Archive for the ‘Blog-Series: Giving in Love’ Category

Giving in Love: Story of the Holy Snuff Box: Part Twenty: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 30th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 3 Comments

A Shamanic Story Story of the Snuff Box The story of the holy snuff box. Here is the story as I heard it. Everybody knows that Holy Beggars hold the world together. Thus would one modern master introduce the following sacred story. Never, never pass ...

Say Yes: Give Yourself in Love: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 25th, 2009 by Marc Gafni No Comments

posted by Marc Gafni assistant My heart is open. YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!! YES! I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!” ~Oriah ...

Giving in Love: Part Nineteen: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 22nd, 2009 by Marc Gafni 5 Comments

Give To Them a Story For those, who even after the last few blogs, are still unsatisfied and find it too painful to give in an undiscriminating way, I ask a simple question: how would you like to be a person asking for money on the street? Much as we ...

Giving in Love: Part Eighteen: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 20th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

On Being Charitable and Being Choosy… “One Second,” I say before my tourist friend can run away, “Let me tell you a story of the Great Master Zusia of Onipol.” Zusia had a disciple who would visit him occasionally and donate funds towar ...

Giving in Love: Part Seventeen: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 19th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

There is a teaching that if you have a hundred different coins, you should give them to a hundred different people. Even though the money will have little real life impact on the recipient’s economic reality, the very act of giving to every hand yo ...

Giving in Love: Marc Gafni: Part Sixteen

Posted on: April 18th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

posted by Gafni assistant In Jerusalem, my home, the streets are filled with beggars, men and women who for all sorts of different reasons make their living by asking passers-by to “share the wealth.” In almost any other city in the world, these ...

Giving in Love: Part Fifteen: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 16th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 2 Comments

One of the most counter intuitive dictums of Hebrew wisdom reads “Greater is one who does out of command —(metzuveh) than one who does even though he is not commanded (Eino metzuveh).” Logically, the opposite should be true. Is not the one who ...

Giving in Love: Marc Gafni: Part Fourteen

Posted on: April 15th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 3 Comments

posted by Gafni assistant in honor of the sistas K and J Giving Saves from Death Remember the story from Soul Prints. It is the turn of the last century, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. A family of four live in a single-room flat on Ludlow Stree ...

Giving in Love: Part Thirteen: Eros and Agape: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 14th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 2 Comments

marc gafni In the language of the Kabbalists, giving moves you from narrow constricted consciousness to mochim de gadlut, expanded consciousness. This is critical to understand because what it means is that agape and philia lead to Eros. In the Greek ...

Giving in Love: Part Twelve: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 12th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 2 Comments

Give First, Love Follows “Giving is not only the litmus test of love; it also leads to love,” teaches the holy Baal Shem Tov. “If you want to be loved, be a lover.” Raised on the love ethic of western capitalism, we view love as the necessary ...

Giving in Love: Part Ten: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 7th, 2009 by Marc Gafni No Comments

In Every Detail One of the most gorgeous things about relationship is that it is so clear that every small act of attention and giving weaves another strand in the fabric of the relationship. There is no such thing as a casual favor or fruitless givi ...

To be a Lover is to Give what is Hard for You to Give: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 6th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

This is for you babe…. To be a lover does not mean to grandstand and show people how kind and caring you are. “I love helpless stray cats and send food to the poor.” Although those are clearly two beautiful things to do. The Deep Dh ...

Giving in Love: Part Ten: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 4th, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

posted by Dr Marc Gafni asst. I remember one evening when my second son, Yair, first asked me for a new bicycle that I could not afford. It hurt. I thought about it all night. Had I pursued other directions in life, I would be able to easily provide ...

Giving in Love: Part Nine: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 2nd, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

Dedicated to Lord Bruce and Lady Mary One of the great Biblical loves is that of Jacob for Rachel. The scene where Jacob, having left fame, family and fortune behind, meets Rachel at the well is well known. He loves her, kisses her and cries. Love an ...

Giving in Love: Part Eight: Marc Gafni

Posted on: April 1st, 2009 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

Love is as Love Does Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. -Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven Loving and giving are inextricably bound up. The great medieval philosopher Maimoni ...