Friday, October 31, 2008

Parshas Noach

I thought it would be a great idea to start learning more about the פרשה. So that when Shabbos comes I should at least feel a bit more connected to what פרשה is being read in shul. I came across a book by R’ Goldwasser that I had in my house, called “Something to Say: Insights into the Parashah for every occasion”. So I took a look at it and felt it was a perfect way to connect to the פרשה.

Last week was Bereishis, the beginning of the new cycle, and it would be a shame to have skipped that out, so I will first talk about Bereishis and then move on to Noach.

Bereishis:

From Something to say:

And God said to Cain, “Why are you annoyed and why has your countenance fallen?” (4:6).

We learn that when Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s was not, Cain became very upset. The preceding verses implicitly tell us why: God accepted Abel and his offering, and did not accept Cain and his offering. Cain’s anger was aroused because his offering was rejected. The great Reb Chaim of Brisk expresses surprise, therefore, at God’s question. It was clear why Cain was distressed, why did God ask the obvious? The answer is that in truth, God was asking Cain a different question: What is the main reason for your anger? Is it because your sacrifice was not accepted – or because your brother’s sacrifice was accepted? Which hurt you more?

This struck out on me as something we can apply to every day life. To think about, why is that we are jealous of another person, is it because we don’t want them to have what they have? or is it because we actually want what they have? Many times it’s just because we don’t want them to have it. If you think about it, it’s pure silliness. Sometimes we would even cause ourselves harm and limit what we have so that another person shouldn’t have more. So we have to think honestly to ourselves, what is causing the jealousy, and if it’s just that we don’t want the other person to have the fancy house, and don’t even want it for ourselves, then we have to stop thinking that way, and be able to be happy with what we have and not want others to be worse off.

Noach:

I got an e-mail titled “Everything I need to know, I can learn from Noah's Ark”. I thought it summarized some great lessons that we learn from the פרשה .

One: Don't miss the boat.
Two: Remember that we are all in the same boat.
Three: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
Four: Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
Five: don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
Six: build your future on high ground.
Seven: for safety's sake, travel in pairs.
Eight: speed isn't always on advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
Nine: when you're stressed float awhile.
Ten: remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the titanic by professionals.
Eleven: no matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Kiddush Hashem

Tonight I was on the city bus on my way home from class, standing by the door talking on the phone. When a 14 year old by mistake steps on my toe. Now I was wearing slippers with open toes (my slippers are so comfortable that sometimes I forget I’m wearing them and leave the house with them on), so it did hurt a little when he stepped on my foot. But it wasn’t the end of the world. He turns around and says sorry. He has an expression on his face as though he’s ready for a good yelling. Since I was on the phone, I continued talking, and just said “it’s ok” and acted regular. He looked at me shocked that I didn’t over react or anything.

Now, I love being helpful. Whenever people drop pens in class I get this enjoyment from picking them up and returning them to people. A while ago, someone two rows away dropped a penny on the floor. I saw something drop, I got up and went to pick it up, I returned it to the girl and she said thanx. Meanwhile this girl a different day got into an argument with a guy in the class over seats, she claimed he stole her seat or something, she was cursing him out. So at least I got to be on her good side.

A different time also I was waiting by the city bus stop and someone dropped a quarter. She told her kid to pick it up, but it was dark and the kid couldn’t find it, so I picked it up and gave it to her and she said Thank You.

Then a guard at school had dropped a bunch of stuff, her police hat looking thing, and some papers, so I picked up her hat and gave it to her while someone else picked up her other stuff and she was so appreciative saying Thank You.

Anyways, one day I was on the city bus sitting near the back door. This lady was getting off the bus and she was carrying something heavy so she had a hard time opening the doors. So I got up from my seat and went to help her open the door and held the door open. This man sitting next to me also got up and went to hold open the other door. Then after the lady left I sat back down. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder. The man sitting next to me stuck out his hand for me to shake. I said sorry I can't. So then he made a fist that I should (dunno what the term is) knock it or something. I said sorry I can't. He said that's okay, and luckily he was understanding.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Hashgacha Pratis Tuesday --- #1

Throughout the day there are many amazing things that happen that may seem to be coincidences. Everybody has some story of something that happened to them, where things seemed to be going really bad and then something unexpected happened and things turned around for the good.

