Elijah: God is not in the wind

Elijah: God is not in the wind

Jewish folklore portrays Elijah the Prophet (Eliyahu HaNavi) as a kindly old man who visits our Passover Seder to drink his cup of wine. In the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible, Elijah was known as a zealous champion of monotheism and opponent of idolatry. Since Elijah ascended to heaven without dying, he was viewed as an immortal. In Rabbinic tradition, Elijah was the most popular character, in a new guise of a folk hero who often appeared in disguise to help the poor, rescue people, and convey messages between heaven and earth.

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Elijah’s Spirit Shared

Elijah’s Spirit Shared

Another important story of Elijah the prophet uses the word Ruach in the sense of spirit. When Elijah ascends to the heavens in a fiery chariot, his student and disciple Elisha receives a double portion of his spirit.

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The Darkness Before Creation

The Darkness Before Creation

When I explore my own nature, or experience the sacred, most often I feel a deepening into darkness.  Although dominating theologies create binaries, in which light is good and darkness is evil, when we recognize the multivalent nature of all that is, we see wave upon wave of dark and light.

by Rabbi Fern Feldman

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Torah Study: Peak Experiences in the Bible

Torah Study: Peak Experiences in the Bible

The Bible has many references to important experiences associated with mountains: Moriah, Sinai, Nebo, Carmel, Tabor, and so on (most of them on the scale of hills). Here are four biblical themes associated with mountains and ascent:

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Wellsprings and Visions

Wellsprings and Visions

The Hebrew word for “well,” Be’er, באר can be read, “to elucidate, make clear.”

The Hebrew word for “spring,” Ma’ayan, is related to the words for “eye” and “looking” (ayin, ayen, עין).

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Torah Study: Well as Meeting Place

Torah Study: Well as Meeting Place

Wells play an important role in the Torah. Abraham and his son Isaac measure wealth in terms of the many wells they have dug (Genesis 26:12-22). The Torah has a number of stories about matches being made at a village well. That makes sense since the job of drawing water often went to the young women of the house, and the well was a place where men and women might mingle with propriety (the original “watering hole”).   (more…)

Miriam’s Well

Miriam’s Well

Many women of the bible make their entrances by a well, and many commentators have noted the well as a feminine, womb-like symbol, a hidden source of life. The most famous well in Jewish lore is the Well of Miriam, the sister of Moses.

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