Down-to-Earth Spirituality in an Networked World
(From Introduction to new book Photographing God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life by Mel Alexenberg)
Abraham rushed to the tent to Sarah and said, “Hurry! Take three measures of the finest flour! Kneed it and make rolls!” Abraham ran to the cattle to choose a tender and choice calf. (Genesis 18:6,7)
Abraham ran after a calf that ran away from him into a cave that was the burial place of Adam and Eve.
At the far end of the cave, he saw intense light emanating from an opening.
When he came close to the opening, he found himself standing at the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
About to enter the pristine garden, he remembered that his wife and three guests were waiting for lunch back at the tent.
What should he do? Should he trade Paradise for a barbeque?
The Bible tells us that he chose to return to the tent and join his wife in making a meal for their three guests.
Abraham realized that Paradise is what we create with our spouse at home.
Other visions of Paradise are either mirages or lies.
Adam and Eve had a vegetarian kitchen.
Spirituality emerged from our collaboration making a potato casserole for our guests.
We bought potatoes and scallions in Avi’s vegetable store and cottage cheese and grated yellow cheese in Bella’s grocery.
We baked the potatoes in the microwave, sliced them into the baking pan and covered them with the cheeses.
Miriam washed the scallions, cut them up, and sprinkled them over layers of cheese-covered potatoes.
After the casserole was baked, we served it to our guests.
Photograph God in Your Kitchen
This biblical narrative linked to revealing God in a contemporary kitchen is a posting from the “Torah Tweets” blog http://torahtweets.blogspot.com that presents the core concept of this book that we can photograph God in all that happens in our everyday life. Although its ideas are derived from the Hebrew Bible and kabbalah, its message speaks to people of all religions and spiritual traditions.
The book begins by teaching you how to make an invisible God become visible through your creative lens. It draws on the ancient wisdom of kabbalah to help you recognize that you have been looking at God all the time and often missed the action. It helps you develop conceptual and practical tools for photographing God as divine light reflected from every facet of your life.
Having learned how to focus your lens on God wherever you look will help you create blog narratives gleaned from your reading the Bible creatively.
You will be encouraged to explore imaginative ways for blogging photographic sequences that link two stories – the story of your life as it unfolds and the enduring biblical story. You will learn creative ways to write accompanying tweet texts to disseminate worldwide through Twitter and other social media. The 52 postings of the year-long “Torah Tweets” blogart project that my wife, the artist Miriam Benjamin, and I created offers a model for your Bible blogging.
Abraham rushed to the tent to Sarah and said, “Hurry! Take three measures of the finest flour! Kneed it and make rolls!” Abraham ran to the cattle to choose a tender and choice calf. (Genesis 18:6,7)
Abraham ran after a calf that ran away from him into a cave that was the burial place of Adam and Eve.
At the far end of the cave, he saw intense light emanating from an opening.
When he came close to the opening, he found himself standing at the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
About to enter the pristine garden, he remembered that his wife and three guests were waiting for lunch back at the tent.
What should he do? Should he trade Paradise for a barbeque?
The Bible tells us that he chose to return to the tent and join his wife in making a meal for their three guests.
Abraham realized that Paradise is what we create with our spouse at home.
Other visions of Paradise are either mirages or lies.
Enjoy life with the wife you love through all the days of your life. (Ecclesiastes 9:9)
My wife, Miriam, and I worked together to create paradise in our vegetarian kitchen.Adam and Eve had a vegetarian kitchen.
Spirituality emerged from our collaboration making a potato casserole for our guests.
We bought potatoes and scallions in Avi’s vegetable store and cottage cheese and grated yellow cheese in Bella’s grocery.
We baked the potatoes in the microwave, sliced them into the baking pan and covered them with the cheeses.
Miriam washed the scallions, cut them up, and sprinkled them over layers of cheese-covered potatoes.
Photograph God in Your Kitchen
This biblical narrative linked to revealing God in a contemporary kitchen is a posting from the “Torah Tweets” blog http://torahtweets.blogspot.com that presents the core concept of this book that we can photograph God in all that happens in our everyday life. Although its ideas are derived from the Hebrew Bible and kabbalah, its message speaks to people of all religions and spiritual traditions.
The book begins by teaching you how to make an invisible God become visible through your creative lens. It draws on the ancient wisdom of kabbalah to help you recognize that you have been looking at God all the time and often missed the action. It helps you develop conceptual and practical tools for photographing God as divine light reflected from every facet of your life.
Just as a prism breaks up white light into the colors of the spectrum, kabbalah reveals a spectrum of divine light based upon the biblical passage "You God are the compassion, the strength, the beauty, the success, the splendor, and the [foundation] of everything in heaven and on earth” (Chronicles 1:29). You will learn that photographing God is to creatively photograph these six divine attributes as they flow down into your life.
The second part of this book invites you to connect your personal narrative to the biblical narrative. It guides you in creating your own blog to document how your everyday experiences reflect biblical messages. It teaches how to find fresh meaning in your life story by relating it to the biblical story. Having learned how to focus your lens on God wherever you look will help you create blog narratives gleaned from your reading the Bible creatively.
You will be encouraged to explore imaginative ways for blogging photographic sequences that link two stories – the story of your life as it unfolds and the enduring biblical story. You will learn creative ways to write accompanying tweet texts to disseminate worldwide through Twitter and other social media. The 52 postings of the year-long “Torah Tweets” blogart project that my wife, the artist Miriam Benjamin, and I created offers a model for your Bible blogging.
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