Carpe Diem - Seize the Day!

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a flying:
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a getting;
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best, which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

ROBERT HERRICK - 1591-1674


O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.
That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

WALT WHITMAN -1819-1892


Make every moment count - FRUM IDEALIST

Space for Rent

.









.

The Mouse Trap

I received the following e-mail over the weekend.....

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse,I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers." The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose." So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital,and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
REMEMBER: EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY; OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

FAMILY

I saw this recently and thought it was a beautiful sentiment:

Father
And
Mother
I
Love
You

Getting Everyone Involved

Over shabbos I heard a beautiful pshat that I just felt that I had to share.
In last week's parsha, Parshas Vayeira, we see the hachnosas orchim of both Avraham and Lot. If one looks we can see many similarities between the two. They both bow to their guests, invite them to their homes and offer them food and water to wash their feet. In fact, Lot invites them to spend the night which Avraham doesn't (probably because they arrived to Avraham at midday and to Lot later in the evening). Obviously Lot learned how to be machnis orchim from all the time he spent with Avraham.
Harav Samson Raphael Hirsch points out a very interesting difference between the two. By Avraham it says, that he ran to Sarah and told her that they had guests and that she should bake cakes. Then he got a calf and gave it to Yishmael to prepare. Whereas by Lot, the passuk basically tells us that he did it all himself.
Obviously when one acts like Avraham involving the entire family, the trait is perpetuated, as the gemara tells us that one of the primary traits of klal yisrael is gomlei chasadim. Whereas if one does it on his own without involving his family, the trait ends with him. As we see with Moav (descendants of Lot) that the primary reason Klal Yisrael was told to eradicate them was not because they hired Bilam, but "Al asher lo kidu eschem balechem uvamayim", because they were not gomlei chesed to us when we left miztrayim.
The (former) Belzer Rebbe learns this same lesson out of a passuk in Haazinu, "Hanistaros, LaHashem Elokainu, Vehaniglos Lanu Ulvanainu Ad Olam", pashut pshat is that Hashem knows all secrets, but public things are known to all. The Rebbe explained it though as follows, acts that are done privately stay between that man and Hashem, however acts that are done publicly, i.e. involving the family, remain with us and our children until the end of time.

Hodu LaHashem Kee Tov - II

I told you that I have many thoughts on the subject, so here's another....

The goyim choose one day a year, today, to be grateful and give thanks for what they have.
For us jews it is not a one day thing, but part of our daily avoda. We are after all, called jews, "yehudim". The root of yehudim is hodaa or thanks/appreciation.
Our daily nusach hatefilla is set up to focus on the concept of hakaras hatov. The first thing we do in the morning is thank Hashem for breathing life back into us after a night's sleep. We then go through our entire body thanking Hashem for the ability to see, stand, walk, have clothing on our backs. etc etc etc. In fact, according to nusach sefard, pesukai d'zimra begins with Hodu LaHashem. We go through this appreciation practice on a daily basis so that it becomes ingrained in us and becomes part of our nature. Unfortunately, ba'avonosainu harabim, the result is that we recite the blessings by rote and do not concentrate on what we are actually saying and doing.
We are thanking Hashem for the "little things" which we take for granted. The "little things" which are really the biggest things. Who wouldn't appreciate or be grateful for receiving five million dollars? Yet, although we don't take the time to appreciate our body parts, who among us would accept five million dollars in exchange for our eyes, our ears, our hands, our feet? Doesn't that make what we already have worth even more than five million dollars, EACH.

That being said, I want to say that what I am most grateful for is the health and awareness that Hashem granted me so that I can appreciate and recognize the most important things in my life.
My wonderful kids.

Hodu LaHashem Kee Tov - I

Today is Thanksgiving, so the topic of thanks and gratitude is definitely in the air.
I have so many thoughts. Where to start??

Hodu is the hebrew word for thanks and also for turkey. Any correlation to the fact that turkey is the traditional Thanksgiving food? Coincidence or not?

Time for some controversy

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions, right?
I can't believe I resisted this long, but my friend is not around now to hold my tongue so here goes.

What has become of Chabad/Lubavitch???

