Nice picture

Found this beauty on the BBC's day in pictures. It describes an Israeli soldier speaking with a young orthodox Jewish boy, while his father prays at Joseph's tomb in the west bank city of Nablus.

Kovi update. Kein Ayin Hora, Poo poo poo, Chtoo Chtoo chtoo, goojy goojy goojy

Josh of the week!

I apologize Shua, this one isn't really yours. But with the hear so nasty here, this line came to me...

"Paradise is the same as hell... Only with air conditioning."

Ha'rant' sheli

When I feel accomplished and successful, then I ignore my blog. After all, why waste my time on this useless junk, when I can be spreading Yiddishkeit to all corners of the globe.
When I feel bored and unfulfilled, then I eagerly rant on my blog. It wastes the time that I would otherwise be doing even worse stuff then blogging... So there!! You should be happy that I'm only blogging and not doing other stuff!!! (What does this remind me of?)

It's crazy how scared I am of publicizing my life after I'm married. I try and figure out if it's just me being overly paranoid, or if perhaps I am correct in my uneasiness of the whole Ayin Hora issue. I wish I could tell everyone how my life is, what my views of the family are, but I am so scared of Chas Veshalom awakening those evil aura's around us and destroying a happy life. Like my mother always used to say - and I quote - "AL TIFTACH PALISUTTON"

Kobi is KA"H 13 months and a week. He's still not yet fully walking, but he's been on the brink of it for the past two months. Actually yesterday he took several steps towards me. They were his first ever. It was those accidental steps. He didn't mean it and I think he even got a bit frightened from our emotional outburst of excitement. But the Nachas was unbelievable. I can't even describe it.
The only thing I can say is that when I read about how the Inyan of Ta'anug affects a person to the deepest levels of his essence, even moreso than the Inyan of Ratzon, I can now fully understand what that means. Or can I? Is there more deeper than this??

Next thought:
I realized how much I don't approve of certain proffesors and educators, who, when giving a course or lesson on how to perfect certain lessons of our lives, they tend to bring examples and demonstrations of a perfect life from their own day to day lives.
I watched today, how some proffesor is telling people how to better their marriage, yet he keeps bringing examples from his own 'perfect' marriage in order to show 'us' (lowlife individuals) how we can fix our problems.
It just seems like such a 'higher-than-thou' attitude and it gets me nervous. Even though the content was good, I still turned it off after ten minutes. Mostly because my wife told me to... Which made me think deeper into it all.
Here was someone, giving me a lesson on how to have a perfect marriage, yet my wife thought he was boring (I secretly agreed with her), so I stopped watching him.
What was I supposed to do? Should I continue watching him despite the request from my wife, insisting that he's injecting within my conscience a wealth of practical advice on bettering our marriage. But by doing so, I clearly go against the very advice that he's giving me on the screen (listening to the wife). Or perhaps, do I shut off the speaker and listen to my wife, but then I am missing out on bettering our relationship?? Hmmm... If I were to email the professor with this question, I wonder what he'd answer.

Gutte Voch

Cabos update!

The Tzaddik post.

By popular demand, we give you: The post for Tzaddikim.

(Omar Shoch "Kegoin Ano Tzaddik"... Omar lei Benny "Lo Shavik Mar Chayei Lochol Berya Bealma Dein"... If you were to consider yourself a Tzaddik, then the rest of the world must be on some sort of holier, more sublime* state, which would make then Angels and not human creatures on this world!!... Ober Doch!)


*See, I said sublime!

Love thy fellow as thyself!

I'm bored and will thus analyze a verse from Psalms in honor of the Lag.

Hinei Ma Tov Umah Naim, Sheves Achim Gam Yachad
"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together." (Psalms, 133, 1)

"Behold" - Hinei indictes that it's close to us. That we can understand and perceive this concept quite easily.

"How good and how pleasant it is" - Is there a difference between 'Tov' and 'Naim'? What does 'Tov' have that 'Naim' lacks and vice versa?
Perhaps 'Tov' is similar to a body and physicality. It's good!! It doesn't mean that it becomes internalized within us. It doesn't mean that we leave as changed beings from it. It's good and that's all. Thus, the word "Tov" refers to the act of brothers sitting together. It doesn't focus on the consciously felt positive effect that the brothers are left with.
'Naim' on the other hand is pleasantness. Something that gently passes through our veins and leaves a feeling of pleasure wherever it passes. It eases the stress around us and actually makes us feel fuzzy inside. "Naim" doesn't refer to the act of sitting together. Rather, it centers around the actual brothers who feel warm inside when they are around their family.

