How to Say Sorry - the Intersection of High Holidays, Kabbalah, and Positive Psychology

** Read the full blog post on: The Huffington Post | The Times of Israel | the algemeiner **

Look familiar? Maybe you've sent or received a few similar texts yourself in the past week? Something that implies "I'm sure I messed up somehow.. Sorry."

There's nothing wrong with sending apology texts, or using technology to connect with those far away, but for many the High Holidays tradition of apologizing to those we have wronged has largely become a perfunctory gesture and that's a shame. For if properly understood and done right, this ritual actually has the power to manifest our raison d'etre. Here's why and how...

Read the full blog post on:
The Huffington Post

The Times of Israel

the algemeiner

Why all Jews can participate in the "Day of Jewish Unity"

All Jews, irrespective of their stance on the Iran Deal, can participate in the “Day of Jewish Unity“.

As Congress prepares to hold a monumental vote on the Iran nuclear deal, the outreach organization Acheinu has organized today, Sept 8, as a “Day of Jewish Unity” calling for “Jews around the world [to join] together to recite 2 chapters of Psalms in an attempt to deflect the acute danger that would result from allowing Iran a path to obtain nuclear warheads.” MJE (Manhattan Jewish Experience) and I will be joining a projected 500,000 Jews in answering this call to prayer.

If you look a bit closer at the group organizing this day of unity, you will see that the objective is to use prayer to guide Congress to reject the Iran Deal. So how can this be a day of Jewish unity when there are many Jews who believe the deal should pass in its current form?

Read full blog post on The Times of Israel!

If Only Things Were Just as They Are...

“This is our life here and I consider it an honor to serve and protect the Jewish people.”

An army base in Hebron of 88 soldiers guards and protects approximately 600 Jewish residents living amongst nearly 40,000 Palestinians, and when I ask a 19 year old soldier how he feels serving in the 100 degree heat knowing that his Jewish friends in America are starting off to four years of fun in college — this is his response. This is a true soldier of Israel. Without deliberation, his answer expresses a typical Israeli “matter of fact” level of confidence and conviction that we should all embrace in this time of the Jewish calendar...

Read full post on The Times of Israel!