17 Questions, Personal Revelations, and Suggestions for Cultivating Spiritual Intensity and Awakening the Heart

Rabbi Joshua Bolton
April 17, 2014
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coffee

1. It’s good to have a little of the completely mysterious in your life.

2. When conducting weddings, you can reveal delight by mingling together Reverence and Joy. I am not afraid of saying God’s name there – and I am not afraid of whistles and laughter.

3. Cultural Jews should know that a cell phone Sabbath from candles to candle is a source of great renewal.

4. We are building Third Temples in our hearts as earnestly as we can. We are wrestling thoughtfully with the ritual of sacrifice, and pleading to know how to fulfill it in our lives today.

5. Two chickens have had words with me. Though their voices were hard to listen to, I heard them say, “Give up meat, friend. It’s best for your body, and it’s central to the Jewish pursuit of Tikkun.” In their honor, I want to say publicly that any type of celebration of eating meat is a fetish and idolatry.

6. Cook sage tea. Add water of apple essence.

7. Forgiveness is one of our generation’s great interests. We are fascinated by the Laws of Repentance and we want to draw close to them through daily study.

8. How many miles have you walked in the woods with a young child wrapped to your back? (Your child, or better yet, a friend’s child).

9. Upon drinking coffee: Adonai is Holy and the Source of Awakening.

10. In order to really revive the Identification with the Shekhinah in Exile, we might need to go walking in troubled neighborhoods. We might need to ride our bikes through abandoned industrial parks, or better yet, functioning industrial zones.

11. Living in Two Civilizations is a spiritual practice because self-doubt is always “crouching at the door.” A never-ending series of deep breaths is required: Your brother loves to cook prosciutto y fungi – deep breath; For the sake of Shalom Bayit, you must spend money on Shabbat – deep breath; No one knows it’s Purim, so you spend the holiday drinking beer on the levee outside Northampton talking about the moon – deep breath; You end up taking so many deep breaths your friends begin to think you’re having a hard time catching your breath.

12. When you cross a large river, it’s customary to say, “All rivers flow into the Sea, yet the Sea is never full.”

13. Everyone take a question that they have on their minds, write it down on a piece of paper, crumble them up, everyone reads another’s question.

14. Seeking a developer: A map of the city in which each intersection is marked with the name of a nearby resident who has devoted themselves to prayer on behalf of the peace of those four corners.

15. We are ever vigilant and out looking for our neighbors’ “Animals that have Gone Astray.”

16. We pray in gratitude for this Task of the Dishes. With earnest humility, the dishes are the most powerful type of Teshuva.

17. Take one month each year to go on a “Listening Tour” of your friends and teachers.

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