equanimity
rabbi russ resnik
equanimity and adrenaline

A few years ago, I took up rappelling, the art of descending sheer cliffs by rope and harness, so that we could explore the red-rock canyons of Southern Utah. After I had begun to learn the basics, Steve, our guide, said to me, “You’re one of those people who wants to speed up when your adrenaline starts to flow.”

equanimity and adrenaline
loving-kindness
rabbi russ resnik
fairness or freebie?

Some things in life have to be earned, and some things cannot be. We can earn respect and reputation by our behavior, but sometimes we need help, or forgiveness, or just a break, that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve. And we can also give to others gifts they don’t deserve and don’t have to earn. That sort of undeserved kindness is captured by the word Hesed, often translated as lovingkindness.

fairness or freebie?
adaptability
rabbi russ resnik
age and adaptability

The other day I had coffee with Hal, the father of one of our chavurah members. He had just written his second novel, this one based on his amazing experiences as a Jewish-American soldier fighting the Nazis in World War II. We got together to talk about his book.

age and adaptability
silence
rabbi russ resnik
authentic listening

One of the current terms of religious discussion that I’ve grown to suspect is “spirituality.” I’m tired of hearing people say, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual,” which often means I don’t have any outward signs of religious or transcendent life, but, trust me, I possess many lofty sentiments.

authentic listening
loving-kindness
rabbi russ resnik
chesed in action

Chesed or loving-kindness is an essential human attribute, but it’s first of all a divine attribute. If we want to cultivate chesed, we should pay attention to how Hashem exercises it. And God’s chesed is on display at the conclusion of the Haftarot of Comfort, the passages from Isaiah that we read during this period between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashanah.

chesed in action

responsibility

questions to ask yourself

art-questions.jpg

Use these questions to evaluate your day:

  1. What were the seeds that affected your responsibility in various arenas today?

  2. Did a you shirk away from a responsibility today and if so why?

  3. Do you have too many responsibilities? Do you need to spread out your load?

  4. Do you feel resentful, burdened, overwhelmed or content with your current responsibilities?

  5. Do you have more responsibility than you can handle simply because you feel you can do the job better?

  6. Do responsibilities bring stress or purpose to you?

  7. How can you be more responsible tomorrow?

righteousness, faithfulness, and life

righteousness, faithfulness, and life

The rabbis of the Talmud discuss the 613 precepts of Torah and how the prophets sought to distill them into just a few principles. David, in Psalm 15, lists eleven; Isaiah reduces them to six (Is. 33:15-16); and Micah refines them even further to three: “It has been told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly before your God (Mic. 6:8).