Years ago, when I was growing up Chabad/Lubavitch was synonymous with worldwide outreach and good. You were travelling, you needed to know where kosher food was, you needed a mikva (granted, I didn't know much about that when I was a kid, but when I got a little older), who you gonna call? not Ghostbusters..... you called the local Chabad/Lubavitch. I personally have a great work related story with travelling and Chabad/Lubavitch but now is not the time for that. The problem is, now, although they still do that good, it is far overshadowed by the Messianic lunacy. In fact, now, if anything, to most outsiders, Chabad/Lubavitch is synonymous with Christianity if anything. (Harsh words, I know)
Many millenia ago, people started serving the sun and the moon. why? Originally, they really had the best intentions. Similar to the maase ha'egel, they were looking to the sun and the moon to serve as an intermediary between them and Hashem. They felt that Hashem was too great and they couldn't possibly communicate with Him, so they needed to make use of Hashem's creations to serve as an intermediary. Although their intentions originally were pure and good, it was clearly not the derech that Hashem had in mind.
I know I tread on dangerous ground here, but this is the basis of the machlokes between chassidim and misnagdim. I know I referenced it somewhat in one of my previous posts, but the original machloksim were l'shaim shamayim. Chassidus reasoned that people felt out of touch with Hashem and needed an intermediary, and misnagdim were afraid of what that could lead to. Misnagdim had Rabbanim to look up to and to ask questions and advice of, but not to serve as an intermediary between man and G-d. What exactly were the misnagdim afraid of? Exactly what is happening in Chabad today. People have stopped looking at the Rebbe as an intermediary and have started to act as though he is the G-d. The Rebbe's role as an intermediary, basically came to an end when he was niftar. Yes, I hate to break it to you but the Rebbe is no longer alive.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that all of Lubavitch is like this. There are many wonderful Lubavitcher chassidim still carrying on the Rebbe's shlichus, and in that manner, in a healthy way, he will live on eternally. In fact, I have a Chabad/Lubavitch co-worker who refers to"them" as a bunch of lunatics.
I need to start wrapping this up because it's probably already too long as it is, but I will give you an example, of what I meant when I said before that "People have stopped looking at the Rebbe as an intermediary and have started to act as though he is the G-d. " Perhaps it's a small thing, but I was recently on a flight to Eretz Yisrael. I am not exaggerating to say that at least 85% of the flight was Chabad. All with the "Yechi Adonainu" on their kipas.
The Anshei Knesses Hagedola spent years redacting the seder hatefilla. This is the seder hatefilla that jews have been using for two thousand years. What a travesty that at the end of the tefilla is added "yechi adonainu, etc." Three times nonetheless. After each tefilla. Was the seder hatefilla that the AKH put together chas veshalom incomplete??
That was bad, but what really infuriated me and drove home my point, was what occured when we landed.
Anyone that has flown to Israel knows that a safe landing is met with applause, whispers of "Boruch Hashem" and for years the song hallelukah playing over the PA. Not on my flight. On my flight, the applause was accompanied by loud cheers of "yechi adonainu, etc."
Is the Rebbe still an intermediary? or are they G-d forbid thanking the Rebbe for his help in assuring their safe flight?
How did this happen? How was this allowed to happen? How long until, similar to christianity, Chabad/Lubavitch becomes a religion of its own? I don't think it's that far off, but that's just MY opinion.

Out of the mouths of babes

Last night I was sitting at my computer and my four year old daughter walked into the room. She was playing around and then decided to climb and stand up on the computer desk. She looks down at me from her vantage point and says, "Look at me, I'm King of the World!!!"
I look at her, and I said, "Really? You are King of the World?" and she looks at me and says, "No, Hashem is!"

BH, I must be doing something right.

Barbie

I apologize in advance for posting something that was not my original work, but I felt it was time to lighten up the posts a little... for today.

One day a father gets out of work and on his way home he remembers that it's his daughter's birthday. He pulls over to a toy store and asks the salesperson, "How much is the Barbie on the display window?"

The salesperson answers, " Which one? We have: Work out Barbie for $19.95, Shopping Barbie for $19.95 Beach Barbie for $19.95, Disco Barbie for $19.95, Divorced Barbie for $265.95

The amazed father asks: "What? Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?"

The salesperson annoyingly answers :
"Sir..., "Divorced Barbie comes with:

Ken's Car, Ken's House, Ken's Boat, Ken's Furniture, Ken's
Computer and...One of Ken's Friends.

Time

The past, is history
The future, a mystery
The now, is a gift
That's why it's called the "present"

We only live in the now. Make each now moment count!

why do we want what we can't have?

I recently commented on someone else's blog regarding Adam HaRishon and maybe because we are still in the Braishis parshas, it made me think.
Why is it that Hashem created us so that we want what we can't have and that we're not necessarily satisfied and content with what we do have.
Look at Adam, he had the entire world at his disposal. He could eat whatever he wanted. Did he have to davka choose the one (of the two) tree that Hashem said not to eat from?
Look at us. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but I have been in numerous situations in my life where I had something right in front of my face and chose to ignore it for something harder or more challenging to obtain. why? why? why?
Logically it makes no sense. Yet, from speaking to friends it seems to be consistent not just with me. If anybody has any thoughts on this, please help enlighten me.

