Mendel Bluming | Blogger

The Kabbalah teaches that people come under two personality types: chessed or gevurah.   A chessed type is someone who is giving and outward, generous and expressive. They are easy-going, spontaneous and free-spirited. But sometimes a bit all over the place. A gevurah type is more inward and disciplined, controlled and contained. They are focused, predictable and dependable. And can tend to be a little square. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. A gevurah person can organize a party. A chessed person will be the life of it. A gevurah person is good at writing budgets. A chessed person spends the money. You'd rather get a gift from a chessed person. You'd rather get a lift with a gevurah person. When they work together, a chessed person and a gevurah person make a great team. Their opposite talents complement each other, and the one's strengths compensate for the other's weaknesses. But when it comes to time management, they will clash. A gevurah type...

There is a quick fix for faith. You don't need any proofs or arguments. You just need to eat a piece of chocolate every day. Seriously.   This is an ancient Jewish remedy for strengthening faith. It is a pity so few people know about it, because if they did, their lives would be so much better. And it really isn't so hard. It's as easy as eating chocolate.   But before you eat the chocolate, you have to recite the blessing on chocolate. It goes like this: "Blessed are you Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, for everything exists by Your word." If you say these words and actually think about them for a few seconds, you will shift your entire perspective on life. It's not just a piece of chocolate in your hand, it's a piece of G-d's creation. Everything is a piece of G-d's creation. All exists by His word. What G-d says goes. Nothing happens by accident. Nothing exists without a reason. We didn't create ourselves. We are not alone. We are...

Sefirat Haomer is the mitzvah to count the days from Passover until Shavuot the holiday of the giving of the Torah.   The message is that you cannot be truly free (Passover’s message) until you can account for your time. I did a project for a few agonizing weeks and I assure you that it is not easy. It is humbling and painful :) On a large notepad I literally wrote down every five minutes what I was doing and how I was spending my time. It forced me to rethink how I would use the next five minutes knowing that I would have to write it down. It took away the excuse that I have no time and am overwhelmed because somehow I seemed to have been so many pockets of time available for distractions or least things that could have been avoided. To be accountable for your time is one of the most important challenges of our age because of social media and the constant distractions that bombard us. Judaism's message is that although Passover is the holiday of freedom, you are not really...

Once the mRNA Covid vaccine is injected into your body it teaches your cells to make thousands of copies of the spike protein so that if your body is exposed to the virus later it will recognize it and be prepared to defend.   A tiny, tiny bit of this mRNA multiplies and teaches the body how to respond for a long time to come. Education through subtle messaging produces this multiplying result. A little bit of matzah at a Passover Seder each year reinforces in a child that message of faith and trust that they are being looked after. The shofar on Rosh Hashanah, fasting on Yom Kippur, eating outside in a temporary hut on Sukkot, dancing with the Torah on Simchat Torah etc. etc. these are critical Jewish mRNA. Throughout life when we face a challenge Jews have known how to respond because injected into our cells are these carefully prepared messages that have passed the test of time. Rabbi Mendel Bluming, Maryland

Rabbi Yisroel Taub of Modzhitz (1849–1920) once said that there are actually two versions of the Haggadah. One is the familiar story we tell every Pesach, of G-d’s miracles for the Jewish people when we left Egypt. But there is another Haggadah, G-d’s Haggadah. Just as we read our Haggadah on Seder night, so G-d reads His Haggadah. And it is completely different to ours. G-d’s Haggadah doesn’t speak of the miracles He made for the Jews. G-d’s Haggadah tells of the miracles the Jewish people make themselves. Just as our Haggadah describes the mighty power of G-d, His Haggadah recounts the indomitable power of the Jewish people. Here we are, more than three thousand years after we first left Egypt. In those three millennia we have seen exiles and expulsions, gulags and gas chambers, bombings and boycotts. And yet we continue to sit at the Seder. Our families have been forced to wander from continent to continent, but wherever we went, we brought our Matzah with us. The fact tha...