G-d appoints an angel and tells it to cause a blade of grass to grow. Only then does that tiny blade flourish.°
This is true of every minute detail in nature. All the more so, every action or event that happens be it personal or global, occurs only because G-d willed it to happen. It is part of a master plan.
°Bereshis Rabbah 10:7

I will start off this week sharing my own story. If you have any good Hashgacha Pratis Stories feel free to share them and perhaps the next week I will post them up, or perhaps award a winner!

If any of you read the Yated like Frum Skeptic does, you may recognize this story. It was written as a letter to the editor in July 2007. This letter was written by my father. (note: we never use the word Yungerman in my house). 

On Sunday, July 15, I was riding home with my family from the Catskills to Flatbush. We exited the NYS Thruway at 14B to Daven Mincha in Monsey. Suddenly, on Airmont Road while entering the Exxon station to buy
some snacks, the brake warning light went on and the brakes would not work unless I pressed with full force all the way down the brake pedal. B"H since we were driving slowly when entering the Exxon station, we
were able to stop without incident.

I picked up the hood when a Yungerman came over to us and gave us the Monsey Chaverim telephone number. We called Chaverim and within minutes they dispatched someone, who said that unfortunately the brake line was broken and he could not fix the problem. However, he provided us the name of a nearby repair shop, and offered to take my family to the Monsey bus stop. We decided to stay together and called for a tow to the repair shop.

While waiting for the tow truck in the Exxon station, we received countless of incredible offers from many Yungerman including that we all stay overnight at their houses, rides back to Flatbush, rides to the
Monsey Trail bus stop, pens and paper to keep the young children busy, food, etc... To see so many concerned Yidden asking us how they could help
was real life lesson in Chesed for the entire family.

After our minivan was towed, we did take the offer to the Monsey Trail bus stop.The Kollel man drove us first to a supermarket for us to buy snacks. Then he took us to the first stop of Monsey Trails so we should
have a seat and told us to stay in his air-conditioned minivan until the bus comes. He also offered to drive us to Flatbush, but we refused the offer. When finally we arrived in Boro Park at 12:30 AM, a relative offered us food and drinks, and their car for us to drive home to
Flatbush.

We all kept on repeating it is a good thing we exited at Monsey to Daven Mincha and Me Chamicha Yisroel!!!!

We want to say THANK YOU to Hashem and all the kind Yungerman!!!

The Hashgacha Pratis in all this is we got stuck in Monsey where a chaveirim man was able to help us instead of getting stuck in Goshen, between the Catskills and Monsey.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Israel Diary

This is from a diary I had written when I went to Israel with my grandparents the Pesach that I was in 12th grade. (They took turns taking each grandchild). It was my first time in Israel and I haven’t gone back again since then, but I do want to go again considering I didn’t get to see much of Israel. The diary was written in very short terms, so I’ll add on a bit to explain it.

Tuesday:

Arrived 6:30 am, didn’t sleep

Went to the big shul [aka the Great Synagogue], saw mezuzos

Went to the plaza hotel lobby

Staying in the Meridian hotel

 

Meridian Hotel

[if you scroll up and down the page by the picture it has a cool optical illusion affect]

Ate a falafel

[the falafel’s there are great, for the first time I realized you can have other stuff in the falafel besides for falafel balls, and I got French fries and pickles, ever since then when I go to a pizza shop I order a falafel in that way!]

Saw cousins, aunt and uncle, very respectful.

