Mendel Bluming | Blogger

Question: My Dad drags me to synagogue and insists that I stay with him for 20 minutes. The prayers mean nothing to me, so why should I comply? Here's a thought, I challenge you to try this. When it's time for the prayers, sit with your prayer book open and start reading. For the next twenty minutes, try not to take your eyes off the book. Try to maintain focus and concentration for the entire duration of the prayers. I don't mean to have mystical intentions or to meditate on anything in particular. Just look at the letters on the page without lifting your eyes. It will be excruciatingly hard. At first you might only be able to last half a minute. But over time, if you persist, you will be able to hold focus for the entire twenty minutes. This powerful brain exercise is much needed today. We live in a time of shortened attention spans and over-stimulated screen addictions. Most people would not even be still reading as far as this paragraph without getting distrac...

Many see prayer as a wish list. It’s as if G-d is some supernal vending machine, and prayers are the currency you drop into the slot to get what you want. If that were the case, this vending machine needs repair. But that’s not what prayer is. Prayer is a practice of gratitude and humility. We give thanks for what we have received, and humbly ask for what we need. We recognize that all we have is a gift, and whatever we lack can only be fulfilled by G-d, the source of all. He may give us what we ask, or He may not. We know that from the start. A person of faith knows that nothing is random, nothing is meaningless, and ultimately G-d is in control. This doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen. Prayer gives perspective to know that there is a bigger picture, strength to know that even hard times can have hidden blessings, and humility to know that we can’t control what happens, only how we react to it. I would call that a prayer that works. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi Moss and other...

The Mourner's Kaddish is recited for the departed, to assist in their soul's journey upward. For eleven months after the passing, the soul ascends gradually to its place of rest. And then each year, on the anniversary of its passing, the soul graduates to an even higher place in Heaven. The Kaddish said down here by the living helps ease the journey of the soul up there.   For this exact same reason we say Kaddish at different junctures in the prayer service. Our prayers are a ladder up. We begin on earth and we slowly climb heavenward, each section of the service a step higher. The Half Kaddish is inserted between sections of the service, when the soul of the person praying is about to ascend to the next level. The Complete Kaddish is said at the end of a service, to deliver the prayers just said to higher realms. And the Rabbi's Kaddish is recited after studying a Torah passage. Just as the Complete Kaddish delivers our prayers on high, the Rabbi's Kaddish delivers ...

Before the holiest prayer of each day the silent prayer known as the shemonah esrei we say: Hashem sefasay tiftoch.   Now literally that means G-d open my lips but sefasay also means my banks, like river banks. G-d broaden my horizons let me see YOU in a new light. Let me open my eyes to see you not just as an aloof power or a judge who scrutinizes and condemns but as a parent who embraces and uplifts. Who imbued me with a G-dly expression enabling and empowering me to lift myself above fear and worry and judgement to a place of connection, peace and wholesomeness. Expand my horizons allow me to think bigger and broader because I am so much more capable than I allow myself to believe. Rabbi Mendel (Menachem) Bluming