Shavuot
5 min read
In his groundbreaking book Authentic Happiness, Dr. Martin Seligman, one of the founders and leaders of Positive Psychology, identifies three distinct levels of happiness: The Pleasant Life: The lowest level, focused on immediate pleasures and short-term gratification. These enjoyable sensations and momentary delights, while pleasant, are ultimately fleeting and leave us wanting more. The Good […]
Human Interest
9 min read
When my twin brother Ephraim became religious at age 17, I decided I needed to go rescue him. We had both finished high school and gone to Israel to spend three months on kibbutz, picking fruit and having fun. He was going to move on from there to be a counselor on a Young Judea […]
In the book, "Anatomy of a Search", Rabbi Akiva Tatz tells a story of a young Jewish man searching for meaning in the East who was given an article written by my sister Ellen Willis in Rolling Stone magazine. The monk who gave him the article, a Jew who had become a Buddhist, suggested that […]
From Women in the Bible, an online course from JewishPathways.com. Ruth is the ancestor of King David, and consequently the matriarch of the Messianic line. Who is this woman, special enough to have an entire book in the Bible named for her, which we read on Shavuot, the epic day on which the Torah was […]
Video
The Book of Ruth resolves the conflicted feelings of gratitude and resentment.