On the plane watched: “rumor has it”, “Little Manhattan”, “fun with Dick and Jane

[it was funny sitting there on the plane watching these movies with my grandmother sitting right next to me. At first I thought she would tell me not to, but then I noticed she was watching the movies too, so then I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I also watched some Israeli music videos, and there was one that I really loved, but I don’t know what it’s called, but it had this yetzer tov and yetzer hora concept, good guy/bad guy, and there were some circus stuff involved and it was all very bright and colorful, and at one part there was even a dance on roller skates which I thought was very cool.]

Flight was from 1:00 pm- Monday- American time till 6:15 am Tuesday- Israeli time

Stewardess wear a lot of eye shadow

[it’s weird for me to notice that, but it just stuck out, I wonder if anyone else has noticed that?]

Saw grandmothers apartment

[she made alyah that summer, and is now living in Israel, I saw it before it was worked on, so it is very different now. I do remember finding the elevator there to be small old fashioned and weird, so I took the steps while my grandparents used the elevator]

Supper conversation by cousins about the Lubavicher Rebbe

[they’re not lubavich]

Saw pictures, from when 2 cousins went to Poland

[they each went separately on some tour, I heard it was very sad to go back and see it all]

Wednesday:

A lot of nice flowers, palm trees and mountains

Stones on mountains looks like animals

[I noticed this as we kept driving by all these mountains, the stones are like white heaps in middle of the mountain so they look like animals, like sheep]

Burnt the chametz

burning the chometz

Hotel near Mediterranean ocean, view from window

Meridian Hotel with Mediteranian Ocean

Saw surfers practicing

First seder was beautiful, parents ask questions, children answer

Thursday:

Second seder- 50 people, spread out in 2 rooms- not good service, had to wait an hour till got food- oven broke, lights went out.

[ahh memories, it’s always the things go wrong that make it most memorable]

Shabbos:

Went to a shiur, spoke about woman in Torah, that there are 2 levels: 1- Naaseh- lower level- learn to do Mitzvot, 2- Nishman- Learn for sake of learning. Woman learn lower level, but could become partners of upper level by sending husband to learn

Met a girl- read head, going to BJJ

[I thought I would remember the name of the girl to tell my classmates that were going to go to BJJ that this girl was going there]

Motzei Shabbos:

Played apples to apples with Uncle Benji and kids, had a lot of fun

[I love that game, haven’t played in so long, it was so much fun playing with them, I can still remember it.]

They’re a very entertaining family

[In other words, I had a really great time with them and they always made me laugh]

Sunday:

went to tour Acre (Aco), saw Turkish bathhouse, alcazar- cruel man

Acco ticket

crusades, made Acre capital

went through tunnels

Tunnel In Chaifa

saw shops

Acre- Jews and Arabs live together

[I actually read the brochure they gave out]

Went for walks by the water, nice weather

Rained

[funny how I wrote it rained right after I wrote it was nice weather, perhaps it started off nice and then rain]

Took pictures by water

[has people in them]

A lot of salads in Israel, they eat a lot

[the hotel had buffet style meals and I noticed there were always salads there, and everyone packed a lot on their plate]

Went bowling with Uncle Benji and family, had a lot of fun- lost got 20, Cousin Yoyo won.

Parking lot of Mall has colorful lights

Mall in Israel with Toys R' US

[I thought the parking lot was very colorful, usually it’s just lit up with regular light bulbs, I was shocked to see a Toys R’ Us there.]

Went to other building saw a magic show- took a few pictures

Meridian Hotel 2 buildings

[the other building is the other you see on the right side, it was used for the shul, eating and lobby. the building on the left was the one we slept in.]

Mime- doesn’t talk, acts things out, 3 men stood on mans stomach.

[see how I wrote down the definition so that I should remember, I find it so funny that I did that. I’m not sure if I wrote it down in case others might not know, or just for myself]

A lot of Russians, Russians came to Israel cause there is a law if Jewish then could come, then brought families, married non Jewish wives, so there are non Jewish Russians in Israel

[I had asked my aunt why there were so many people on Pesach at the beach in bathing suits, that I thought everyone was Jewish in Israel. So that is what she told me.]

