Open Up Your Eyes... See the Beauty of Life

Life takes many shapes and many forms, from the small little earthworm to the flowers that grow in the garden and brighten our lives.

We so often say that we need to open up our eyes and see that we are living more and more in a world of Geulah and not Golus, but often the fog of depression weighs us down in the dark and stops us from going out and taking a walk around the block.

I have a friend who is prone to depression. She is at home, lights turned off, watching TV and reading old books too overwhelmed by her plight to go out and see her friends, see the sunlight (because she has to pull the blinds open to do that) and in the middle of winter, up north she is missing the blue skies and the daffodils that are pushing up through the grass during what has been a blissfully, mild winter.

Just outside her house, down her steps, across the street not even 100 feet from where she lives are beautiful yellow daffodils, her favorite color... blooming in the sunshine.

I can go over, bring her some flowers, nudge her to go for a walk and talk but depending on her mood on that day she will not see what is there to see if she would only open her eyes.

I was going through an old calendar the other day and saw this beautiful picture and thought how perfect it is for the concept of opening our eyes.

Even when we are going through tragedy or despair there is still there... something that can make us smile or give us hope to go on....if only we open up our eyes and our hearts and our souls to let it in.

I've never been one of those people who believed if you were going over the cliff and about to fall to your death and you see the most beautiful strawberry, that you should reach out and grab it and savor the taste on your way down to death...though I do have a few friends who believe if it's there you may as well enjoy it.  I suppose I'd smile, think on other strawberries in my life I had tasted and prayed.

Either way... the strawberries are on sale in the market, the flowers of spring are pushing up a bit early through the not so frozen ground and the sun is shining today.

Somewhere a baby is ill, an old person is dying, someone is suffering from cancer and someone is getting an A in a class or getting engaged.

Life goes on, without any real rhythm or rhyme.. you can look at the glass as half full or you can look at it as half empty or you can ....as my friend Bryna reminds me... remember that is always full, half filled with water, half filled with air.

Open up your eyes today, go outside, give thanks for all the beauties that you can see... do a good deed for someone else who needs a favor or a gift... breathe the air, smell the flowers... smell them for a sick friend who can't smell them today but will smell them again another day.

Make your favorite food! Listen to your favorite song!

Picture a world filled with goodness and kindness and really be the person you want to see in the world.

Bring a friend a flower, send a friend a flower... send them a picture online of a beautiful flower.

Be part of the solution and not part of the problem!

Give a smile, it's free, it's easy and you get one back in return.

When the Lubavitcher Rebbe said on CNN "it is only from our part to do something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness" we need to really take action not to just listen... to do more acts of goodness and kindness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_sx3PzUtjg

So, open up your eyes, open up the windows.... go outside, smell the air, look at the flowers, do an act of goodness and kindness today!

A New Year.... A New You... Reflections on Birthing in 2012 in Geulah

It's a New Year according to the secular calendar that we live and work by and every where people are making resolutions for what they would like to accomplish in 2012.

Some people who are worrying on the urban legends of the world ending in December of this year have obviously low expectations.. I mean if we make it to January of 2013 they will feel it was a good year :)

On the other hand, a new year that begins on Hey Teves... as we go from Hey Teves into the New Year cannot be a bad thing. The 5th day of the Hebrew Month of Teves is a day that is symbolic for "victory" and so I'm focusing on that and not the Mayan calendar. I mean... considering the Mayan's didn't seem to see the conquistadors coming... should we really believe them?

http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=25638 <---what is Hey Teves

I do think we are moving fast into a new consciousness on a world wide collective level of a new world order based on goodness and kindness vs the old order of selfishness and conquest. 

In truth every day is a new day, every moment is a new world as we can choose to make positive choices or negative choices. Goes back to the beginning of time... good choice, bad choice ... and on any given day we all make bad choices but we try to make more good choices than bad... we try to make a difference in this beautiful world around us and all day long we are forced to make choices. 

Do I eat a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge poured over it for dessert or save the calories or points for a Shabbos treat or put it on a list for "what I want on my birthday" or do we devour the decadent dessert and try to spend 3 hours at the gym working off the calories or give up and decide to start that diet tomorrow?

Do we cheat? Do we lie? Do we steal? Do we give to charity or buy a lotto ticket or make a deal with God that if we win the lotto THEN we will give money to charity?? A famous Rabbi told me once the reason people like that don't win the lotto is God doesn't need you to win the lotto to give charity. He was a funny, practical sort of man... logically true but then again I've heard from so many how they would give so much charity IF they won the lotto. We should all have that test I suppose ... but we can all win the biggest prize of all by giving charity every day even in small amounts, still we have to make that decision and more so do that act of writing the check or clicking on the link or putting a penny in a pushka.

Pregnant women have the biggest choice of all... what sort of birth they want to select and then they pray that they won't have to have an emergency C Section that robs them of that beautiful birthing experience they longed for..  

