Mendel Bluming | Blogger

In the days of the Holy Temple the entire nation would gather to hear the Jewish king read from the Torah on Sukkot after the Sabbatical shmitah year. It was exactly at this time. Each mitzvah has continuous application even those that we no longer keep in their original form. By gathering together this year in your home or in your sukkah, in your office or wherever it might be and sharing the values of the Torah together you continue this important tradition and link yourself with the entire Jewish people keeping the Hakhel tradition this year. Covid lockdowns and isolations have taken a toll and the antidote is Hakhel, joining together to rejoice and celebrate, to study and connect. Happy Hakhel’ing! Mendel (Menachem) Bluming

The Torah uses numerology, a method of connecting concepts via numbers. Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value. The first letter, Aleph, has the value of one. The second letter, Beit, is two, and so on.  When the letters of two words have the same value, it indicates an inner connection between them.   So if “nut” and “sin” add up to the same number, there is something in that. Which is one reason why the Code of Jewish Law (Rema, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 583:2) discourages eating nuts on Rosh Hashanah. The problem is, they don’t add up. The Hebrew word for nut is Egoz  אגוז , whose letters add up to seventeen. The Hebrew word for sin is Chet  חטא , which adds up to eighteen. Oops. Well, there is a possible explanation. The last letter of the word Chet is a silent Aleph. It isn’t pronounced as part of the word. So it isn’t counted. Aleph is worth one, so if you take the Aleph out of Chet, you get seventeen, not eighteen. But that itself seems a st...

Do you know the song that is sung over and over again over Rosh Hashanah: "Zachreinu Lichaim Melech Chafetz Bachayim..." Remember us G-d for life, we pray over the High Holidays.   The basic meaning of it is a prayer to G-d for life in this coming year, undoubtedly a critical prayer, especially during a lingering pandemic. There is a deeper meaning too. Zachreinu can mean remember us and REMIND us. Zachreinu Lichaimn can thus mean "G-d please remind us to live this year!" Please G-d don't allow this to just be a year during which I wait for Covid to end and the S&P to improve. A year during which on Monday I look forward to Friday... Protest the time that is robbed from you, that slips through your fingers. Time is so precious... Our lives are so fleeting.... If you are reading this note you are the oldest that you have ever been in your life... and the youngest that you will ever be! In every stage of life we look forward to the next stage becau...

If a business focuses only on cash flow, it can easily fail. The cash flow may be fine and yet the business falling off a cliff, G-d forbid. We are in the final Jewish month of the year. This month is called the month of accounting.   In Judaism cash flow is your daily actions. Being honest, saying a blessing, Tefillin, mezuzah, kosher food, honoring parents, tzedakah etc. That is making sure that your Jewish cash flow is okay and that is important. Once a year we step back and revisit the mission of the Business, the purpose of our lives. Am I advancing in the type of person I should be? Am I guiding my children toward their G-d-given destiny? Am I serving others as I should? Am I a worthwhile investment for the Almighty? On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we are judged, during this month we review our business and make sure that it is heading in a great direction. May G-d bless you with a sweet and prosperous new year materially and spiritually! Mendel (Menachem) Bluming b...

The keys to being a Jew are in your hand, when you hold your Lulav.   The Lulav (palm branch) reminds us to stand proudly as a lulav does. Do not cower. Keeping our Judaism quiet has never healed anti-Semitism and never built our next generation. Stand proud of your rich heritage and people. Your Etrog is similar to the shape of a heart. Have a heart for another. Reach out with kindness and goodness to each other. The Hadasim (myrtle leaves) are shaped like eyes. Watch what you allow your eyes to gaze at. The movies, websites and TV shows and even news casts that you allow yourself to watch. Have a good eye for another. Not everything that knocks needs to be allowed in. The Arravot, willows, represent your lips. Speak carefully. Speak positively, kindly and wisely. Right after the High Holidays G-d provides us with a visual aid to guide our path forward as Jews. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming

Here's a thought: have you ever felt very inspired and uplifted by a great spiritual experience only to have real life wipe out any memory of it rather quickly? A newborn baby, moments after birth, is taken by a midwife and wrapped up in a swaddling cloth. This serves to keep the newborn protected and warm. Having just emerged from the security and nurture of the womb, the baby is particularly vulnerable and sensitive. A good swaddling cloth gives him a sense of protection from the cold and harsh world out here. But swaddling doesn't last long. You rarely see teenagers wrapped up in a cloth with their arms behind their ears. (Though perhaps some should be.) Swaddling is a brief bridging stage between the safety of the womb and the hazards of real life. A well wrapped baby will eventually grow to face life unwrapped. The swaddle cloth just helps him get there. Your soul needs that bridge too. You have emerged from the womb of Yom Kippur a pure and renewed soul. The negativ...

One of the central practices of Rosh Hashanah is to dip an apple in honey to represent that we ask G-d for a sweet and blessed new year.  Aren’t there sweeter fruit to dip in honey than an apple? How about a mango? Peach?   So here’s a thought... Our Apple really needs to be dipped in honey to start off the new year, especially this year. Disagreements about how to respond to the pandemic and the political vicissitudes not to mention everyone’s nerves being a little more tense due to the fears of the pandemic that has already taken 4.5 million lives, our Apples have seen a lot of vitriol. Disparaging and hurtful comments seem to be sent much more easily on social media. For the new year let us dip our Apples in honey. Keep our communications kind, giving the other the benefit of the doubt and not pressing send as often... So here’s my blessing to you that the words that you receive and that you send be dipped in honey. May the new year bring us all sweetness an...

