Mendel Bluming | Blogger

Here’s an idea: Ask him for help. When you contact him, set aside the illness as if it wasn’t there for a moment, and ask him for some advice. Think of his area of knowledge and talent and tell him that you need his assistance. He is a builder and you are thinking of renovating. Ask him about some issues you are having. This will be more than just telling him "you matter and you are needed", it will be actually making him needed. Now obviously we are talking about someone with some serious health issues. They won’t go away with one little conversation. It might not change anything at all. He may not even be receptive to being asked, or maybe he can’t respond. But if you have even the slightest possibility of getting through to him, it is worth a try. It might give him the opportunity of not being absorbed in his own issues. If he can focus on another person for even a short time, that may serve as a little breath of fresh air, and he may be lifted, if even t...

Rabbi Mendel Bluming, who serves the community through the Chabad Shul of Potomac, is often challenged with this question. Below is a thought based on Jewish philosophy: Good is so because G-d made that choice. G-d is not bound by anything, and could have chosen differently. He could have said "Thou shalt steal," and "Do not help the poor and needy." Helping old ladies cross the road would be the wrong thing to do, but mugging them would be o.k. Now you could argue, anyone with a healthy conscience knows that stealing is morally wrong and helping the needy is a righteous and decent thing to do. But our conscience was too created by G-d. If morality would be on its head, we would be wired accordingly. Fortunately for all those old ladies trying to cross the street everywhere, G-d chose the former way around. Does this mean good isn't good in actuality? Is morality nothing more than a fanciful fancy? Not at all. Only humans are whimsical and rando...

There is a theory believed by many that we can learn all we need to know about a person in the first few seconds of meeting them. It is a decent theory. There is only one problem with it however... it’s not true :) A person is so much deeper than meets the eye. We are multi-layered. We have thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, quirks and faults. Everyone has a past and everyone has a soul. You can't see everything at first glance. How many times have you been impressed by someone's first impression, only to be disappointed after a few conversations? And the opposite is true too, how many people have you spoken to and not particularly appreciated, only to be pleasantly surprised after spending more time with them? Even looks are misleading. A person whom you find unattractive originally can grow on you as their complete picture unravels. I am certain you would agree that no one can know what you are all about by speaking to you once. The same is true for others...

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 ...