Just the thought that women today we  "long for a birthing experience" is something that could not be comprehended just a few decades ago or centuries ago. It is hard for us to really understand how far we have come from the day when our great-great grandmothers found out that their daughter was pregnant and she spent most of the 9 months praying that her daughter would not die in childbirth. She prayed that her own baby daughter now grown would live through the childbirth itself more than she prayed for a healthy grandchild. 

Really... honest. Years ago when a woman found out she was "with child" it was considered a possible death sentence... on one hand as natural as the sun rising and yet... so many women died giving birth, so many babies died while the mother lived, so many mothers died with their babies that it was a natural part of the order of life. A man with 2 or 3 small children now motherless quickly moved on to a new wife and hoped she would make it through childbirth when her time came.

Ever look at a lot of family trees?  You see all those small branches with one child or two children and then the new branch (new wife) and four or five more babies... and sometimes even a third branch with more children and a newer wife. 

We are so lucky today when we choose which childbirth we want and begin to pick out names for the baby that we know the sex of that it's hard for us to even imagine that just 100 years ago.. women prayed to live to see their baby alive.

We learn that in the times of Moshiach women give birth without pain... and over the last 50 or 60 years we have been moving rapidly towards that day when the way of childbirth is truly without pain.

My mother thought she was there when she was about to give birth to me... they knocked her out (she didn't feel nothing, trust me) and they reached in with forceps and dragged me out of her warm womb, which may explain the headaches I have had most my life ;)  I mean seriously? What were they thinking?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forceps_in_childbirth

Well, they were thinking it was SAFE for the baby and the doctors were in control and it was "painless" and that was a lot better than taking your chances in the rice paddies or hoping the midwife that came to your house late at night was able to deliver a healthy baby. 

Painless yes... but I'm not sure that's what the idea of painless childbirth was all about but it was a definite step in the right direction ... 

Next came the 1960s and 1970s of Natural Childbirth...where the mother experienced the joy of transition and feeling the baby slip/slide out into the doctor's waiting arms was more "natural" but it was not exactly painless. It was more a matter of mind over matter... supposedly if you took enough classes and practiced panting you were in control and aware of what was happening and able to process the pain differently... and well I thought when I did it this was about as close as you could come to that time when we give birth without pain..   I was lucky, I panted, can't remember much of the pain and out slid the babies... who went on to become part of the Rebbe's Army of Hashem.

Then came the 1980s and we tried Leboyer or "modified Leboyer" which meant the lights were off... it was peaceful, possibly in the water...this new peaceful generation of babies would be born in a quiet, secure, serene environment unlike the way I was yanked out with what was basically salad tongs as I cried the whole way as my mother slept peacefully knocked out for almost 24 hours...

http://www.pregnancy-info.net/leboyer.html

I had a modified Leboyer as the hospital didn't allowed the water pool part, but the doctor had this great voice that sounded like James Earl Jones reading Psalms and all the lights were off except for one just above the doctor for him to see and my baby girl came out peacefully, beautifully and I felt very little pain... they placed her onto me and they let her nurse while she was still attached as they went about cutting the cord and finishing up their part. It was a beautiful peaceful moment. Then again in her teens she did go through a dark gothic phase of dress and wore army boots for about 3 years making me wonder if she remembered that wonderful early, peaceful bonding moment we had way back then.... A few friends had their babies in the water... well their children do like to go to the ocean a lot but then so do I and I wasn't born in a pool of water. I do think it was a step in the progress of childbirth... calm, controlled, peaceful... a little pain but who notices pain when you are staring into the eyes of your newborn baby? 

Fast forward to the beginning of November... I was in the hospital with my friend's daughter who was debating whether to have an epidural or not. There are some risks with an epidural but the children of the natural childbirth mothers all seem to prefer the epidural. Know what? You are awake for the birth and the bonding but there is no pain... they are having painless childbirths... much the way it should be as we march into Geulah into the New World Order... 

Of course to me.. it makes more sense to do it naturally and the moment the baby is out... you feel like it's all over but the nurse in the hospital was very annoyed and she kept saying over and over, "Why should she feel pain?? Why should she be in pain?" and then the light went on in my head and I giggled quietly and thought... what to this young nurse is totally logical is totally illogical for all the generations of women who came before her.. to this young nurse having a baby in pain is totally illogical and foreign, if not down right cruel.

In the days of Moshiach women give birth without pain... that's one of the first things I ever learned on a practical level of what the world will be like, and it seemed hard to conceive or even imagine. I thought we had mastered the pain thing with the denial of pain during Natural Childbirth.. seems I was wrong and we kept evolving until where we are today in most hospitals when mother's get epidurals and give birth without pain.

"Why should we give birth in pain?"

Good question... why indeed? 

We truly live in a new world, so different from the days when women squatted down in the rice patties and  the baby and mother either lived or she was buried nearby... 