There is one Gan- like public school, so goyim learn songs- Echad Mi Yodeah?

[I found it interesting that they were learning Jewish songs in a secular song, because it’s the state of Israel]

Had best supper, chicken cutlets, potatoes, meat cubes, pickles, brownies

[that was perfect, it’s like one in a million to get a good supper like that, usually it’s always dairy]

Monday:

Went to Har HaKarmel, where Eliahu hanovi fought 450- Nivea Sheker, Nachal Kishon.

kartis

[don’t know when I used this, so just sticking it in here]

Saw Blacks talking Hebrew

[also saw Chinese people on a tour bus getting off to Tour Israel. I remember when we were walking through a place I saw the blacks who acted like goyim, so they weren’t Jewish but yet they talked Hebrew and I just wasn’t used to it, cause I always associated Hebrew with Jewish and didn’t realize it’s actually a language of a country]

Played UNO with Uncle Benji and kids, Harry potter cards.

[back then everyone was into Harry potter and Soduko]

Cousin Leora got Hebrew Harry Potter book

[It had just come out, I forgot which book it was, perhaps 5? She had it in Hebrew and English]

Cousin Chani wore black skirt with picture of Marilyn Monroe in white on it.

[I was surprised by the way she dressed, I had no clue my cousins were like this cause we barely ever saw them since they live in Israel. So when I saw her wearing a Marylyn Monroe skirt I thought it was interesting and at the same time cool. I also noticed she wore low cut down shirts and was surprised by that as well.]

Tuesday:

Went go Carting- had a lot of fun

[It was my first time that I actually went in the go cart and drove, I was always afraid and made someone else sit with me and do the driving. But now I was on my own and I did it and had a good time, and after that I was no longer afraid to drive go carts! They also had a cool type where in the beginning there was an instructor that told you rules and all different things and then it was a race that was scored, I of course lost.]

Wore hats and helmets- Uncle Benji took pictures

[I came out horrible in the picture. For those that are my FB friend, you will see it’s a picture that I’m tagged in]

Wednesday:

Pesach, took walk

[did a lot of walking by the beaches by the hotel]

Benji went back at night

[since they live in Israel and only keep 1 day. My grandparents had been going every year to Israel for Succos and Pesach since before my mother was married. Yet every year when they went they always kept 2 days. Now finally since their living there they keep 1 day. But I remember everyone was always asking them why their keeping 2. But it worked out for me, cause I wouldn’t want to have to be there all alone on the second day.]

slept with door to the porch open, got a lot of mosquito bites

hotel room

[that’s the bed I slept in, with the porch right outside, was such a shame that I got so many mosquito bites cause after that we went to the kotel and my face was all ruined. But thanx to photo editing software I was able to remove the red mosquito bites from my face]

Thursday:

Pesach, at night we went to Maaleh Adumim

Magen David Garden

[garden by my cousins house]

Friday:

Went to the kotel, looks smaller then I thought it would be,

another kotel pic

Kotel

Kotel View from Steps

Har Habais

bought myself a present

p_00034

[it has all the small prayers in it, like brachos, shema, ani mamin, benching, krias shema al hamita, and some other ones and a few perakim of tehillim. Comes in very handy]

got a red bendle

[I actually had it on for so long, like at least a year after I got it]

Shabbos:

With Uncle Benji and family, had a lot of fun

Went to shul, they daven with Israeli accent, sing a lot of stuff

Sunday:

Went to Lev Yerushalayim, went shopping by Mae Sharem and Geula,

got gifts for family

gift mug

gift brush and mirror

gift pen and siddur

[those are some of the gifts I bought. Also bought for my twin brother a wooden key chain that says #1 twin on it, I also got him a leather bookmark. Then I got my mother a silver necklace, and my father a siddur which he had asked for. I also got my parents a leather magnet that says something nice on it.]