Have you ever wondered why G-d chose the Sinai Desert to give the Torah? I would have suggested Jerusalem or Tzefat or L.A., but why a desolate desert? Here’s a thought... There are times when we are distant from Jewish community physically or psychologically... Maybe one is alone in a hospital room or on a college campus that lacks Jewish community or in covid quarantine. Maybe they live far from Jewish infrastructure or are far from Jewish observance. Torah is never far from you! Your relationship with Torah and G-d is always accessible and available to you. You can connect wherever and whenever. There is no specific venue or time required, just that you open yourself up to that meeting and you will find G-d to be close! Torah was given in a barren desert because even in the desolate deserts of life and this world, G-d is always close. He yearns for a relationship with you and removes all barriers to invite you in... Mendel (Menachem) Bluming

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...

About 250 years a man on his way back home from his travels in Russia was delayed by a huge snowstorm and forced to search the town for someone who would host him for the first days of Passover and the Passover Seders. He was fortunate to find a simple home with simple sweet people who were willing to have him gladly. At the Seder he began to feel very alone and depressed. He was actually a learned scholar used to expounding on the deeper meanings of the Passover Hagaddah for many hours and here he was at the table of a very simple family who did not seem to appreciate anything beyond the very simple. In fact the leader of the Seder became very carried away and emotional as he spoke of the simple son, exclaiming in a loud voice Tam Mah Hu Omer. He would repeat that line over and over again: the simple son what does he ask? The scholar could not prevent himself from chuckling inside realizing that this man must feel that he is best expressed in the question of the most simple. A...

In ridding our homes of chametz like cookies, snacks, cheerios etc we search for even a crumb and we get rid of it.   Over this year of Covid-19, we have come to understand how even the smallest 0.1 micron of coronavirus can wreak havoc in the body's ecosystem. Spiritually as well, it is easy to overlook small comments and insults, gossip and jealousy, overlooking a day of tefillin or a mezuzah on one of our doorposts. Those 'small' details wreak havoc in our spiritual ecosystem. As we prepare for Passover and rid our homes of all leaven, we are invited to look internally to find those too often overlooked personal 'crumbs' that will allow our homes to be so much more healthy, kind and holy. Menachem Mendel Bluming

If you read the story of the Megillah you will see that around the time of the original Purim Jews were living safely and securely and having a good life. The king said to bow down to his minister Haman and everyone followed.   Only one Jew refused to follow orders! This incensed the King’s minister and he decided to put the entire Jewish people to death.   Why did Mordechai have to rock the boat?!! Just bow! Big deal, move on. Mordechai is a giant because he reminds us that by bowing you sacrifice your dignity and your basic Jewish values and you have nothing left as a Jewish People. You soon disintegrate and assimilate and you are lost. It is because of Mordechai that me and you are here to celebrate another Purim! Mendel (Menachem) Bluming

The Persian Empire of the 4th century BCE extended over 127 lands, and all the Jews were its subjects. When King Ahasuerus had his wife, Queen Vashti, executed for failing to follow his orders, he arranged a beauty pageant to find a new queen. A Jewish girl, Esther, found favor in his eyes and became the new queen, though she refused to divulge her nationality. Meanwhile, the Jew-hating Haman was appointed prime minister of the empire. Haman convinced the king to issue a decree ordering the extermination of all the Jews on the 13th of Adar, a date chosen by a lottery Haman made. Mordechai, the leader of the Jews and Esther’s cousin, urged Esther to plead with the king to save the Jewish people. He tells her that if not it will be her loss because G-d will find another way to save His people. Listen to that incredible Jewish clarity! He did not say that if you do not intercede with the king we will all be annihilated; it will be all be over! Nothing of the sort. He was confident...

Take a dreidel and spin it. Let everyone watch. It's fascinating. You never know which side it will land on. It could fall on the Gimmel, which means you win all, or the Shin, which means you lose all. It may land on Heh, and you win half the pot. And sometimes it ends up on Nun, and nothing happens. It all seems totally random. But really it isn't. Every spin has an exact amount of kinetic energy to cause a measured number of turns. The table surface provides an exact amount of friction, and the air pushes the dreidel in a certain way, so it falls exactly as it is supposed to. Nothing is left to chance. There is an exact science to the spin. We just don't get it. Life is like that. It may seem random sometimes. Things just happen, you win or you lose, it falls this way or that for no apparent reason. But that is just how it seems. There is a divine hand spinning the world. Every turn is deliberate, every experience you have is supposed to happen, and whether you win or...

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...

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...

At times husbands offers to help out and in his mind he is being sincere, and yet his wife sees him as unhelpful and does not accept his offer. Sometimes what the husband says and what his wife hears are miles apart. We need to appreciate how our words come across. She may be hearing the opposite of what he meant. So when you say: "If you need any help preparing dinner I am happy to help you. Just let me know, I'm right here in the living room." You thought that was being nice. But your wife hears: "I am going to the couch to chill. If you really desperately need me, then you will have to come and disturb my peace and I will reluctantly come and cut up a few vegetables like a martyr." Not a very convincing offer. Even though you didn't say it in those words, between the lines you implied a willingness to help, but not an eagerness. You are not presenting yourself as being at her service, but rather as not opposed to doing your bit if it i...