Just like the people who wandered in the desert and received manna every morning could not imagine leaving the desert even after being saved from Egypt they were still afraid to trust and go into the land of Milk and Honey. Looking back it makes no sense to us but to them they were afraid and believed the spies rather than Caleb who had total faith in Hashem. 

We get comfortable with what we know...how we live... who we are ... our known enemies are better than the unknown and the new often scares people. I was scared for her to have an epidural while the nurse wondered why I would want her to give birth in pain..  and my own daughter-in-law had a fast, simple scheduled c-section because the baby was not cooperating and unlike the old days when the mother would simply have died in childbirth..and the baby... they did a little fast, bikini cut, folded back the skin gently while she was wide awake ..her husband taking video and they slid the beautiful baby out and allowed her to hold the baby, nurse the baby and smile into her babies face.. something mind you my mother couldn't do until after she woke up groggily a day or so after my birth.  Even the very thought that had my much loved daughter in law had her baby back a hundred years ago.... or tried to.... makes tears form in my eyes at the thought of what she might have had to go through and whether or not she or the baby would have even made it.

We really need to open up our eyes and realize how far we have come in 5772... 2012 and how lucky that we are that our babies are born without pain, mothers today look forward to childbirth and how blessed we all are to live in the times we do.. times of Geulah, glorious times... 

So... maybe you are deciding how to deliver your baby or whether to eat a delicious slice of carrot cake or maybe you are deciding on whether to look at 2012 as a time when you see and feel the power of Moshiach in your life in every decision you make and with every step you take this year.. 

Live it, feel it... be empowered by it and pass it along by doing Acts of Goodness and Kindness and giving charity. Live your life with your eyes wide open, not keeping them closed for fear of what the future might bring. 

Be empowered... be happy... live... love and experience the Joy of the world around you and give thanks you are who you are living in today's amazing, miraculous world.

We truly do stand on the shoulders of the generations who came before us... enjoy the view in 5772!

Layaway Angels doing Acts of Goodness and Kindness

A beautiful phenomenon has sprung up across the country the last fewst  days in a totally grassroots, organic way as people everywhere are coming forward secretly to pay off people's bills at their neighborhood Kmart's.

Perhaps they read a story on Facebook or saw it on the nightly news ... and rather than just thinking, "wow, that's so nice" they decided to drive over to their local Kmart and pay off a totally random stranger's bill. Each reported story fueled more stories and more people who decided to do someone else a favor and make their holiday a little bit brighter and easier.

No special rebates or tax write offs involved here. Just being nice to a total stranger.

On Tuesday it was reported that over $4,000 of bills had been paid off anonymously. The most recent report is over $400,000 worth of bills across the country. It's a phenomenon that is growing exponentially. And, every time I see a story on the news I just think to myself what a wonderful sign of Moshiach this is that people everywhere are helping strangers with random acts of love and charity.

I keep hearing the Rebbe's now famous speech on CNN to do acts of goodness and kindness... and this is one perfect example of how people are doing just that, with no other motive other than to lighten a stranger's load and light up their life.

http://youtu.be/MeBYuSxhqUM

"to do things in the realm of goodness and kindness"

They are being called Layaway Angels :)

Sweet... usually we think of angels the way we see them in ads or greeting cards. Fluffy little children with wings dressed in white looking all "angelic" or angels going up and down a ladder or the biblical angels who appeared to Abraham. But, in the real world you too can be an angel also!

No story has come along this year that shows so many people reaching out to strangers doing things in the realm of goodness and kindness as this year's phenomenon of Layaway Angels. I bet Hollywood wishes they would have thought of this one when looking for a good box office hit. Truth is often stranger than fiction and more beautiful, because it is real and often inspiration for the future. Art often imitates life and then we imitate art and on and on it goes.

To really appreciate this you have to have once been in the position that you knew there was no way you could buy your child that toy they wanted so badly or a crib or even clothes for winter and someone suggested you try putting it on Layaway. Go to any big store that has a Layaway counter, it's usually older women and young women, often poorly dressed, nervously holding on to whatever treasure they are trying to buy for someone else and hoping that they will have enough money left over each week to make that payment and make a wish come true for their child or grandchild. They are usually women, though sometimes men, who no longer have credit and their paycheck does not allow them to just "go shopping" so the only avenue left is buying something on sale and paying it off week by week. Sometimes, no matter how much they try and save the money is not there, an emergency came up and if they don't get the items out they forfeit them and sometimes ...depending on the terms of the agreemeent... lose the money they put out and the minimal fees that were charged. It happens a lot. Life happens. Life gets in the way. Emergencies come up and there simply isn't an extra $11.22 for your next payment. Layaway departments are usually the avenue of last resort for people whose backs are up against the wall and who are trying the best they can with what they have to make ends meet.

