World of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy

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Needing Another Pair of Eyes to See our Lives

Are we really asking and searching for the right things in our lives? Are we able to see in the right direction or do we always feel turned around? Is life feeling so challenging that we lose perspective on our bigger picture dreams and hopes? Too often, the difficulties and challenges in life can feel so overwhelming that we get lost in the narrow, nitty-gritty details of what is going on and…

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[bdkinz]

Searching for the Chametz inside of Us

We are now one month away from Passover. It is a hectic time for most people as the month prior to Passover is spent planning, cleaning and preparing for the holiday. In addition to the physical components of preparing for Passover, there is a practice that begins the laws of Passover in the Shulchan Aruch, which states: שואלים בהלכות פסח קודם לפסח שלשים יום: 1. We learn the halakhot of Pesach…

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[bdkinz]

FAILure is not a Bad Word

This morning, while I was writing in my journal, I noticed something that has come up for me often. Like most people, there are things in life that I shy away from because of previously bad experiences. And as many of us do, when I have a bad experience, I carry with me the burden of feeling like I “failed.” It is true that in certain previous experiences, in so much as they weren’t successful, I…

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[bdkinz]

When in doubt, don't overthink

Life is a series of tests. No, not the kind we take in school. The kind in which we have to make a choice and hope that the choice in front of us is the best possible solution in a given situation. At times, it is important to confront our problems with a multi step approach in which we try to imagine the results of several possible outcomes before choosing the “best” approach as we see it. Of…

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[bdkinz]

Believing in Oneself is a form of Humility

This piece reflects upon the importance of balancing the character trait of humility with a health sense of self-worth.

Most of us are familiar with some version of the following story (found here): So there is a joke you probably know on the topic of humility. The chief rabbi of the synagogue at Yom Kippur is beating his breast and crying, tears running down his cheeks “I’m nothing, Lord! I’m nothing! I’m absolutely nothing!” Next to him the chief donor to the synagogue, a wealthy banker kneels down and hits…

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[bdkinz]

Podcast - Rebooting the Journal

I recently had the good fortune to be interviewed along with Rabbi Charles P. Rabinowitz, BCC for the a podcast produced by the NAJC (Neshama, Association for Jewish Chaplains). The focus of our interview was about the recently rebooted Journal of Jewish Spiritual Care, which we co-edited (journal can be found here). Here is the link to the podcast, Rebooting the Journal. In this podcast, we…

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[bdkinz]

Don't stop digging, you might find the treasure you are looking for.

One of my interests is archaeology. I find it fascinating to read about the discovery of the material culture from the past. Of course, most archaeological finds are small nuggets of a past that require us to then put the pieces together. It is hard work, sifting and discovering and then trying to rebuild what was. It always looked so cool, at least from a distance. Truth is, while I enjoy…

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[bdkinz]

True Greatness Is Knowing Where We Are

This is a short inspiration to help start are day in a brighter way.

We all have those days where we feel we will never amount to what we wish we would become. We feel small, distant, lost. We don’t know how to find our way forward along the path to find our “greatness.” Instead, we spend so much energy and time seeing all the ways we haven’t reached our life goals.  One area I want to focus on is spiritual growth. In working on our spiritual goals, our spiritual…

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[bdkinz]

The Path Reveals Itself Over Time

Wouldn’t it be great if we had the roadmap of life in front of us, knowing where we were supposed to go, when to make a turn and when to recognize we had fulfilled what it is we are here to fulfill? Life would be much simpler, though I would guess it would also become too boring. When everything is predictable, we tend to stop trying because we pretty much know the results.  I am always thinking…

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[bdkinz]

Change the World by Fulfilling your Role

Who doesn’t want to change the world? I imagine most of us wish things would seem better. We wish we could do something dramatic and monumental to change things for the better. And yet, most of us our taught adages like the one in the image above, that wisdom and life experience will teach us how the best way to bring about change is to make changes to oneself. Through these changes, we might…

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[bdkinz]

The Importance and Power of the Desire for Success

I think most of us make the mistake of thinking that our emotions are things that just happen to us. We presume we just feel and that we have zero control over those feelings. And once we feel something, then that will be it, we won’t have to do things to build upon the feeling.  When it comes to accomplishing the things we wish to accomplish, I often wonder if we are just waiting for the…

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2024 - Another New Year, Another Moment of Reflection

Yes, it is January 3. Yes, we are three days into 2024. And yes, writing about goal setting “after the fact” seems out of place. Yet, besides there never being a bad time to reflect on goal setting, I would argue that January 3rd is the best time to have this discussion.  Think about it like this: December 31, 2023 – We decide on new goals for the year, one’s that speak to our hopes for the new…

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[bdkinz]

Podcast Episode Recommendation: The Importance of Giving Thanks

. I know this theme gets played out many times, yet it is so important to remind ourselves again and again about the importance of gratitude. Gratitude is not just merely about saying “Thank You,” but it is a mindset we would do well to cultivate. To live a life of gratitude is a daily spiritual practice, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Unfortunately, there are many…

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[bdkinz]

Why Is It So Difficult to Share My Thoughts?

I woke up this morning thinking about all the ideas I want to share. And then I came to this page, ready to go and… NOTHING. I suddenly found myself tongue-tied, or maybe it is writer’s block, but either way, I found myself staring at a blank screen. Eventually, I decided to just start writing to see what would happen, so this is my journey at the moment. Yesterday, I came across a quote, “Life…

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Podcast - Drafted into Coping

I had the good fortune to be interviewed as the first guest on a new podcast called Be Wholly. And here is the link for Spotify. Drafted into Coping I hope you find something meaningful in my thoughts about coping during this time of rising hate in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7. If you or someone you know is struggling, spiritually or emotionally, trying to find a sense of…

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[bdkinz]

Doing and Being in Times of Crisis

It’s funny. I find myself constantly saying things like, “The world is a crazy place.” But let’s face it, it is rare to have a day go by when there is not another crisis, another tragedy. Each day we seem to wake up wondering, “What will I see this time when I turn on the news, open up my phone, etc?” Over these past almost 6 weeks, I find myself thinking and reflecting on how we are able to…

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[bdkinz]

Struggles

I recall a history professor of mine in Yeshiva University sharing that he would give an A to the entire class if not a single “war” was fought during the entire two semester long course, War in Western Civilization.” Of course, as he said, the odds were in his favor as there were very few years in recorded history (he claimed 11 at the time) that did not have some kind of war happening somewhere…

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