Ruth Schapira
Judaism's Hack for Your Truest Nature
Our sages were always trying to find the shortest ways to describe complicated concepts. While there are 48 Ways to Wisdom (elucidated in...
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Ruth Schapira
- Aug 24, 2021
- 3 min
Mountain of Mitzvot? Not!
Our tradition tells us that the sole purpose of Torah is for us to refine our character, and the way toward that end is through action,...
Ruth Schapira
- May 25, 2021
- 2 min
Accepting Missteps
How tolerant are we of our own mistakes? Do we forgive others more easily than we forgive ourselves? Should we hold ourselves in contempt...
Ruth Schapira
- May 11, 2021
- 2 min
Your Light of Wisdom
Our days are rather filled "up" with day-to-day undertakings, and sometimes we barely get in all the activities we schedule. So where and...
Ruth Schapira
- Apr 15, 2021
- 2 min
The Spiritual Steps of the Omer
This year, I am involving myself more personally and seriously than ever before in the counting of the Omer, the period of time between...
Ruth Schapira
- Mar 21, 2021
- 3 min
Passover: The Inner Message of Freedom
Hebrew is full of secrets, embedded with layers and layers of meaning, woven from the thread of reality as Judaism sees it. I happened on...
Ruth Schapira
- Mar 3, 2021
- 3 min
The Jewish Meaning of Happiness
Happy. It's often a response [I just want them to be happy] to the question "What do you want for your children?" Being happy is what our...
Ruth Schapira
- Jan 15, 2021
- 2 min
Your soul is speaking, are you listening?
Aren't I the only one here? What's this business about me, a soul and all this spirituality stuff? There's a lot of talk about soul (not...
Ruth Schapira
- Oct 20, 2020
- 3 min
Add your light to the darkness
In the times of Noah, there was total lawlessness in the world. Just 10 generations (according to tradition) after Adam, the world is in...
Ruth Schapira
- Oct 7, 2020
- 2 min
sharing my Jewish journey with you
(Posted originally on “Reclaiming Judaism”) This blog has become an intimate part of my life. I began writing it in 2011 as part of a...
Ruth Schapira
- Sep 29, 2020
- 2 min
A corona Yom Kippur
If you would have asked me what words come to mind when I think about Yom Kippur, the word joy would never have made the top ten list....
Ruth Schapira
- Aug 26, 2020
- 4 min
The True Jewish Meaning of Love
This is a new experience for me, responding to a reader request! After reading a post on Gratitude, I was asked to write about Love....
Ruth Schapira
- Aug 19, 2020
- 4 min
Elul: The vanity of individualism
“..the more enamored we are of our selves, the more fixed we are in our own ‘realities’, limiting the possibilities of our awareness.”...
Ruth Schapira
- Jul 22, 2020
- 3 min
What is a mitzvah, really?
Mitzvah. Good deed? Commandment? You might be most familiar with the word mitzvah as it appears in Bar or Bat Mitzvah which is usually...
Ruth Schapira
- Dec 11, 2019
- 3 min
Do we own our Jewish history?
I read something from an unlikely source that struck my deepest core as a Jew, and came to a full stop at a passage from the first...
Ruth Schapira
- Jan 24, 2018
- 3 min
The one summer I chose Israel
At different times in my life, Jewish educators would often prompt seminar audiences to describe and prioritize their Jewish identity....
Ruth Schapira
- Dec 20, 2016
- 3 min
What I Learned About Leadership From An Evangelical Minister
Here’s what I learned about engaging lay people from an Evangelical minister during a holiday dinner party: a faith community’s goals...
Ruth Schapira
- Sep 7, 2016
- 2 min
Marketing Jewish Education for Now and Later
Sales. Marketing. Branding. Social Media Presence. Analytics. SEO. ROI. Just a few short years ago, terms like these were absent from...
Ruth Schapira
- Aug 11, 2016
- 2 min
From Jewish Camp to Home: Five Easy Things to Do
How can your Jewish community maximize campers’ experiences when they arrive home? Summer camp is exhilarating for our Jewish teens. For...
Ruth Schapira
- Jan 12, 2016
- 3 min
Nine Unexpected Ways That Jewish Culture Fascinates Asians
What if we took our New Year Celebration to the streets? What are we, as Jews, missing? Clearly something, since others, especially...