Been there, done it.... and it's a wonderful feeling when you pay off the balance and you come home with presents for Chanukah or clothes that you could not otherwise afford. One year in Los Angeles I bought my daughters the most beautiful red velvet and pink chiffon dresses on a sale that were a little over the top for Shabbos clothes but they loved them so much. The red velvet, white chiffon dress was my youngest daughter's favorite Shabbos dress. They would fall asleep in them and look a lot like an angels ... my angels :)

You want to help someone... someone who really needs? Trust me, the people trying to save to pay off their presents at Kmart are the most who need a random favor from a stranger.

And, most of all what amazes me is that random, everyday people took the time to "take action" rather than just simply passing the link to the story around them, they took action and inspired their friends to take actions.

Taking action...therein is the magic. "Doing things" .... the key word here is "doing" and my question to you is what have you done lately for a random stranger to make their day a little better?

What can you do tomorrow to make someone's world a little bit better?

It's easy to go online and click on a link and give charity, but it's not so easy to think of a way to do something special that will make a difference in another person's life without them knowing you did it, is it?

The people who took the time to walk over to the Layaway counter, usually in the back of the store near the restrooms and stood in line and asked some overworked employee if they could pay off a bill for someone else are heroes and the type of heroes who bring Geulah a little closer every day. The people who got dressed, drove over to Kmart in the rain and asked to pay off someone's bill who had a lot of toys or baby clothes is an angel indeed, a soldier in the battle between good and evil and a warrior in bringing heaven down to earth.

It's great to be alive this December of 2011 to see and hear these stories and watch the faces of the mothers, grandmothers and their children who heard the news that someone came along and paid for their holiday treasures.

Think what a lesson we are teaching these children in the way of the world or the way that the world should be and one can only wonder how an inspired child will grow up, and continue the chain of doing for others with acts of goodness and kindness and increasing in charity themselves one day.

Beautiful, simply beautiful!

I'm sure there are quite a bit of neighborhood stores where you could easily go to the owner and ask to pay off someone's bill or offer to have money put onto someone's bill for them to use as they need be it for Shabbos or just for dinner. A sheitel for a Kallah, siddurim at a bookstore for bochurim, tuition for a random family at a Day School or Yeshiva. Pay for someone's child to go to summer camp. The list is endless.

You simply have to think where you could go and help a random stranger and play this phenomenon forward so that it doesn't end with this holiday season but continues into 2012 and beyond.

Do it!

Anywhere you live there is some sort of program where you can do something to help someone else.

http://www.wral.com/entertainment/holiday/page/3956064/  <-- Donate toys or coats to others

Donate your reading glasses to the Lions Club----> http://donateglasses.org/

http://ahavasyisrael.org/  <--give to an organization that gives to others

Want to help a bride/kallah?? -----> http://bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/

Or...go to your local store that has a Layaway department and be an angel yourself!

Go out and do something for someone else and I bet you'll feel empowered and energetic and you'll smile knowing you put a smile on someone else's face today and for a long time to come. That is the gift of giving, the act of kindness stays with someone a long time... like the memory of a little four year old girl dancing around in circles in her pink chiffon little dress.

Little payments indeed bring great celebrations....they bring Moshiach :)

If I haven't inspired you, read some stories and watch the video and do some thing more in the realm of goodness and kindness in your neighborhood today!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/complete-strangers-touched-altruistic-layaway-angels/story?id=15199745#.TvJOeDWmi8g

http://www.fox23news.com/news/local/story/More-layaway-angels-visit-local-Kmarts/bcgEeINDmkKacy4OPzE3qA.cspx

http://www.ksat.com/news/Layaway-angels-visit-Boerne-Wal-Mart/-/478452/6360122/-/b7hroj/-/

Geulah = Global

All day today I keep thinking on how small the world has become, how interconnected we all are and how walls are falling every day making our world smaller as we move into a more global, geulah lifestyle.

Take the word Global. It means:

Of or relating to the whole world; worldwide: "global economy". Of or relating to the entire earth as a planet: "global environmental change"

The word became a buzz world years back for many and was used in an economic and political sense. The  phrase defined a generation. "Think globally, act locally" went on to define a new movement among many to get involved in making a difference on a small local level and by doing so...in an organic sort of way the world would change one act at a time. Do a good deed, play it forward (pass it on) and that person would do a good deed, etc, etc until the goodness of the first deed in the chain reaction would circle the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_globally,_act_locally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness

What a beautiful thought, but if you look deeper it shows how we have transformed from the world where we used to live for many generations...since before the Internet was discovered.... to a truly Global World.

If that is not Geulah what is?

There was never a time when a generation thought they had improved upon the generation before them but the lives changed in towns, countries... never on such a global level.

A car goes faster than a horse, but it doesn't go anywhere a horse can't go and there are many places a horse can go that a car cannot go.

One of the best chase scenes I've ever seen is this scene where a man trying to save a horse.. puts his life on the line and takes to the road. A rodeo star tries to save a prize horse that is being shot up with drugs and set it free in a rare "good act" that he needs to do to give the horse a better life. The horse outruns police cars and motorcycles in one of the best scenes in the classic movie Electric Horseman. Obviously as much as a car was a great invention... it didn't change the whole world in the same way say an App on your iPhone allows you to watch in real time your grandchild take his first steps on the other side of the planet.

Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKd4MxenBg  <---- great scene!!

There are Apps for everything...even giving charity. But, the most amazing thing is that you can use an App on your cell phone and in minutes..offline... on your phone anywhere you can give money to charity and it's in their account a few minutes later.

https://mycharitybox.com/

This is truly Geulah, a changed, transformed world where I can do an "Act of Kindness" and give charity from a cell phone in Miami to a Chabad House in the Philippines by clicking on a link on my computer. You can do it too! Where it says "DONATE" just click and donate. Any amount small or large will help people on the other side of the planet who are helping others every moment of their lives. One click, one mitzvah, one good deed helps people far away do a good deed the same day.

http://www.chabadphilippines.com/p/donate.html


It's amazing. There I was about to go to the hospital to watch my child give birth, I wanted to give charity fast and in seconds I gave towards a pre-school on the other side of the world. I have a special fondness for this charity. The mother of the Shaliach there taught my son in LA 30 years ago in school. We moved to Miami, they moved to Miami and I watched her daughter grow up and travel to the other side of the world and I can give money to the Chabad House there in seconds by simply tapping my cell phone.  How far we have come in such little time from the telephone was first created.

They sure have changed a lot since the old days:

Up until a few decades ago we didn't have telephones we carried everywhere, up until a few centuries ago the thought of a telephone was a futuristic idea in someone's head who knew it would be done some day but how they weren't sure. The world has sped up so fast in the last several decades, it changes daily. Last year's cell phone is now obsolete if you want to keep on top of the latest technology. An android phone that is two years old is almost worthless.

Now we can send photos and video in real time to relatives living all across America as a baby is born, as he takes his first steps or sits up. My grandson doesn't like to do "google talk" because he prefers "FaceTime" .... go figure. What a world. Constantly changing and evolving, faster and faster.

When I flew off to California to go on Shlichus years ago I didn't know when I would see my parents again.  Airfare was not that expensive, but money was tight and it was not as easy as going online and getting a special on JetBlue or Southwest Air. Today I can fly from North Carolina to Miami on Southwest for $59, a few months back I got a one day special and flew for $39 on JetBlue. Distance no longer divides us the way it did just a few years ago. And, when I can't hit the road I can Facetalk with my grandson who can give me a Dvar Torah from what his Rebbe taught him in Cheder in Crown Heights, New York. He learns in Yiddish in school and he learns English from his iPad in his spare time. How do you explain an iPad to someone who travels through time from the 9th Century or even from the year 1911 to 2011? What next...time travel?

It is truly a new world, we only need to open up our eyes.

The world, the physicality of the world is changing. The dimensions are changing. Reality is changing before our eyes. What we can do and what we can achieve today on a Global level has been transformed and walls are falling before our eyes.

I can give locally, I can give globally.  I can be the change in the world that I want to see one act of goodness and kindness at a time. One dime at a time or one hundred dollars at a time.

I can put a penny in my favorite charity box online or on my desk next to the computer.

You too can be the change in the world that you want to see... one act at a time. The first act is to open up your eyes. The second act is to .... ACT... Do an Act of Kindness anywhere you want to anyone you want by tapping a piece of glass...forget clicking a button...we are changing faster than even my mind can keep up.

Geulah definitely equals Global in my mind. Give it a try, open up your eyes and do an Act of Kindness.


Be the Change That You Want To See....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrv3hteHglI

Love and Learning in the Days of Geulah

There was a  very popular movie years back that made a lot of money and inspired many with dreams of everlasting love that conquers all. A handsome, rich young man and a beautiful, smart poor girl fall madly in love and despite all the love in the world she gets ill and dies. A friend of mine told me a while back, ever notice all great love stories end sadly with someone losing the other? I wanted to argue that thought, but after ruffling through the movies in my mind it occurred to me Romeo and Juliet was not exactly the happiest of stories. So, maybe he was right afterall.

The greatest Love Story of all is the love that God has for all of us and that is forever. Like a father filled with love no matter what we do... he still wants to forgive us, whether we beg for forgiveness or whether we sit there like stubborn children refusing to say we are sorry. 

When this poster came out to the publicize one of the greatest love stories ever told... everyone made fun of this quote as totally silly and illogical and not realistic. Years later in the movie "What's Up Doc?" Ryan O Neal got the last word on the old joke and when Barbra Streisand bats her eyes and him at the end of the movie and says, "Love means never having to say you're sorry..." Ryan O Neal rolls his eyes and says, "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard..." and they kiss and well the movie ends a whole lot happier than Love Story where Ali MacGraw bites the dust.

