Rabbi Bruce's Reflections on Life

  Dear Friends, A number of you have already seen part of this blog since I sent the link below to ascertain if it resonated with people and a number or you commented positively so I thought I would send this to all of you. The link had been sent to me and  I found it to be inspiring and hopeful. (see below) I hope you can open the link from YouTube. Recently in the New York Times, (Sunday Dec. 22) David Brooks writes the following, in his article, " My Decade-Long Journey to Belief ," "My life feels remusicked (his word...check it out online) since my own little Exodus journey began.  It turns out the experience of desire is shaped by the object of your desire.  If you desire money, your desire will always seem pinched, and if you desire fame, your desire will always be desperate.  But if the object of your desire is generosity itself, then your desire for it will open up new dimensions of existence you had never perceived before. for example, the presence in o...

 Dear Friends, As we approach Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa I want to share some thoughts about religious freedom. In this week's Torah reading (scriptural reading which begins with Genesis Chapter 37) , we are reading about the beginning of the Joseph narrative.  When Joseph is sent out to find his brothers he encounters someone who in Hebrew is called "Ha ish," the person.  That person asks him "for what are you looking "mah t'vakeish?" The person is not identified and could be anyone.  It is a reminder that any of us have the potential to impact someone's life.  If the person doesn't tell Joseph the best way to look for his brothers and he finds them too soon, they might kill him instead of throwing him in a pit. Ultimately Joseph is taken to Egypt where he interprets Pharaoh's dream and saves humanity from the famine.  (please read Genesis 37 and the next several chapters which through the end of Genesis tell the saga of Joseph and hi...