"Sheves Achim gam Yachad" - "When brothers dwell together" - Who are the brothers that we speak about? Does it refer to Jews as brothers, or perhaps the entire mankind are called brothers and responsible for each other. Which would make sense of the solution to much of the fighting and hate going on in the world at large today. If all nations (brothers) were to dwell together and live with peace, understanding and tolerance of each other, then "how good and how pleasant it would be"

Why "Gam Yachad", which means 'ALSO' together'?
'ALSO'... in continuation with which statement is he adding this?

I'm tired and will go Shluff now. Laylah Tov and enjoy your Lag Baomer!

Just wanted to type the word sublime again. You might just find the word 'sublime' in my weekly email this week.
I like the word.

Rasha's comment box!

If you have an impulse to do sin and you find yourself on this blog, feel free to drop me a line in the comment section of this post.
If you think you're a Tzaddik, you should comment in the post.
If you think you're a Beinuni, you should comment in the post.
If you think you're a Rasha, then you can comment on the Tzaddik post according to Tanya.

The Beinuni corner

Only the intermediate Jew can post comments here. Are you Beinuni enough??

Oy! How I miss posting at 1:13 am

Only the most sublime of sublime can post comments on this one. How sublime are you?

Lag Baomer over with

If not for the wife, I have no idea where I'd be in life... Having said that, I would like to congratulate Sonia on arranging the most smashy bashy incrediashy Lag Baomer event EVER!!
Simple, but people loved it. We had a barbecue and bonfire on the beach.
Nice size fire.
Nice size crowd (about 35 peoples).
Good food (Thanks Pinny and Liran)
Good help (Thanks Ilan and Coby)
Good everything... It was awesome.

So, loving our fellow Jew. I'm trying to figure it all out. It's 12:30 and I never post on this blog anymore.
Often, I reminisce about the good old days, when I would wake up and walk around the entire day looking and thinking of stuff to post on this blog.
Similar to the Chassidic saying "From every single thing that happens to a Jew in his day to day life, a lesson should be taken"... As proven from the countless stories of Reb Mendel. Anyways -L'havdil elef alfei Havdolos - , I remember the way I would analyze everything I came across during the day and work through it, trying to make it blog'able... But not anymore.

Life changes you know.

You are a Bochur one day, living the life of paradise (or so everyone says),
Then you begin dating, and the worries of the 'real world' begin tormenting your daily routine. Your brain mentally tortures you. It gives you images of you as a 'tatty'. It flashes pictures of you in fifteen years, with the pressures of a household full of kids jumping all over you, and all you're trying to do is pay the bills and put some bread on the table (but how??!!)... All these images scare the pepper out of you. But you know it's either now or never and you cautiously propose, ready for life to schlep you down.
Then you get married and the real life actually begins. The only glimmer of sunshine in the seeming 'hell' you've just commited yourself to, is that you have someone whom you love. Someone that you hope will make it all worthwhile.
Would you rather a life a hell with someone you love, or a life of no responsibility and no stress all alone... You make the decision. You're soul chooses for you.
...
All this seems all negative and bland.
However, the picture can be examined in the exact opposite manner...

You're a Bochur. You have all of life's pleasures. Everything comes to you with absolute ease and you should be enjoying your life.
But then things inside you change. You realize that there is something out there that is beyond "travelling-the-world-and-seeing-every-chabad-house-on-earth." Having every page of your passport stamped doesn't seem to excite you anymore. You feel lonely and you're ready to be promoted and go to the next step of the journey. It is a challenge. But your soul tells you that true happiness is at the top of the ladder.
So you begin dating. Yes, your mind takes advantage of it's chance to eat out your kishkes on the grill. It's very stressful. After all, the challenge you are accepting upon yourself is hard and scary enough. You don't need the 'wrong' choice coming into your life and making it even more difficult.
You're also looking for the missing link of your soul. How are you supposed to know what that looks like? You don't even know what you own soul looks like! Let alone to know if someone else's matches??!!
But in the end, hopefully and G-d willing you find your lifelong dream. And now, together you dare to step into it. You know, that thing called 'the real world!'

When the child is born, life changes again dramatically. No more can you hang out around the city. Shabbosim need to be done at home. You can rarely go out on a date alone, while hiring a babysitter. Life gets harder.
But life gets more rewarding as well. With the child comes the most meaningful and charming sensation of completeness. You begin to yearn for those days, where perhaps you might be overloaded with bills, but still, you manage to have time to sit on the couch and allow your house full of children to jump all over you happily.
...
The point of all this is - I heard of someone who had a child and they are trying as hard as they can to avoid the changes in life that they now face. They give the baby to a babysitter, while they will eat out on Friday night. They plan huge trips backpacking across the world, while leaving the baby in the responsible care of the grand-mother. "After all," their theory proclaims "life should be no different before or after!"
How wrong they are!!!
Life is so incredibly different. It's going to catch up to them eventually. Will they be ready for it?
It's all laid out there and ready for them to embrace the challenge of the life they chose to share together and the responsibilities they commited to.