Do we really need to say we are sorry other others before Yom Kippur or even any day of the week? How important is it to say you are sorry? Well, sometimes we say we are sorry because we are really the one that needs to forgive ourselves for the foolish things we have done in moments of anger or folly or just plain old tiredness. We need the gift of forgiveness for not being as perfect as we wish we were and no matter how much we work on it the goal of perfection just keeps moving further and further away from us.

As we move into a world filled with Geulah we are redeemed by just by being here and yet it doesn't hurt to ever show your love or respect for someone to ask forgiveness for something you may have done knowingly or unknowingly.

Spreading around goodness and kindness never hurt anyone...and forgiving ourselves is the first step to being happy and moving forward without the baggage of the mistakes of the past.

When you really love someone, you love them no matter how they hurt you and no matter how much you wish you didn't love them....it's hard to stop loving them and hard to not forgive them.  Love just is and love is good and love is kind and love IS patient to quote a friend who likes to quote his bible. 

We need to love each other, all of us.... another Jew, another you, another friend down the street and even the teacher who tells you that he is doing this for your own good. Love means accepting someone at their word and seeing the good in them, seeing through their flaws and forgiving ourselves for not being the person that we wish we could be. 

Sometimes it's just accepting the situation the way it is and not how we wished we could make it.. sometimes no matter how hard you wish for something it doesn't come to be... like at the end of Love Story when she slowly slips away and he is alone in winter without the love of his life. The love stays inside, it doesn't go away and we remember the good times as time goes by.

It's an amazing world we live in today. Years ago people would memorize Torah so that they could walk in the street and learn a bit, today you can be in Georgia and call into a phone number in Michigan and connect to someone in Oklahoma who is learning with someone in New York or Jerusalem and walk in the street and listen to Torah being learned via a cell phone. We've come along way from the old days.... we have come so far that sometimes without stopping and realizing how miraculous our world is and how we are all connected across the world via the Internet and our Cell Phones that we don't realize how wondrous it is and it all seems "normal" to be able to live this way. But, it's not... we live in incredible times and we need to really open our eyes and see how incredible this time we live in is indeed.

So, this Yom Kippur, while celebrating the holiday ask yourself forgiveness for not being perfect. And, give thanks to Hashem who is perfect and knows what is best for us even when we don't understand his logic.

Love means never really HAVING to say you're sorry, but it doesn't hurt to say it to Hashem or to your friend down the block or across the continent on Facebook and it doesn't hurt to forgive yourself as you go into Yom Kippur.

And, while celebrating this day of redemption and moving forward into the coming year with resolutions to do good and spread love around.... remember to taste some honey cake and have a sweet year!

Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of mankind, Yom Kippur is the wedding between us and God so feel the love and feel the forgiveness always.

A Planet Made of Diamonds, Life Imitating Art

I've been reading lately about the Planet that was recently discovered that is said to be made of diamonds. Something about pressure over time and a carbon base and lots of other details that are in the link below, but the bottom line is that where our beautiful planet is blue and made up of mostly water.... this newly discovered planet is made from diamonds.

Makes me think how amazing it is that here is case where life imitates art. And, more so of how sparkly and beautiful that in these days of Moshiach revealing itself we find a planet made from diamonds. 

It reminds me of the story that we used to tell when people came to our Chabad House on Friday Nights around the Shabbos table about the man who was shipwrecked on an island. I'm sure you have most likely heard one or more versions of it. It's a Chelm like tale, told long or with a shortened Cliff Notes version.

The gist is a poor man goes on a journey to find money to support his family. There's a storm, a big storm and he finds himself awake on a beach, shipwrecked. Okay, some people end up in the belly of a whale like Jonah and others like this Chelmite ends up on a tropical beach ala Gilligan but without Ginger and the Captain. He sees in the sunshine what looks to be a big, bright diamond laying in the sand. He gets up, runs over, thirsty and tired and in a rush to stuff the perfect, large diamond in his pocket. As he walks a little in search of food he sees another diamond, and yet another diamond. He stuffs his pockets with these special diamonds, the answer to his prayers for parnosa, for money and riches. Somehow, someway he will find his way off the island, get home to his family and they will be rich like kings. Richer than kings even with jewels galore. Suddenly a man appears and comes to help him, seems it is an island populated by friendly people who want to help him. They see he is weighted down by the diamonds and they tell him to throw them out and make his load easier. He can't, he went on this journey in search of riches and God led him to this island. They feel bad for the misguided soul and explain that on this island what is rich and valuable is chicken shmaltz, chicken fat. He laughs, back home in Chelm that is about all they have, here they have DIAMONDS. Everyone laughs at him and feels sorry for him. Bit by bit, overtime he begins to look at the world through their eyes and begins to crave chicken fat and works hard, makes money and begins to acquire chicken fat, lots and lots of chicken fats. He becomes very wealthy, he has a warehouse filled just with chicken fat. The diamonds get lost in the bottom of his drawers. After all, everywhere he goes he finds diamonds in the street, in the field and on the beach.  Finally.....after much time goes by.... he is rich enough to build a ship, find a crew and set sail back for his home. He fills up his suitcases and boxes with chicken fat as much as he can take back with him. He arranges to come back at a later date and transport the rest of his chicken fat home with him.  He is so excited to see his wife, his family and to show them how rich he became while he was away and how he will now be able to provide a wonderful life for them.  The ship is finally built, it sets sail and after weeks go by he is in sight of the his home town. People see a ship on the horizon they have never seen before and are very excited and run down to the docks hoping it is their long, lost friend who was lost at sea or some new traveler who is rich like a King from the looks of his ship. People look through their telescope and see their old long, lost friend at the Chelm and run to get his wife. As the ship gets closer and closer people begin to hold their nose, there is this HORRIBLE smell they can smell already on the docks before the ship even makes it into port. People run away from this horrible smell. His wife is left at the dock, holding her nose but excited to see her long, lost husband. When he gets off the ship, he tells her how rich he is and how they are set for life and shows her his beautiful ship. She asks how he made so much money. He explains how he was shipwrecked and almost died and how he found the diamonds and walked for miles and miles until he found this man who helped him. He explains how he found a career and prospered and was able to build this ship and come home with his fortune. She begs to see the diamonds. He tells her, "What diamonds, those worthless stones??" He explains how he left the diamonds to make more room for his chicken fat. She screams, "CHICKEN FAT??? CHICKEN FAT????" And, he is confused because he is now rich with chicken fat, while away he forgot the value of diamonds.

