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Spiritual Greed

 

By Lawrence Kushner

We all have people who are even less-than-acquaintances. They carry on their anonymous lives at the outermost edge of our circles of awareness. Beyond them are only faceless strangers. But they are part of our lives.

That is who this woman is for me, less-than-an-acquaintance. She works one of the counters at LaGuardia where I catch the shuttle home after teaching my weekly seminar for rabbinic students. Maybe every third or fourth trip, I wind up in her line. A few years ago, I accidentally gave her the wrong credit card, the one that, instead of saying “Lawrence Kushner,” said “Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.”

“Oh,” she said, with a deferent smile, involuntarily caressing the Jewish star on her necklace, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Rabbi.” (Two Jews meeting in New York, big deal.) I forgot all about it. But she didn’t.

Our subsequent, forty-five-second transactions have identical scripts but with one humorous twist. The shuttle between New York and Boston is hardly restful. Everyone waiting in any line seems to be in a big hurry, carries a cell phone, and thinks he is definitely more important than the person ahead of him in the queue. But now, when my turn comes to the head of the line of the World’s Most Important People, I get treated like the pope.

“Oh, hello, Rabbi. How have you been?” For all I know, I am her rabbi.

I wound up in her line again last week. After our routine business, we wished each other a happy New Year, and I went over to select a few complimentary magazines before they called my flight. But this time, I realized that she had walked over to the giveaway rack too. I smiled. And then, as if she were completing a “drop” for the CIA, while pretending to the rest of the commuters in the departure lounge as if she were merely choosing a magazine, she leaned over and, without looking at me, whispered, “Rabbi, my husband’s out of work.”

I recognized the code at once. It was the emergency rabbi signal. “I understand,” I nodded and gave her the secret countersign. “Do you know his Hebrew name?”
(I knew she would.) “I will be glad to include him in my prayers.” There were tears in her eyes as she spoke it. I might as well of said, “Don’t worry about a thing, the old fixeroo is in.”

But then she said something that surprised even me. It seemed at once both hopeful and greedy, pious and selfish, something maternal, primal, sacred. “And my two children, Rabbi, one is ill, and the other just doesn’t seem to know what to do with his life. Would it be too much, could you perhaps, I know you’re so busy, mention their names too—please?”

So many names to mention. So many holy requests. From people we hardly know, less-than-acquaintances. You don’t have to be a rabbi to include someone else’s names in your prayers. It couldn’t hurt.

The above excerpt, “Spiritual Greed,” by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is from I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego © Lawrence Kushner. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091; www.jewishlights.com.

*********************

Lawrence Kushner, best-selling author, lecturer, spiritual leader, is regarded as one of the most creative religious thinkers and writers in America. Kushner’s acclaimed books include I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego; God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning; Honey from the Rock: An Easy Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians; and In God’s Hands, an inspiring fable for children, with Gary Schmidt (all Jewish Lights). Kushner served as rabbi at Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts, for almost thirty years; he is currently the Emanu-El scholar at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, and an adjunct faculty member at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is available to speak on the following topics:

  • Jewish Mystical Imagination
  • Rymanover’s Silent Aleph: What Really Happened on Sinai
  • Zohar on Romance and Revelation
  • What Makes Kaballah Kaballah
  • Sacred Stories of the Ordinary: When God Makes a Surprise Appearance in Everyday Life




I'm God; You're Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego

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God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning

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Honey from the Rock: An Easy Introduction to Jewish Mysticism

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Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary

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The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet

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Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians

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In God's Hands

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On Prayer Archive

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The Words of Our Prayers
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Silent Prayer
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Meditation Coupled with Prayer
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Learning How to Pray
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Breaking the Stumbling Blocks to Prayer
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What We Do When We Pray
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Avodah: The Path Of Prayer
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God as the Ultimate Writer
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Prayer Book Trumps Prayer
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On Mindfulness
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Making Room for Prayer in Our Synagogues
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Start a Blessing Practice
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Sacred Community Within and Beyond the Shul
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C’mon Jews, Let Go!
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Open My Lips
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Medicine, Prayer and Hope
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The Haggadah’s Last Word: A World of Eternal Life
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The Kiddush
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“Out There,” “In Here”—What's the Problem?

