Mendel Bluming | Blogger

What do you think, should you thank Siri for her assistance?   Some would suggest that it’s just good manners. We say thank you to be polite. Life is more civil when our interactions with others are sprinkled with expressions of etiquette and courteous pleasantries. It’s just nicer that way. If this is the reason to say thank you, then we should thank our software too. By doing so, we create a sense of decorum and civility. It doesn't matter that the technology has no feelings. Our thank you doesn't have feelings either. It’s just protocol. But there is another way of looking at thank you. It is an acknowledgement of choice. When someone does me a favor, they could have chosen not to. Yet they chose to give me their time, energy, attention or resources. So they deserve my gratitude. I appreciate that they chose to share themselves with me, so I say thank you. This only applies to a free agent who can choose. An inanimate object does not deserve thanks, because it did no...

The Medrash tells the story of a king who allowed one of his subjects whom he wanted to award, an hour in his treasuries. He was allowed to take whatever he would like. The king also served hors d’oeuvres and expensive drinks were poured and he had beautiful music playing and rare artwork was displayed. The man had plenty of time and so he spent time on the desserts and the drinks and listening to the music and looking at the art until he realized that his time was almost up! He ran to grab a treasure but alas it was almost too late and what he was able to take was minuscule..   We each have limited time on this precious earth with so much to accomplish. Your mission, your Mitzvahs are like treasures, precious beyond measure. G-d also provides ample distractions to challenge you and make your choices meaningful. Your safety is very important still Omicron is not the major story of the week, your mission in life is. COVID is not the big story of the last two years. Don’t allow y...

I know a big worrier. Everyone told him that worrying doesn’t help anything. One day he realized that 90% of the things that he worried about never came to fruition. His conclusion: Worrying does help!   And he is right. Worrying does help. But you don't have to be the one to do the worrying. You can outsource it. Let G-d worry for you. It comes as a surprise to most of us to learn that we are not running the universe. We are only given control over a small sliver of reality. We choose our behavior, our actions and reactions. We do not choose what impact our actions will have. Whether we succeed or fail, whether we are accepted or rejected, whether we are appreciated or misunderstood is not in our control. It would be unfair of G-d to make us responsible for a problem that we are powerless to resolve. We can only do what we can do. We can make plans, and we can take precautions. They may or may not be successful. That is G-d’s problem. So let Him do the worrying.  Try ...

Gratitude is an acknowledgement of choice. When someone does me a favor, they could have chosen not to. Yet they chose to give me their time, energy, attention or resources. So they deserve my gratitude. I appreciate that they chose to share themselves with me, so I say thank you.   This only applies to a free agent who can choose. An inanimate object does not deserve thanks, because it did not choose anything. We don’t thank the oven for the food, or the car for the ride. We need not thank Siri for her answers. She didn’t choose to share her knowledge with us. The choice was ours, and she is merely the tool. (You may have an obligation to thank the tech giants who made Siri. But you thanked them plenty when you paid for the device. And you continue to thank them by giving them your personal data.) Now you may ask, is there anything wrong with saying thanks to Siri? Isn’t it at least ingraining a good habit? Maybe not. Thanking a robot may be the beginning of a very dangero...

One of the biggest challenges in life is to stay motivated. Your fire and passion and drive burn brightly... until they don't.   Moses stands at the burning bush and he sees a bush aflame and there is no burnout. On Chanukah the cruse of oil was supposed to be out in a day and it lasted longer than anyone could have expected. From where did that lack of burnout come? It is a result of a deep sense of connection to the mission. If our lives are not a repetitive task or a necessary evil of earning a livelihood but rather we feel connected with a mission with which we identify than we feel no burnout because our soul is inexhaustible. The miracle of the menorah was that despite the outside tremendous pressure they felt very connected to the mission and never stopped for a moment to feel nourished by that inner flame. It is interesting that over this Covid time so many people have changed job positions. They felt the lack of mission in a previous employment and they seek some...

The Torah observant community should be the easiest customer for climate activism and environmental concern. Our tradition is clear about the responsibility we have to care for our world. Every child attending a religious Jewish school knows that the Torah forbids us to waste any useful resources. The kabbalists taught that every leaf on every tree has a soul, and must be treated with respect. And our sages record G-d's words to the first man, Adam: "Look at the beautiful world I have created. I have created it all for you. Take care not to corrupt and spoil My world, for if you do, no one will come after you to fix it." However, Jews are not big fans of apocalyptic prophecies and doomsday predictions. Other religious groups may be getting ready for Armageddon, but we have always believed in a happy, bright and peaceful future. After all there is a Captain to this ship! The claim that "we have five years to act or it will be too late" was said five years...

Each Fall we get this surreal opportunity of reliving an hour that has already passed. It makes me think about the year that has gone by.   If we were given the chance to live over an hour, a week or a year that we had already lived, would we make different choices? We think that we would but would we actually act differently? The Talmud in tractate Yomah page 86B teaches that when one does true repentance and return to G-d out of love their past misdeeds actually become merits. The explanation for it is that this strong feeling of connection came because of the distance and therefore the distance became a merit. Sort of like when a couple are not getting along and they realize how much it hurts to be apart and that distance draws them so much closer together. Ultimately what the Talmud is saying is that you can retroactively change your past. You can relive that past hour or that past week even if it is not Groundhog Day! Menachem Mendel Bluming, Maryland