Monday:

Went on plane

Got Michal Negrin ring at airport, took a picture of the store.

Michal Negrin

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Jewish Song Sundays--- #1

Baruch Levine: Vezakeini

For some this may be a new song, for others you may remember it from the Hasc 20 video, or if you have Boruch Levine’s CD.

Over Yom Tov, my shul kept singing this song, and I love it so much. The boys sing it beautifully, so I decided to share it for those who haven’t heard it.

The lyrics are taken from the Yehi Ratzon a woman says Friday night when she lights candles.

Here’s a translation of the song:

"Privilege me to raise children and grandchildren who are wise and understanding, who will"love Hashem and fear G-d, people of truth, holy offspring attached to Hashem who will illuminate the world with Torah and good deeds and with every labor in the service of the Creator."

 

Vezakeini By Boruch Levine at HASC 20

Some technical information:
For those that want to download the video into avi or mpeg then you can download Save 2 Pc.
If you want to download just the music from the video then you can do that at Vid 2 MP3.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Barren Woman

Disclaimer: This is a purely literary review based on my opinion. Using no outside sources.

Barren Woman is a repeated theme throughout the Bible. Sara and Rachel were two matriarchs that had to wait many years till they were able to have children. They had started off as barren woman, then G-d opened their wombs and allowed them to have children.

Sara, Genesis 16:

Sara, Abraham’s wife was barren for many years. She suggested to Abraham to take Hagar her Egyptian maidservant as a wife, and perhaps through her she will be built up. Then once Hagar conceived her view of her mistress, Sara, had changed, and she now viewed her as lower. Sara dealt harshly with Hagar and Hagar fled. Hagar was in the desert and found a spring of water. An angel appeared to her then and told her to return to her mistress and to submit herself to Sara’s ruling. The angel promised Hager that her offspring will increase and she will give birth to a son and name him Ishmael since Hashem has heard her prayer. The angel told Hager that her son will be a wild man and will always fight against everyone, and everyone will fight with him. Hagar returned and gave birth and named her son Ishmael, and Abraham was 86 at that time.

Rachel, Genesis 30:

Rachel, one of Jacob’s wives saw that she was barren and gave Billhah, her maid, to Jacob to take as a wife so that she may be built up through her. Billhah had 2 sons, then Leah, Rachel’s sister, Jacob’s other wife, saw that she had stopped giving birth. So she gave Jacob Zilpah, her maidservant to be his wife. Zilpah then had 2 sons. Reuben, Leah’s son had given some of his dudaim to Rachel, and in exchange Leah got to sleep with Jacob. Leah then gave birth to a 5th and 6th son and a daughter. God then remembered Rachel and she gave birth to a son.

Both Sara and Rachel had to wait many years till they were able to have children. They both suggested that their husbands take their maid servant as a wife so that they can have a child through them. After both maid servants had children, then Sara and Rachel were able to have children. It seems interesting that they had to allow another woman to marry their husbands in order for them to have children.

Rachel’s story seems more complex than Sara’s since it has the added on factor of a sister as a second wife to her husband and the jealousy involved there. It seems like there was a competition going on, about who can have the most children. Even though Rachel only had 2 children she was the wife with whom Jacob had originally wanted to marry. So it would seem as though she should have been the main wife to have more children, and to have children first. But yet she had to wait, and had to go through the suffering of seeing her sister have more children before her. Perhaps, it was a way of saving the best for last, and therefore she had children after. Or perhaps after seeing her sister have children it made her truly want the children more and she was better able to appreciate them.

By Sara’s story, the child of her maidservant plays an important role in the future of Jewish history. A whole nation comes out of Ishmael and they never get along with the Jews. Whereas, by Rachel, her maidservant’s children mostly get along with her children, they are considered brothers and are all Jewish. Although the brothers to get jealous of Rachel’s son, and sell Joseph to the Egyptians.

