Blogs of the Year

Continuing with the blogs I liked to read this year, there are two blogs of the Jewish faith that I found quite informative:

The first is "Beyond Religion by Rabbi Rami". I found this blog through the Twitter activity of Rabbi Rami, where he indulges in contrarian tweets:

• “Let the things you desire flow through you.” Just don’t desire anything with sharp edges.
• “When seeking guidance, consult your inner silence.” It doesn’t say anything, but it’s cheaper than consulting a therapist
• “The things you give away come back to you ten-fold.” No wonder your life is so cluttered.
• "There is no stress in the world; only people thinking they are stressed." The same is true of starvation.
• “Giving thanks for what you have is Step One in overcoming poverty.” Step Two is getting a job. If pressed for time, skip Step One."

No wonder I decided to follow his blog.

But his blog is more sombre- the last five posts being,

• on surviving climate change
• who is entitled to be buried in a Jewish cemetry (identity)
• what is good (how do you define it?)
• religious plurality (syncretism: the salad variety)
• what is Judaism? ('my religion is love'- I liked this post immensely)

Rabbi Rami writes with the consciousness of a man in tune with his times, his finger on the pulse of breaking news, and I think he is way ahead of us: may be in twenty years time, other people of his faith would accept his position, I don't know, but the truth is, I like what he writes.

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Now, if you want to meditate in a different light,"Dover Emet: Speaking the Truth"is the place to go to. Rabbi Gin Steinlauf is nothing like Rabbi Rami- quite the opposite- but I think they both embody the spirit of what it means to be truly religious. Rabbi Rami is conversational, embraces all faiths, talks about obama and climate change; Rabbi Gin Steinlauf confines himself to the texts of Judaism, but his words speak out to us, shines with the light of wisdom.

His last five posts are:

• on Chanukah- " The act of finding that light works an even greater miracle: if you can find that light, however dim, then it ceases to be the faintest point of light, it instantly transforms itself to the fullness of light within our souls once again."
• on being a member of the Synagogue: "...synagogue membership is an act of faith in the power of community to transform the world."
• on prayer: " God is here, in my mind, my intellect, my highest thoughts of prayer, yes. But God is also down here, baMakom hazeh, in this place, down here in the most vulnerable places in my heart. God trembles in core of my being together with me as I fear the unknown."
• on eternity: " Stop there, says the Sfat Emet, and the power of all these words, of all the Torah becomes clear: What God commands upon us is ‘HaYom,’ Today! In other words, what God on high commands us to do is to be Present to what’s happening HaYom, today!" (This post, we should take note of- to be religious is to be present in the here and now!)
• On Chesed: "Both Avraham and the Baal Shem Tov’s parents teach us the same lesson: If you go through life thinking that you love God, but simultaneously you fear the stranger, then you really don’t know what it means to have a real relationship with God in the first place! In Ultimate Truth, the only way you can enter into a real relationship with the Divine is by entering into a relationship with the stranger"

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As you can see, these two are both remarkable blogs, and I feel it is a blessing to be able to read them- especially that of Rabbi Gin Steinlauf.