham: They are 1) modest, 2) merciful, and they 3) do acts of kindness. "Anyone who has these qualities," the Talmud goes on to say, "is fit to join the Jewish people." There are different opinions among the Sages as to whether these qualities are natural to the Jewish people or are special "gifts" from G-d. It is also clear that they are ideals t...

A very interesting article from JPost: by Gil Troy Passover remains a beloved Jewish holiday, with the Seder one of the most popular Jewish rituals in Israel and North America. But the bitter hametz controversy about outlawing selling un-kosher-for-Passover products in Israel highlights a central contrast between the Israeli and American Jewish experiences. Most American Jewish identity is voluntary; much Israeli Judaism is compulsory. Most Israeli Jews approach Judaism as a rigorous system of rules and faith reinforced by God and the law. Although only 20 percent of Israelis define themselves as religious, one recent Ynet survey estimated that 71 percent of Israeli Jews believe in God. Keeping God central to Judaism, as Jews traditionally did, defines Judaism by its commandments. Even many Israelis who break the commandments still perceive Judaism as rooted in God's law. Moreover, living in a sovereign Jewish state, much Israeli Judaism becomes involuntary, either compulsory or au...

Two pieces of religious literature indicate with special clarity the essential connectedness of spiritual maturity and cultural consciousness. The first call comes from Exodus 3:18, “On Horeb,” the scripture tells, “the angel of YHVH appeared to Moses in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush.” There was the bush, blazing, but it was not being burnt up. “I must go and look at this strange sight,” Moses said, “And see why the bush is not burnt.” Now YHVH saw him go forward to look and God called to him from the middle of the bush. "Moses," he said. "Come no nearer. Take off your shoes, for the place where you are is holy ground." And then YHVH said, “I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free. I am well aware of their sufferings. I mean to deliver them. So, I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out.” The message is a dramatic one: Just at what would seem to be the moment of Moses’ total ...

JEWISH RENEWAL AND THE HOLOCAUST One could argue that all post-war Jewish theology is post-Holocaust theology. Without taking a stand on the historical debate as to whether or not the Holocaust is a unique event in general or in Jewish history, the existential impact of this catastrophe was such that Jewish thinking after the war was by necessity thinking through the war. Elie Weisel once said that he understood how someone who was a believer before the Holocaust could become an atheist afterward, and how someone who was an atheist before the Holocaust could later become a believer. What was incomprehensible to him was someone whose theological worldview was the same before and after the Holocaust. Understanding Jewish Renewal as a post-Holocaust phenomenon requires us to understand the role the Holocaust played in its development. Turning toward the Holocaust Jewish renewal's founder and architect, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (b. 1924), was born into a Hasidic but semi-enlighte...

FACING THE SHADOW Carl Jung and the Shadow Posted by Andrew S. Carl Jung: What did he mean by 'the shadow'? Carl Jung claimed that facing the shadow was one of the greatest moral challenges a person could face. In this essay, I will explain what Jung meant by this statement, and use a hypothetical example to point out why undertaking such a process may be a moral challenge. I will attempt to verify the plausibility of Jung’s argument by two means: first, I will contrast Jung’s argument to two competing theories (including the death instinct; arguably the Freudian equivalent of the Jungian shadow). Secondly, I will evaluate the Jungian shadow from the hypothetical position of someone who dismisses the Jungian framework overall. At this point, I will evaluate how illuminating the Jungian shadow argument may be to a hypothetical skeptic, and finally from my personal point of view. To understand what Carl Jung meant by the shadow, we’re going to have to back-track a few steps, ...