Mendel Bluming | Blogger

There are two ways of living: You can make mountains out of molehills or you can make miracles out of molecules... You can see life as a series of disasters to overcome or a series of miracles to behold. What is your life like? Are you surrounded by miracles or by melancholy? By fear or promise? Ultimately when the way that you see things around you changes the conditions around you seem to change as well. Sometimes it takes a frightening illness or a great setback or fear of losing a loved one to start noticing the miracles. Sometimes it just takes saying the modeh ani prayer with concentration in the morning. Sometimes we look on with curiosity and slight jealousy at those who instead of making mountains out of mole hills seem to see miracles even in the molecules. What is the truth of your world? Menachem (Mendel) Bluming taken from many sources

Personally, I find it hard enough to remember where I put my car keys five minutes ago, let alone what I did in a previous life. But there have been very holy individuals who were aware of their past lives. One example is Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum of Ujhely, who said that he remembers his past three lives. Previous to his current life as a Rabbi in 18th century Hungary, he said he lived in the times of the first Temple in Jerusalem in 587 BCE. He was the prophet Jeremiah, who foresaw the destruction of the Temple. For that reason Rabbi Moshe was famous for his constant yearning for the redemption and rebuilding of the third Temple. He also recalled an even earlier incarnation, when he was a witness to the debate between Moses and Korach, which took place during the Israelite sojourn in the desert, some three thousand years ago. But Rabbi Teitelbaum remembered further back, all the way to the time of the patriarchs. He said that when our forefather Jacob tended the sheep of h

It is heartening to see thousands and thousands unite across the country for solidarity and to insist on racial equality and respect and protection for every person. It is disheartening to watch the horrific killing of George Floyd. It is disheartening to watch the looting and desecration of synagogues and other houses of worship, the destruction of businesses and property and the violence. So am I just an observer or is there something that I can do about it? Israel's national airline is called El Al. Do you know what the name El Al actually means? It means Onwards and Upwards. Curious name for an airline, isn't it? But just stop and think about it for a minute. The names of every other airline are pretty matter of fact - British Airways, American Airlines, Egypt Air, Air Canada. But not the Jewish one. In typical Jewish style, our airline doesn't just have a simple name stating what it is, it has a name that requires philosophical analysis.  Onwards and Up

The holiday of Shavuot celebrates the day on which the Torah was given on Mt Sinai. Now that sounds very important... and yet in the Talmud the holiday is exclusively called Atzeret which means “stop and linger”. The stop and linger holiday?! What could that mean? Stay another day is a chant we hear from our children when a magical, wonderful vacation comes to an end. We don’t want to leave, they exclaim. This is so beautiful; we want to stay another day. We all have that experience when a wonderful vacation comes to an end. It might be a skiing trip to the Alps, a cruise on the Riviera, or a resort in the Caribbean, no matter how enchanting and delightful the holiday might be, the last day eventually arrives. We all feel the emotional tug that pulls at our heartstrings to stay just another day or even an hour. Alas, the return flights have been booked, the kids must return to school, and our work back home is piling up. We entertain the romantic notion of staying but give in