Skip to content
newlogo t
  • Home
  • Reflections
  • Influences
  • Podcast
  • Thematic Guide
  • About
Search
newlogo t
  • Home
  • Reflections
  • Influences
  • Podcast
  • Thematic Guide
  • About

Parashat Behar

Leave a Comment / From the Scroll / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

You shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and you shall return, each person to his holding and each person to his family. —Leviticus 25:10 The portion opens on a mountain and immediately makes a claim so radical that the […]

Parashat Behar Read More »

The Sickness Unto Life

Leave a Comment / Reflections in the Well / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

There is a particular kind of suffering that has no obvious cause. The body is intact. The material conditions of life are met. Nothing has gone catastrophically wrong in any way that can be pointed to and named. And yet something is profoundly, persistently wrong—a wrongness that sits at the center of the self and

The Sickness Unto Life Read More »

You Will Know Them By Their Fruit

1 Comment / Under the Lectionary / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad

You Will Know Them By Their Fruit Read More »

Parashat Emor

Leave a Comment / From the Scroll / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

Speak to the Israelites and say to them: These are My appointed times, the appointed times of YHVH, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations.—Leviticus 23:2 The word “holiday” is “holy day” with the holiness worn smooth. At some point the compression happened—two words became one, the sacred qualifier dissolved into the secular noun, and

Parashat Emor Read More »

Kabbalah 101: The Grammar of Emanation

Leave a Comment / Reflections in the Well / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

There is a diagram that appears on the walls of synagogues, in the margins of medieval manuscripts, in the notebooks of mystics, and increasingly on the screens of people who encountered it through a passing reference and found themselves unable to stop thinking about it. It is called the Tree of Life. It consists of

Kabbalah 101: The Grammar of Emanation Read More »

The Narrow Way

Leave a Comment / Under the Lectionary / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.—Matthew 7:13–14, NKJV The Sermon on the

The Narrow Way Read More »

Parashat Kedoshim

Leave a Comment / From the Scroll / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

You shall be holy, for I the L’rd your G‑d am holy.—Leviticus 19:2 Parashat Kedoshim is among the densest portions in the weekly parashah cycle. In the span of a single chapter, Torah covers the corners of the field left for the poor, the prohibition on theft and lying, the fair treatment of workers, the

Parashat Kedoshim Read More »

Parashat Acharei Mot

Leave a Comment / From the Scroll / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

For on this day purgation will be effected for you, to purify you of all your sins; before YHVH you will become pure.—Leviticus 16:30 The rabbi has been standing at the functional center since morning. By the time neilah approaches—the closing prayer, the sealing of the gates—the exhaustion visible on him is not the tiredness of a

Parashat Acharei Mot Read More »

Parashat Metzora

Leave a Comment / From the Scroll / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

This shall be the law of the metzora on the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest.—Leviticus 14:2 The metzora has been standing at the edge of the camp for an unspecified period of time. He is not simply sick. The tradition is precise about this. He is the person whose corrupted speech—speech

Parashat Metzora Read More »

When the Forest Arrives

Leave a Comment / Reflections in the Well / Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)

There is a particular kind of disruption that arrives without announcement. Not the slow erosion of things wearing out, not the anticipated loss that grief has already begun to accommodate—but the sudden shift in which the world you were navigating simply reorganizes itself around an absence you did not choose. One moment the path is

When the Forest Arrives Read More »

1 2 … 8 Next →

About James Nerlinger

My spiritual path has been anything but linear. I began life in the Catholic tradition, but quickly grew curious about the many ways human beings have sought truth. That curiosity led me through the world’s great religions and philosophies, tracing their influence on cultures, history, and the human imagination. For a time, I became a devoted spiritualist, until I set those studies aside to live more fully in the world of man—only to find that world unsatisfying, and the deeper questions still calling me back.

I write under the name Eliyahu (נר הדרשן)—“Lamp of the Interpreter”—a reflection of my commitment to bridging traditions and illuminating sacred text through close reading, contemplative practice, and interfaith dialogue.

Today, my journey continues with a focus on Judaism, Torah, and Kabbalah, while remaining open to wisdom wherever it is found. Along the way, I’ve wrestled with Aristotle and Plato, listened to Solzhenitsyn and Nietzsche, studied the Zohar and the Rambam, and reflected on insights from Asian sages whose words still echo across centuries.

Many Lamps, One Flame is a place to share that ongoing exploration—a meeting ground for traditions, philosophies, and seekers. Not to offer final answers, but to kindle sparks: reflections meant to remind us that though the lamps may differ, the flame at their heart is the same.

Contact

Thoughts?  Comments?  Discussion?

eliyahu@manylampsoneflame.com

Buy Me a Coffee

Email

Copyright © 2026 Many Lamps, One Flame