We see here that there can be two children born from the same father and yet turn out very different. It shows how important the teachings of the mother are, since the mother is the one to mold the child. Hagar ended up raising Ishmael and therefore he turned out different from Isaac.

In conclusion, Sara and Rachel’s story were very similar in that they were both barren woman that had to wait many years to have children. But the stories are yet different. Abraham had no children from any other wives while he was married to Sara. He married Sara’s maid servant with the thought that it Sara will be able to raise the child like her own. However, Jacob had been married to both Rachel and Leah at the same time. Leah had been able to have children, while Rachel could not. Rachel had given her maid servant to Jacob to be able to have a child just like Sara did. But then Leah also gave over her maid servant to Jacob to marry, and here it was to add on to the amount of children she already had.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Waiting for Moshiach

My previous Jewish Blog “The Jewish Side of Me” was having some troubles, so I decided to create a new one. I republished the previous 2 blog posts that I had up before. But unfortunately I wasn’t able to restore the comments. Feel free to comment again if you remember what you said last time.

Now what does this all have to do with Moshiach?

It goes like this, at first I thought the blog will be back in a few minutes so I clicked on my dashboard every few minutes expecting it to be back. Then I realized it may take longer than that, so I waited a day, and then checked back every day, and then every few days. Till eventually I figured it’s not coming back and I would just check back once a week. Then I realized it may never come back on its own and I actually have to do something about it, so I created the same blog again.

We start out as little kids learning how Moshiach will come and we are so excited and expect Moshiach to appear all of a sudden and then go flying on the eagel’s wings to Israel. Then we get older and we don’t think about it so much. We become involved in our every day lives and Moshiach becomes a far away thought. Then once a while we get reminded of Moshiach and the future Bais Hamikdash. We learn that if everyone would just keep Shabbos then Moshiach would come. It seems like a far away concept and we forget about it. Then we get inspired and realize we actually have to do something to help Moshiach come. So we do more Mitzvos and then with Hashem’s help Moshiach will come!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Fun Reading

Yesterday I had some homework to do for my Jewish class, and since I tend to push homework off till the last minute, I was sitting in the class before it doing my Jewish Homework. I had a תנ״ך that was divided in 3 sections, Torah, נבאים, and כתובים. For the Homework I needed to compare 2 passages, one from Torah and one from נבאים, so I had both on my desk.

Then a Jewish guy sitting next to me, sees the ספרים on my desk, so he asks me what it’s for. I showed him the syllabus, saying that it’s a upper core I’m taking. He then decided to take the חמישה חומשי תורה from my desk and starts reading it. He starts off with the beginning, he then asks me what וישלט means. I tell him it means to rule or a ruler, he then shows me the English translation says it’s a viceroy, so I tell him that it’s another name for a ruler. He then flips through to creation, he asks me what luminaries mean. I answer that it means the stars and moon in the sky. He asked me what וישרצו means, I didn’t have a good word to translate it too, I said it means to swarm, like many bugs swarming around.

After having some fun reading the חמישה חומשי תורה he then notices the נביא on my desk, so he takes that and starts going through that too. Knowing which High School he went to, I knew it was a modern one, but I was surprised that he didn’t know some stuff which I remember learning in elementary school and thinking that everyone knew. So it woke me up that it could be that people aren’t as familiar with the Torah as I would expect them to be.

He flips through some more and continues reading. Meanwhile the whole time I thought he was just going to look at it for a second, I didn’t realize he was going to be reading it the whole class. After all, I was waiting to get it back so I can finish doing my Homework. I finished one homework and didn’t end up getting to do my second homework that class. But it felt good knowing that someone was able to keep the mitzvah of learning Torah through me.

Fun Reading

Yesterday I had some homework to do for my Jewish class, and since I tend to push homework off till the last minute, I was sitting in the class before it doing my Jewish Homework. I had a תנ״ך that was divided in 3 sections, Torah, נבאים, and כתובים. For the Homework I needed to compare 2 passages, one from Torah and one from נבאים, so I had both on my desk.