How can a Jewish baby child be left without the subconscious feeling of a Friday night Shabbos meal??

Anyways, it just bothers me and I'm too tired to write any more now. But there! I've blogged. Happy??!

Schedule update and more to come.

Shopped around today. Hopefully will update on all that after the Lag.
Busy as anything and going to sleep now.

Here are some updates of our programs.

The joys of Shacharis!!!

Once, in the small Shtetl of Los Cabos, there lived a simple Jew named Benny. (He was an honest, smart, cool, handsome, awesome, incredibly talented, friendly, caring, macho, muscular, popular and many other things - but we don't want to get off topic do we?? Watch out how you answer that!.) He was but a simple man, who tried his best to be his best.
Benny made a living, helping out the community of Cabo, by accepting the position as the Rabbi of the Shtetl.
Well, being that this city was so far from other Jewish communities, Benny would have a Minyan only once a week. Every Friday night, Jews from the city would come and participate in the services. There, they would have a Minyan, and they would all Davven with enthusiasm and excitement, thanking Hashem for allowing them to pray together as a community.
But Minyan only once a week was tough on Benny. He wanted to be able to enjoy the Davvenings that he remembered from his younger days. When he would lovingly sit and listen to the Chazzan chant the beautiful chapters of praise to the Ree-Boy-Noy Shel Oy-lum Yis-boh-rach Sh-moy!
While in Cabo, he always prayed for the chance to once again participate in a Minyan service during a regular weekday and have that feeling of accomplishment when the prayer is done.
G-d in heaven finally listened to his prayers.
He sent a large Sephardic family from Mexico City to spend Shabbos in Cabo and make a Minyan. You see, the the City of Mexico was quiet and there was nothing going on there, because of the 'Influenza porcina' (swine flu). This particular family was part of the owners of a five start hotel and resort in Cabo San Lucas. They were also Jewish and they needed to say Kaddish after their father, while staying in their hotel.
They got in touch with Benny and asked if he can arrange for them a Sefer Torah for the five days that they were going to be in Cabo. They were going to be a Minyan of men and wanted to be able to properly fulfill their requirements of saying Kaddish with the Minyan. Benny immediately consented and they were all very excited.
Over the next few days, Benny was granted the gift of paradise. He basked in the beautiful Sefardic prayers and eagerly swallowed every moment of the Minyan.
Every Amen, every Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shmoy was an infinite bliss and satisfaction for his yearning soul.
It was an amazing several days. But then things went back to normal. The Mexican family left and Benny was left all alone in Cabo once again...

Here I am!

The letter from this weeks email. Sort of pertinent.

Where to begin? What a difficult week this has been for the entire world. A week that has been full of panic, pain, suffering and fright.
A friend of mine called me up this past week and told me a wonderful lesson to be taken from the 'swine flu' here in Mexico.
It says in the Talmud (Sotah, 11a) "An act of kindness will go a longer way than an act of destruction." This means to say, that if negativity can affect the world on such a large scale, how much more so can a positive act change the world?!
We are now facing a disease which isn't spread through physical contact, or timely efforts, as diseases up until now were generally passed. This swine flu, within a matter of days, has enveloped the entire world and put everyone into a frenzy. People are suffering from this all over the world and from what they say, it all began from a young boy in Mexico City, who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Take a moment and try to imagine the incredible power that we here in Mexico were given. It seems that G-d has temporarily granted this Country the power to literally transform the world in a flash. Until now unfortunately, it's been transformed for the negative. Until now, the world has seen and been affected by the trouble and darkness that was generated by Mexico. While the doctors and scientists search for their cure, it's time we take this opportunity to use the power in our hands and generate light and goodness to all of mankind.
It's time for us to make the difference. We need to create a goodness epidemic. We need to generate such love for our fellow Jew and such a passion for Mitzvot, that without even realizing it, the other Jew goes home and passes it on to the next Jew with whom he comes in contact with. From there, there is no stopping the light from spreading. Before you know it, the world is turning over. They don't know how to properly address this 'disease' of goodness!
It spreads fast and easily... Within days perhaps, we are left with a world of light. A world of kindness. A world of peace and harmony... And like the prophet tells us "A world, where the wolf shall lie with the lamb"
And so in conclusion, let's make these next few weeks meaningful. Coming to synagogue is nice. But if your not spreading your inspiration, than you have not taken the lesson to heart. Coming to a Torah class is wonderful, but it needs to be passed on in a explosive form.
The saying used to go "Change the world one person at a time"
Dare I take this opportune time period to suggest "Change the world 6 Billion people at once!"

...
May we merit this perfect world speedily in our days.