Scary Stuff

Saw Glen Beck today-- scary stuff about Israel being the keystone of the West.

What does Hashem want us to do? 

Learn Torah, do mitzvos.

Love kindness, and walk humbly with Him.

Lev melachim b'yad Hashem-- the heart of kings is in the hand of G-d.

How can I do His will?

what do you do?

What do you do when someone you know, respect even, posts something which is innane, or prohibited by Jewish law, or even just by the laws of human decency?

It's probably no good to ream them out on FB, no?

Perhaps this whole SM business is to teach us the character trait of patience, and humility-- to hold our tongues, not to post?

What do you think?

FB posting is Fun!

It is, really, and it's much shorter than blogging. 

Find an interesting link, and share.  See if anyone likes.
Respond.  Maybe.

I'm still sorting out all of this.

How can I have my SM and my privacy, too?

5 second impact-- guest post: You must see this

I saw this post today, and I had to forward it to anyone who reads this.  (It's my way of getting back in the swing of posting, kinda-- zb)

 

The Five Second Lifetime Impression” by Prof Gerald August

by Simcha Weinberg on Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 10:09pm

In 1985, I attended the annual convention of the National Speakers Association. I had recently joined the organization, and was trying to learn how to become a professional speaker. One of the general session speakers was a man named Gene, who had won three Emmys writing for a famous television comedian.

After he finished speaking, there was a break before the smaller group sessions began. I was thinking of becoming a humorous speaker, so I approached him and was having a conversation about how to pursue that goal. At one point, a friend of Gene’s came up and started talking to him.

I figured my time with Gene had ended. I was grateful for the three-minutes, and began to turn to walk away. But out of the corner of his eye he saw me turning, and he waved with his hand that I should stay. After talking to his friend, Gene turned back and continued our conversation for another few minutes. I do not remember our conversation. But 26 years later, I still see the wave.

In 1966, I was in the yeshiva of Ner Yisrael in Baltimore. One day, Rabbi Shneur Kotler, the head of the world-renowned Lakewood yeshiva, visited our yeshiva. To understand the full impact of what happened next, you need context. The head of a yeshiva is treated with extreme respect. When he walks into a room, everyone rises. You talk to him in third person. For example,” Would the head of the yeshiva like a cup of coffee?” So, when I was introduced to him, I was startled when he slightly bowed to me. I later learned that his respect for people was on a very high level, and this behavior was not unusual. Forty five years later, I still see the bow.

In 1962, I was a freshman at Yeshiva University. My parents, my uncle and I drove to New York from my hometown. While my father was finding a parking space, my uncle and I walked into the dormitory to find my room assignment. Gary, an upperclassman who was in the lobby, opened his arms wide, smiled a big smile, and in a greeting that came from the tip of his toes to the top of his head, said, “Shalom aleichem”. That was the most genuine, welcoming shalom aleichem I have ever heard.

Whenever I went back home during the year, I would visit my uncle. His first words were not, “How are you, Gerald?” His first words were, “How is that shalom aleichem guy?” Forty nine years later, that shalom aleichem greeting still brings a smile to my face.

There is also the negative five second impact. Twenty two years ago, I was at a fundraiser for a politician in New York. A senator from another state had come to attend the event. I walked up to the man and said, “It is nice to meet you, Senator.” He replied, “Who are you?” I answered, “My name is Gerald August”. He turned and walked away. I still feel the insult.

In five seconds, we can create a lifetime memory. It can be a positive or a negative one. But even in such a short time, we can do or say something that will forever define us in someone’s mind. It doesn’t take a long time to make a lifetime impression.

Author Info: Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies

I've been silent for a while.

Dear all,
I've been a bit silenced for the last month.  I'll talk soon why.  Check back--
Rabbi Zvi

Keep your eye on the ball

I love the thought-experiment that goes like this:  pretend you’re on a basketball team.  You’re playing the length of the court, jumping high for rebounds, blocking-out for the good position, shooting and moving in for the tip—everything.  Just one problem--- there’s no ball.  You’re doing all of this, fast-breaks and all, with an imaginary ball.  How long do you think you can keep it up?  A few minutes, a minute?  Somehow, without the real goal, the ball, all that activity overwhelms. 



Whereas when you’re really playing, the muscle pain and adversity confronting your opponent is almost ignored by your body, without the ball—it’s too much.

I just saw a statement on a motivational poster, in the bathroom (!), of a factory I inspect, which explains to me the reason for this fatigue.  It shows a picture of a golf ball, lying before a green, placed  back in the picture about 100 yards.  In front of the ball are arrayed 5 large oak trees, with a small passage in the middle of the trunks.  Branches verdant with leaves over-hang the passage.  In front of the green (which, on closer inspection is sloping downhill, away from the approach shot), is a monster lip, and at the base of the lip, an enormous sand trap.  Underneath this picture is a caption:

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.

See?  Obstacles aren’t really real.  They’re a figment of my imagination, only possessing truth when I take my mental “eye” off the goal.  To Tiger Woods, the shot is the only thing he sees, and he lines up the shot with the muscle memory necessary to punch through and make the green.  To the  guys on the court, the pain and effort are parts of the game, as long as the goal—the ball in the bucket—is before their eyes.    Without a ball—when I take my eye off the goal, the obstacles overwhelm.

Focus removes the adversity blocking the accomplishment of my goal.  Obstacles are only present when I take my eye off it.

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Do you know what Kosher means?

Do you know what Kosher means?

All too often, when we speak of Spirituality, we do so using terms and ideas which are common in the society around us, but which are far-afield from  traditional Jewish thought.

For example, let’s take how we talk about food and eating ( and drinking, too) .  Since we know that these are patently-physical acts,  and hence they cannot be spiritual, our common language reflects that attitude.  We “pig out (oink-oink)”, we get “sloshed”, “smashed”, or “bombed”, and search for the smorg “to kill for”.  When we speak like this, the act of eating or drinking cannot but be craven.  For to sanctify something, we must think of it, and then describe it, with expressions of holiness.  Only then will we be able to embue the acts themselves with holiness.

When one of my mentors, Rav Eizik Ausband, shlit”a, would eat with the boys in the Rabbinical College, you knew that food was part of a Divine act.  The Rav never ate a sandwich.  Never did he put a large amount of food in his mouth at one time; the entire act of eating was conducted with circumspection and awareness.  Rav Eizik was mindful of his behavior and endeavored to make the physical  into something simultaneously spiritual.

And what kind of food did Rav Eizik eat?  Kosher food, of course.  But what did that mean? 

So many people think kosher means holy, or blessed.  Isn’t that what the rabbis do when they go visit a factory—bless the food, to make it kosher?

Of course, the answer is no—the Rabbi doesn’t bless the food.  (Actually, he’s an auditor, pure and simple.)  So what does kosher refer to?  What does it mean?

Kosher means ready for its purpose.  It is fit to be used for the mission for which it was created by the Almighty.  Kosher is something which each and every person should strive to be.  It’s not about having accomplished already, its about being prepared to fulfill the goal. 

In Jewish understanding, food is not an end in itself—for it was, eating would be a piggish activity, to die for.  Food is a means to a higher purpose, providing the energy to allow me to rise above my physical body.  Food in Judaism, then, is never the end-in-itself.  It is always there—would our Jewish Grandmother’s ever not let us have another piece of—whatever!—but its raison d’etre is fuel for greatness.

To be kosher is to be ready to blast-off.  Any wonder our food preparations for the overwhelming holiday of Passover take so long?!