Mendel Bluming | Blogger

A convert is allowed to marry a king. A convert can also marry a prophet and even a rabbi, the highest echelon of Jewish society (if you ask me :). So there is no sense in saying that a convert can't marry a cohen because they are second class citizens. There has to be some other reason. Here’s a thought to reflect on: When the Torah says no to a marriage, it is never because one party is not good enough for the other. The reason is as the parties are not matched to each other. They are simply not soulmates. In the case of the cohen and the convert, the dynamics of their souls clash, with spiritual energies contradicting they can't marry. The holiness of a cohen is inherited. If your father is a cohen, then so are you. Priesthood is a birthright that is not reached through a person's effort nor deserved through a person's righteousness. It is an honor that is imparted at birth. The sacredness of a convert is the exact opposite. It is completely earned. T...

Rabbi Mendel Bluming leads the Chabad Shul of Potomac and calls even the youngest children to join in and hear the 10 commandments read on the upcoming Shavuot holiday. The Medrash writes, that when G-d gave us the Torah He choose to do so on Mount Sinai rather than on a taller mountain in order to display humility, a important value of Judaism. Well then, why did G-d not give the Torah down a valley? The Rebbe teaches that even though humility is very important it must not negate pride. Pride in being born a Jew and in Jewish observance. Join Menachem Mendel Bluming or wherever you may be and make sure to listen the 10 commandments while standing proud to humbly receive the Torah this Shavuot. Chag sameach!

Do you struggle with time? You do not have adequate time and years fly by? Jewish holidays can’t seem to come on time :) Time  tortures  us. Torah supplies   us with the power to transform time. How? Repentance changes what’s in our past, Shabbat transforms the hours into a holy day, Yom Tov too etc Time can become your ally! Menachem Mendel Bluming has served as a Chabad rabbi in Potomac, Maryland, since 2000

I know a kabbalist who can facilitate in your recovery. His name is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. He lived nearly two thousand years ago, but his light still shines today. In his esoteric masterpiece, the Zohar, he has a thought and if you internalize it, it may bring you the strength you need. He writes: “During the Friday evening prayers, as Shabbos enters, the energy of the world ascends into the supernal area, and all negativity and harshness is sliced away. All forces of anger and conflict flee and vanish. No foreign power reigns, the world basks in a heavenly light, which shines on the holy people down here, who are crowned with fresh souls.” Rabbi Shimon is describing the spiritual shift that happens as we usher in the Shabbos. We are not just desisting from work, we are lifting ourselves to a higher plane, a place where there is only goodness and light and holiness, where our soul is free from the torments of the mundane world, and where we are given a fresh burst of ...

People have the option of free choice. One can marry Mr Wrong, or divorce Mr Right. We have to own up to the responsibility for choosing a partner, even if things didn't work out. However, when a marriage ends in divorce, it's not to suppose that it was not meant to be in the first place. Alongside the trust in free choice, we also believe that whatever transpired in the past was supposed to happen. And so you married the spouse you were destined to marry. It was meant to be. And in retrospect it was meant to end. Here is the paradox of faith: What I am about to do is my decision. Once it is in the past, it was meant to be. I am responsible for what I do. I made the bed, and I have to sleep in it. But now that it’s over, I couldn't have slept anywhere else.  As full of pain as it may have been, your divorce was a slice of your soul mission. We can only guess why. Perhaps the ill-fated marriage was a rectification for something in a past life. It could be you h...

One of strange things Jews sometimes do is the wide-spread practice of "credit combing." Many Jews have a habit of flipping through the credits at the end of a movie, searching for Jewish names. At each discovery they shine with pride: Look! Assistant Staffer.......Marvin Goldstein! Catering Consultant........Beth Cohen! This odd habit comes from a very deep place in the Jewish psyche. All Jews feel a spiritual bond with each other. If I meet a Jew somewhere in the world, there is an immediate connection, a kinship, a sense of oneness. We are like one happy family, and even closer than that. When Jews are spoken about in the media, we each take it personally. When Israel is under fire, we feel the pain wherever we are. When a Jew takes home a bronze medal in croquet, we all share the victory. And when we see a Jewish name in the credits, we get heated up. Maybe other nations do this too. I doubt it. This profound sense of connection makes the Jewish nati...

Every one of us is a prisoner. However, we sit on the keys. Finitude is the cell. Our prison is the universe. Our jailkeeper is the act of living. The keys to our freedom are clamped tightly in the fingers of our own egos. Menachem Mendel Bluming, Tzvi Freeman and Chabad.org