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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Mar 22, 2019
- 5 min
The Will
Torah Portion Tzav 2019 How do we image the inner life? There are many maps and metaphors for depicting the dynamics of inner work, but t...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Jan 11, 2019
- 3 min
The Inner Pharaoh and Truth Within
Torah Portion Bo The Jewish tradition loves serious play with words. This week’s Torah portion begins with God telling Moses, “Go to Phar...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Jun 15, 2018
- 4 min
Cracking the Lies
Reflections on the Daily Spiritual Practice #4 Here is where we are at in my series on "setting up and maintaining a daily practice": Fir...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley
- Jun 8, 2018
- 4 min
The Fight for Our Lives
Reflections on the Daily Spiritual Practice #3 We studied the Kabbalistic emanations during the seven weeks between Passover and Shavu'ot...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 4 min
The B Side
Reflections on the Daily Spiritual Practice #2 Last week on Shabbat morning I went into some detail in the 9:00 AM session on the basic d...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- May 25, 2018
- 3 min
Introduction to the Daily Spiritual Practice
Our Torah portion this week, Nasso, contains the priestly blessing, verses that are very difficult to translate experientially. For examp...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Jan 12, 2018
- 3 min
The God of the Bible
I am always a bit perplexed by those troubled by the passage in this week’s Torah portion where God is depicted as hardening Pharaoh’s he...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Dec 29, 2017
- 4 min
The Struggle for the Blessing
Torah Portion VaYechi 2017 (adapted from 2016) When I was a graduate student at USC, I frequented a nearby supermarket with a deli insid...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Dec 22, 2017
- 3 min
Logos and the New Covenant
It is time for my annual “Christmas sermon.” Instead of sidestepping the holiday, I see the Shabbat nearest Christmas as an opportunity f...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Dec 16, 2017
- 4 min
Psychoanalyzing Chanukah (adapted from 2016)
If you understand psychoanalysis, you can understand the basic worldview of the Kabbalah. The original meaning of "analysis" in Greek is ...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Dec 8, 2017
- 3 min
Breaking Out
Of all of sublime indications that “the Bible is literature, not journalism” the subtle threads exuding from this week’s Torah portion st...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Dec 2, 2017
- 3 min
The Unification of the Soul (adapted from 2016)
In the Torah we are taught to love God, "with all your heart, with all your soul and all your might" "b'khol levav'kha, b'khol nafsh'kha,...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Nov 22, 2017
- 4 min
From Darkness to Wisdom (adapted from 2015)
I can imagine Jacob bemoaning his fate, justifiably. Jacob was the one, the Bible tells us, who was the dweller in tents. The Midrash exp...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Nov 18, 2017
- 4 min
Breaking Free
Polonius, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, is presented as a sincere, but also as an insufferably garrulous and "tedious old fool." The characte...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Nov 10, 2017
- 3 min
No Exit
Avivah Zornberg, in her wondrous book The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, zeroes in precisely on the existentialist interpre...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Nov 4, 2017
- 4 min
Fear and Trembling
"God tested Abraham . . ." These words begin an awe inspiring narrative, just one chapter in the Bible (Genesis 22) - small in length but...
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Rabbi Mordecai Finley Ph.D.
- Oct 28, 2017
- 4 min
Changing and Leaving
(adapted from 2015)
If anything, Abraham seems to have been a compulsive figure. Suddenly picking up and leaving everything like that. Neurotic, Freud would ...
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