Then a Jewish guy sitting next to me, sees the ספרים on my desk, so he asks me what it’s for. I showed him the syllabus, saying that it’s a upper core I’m taking. He then decided to take the חמישה חומשי תורה from my desk and starts reading it. He starts off with the beginning, he then asks me what וישלט means. I tell him it means to rule or a ruler, he then shows me the English translation says it’s a viceroy, so I tell him that it’s another name for a ruler. He then flips through to creation, he asks me what luminaries mean. I answer that it means the stars and moon in the sky. He asked me what וישרצו means, I didn’t have a good word to translate it too, I said it means to swarm, like many bugs swarming around.

After having some fun reading the חמישה חומשי תורה he then notices the נביא on my desk, so he takes that and starts going through that too. Knowing which High School he went to, I knew it was a modern one, but I was surprised that he didn’t know some stuff which I remember learning in elementary school and thinking that everyone knew. So it woke me up that it could be that people aren’t as familiar with the Torah as I would expect them to be.

He flips through some more and continues reading. Meanwhile the whole time I thought he was just going to look at it for a second, I didn’t realize he was going to be reading it the whole class. After all, I was waiting to get it back so I can finish doing my Homework. I finished one homework and didn’t end up getting to do my second homework that class. But it felt good knowing that someone was able to keep the mitzvah of learning Torah through me.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Rosh Hashanah

One of the customary main parts of Rosh Hashanah is dipping the apple in the honey so that we should have a Happy Sweet New Year. I was never able to bring myself to eat honey when it’s in clear sight, so I always just eat the apple, but then I miss out on saying the Yehi Ratzon.

My best new fruit to eat is the Sabra, it’s sweet and easy to eat. The Rimon tastes very good too, just there are so many pits to spit out that it can get annoying. I have never tasted dates. So I don’t really end up eating all the Simonim.

This Shabbos Shuva, I heard a Shabbos Shuva Drasha that was great. There were a lot of points made. But there were 2 main ones that caught my attention.

  1. A lot of people these days are doing Jewish actions only because everyone else is, and it’s their way of joining the club, they feel no real connection to what they are doing, they don’t know the reason behind these actions. This struck me as very true, we have to start learning why we are doing what we are doing, it shouldn’t just be because that’s what gets us membership into that community.

  2. The Jewish way of life is really beautiful. There are so many mitzvos of where we have to do Hiddur Mitzvos. We make beautiful succah decorations, we buy beautiful esrogim. The Bais Hamikdosh itself was made of gold and silver and beautiful curtains. All Yom Tovim involve such beautiful meals and singing. We have to remind ourselves of the beauty of Yiddishkeit. Besides for the Mitzvos which we have to do, we look at the mitzvos that make us love being a Jew.

Great article worth reading about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

 

Rosh Hashanah Video

Sunday, October 5, 2008

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Friday, October 3, 2008

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  3. Recommended Post – Beneath each post is a button that says “recommend” If you click on it, a link will appear in this section of the post you recommended, as long as the amount of other members that recommended it. Again you have to be signed into Google to do this.
  4. Top Commenters – The commenters who have commented the most are listed with the amount of comments they have left. Awards are given to the top Commenters at the blogversary.
  5. Recent Comments – a snippet of the latest comments left.

Left Bottom Sidebar

  1. Get Answers – here you can look at the FAQ’s of this blog. You can post answers or ask a question.
  2. Shared Items – These are links to interesting articles/media I have found on the web. It is constantly updated.
  3. Twitter – my twitter feed, with a button to follow my tweets.
  4. Twitpic updates – Pictures I have uploaded via twitpic.
  5. Never Done/Seen List – List of links to blog posts that have written about things I have never done or seen.
  6. Done – pictures proof of those items which I have completed.
  7. Books Bloggers recommend – links to posts where bloggers recommend books which I would like to check out.
  8. Digsby Chat – your way to communicate with me via chat.