The moral of the story being that our neshoma.... soul comes down to Earth to do mitzvahs, to do good deeds. That is the purpose we were here for and sometimes we get distracted by other things that other people value and we become convinced we are here for something else... like collecting chicken fat instead of diamonds.


We all come down to earth, this beautiful planet with the purpose of doing mitzos; good deeds that bring down Godliness onto Planet Earth. We look around, we see the sunshine and the beaches and we spread our arms and look around and smile at the beauty. The snow falls and we suddenly need to take long walks in the snow and wonder what it would be like to ski down frozen slopes at high speeds. Surfing the waves and riding the slopes there is always something to do. We take time away from our goal here and there in minutes and hours that turn to days and weeks. We can get up early and go to the nursing home and visit with elderly people or we can do it next week when there isn't a Dolphins game or a Jets game or a special concert at the park. We can learn some Tanya or we can learn how to snowmobile, the choice is up to us and how much of a balance we want in our lives is our decision. That is the free will that we were all given when we come down to play on Planet Earth. Party hardy 24/7 365 days a year or party here and there and do some mitzvos along the way.

It's important to enjoy the diverse beauty of Earth that the Rebbe referred to as"variegated as to climate and physical features" (Lag B'Omer 3731). We can travel far and wide to see the mountains, to see the oceans and the Great Plains in between but along our way it is important we remember who we are and why we are here. To say a brocho in San Angelo where we  light the Shabbos candles and welcomed in Shabbos in a roadside motel. Saying the brocho at the beach when we see far off in the distance a rainbow or we experience a tropical thunderstorm. On a journey we might have a choice between dancing all night at a disco or spending a few hours visiting a grandparent before going out to enjoy the blues and jazz of New Orleans. Wherever we go we take ourselves and our mission and our purpose. It is so easy get lost at the beach or we can remember who we are and why we are there and sew our lives into a beautiful quilt that was for the sake of Hashem.

Just as we need to open up our eyes and see the beauty of the world, so do we need to open up our minds and know that we are standing on the precipe of a new world order of Geulah and Moshiach. We need to remember why we are here and not get distracted by the ways of the others around us that are not on the same spiritual level and who can only see the goshmious of money spent on foolishness in the same way that the man from Chelm forgot he was there to find his fortune in diamonds not chicken fat.

Okay, sometimes chicken fat does smells good. It entices us to taste a bit of the onions on the challah that were sauteeing in the shmaltz. It smells so good we forget we were counting points on weight watchers and had really, really, really decided last week to start being only a Vegan or giving up gluten which is lurking in the challah. But after a long sea voyage what would you rather have spoiled chicken fat or a bag full of diamonds?

We make a plan on Sunday night for the week and by Wednesday our food diaries have gone from infinite details to "ate lunch, sushi and too many cookies" to giving up Erev Shabbos or preparing a healthy broccoli salad and making two kugels instead.

Such is the nature of human beings, we are so easily led astray by the scents and sweets of the world, by the desire to escape from our problems and dance the night away under the influence of a way too fattening but oh so delicious pina colada. In the morning we wonder why we stayed up so late, why we drank so much and what happened to our Sunday night game plan.

It's good to stop and smell the roses along the way, but drinking a pitcher of margaritas is not necessarily what Hashem had in mind.