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Talking to God
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Learning to Pray from My Bubbe
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Personal Prayer
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Chilean Miner Rescue Gives New Meaning to Old Prayers
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The Power of Praying with People
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A Prayer Before I Pray
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With God as My Companion
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Finding the Prayer of Your Heart
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A Great Miracle Happened Here
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It's All God
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Teshuvah, Complete and Unending
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The Binding of Isaac and the Binding of You and Me
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Davening with Kavanah
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Prayer as Art
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The "I-Thou" Relationship with God
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The Night of Vigil
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Prayer and Meditation: Combining the Two Practices
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The Outcome of Prayer
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People Don't Think Prayer Is Answered
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Rites of Passage: Continuity and Change
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God as the Ultimate Writer
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The Essence of Prayer in Jewish Tradition
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By Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, MD

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Silent Prayer
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Miracles Surround Us
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One Hundred Blessings a Day
By Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman

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Choosing Life:
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Changing Self-Deceit into the Quest for Truth
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The Importance of Shabbat
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Peace of Mind
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By Rabbi Elie Kaunfer

The Sea of Ending and Beginning
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The Medium Is the Message
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Count Your Blessings
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Helping Ourselves
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May Our Prayers Never End
By Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar

Script
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With God as My Companion
By Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky

“Hearing” Heschel: Social Action Today
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A Personal Relationship with Impersonal God
By Rabbi Mike Comins

Individual and Community
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By Dr. David Hartman

Blessing: Bringing Possibility into Reality
By Lawrence Kushner

All the World Is a Place for Prayer
By Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD

An OK Jew
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A Most Interesting “Amen”
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Restoring Balance through Personal Prayer
By Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin

Avoiding Complacency
By Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, MSW, MAJCS, BCC

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Spiritual Greed
By Lawrence Kushner

What Matters Most
By Rabbi David B. Rosen

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By Nan Fink Gefen, PhD

Bedtime Prayers
By Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler

Amen: Saying “Yes”
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P’sukei d’Zimrah: The Poetics of Praise

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Moving toward the Light of God

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The Surprising Appeal of
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At the Edge of the Abyss

By Rabbi Sharon Brous

Past and Future

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In Dialogue with the Divine

By Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky

How to Become a Blessing

By Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz

The Need for Prayer

By Rabbi Rifat Sonsino

Love & Prayer

By Rabbi Avraham Weiss

Lullaby of a Restless Soul

By Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar

The Power of Presence

By Rabbi Edward Feld

Does God Hear Our Prayers?

By Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold

Finding the Purpose of Our Impediments

By Rabbi Levi Meier, PhD, z”l

The Forgiveness of Sin

By Rabbi Jack Riemer

Prayer as a Spiritual Path

By Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD

Spiritual Deficiency Syndrome

By Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, MD

God as the Source of All Things

By Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky

A Prayer for Zion and Jerusalem

By Ari L. Goldman

The Amidah: A Prayer for Doubters

By Rabbi Elie Kaunfer

Silent Prayer

By Daniel C. Matt, PhD

Meditation Coupled with Prayer

By Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz

Breaking the Stumbling Blocks to Prayer

By Rabbi David Lyon

Praying by Imitation

By Rabbi Nancy Flam

Hitbodedut: Alone with God

By Rabbi Arthur Green, PhD

Mi-sheberach Blessings: Connecting to Our Experiences and Our Community

By Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, MSW, MAJCS, BCC

The Haggadah’s Last Word: A World of Eternal Life

By David Arnow, PhD

The Bread of Oppression or the Bread of Freedom

By Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow

It Would Have Been Enough

By Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow

Avodah: The Path of Prayer

By Rabbi Michael Strassfeld

The Power of Prayer and Action

By Rabbi Jill Jacobs

On Mindfulness

By Sylvia Boorstein

Making Room for Prayer in Our Synagogues

By Rabbi Marc D. Angel

Navigating the Heavens

By Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar

Prayer of the (Broken) Heart

By Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW

Why Prayer Works Even When It Doesn't

By Rabbi Joseph B. Meszler

C'mon Jews, Let Go!

By Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

Open My Lips

By Lawrence Kushner

Prayer: An Eternal Experience

By Rabbi Chaim Kramer

The God Who Is Listening

By Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD

A Morning Practice

By Nan Fink Gefen, PhD

Prayer—Fact or Feeling?

By Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi z"l

... Who Has Made Me a Jew

By Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin

The Breath of Life and Prayer

By Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow

How to Be Hanukkah Holy

By Dr. Ron Wolfson

Blessings New and Ancient—A Living Link to God

By Rabbi Marcia Prager

“Out There,” “In Here”—What's the Problem?

By Rabbi Perry Netter

Learning to Pray from My Bubbe

By Dr. Ron Wolfson

Chilean Miner Rescue Gives New Meaning to Old Prayers

By Rabbi Elie Kaunfer

A Prayer Before I Pray

By Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis

With God as My Companion

By Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky

Finding the Prayer of Your Heart

By Rabbi Goldie Milgram

I Don't Pray

By Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Prayer, Habituation, and Holy Insecurity

By Dr. Erica Brown

The High Holy Days Conundrum

By Rabbi Mike Comins

Who by Fire, Who by Water

By Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman

Repentance: A Lost Art?

By Dr. Louis E. Newman

Other Prayer Resources

A Song Every Day
By Virginia Spatz
http://songeveryday.wordpress.com/

Making Prayer Real
By Rabbi Mike Comins
http://makingprayerreal.com/

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