Jew vs. Jew

Throughout the millenia, Am Yisrael has lived with the tag of being the "Am Hanivchar". We understand that to mean that Hashem has chosen us for bigger and better things. (Critics over the last fifty years have criticized us asking what makes us different than the Nazis (yemach shmom) who claimed to be "chosen" as well, but in a different way. I digress, but just to answer that dilemma, they chose themselves for greater reward and glory, we say that Hashem chose us which gives us greater responsibility. ) Our enemies have chosen us as well, but chosen us as a target.
As a frum jew, it's hard to live with sometimes, but I can accept that. What kills me is when jews fight among themselves.
No, this is not a new concept. The bais hamikdash was destroyed around 2000 years ago for this very reason. Obviously, although so much time has passed, we have yet to learn our lesson and once again earn back the glory that once was.
If you look back there were always splits in judaism, in fact, it's the source of numerous jewish jokes (i.e. a guy alone on an island yet has two shuls...). Let's look at what we are left with now.
We have sefard and ashkenaz. Within sefard we have numerous different factions. My sister was at a wedding a few years back where the kallah's brother stabbed the choson's because his family were frum iraqi sefardi jews and his sister had the gall to marry a frum libyan sefardi jew. Even among the ashkenazim we have the split between chassidim and misnagdim, this goes back hundreds of years with tremendous gedolim on either side of the argument so I won't touch that. (I admit, I'm out of my league on that one). Misnagdim have always been somewhat split, and there are many different groups of chasidim. (what's the difference between a chosid and a misnagid? one rebbe) . For now, I'm going to focus my attention on the chassidim.
Chassidus though used to stand for warmth and achdus, and my stomach is turning at what I am seeing now. Almost "Ain bayis asher ain shom mais". With the exceptions of Belz (coincidence that my family is somewhat affiliated with Belz?) and Ger, there is no longer any other united group of chassidus. Munkatch with the three rebbes (the rebbe zl, the rebbe yemach shmo and the rebbe zol er leben un gezundt zain), Skwer and Vizhnitz have been split for years as well. Lubavitch, also split between the normal ones and the others (don't get me started on that, yet. perhaps a later post). Now Bobov and Satmar, with fights and arguments among brothers and cousins, that are now public displays of major chillul hashem. Why are they fighting? In my opinion (and it's not just mine) it's all about money. That's what I see, that's what the world sees, and frankly, it disgusts me. Why can't we all just get along?????

"Im Eshkachaich Yerushalayim"

Unfortunately my trip has come to an end.
Back in the US now and thinking about all the things that I miss already.
I can't just hop over to the kotel for mincha. No more birchas kohanim every morning during shachris. Walking down the streets, the streets feel different, the people look different.
what am I doing here???
I should be there. We all should be.
what am I afraid of? why can't I pull the trigger and make the move. help me understand.

Walking The Streets Of Jerusalem

What can I say, there is just something special about being in Israel. You wake up in the morning and look out the window and it's like no feeling anywhere else in the world. The weather is great, BH, and even when it's not, it's Israel.
It's a strange feeling. I look out the window and see a rocky mountain side, and feel like this is where I belong. Imagine how I feel walking or driving through Yerushalayim, breathing the air, seeing our precious sites. I am unfortunately not staying long this visit, and I'm already looking forward to coming back. Libi Bimizrach.

A Truly Holy Place

I originally had a different idea for my first "real"post, but I knew a friend of mine would comment of the negative outlook of that post, so I decided to save that one for a different time.
BH, I have the privilege and zchus to be in Israel and on my first afternoon, I went to the kotel to daven mincha. Everyone knows that the kotel is considered by all to be the holiest place on earth. Looking around yesterday I had a personal perspective on that fact.
One listens to the news and hears about fights between two factions of satmar, two factions of bobov, and the list goes on and on (get an idea of what my original thought was for my first post?). Wherever you look, unfortunately you see two jews not getting along, let alone with others.
The most amazing thing struck me while davening at the kotel. It is UNIVERSALLY accepted. Whether it's Chassidim, no matter what color or style their bekesha or shtraimel is, Misnagdim, no matter which yeshiva or hat color, frum or not, jewish or not, EVERYONE (except for possibly the hindus and buddhists, but even they come to see it, as I witnessed yesterday) accepts the Kotel as the world's holiest place. Granted the moslems look at the other side of the wall, but the feeling is still there.
To achieve that kind of universal acceptance can only be divine and in my mind solidifies it as a truly holy place.