In 5729 the Rebbe addressed the Convention of Neshei and told the women to remember to "Turn Away from Evil" and to "Do Good" and it's something that we find ourselves having to do every day in lots of different ways. Go out with a friend and celebrate their birthday and order a Pina Colada and make a brocho and stop at one, sip it slowly, enjoy it. Make a resolution to do something this new year to increase in kindness or goodness, give more charity. Weave the mitzvos into your life and never lose sight of your goals. The women went into the desert with their tambourines, they danced, they didn't forget them at home in the hustle and bustle of leaving Egypt. They took jewelry with them that was later used for the Holy Temple. They carried the sanctuary with them through the desert, they didn't leave it behind like the poor man from Chelm who left the diamonds on the sand to bring back more chicken fat to his family.

Planet Earth is a beautiful planet, made more beautiful by the acts of goodness and kindness and the revelation of Geulah. Out there somewhere is a planet made of diamonds just like the story we have always told about the shipwrecked man from Chelm.

Life imitates art, there is nothing new under the sun and yet somehow it's almost a proof that there is always a little truth in those funky, funny stories of the men from Chelm.

We can only wonder as the reporter who wrote the story about what other wondrous things that lie out there before us as Geulah is realized every day in small ways until we can see the reality of Moshiach in our daily lives.

Maybe on that planet sushi is the monetary measure of their world? Can't you just see it? California Roll is a five dollar bill, but a Dragon Roll is a worth a ten dollar bill.   Who knows?

Wishing you a year of revealed miracles and wonders with some music for dancing, fine wine while dining and the chance to do mitzvos that you can find time for such as giving a friend a ride that takes us out of our way a bit or maybe that was the way we were supposed to go all along? Give a smile with your charity and give the gift of time to a friend who needs to see you and needs to smile.  Those are the true jewels that we mine as we go through our life and present to Hashem.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110825141632.htm

A planet made of diamonds? Who knew? I suppose the man from Chelm knew ....

Had he only kept his eye on the goal line and remembered the rules of the game he might have remembered what was important in life and what was fool's gold.

Keep your eyes and minds open and live in the golden world of Geulah, not in the darkness of depression or addiction to the wrong things. Our turquoise and emerald planet with it's many different lands and climates is a pretty amazing place to live in, don't forget why we are here.

ACTS OF GOODNESS AND KINDNESS

BRING MOSHIACH

Keep it in mind as we enter 5772!

L'Shana Tova

Bracha

John Galliano Found Guilty, A Modern Day Haman?

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8750600/John-Galliano-found-guilty-of-anti-Semitic-abuse.html

John Galliano was found guilty today in France of two counts of Anti-Semitic statements and behavior, he did not appear in court today but during the trial acted contrite and blamed the incidents on a mixture of alcohol and drugs.  

I find it interesting that according to the saying, "when liquor goes in the truth comes out" it shows even more so how he really feels that he made these statements while drunk. 

It's sort of a modern twist on a Purim tale as Galliano is famous for wearing strange hats, askew on his head that give a deja vu feel to what Haman might look like today in 2011. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/fashion/2011/09/08/2011-09-08_french_designer_john_galliano_convicted_of_making_antisemitic_remarks_in_drunken.html

Except today we have video of his tirade and he was soon fired and dumped by the House of Dior who also employs the Israeli born actress Natalie Portman as the face of one of their best selling perfumes. More so, Natalie Portman spoke up when this happened and was thrust forward center stage in this drama in a Queen Esther fashion where she spoke up against his actions and his vile comments against the Jews.

"I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way"

In today's world the woman who wins the Best Actress Award at the Oscars is indeed the Queen of Hollywood. The House of Dior indeed immediately let Galliano go in the same way that King Achashverosh stood beside our beautiful Queen Esther.

I curiously looked through the various Torah readings for the day today to see if there was something in them that would relate to this retelling of the Purim Tale.

I smiled when I saw in Psalm 54, one of the psalms for today the 9th Day of Elul.  We SEE from this how true it is that every day the miracles of the Lord play out over and over and we only need to connect the dots in the days events to historic events or daily Torah readings.

Chapter 54 A prayer to God asking that in His might He save all who hope for His kindness. Read, and you will discover an awe-inspiring and wondrous prayer that should be said by all in the appropriate time. 1. For the Conductor, with instrumental music, a maskil by David,2. when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, "Behold, David is hiding among us!” 3. O God, deliver me by Your Name, and vindicate me by Your might. 4. God, hear my prayer, listen to the words of my mouth. 5. For strangers have risen against me, and ruthless men have sought my soul; they are not mindful of God, Selah. 6. Behold, God is my helper; my Lord is with those who support my soul. 7. He will repay the evil of my watchful enemies; destroy them by Your truth. 8. With a free-will offering I will sacrifice to You; I will offer thanks to Your Name, O Lord, for it is good. 9. For He has saved me from every trouble, and my eye has seen [the downfall of] my enemy.

May we always "see" the reality of what is going on behind the scenes and in the news to see the wonders that are playing out constantly every hour of the day.

We live in inspiring times where we move away from Golus and see the splendor of a new age unraveling in front of our eyes if we only practice connecting the dots.