About the Author: Rabbi Brian
When you are angry, be angry. When you are sad, be sad. When you feel broken, feel broken. I’m not talking about indulging any of these feelings. Nor am I talking about taking your feelings out on others. I’m talking about being honest. Vulnerable. The more we see someone as human, the more we are able to love them.
Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles? Can you remain unmoving, until the right action arises by itself?
Most nights, for the last few months, at 7pm—the time we once banged pots and pans in appreciation of healthcare workers during COVID—I stand on my front porch and play “We Shall Overcome” on my French horn for the neighborhood to hear. I do it to remind me about hope.
Rabbi Brian’s Highly Unorthodox Gospel is a modern guide to compassion, kindness, and love for others (and self).
Joy doesn’t exist when we are in shame or guilt. Joy exists only when we feel light, forgiven. Open.
What I know is that I need to not beat myself up for having a hard time when I’m having a hard time.
I’m currently sitting in the 10+-year-old chair, listening to the sounds of rain on the top of the tent, and writing the words that will turn into this very article you are currently reading. It is my tradition to spend the evening and the day of Yom Kippur in a tent.
Kim, who bakes the artisanal matzah I annually send to friends throughout the US, tested COVID positive in the weeks before Passover,
With a hand jive.
Dear reader, let me ask you, where are you on a scale of one to five in accepting other people’s love?
An overdue apology from organized religion. We lied. Those of us who work in organized religion lied to you. We also might
Sometimes, when a trauma happens, there is some time before hurt registers and before the emotions flow. Sometimes, we find ourselves witnessing something that doesn’t hurt yet, but certainly will.
Some things done in the name of God by people of religious communities have been some of the lowest acts of humanity. While I’m not the clergy-person who might have caused you hurt, I would like to apologize on their behalf. Because, it seems, they owe you an apology—and at this time they are unable to give it to you.
To those affected by the discovery of mass graves of First Nations' children In Canada.
Do you also tell yourself that you don’t have the right to be upset when you are upset? What if, instead, we trained ourselves on compassionate self-talk?
For the sake of learning, I’d like to ask you to consider the circumstances since the start of 2020 as a grand psychological experiment.
“You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.” ― Dale Carnegie, "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
Emotions are feelings. They happen naturally. Emotions are our response to being alive. As we are human–alive and awake–we have interactions with the world, and we experience emotions. Expressing emotions in a healthy manner is the birthright of every human being.
“If somebody gave me $100,000 a week to move somewhere and live in a mansion and be a big shot, I’d refuse it. I want to be right here. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Chats with Larry is a podcast of phone call conversations of Rabbi Brian with his best buddy, Larry Keene, a retired minister and sociology professor.
Stop doing as you are accustomed to. Get off your default setting and opt-in. Do something, even as small as a longer breath of air, differently.
It wasn’t until two years ago that I finally understood the magic of Christmas. I tell people with regard to Passover seders that until you’ve been to at least three of them, you don’t really get the genre. I guess I needed a few Christmases of doing it to understand that it’s not about the tree and the gifts.
