Mendel Bluming | Blogger

When someone cares for your child they are embracing you too because you are expressed in your child. If someone likes you but not your child, that is a contradiction to you. So too with G-d for we are each a child of G-d (Deut. Devarim 14). To love G-d but not the other is a rejection of G-d because each person expresses G-dliness in a unique fashion, a child of G-d. This includes the imperative to love ourselves too.   Mendel (Menachem) Bluming paraphrased from Hayom Yom

The Torah in Bamidbar chapter 30 speaks about the father's central role in annulling his daughter's vows.   Every law in the Torah has a deeper significance and message for us in our conversation between G-d and each of us studying the Torah. Our children make vows when they encounter disappointment and shame, mistakes and blunders. They promise themselves to not try again, to not be vulnerable again. To not open up to a relationship again after they have been burned. To not speak up in a crowd after they have been ridiculed... It is our job to annul those vows of our children and to teach them that they can reach higher and that they are not limited by their past mistakes or by other’s perceptions of them. Annulling these vows is the central calling of a parent for their children. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming taken from the teachings of the Alter Rebbe

There is only one person in the entire Torah whose date of passing is shared with us in the Torah. It is Aaron, Moses’ brother. The Torah teaches us that he passed away on the first of the Hebrew month of Av.   What is significant about the date of his passing because of which he is the only person about whom we are told the exact date of his passing, his Yahrtzeit? The date of Aharon’s  passing is the beginning each year of an intense 9 days of Jewish mourning. During these next 9 days we do not purchase clothing or any large purchases, we suspend building, we do not bathe or hear music or dance for pleasure, we do not cut hair and we do not eat meat or drink wine (besides Shabbat and one who is ill etc) The reason for the mourning is to commemorate the destruction of the Holy Temples which according to Jewish teaching was caused by baseless hatred among the Jewish People. Aaron dedicated his life to strengthening bonds of friendship and relationship (as we are taught in the Mis

Moses is stunned and is silent not knowing how to proceed. Momentarily he forgot what the right course of action was.   At that moment Pinchas steps forward and takes the necessary action and averts further catastrophe, as the Torah attests. When Moses stands with the Jewish people between a rock and a hard place, with the Egyptians behind and a vast ocean in front of them and he tells the people to just be silent that is the moment that a leader steps up. Nachshon ben Aminadav begins walking right through the ocean and as a result the ocean split. This is just a thought not applicable to Moses who truly empowered his people. Sometimes great leaders due to their incredible presence and shining brilliance, deep insight and phenomenal experience, leave no space for others to step forward and to lead. In your family, and your company, and your community there are very capable leaders who if given the space will do a phenomenal job leading. Moses steps back and others immediate

When the prophet Bilaam is forced to bless the Jewish people he says (Bamidbar 23:8) that G-d does not see anything negative in the Jewish people. Rashi explains that when Jacob criticized the rage displayed by Shimon and Levi in destroying the city of Shechem he criticized their anger rather than criticizing them. He saw them as good people just having acted in an inappropriate manner.   When you critique another do you criticize them and invalidate them or do you question their deed? It often makes all the difference in whether they feel annihilated and defensive or (hopefully) appreciative for the helpful guidance. Rabbi Mendel (Menachem) Bluming Potomac Maryland