Mendel Bluming | Blogger

American law establishes that a person who cannot vote in person does not forfeit his or her right to vote. Rather, they can vote early by mail or other means. In Israel, the citizen must appear in person at the polling place on Election Day. In Israel, if you are absent on Election Day, you forfeit your right to vote. What does Judaism say? If I can’t make a seder on Passover is there a make-up date?   Amazingly there is! The Torah records (Numbers chapter 9) that in the desert, Jews who were impure or too distant complained to Moses that they did not have the chance to bring the Passover offering and G-d gave those people a make up date one month later. There is a caveat, however. If someone just couldn’t bother to bring the Passover offering on time, there was no make up date offered. Only if the mitzvah was important to you but for reasons beyond your control you could not make it was there a make up date for you. Voting is an important calling for each of us. Whether it

Adam is created by G-d himself and placed in the Garden of Eden, Paradise. G-d then declared that it is not good for Adam to be alone, he must get married and so G-d created Chavah/ Eve. What exactly was not good about Adam's life? He lacked for nothing. There was no pollution, no elections and plenty of everything. Why does G-d say that it is not good for him to be alone? Rashi, the classic Biblical commentator, responds strikingly by saying that it was not good for him to be alone because he may start thinking of himself as a god! In marriage your spouse reminds you that you are not G-d, hopefully kindly :) One learns to consider another, to be questioned by another and to grow toward a mission and purpose bigger than oneself. Even Paradise, and a perfect world, does not compare with being deeply challenged and transcending oneself. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming  

The Torah is our guidebook for life studied by scholars for the past 3,300 years. The breadth and depth of Jewish scholarship has spawned thousands of brilliant published works deciphering and applying every word and nuance of Jewish law and teaching. Jews are not meant to just memorize and repeat words robotically but rather to plumb the depths and intellectually grasp their wisdom.   Yet on the day on which we celebrate the completion of the annual cycle of the Torah, Simchat Torah, we celebrate by dancing and rejoicing rather than by studying. Doesn't that seem incongruous with the purpose and focus of the Torah? Here are some thoughts for you to consider: If you had two employees to hire and one of them had great enthusiasm and joy for your company and its mission would you see that as an advantage? In what way does our celebrating demonstrate our acceptance and commitment more than study? Beyond an intellectual pursuit, the Torah is a marriage. We stick together throug

The four species that we bless on Sukkot correspond to the four letters of G-d's Hebrew name. Waving them in all six directions signifies our faith that G-d is everywhere. Specifically, we are saying that on every level, at every stage of life, in all that happens to us, G-d is there. Right and left represent Chesed and Gevurah, the power of love and the power of discipline. G-d, like a parent, can be loving and can also be strict. Sometimes G-d's light shines on us and we feel close to Him, other times He seems distant, we feel left in the dark and have to find our own way through. Whether we receive G-d's closeness and love, or whether He gives us space to grow on our own, it is all coming from G-d. He knows exactly what we need, and that's what we get. Up and down symbolize the highs and lows of life. When we feel we are on top of the world, we need to remember that G-d enabled us to get there. When we feel down in the dumps, we need to have faith that G-d is w