Carlotta LaNier will place her imprint as the final speaker of Kabbalah Live! Thursday, March 3. Carlotta, as you can read about her, was the youngest of the Little Rock Nine and the first African American to graduate from Little Rock Central High School.   She was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her courage. People can wonder—why do we need to recall the past? How often do we need to be reminded about what happened during the Holocaust in Europe or the stories about segregation and prejudice in America? Are we not long past these prejudices?

To quote Maya Angelou, “We must be warriors in the struggle against ignorance.”  Maya and Gerda Weissman Klein were among those awarded the Medal of Freedom last week by President Obama.  If you want a quick feel for Gerda Weissman Klein go on You Tube and watch her poignant remarks accepting the academy award for the documentary film that tells her story. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zn-fPM4KS0

We will have an opportunity to honor through our listening to Carlotta LaNier another warrior against ignorance and through her, honor in each of us the courage to stand up against ignorance.

I attended a talk by Dr. Ron Wolfson about creating an ambiance of welcome in your organization. The talk was sponsored by Rose Community Foundation.   Dr. Wolfson is the Fingerhut Professor of Education at the University of Judaism—he is also a graduate of Disney’s Quality Service Program.

Wolfson’s book, which was distributed to all participants, is entitled: The Spirituality of Welcoming.  One of the first things he talked about is, “do you serve coffee?” We are very grateful to Hebrew Educational Alliance for our new center. We may have some limitations on making changes to the structure of the building, but that does not mean we can’t work on our welcoming ambiance.  I invite you to make suggestions and/or recommendations to us.  How can we be a more welcoming community?

The spring semester starts March 24. Please see the schedule in the newsletter.  We will, as usual, be offering an Open House the weeks of March 7^th and March 14^th. Interested students are invited to observe a first-year class. You are, as always, welcome to come with them; and who knows, you may even be welcomed with a cup of coffee—Kabbalah style.

It has been an unusually cold and snowy few weeks and we have had to cancel some classes and programs.  Last Thursday night, despite heavy snow, the show went on as we welcomed Rabbi Joe Black, the new Rabbi at Temple Emanuel, as our penultimate speaker for Kabbalah Live!  We grant latitude to our speakers to present as they know best—so Rabbi Black spoke through his music, songs written by him, twanging off his (black) guitar through ‘western’ Cat Steven’s like vocals.

Most performers stay in their comfort zone—Rabbi Black traverses between his published and unpublished songs; the unpublished ones reflecting personal stories of places he has encountered on his travels.  Rabbi Black has a gift for receiving ‘gifts’– songs that just come to him from a source unknown.

In Kabbalah we call that source ‘no-thing’, for wisdom (Chochmah) comes from no-thingness.  That is why we can’t place it.  The source is beyond our thoughts and emotions.

We look forward to inviting Rabbi Black (for those of us who enjoyed and for those of who missed) back.

Our final Kabbalah Live! Speaker, Carlotta Lanier, joins us Thursday March 3.  In Colorado over the winter there is no guarantee for an easy commute— once you make it though we do our best to make the room warm and welcoming and the conversation a gift from a higher source.

A student sent me the following: A paraprosdokian (from Greek meaning “beyond expectation”) is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to re-frame or reinterpret the first part. She included a number of examples such as:

The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on the list.

If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.

Those who enjoyed the Kirtan chanting workshop with Rabbi Andrew Hahn this past week, also heard a wonderful example of a paraprosdokian. He quoted it in the name of Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert) who said: “I’m Jewish on my parent’s side.”

What does it mean to be Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or an adherent of any religion?

If we reflect on the answer: “on my parent’s side,” we are led to a profound insight as to religion as an identity.  So, on what other side do we exist?  On the Divine side, we are all simply the same—human beings who can strive to fulfill themselves through their religious identity on their parent’s side and their humanity on God’s side.

I invite you all to hear Rabbi Joe Black’s talk tomorrow evening (Kabbalah Live!) as he reflects on the Seeker and the Spiritualist. We will see from which side his metaphor emerges.

We’ll leave the heat on for you.