Mendel Bluming | Blogger

Many see prayer as a wish list. It’s as if G-d is some supernal vending machine, and prayers are the currency you drop into the slot to get what you want. If that were the case, this vending machine needs repair. But that’s not what prayer is. Prayer is a practice of gratitude and humility. We give thanks for what we have received, and humbly ask for what we need. We recognize that all we have is a gift, and whatever we lack can only be fulfilled by G-d, the source of all. He may give us what we ask, or He may not. We know that from the start. A person of faith knows that nothing is random, nothing is meaningless, and ultimately G-d is in control. This doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen. Prayer gives perspective to know that there is a bigger picture, strength to know that even hard times can have hidden blessings, and humility to know that we can’t control what happens, only how we react to it. I would call that a prayer that works. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi Moss and other...

There is a story told by the great chassidic teachers, and it goes like this.    There was once a simple villager who won the lottery. In the olden days, this meant literally winning a pot of gold. So with excitement and anticipation, he set out on foot for a three day journey to the big city to collect his winnings.     When he came to the lottery office and saw his prize, he realized he could not possibly carry such a heavy pot of gold home. So with some of his new wealth he hired a wagon driver with a strong horse to carry him and his pot back to the village. The journey took several hours. Along the way they stopped off at the side of the road for a little rest. The wagon driver parked the wagon in what seemed to be a safe spot and the villager had a little nap under a tree.   Refreshed and ready to go, they jumped back onto the wagon to continue the journey. But after a short while the wagon driver stopped and said, "I think your pot of gold...

A fish out of water does not die immediately. In fact, a fish out of water seems quite lively. It flips and flops and dances around, seemingly more active than it was before. An ignorant observer may think that the fish is better off on dry land, free from the confines of the sea. Just look how vibrant and energetic it has become!   But we know the truth. This tragic dance will not last. All that intense movement is not an indication of good health, it is a desperate and hopeless grasp at life. A Jew without Torah is a fish without water (teaching of Rabbi Akiva, Talmud Brochos 61b). We can flip flop for a while, jumping from one ideology to another, this save-the-universe cause or the next, but it won't last. You can only stay Jewish without Torah for a generation, maybe two. Then the flipping and flopping stop altogether. This is not about being orthodox. It's about being immersed in genuine Judaism. And that is open to anyone. In your own way, with your critical mind a...

Mazel tov! If Jews believe in Divine Providence (fate), why do we always use the word mazel which means luck? Isn't that a contradiction of belief? Actually, mazel is usually mistranslated as luck. The correct meaning of mazel is "a drip from above". Which is probably why people just translate it as luck. It doesn’t quite sound right to say, "Wishing you a good drip from above on the occasion of your bar mitzvah". Your mazel is your pipeline from heaven. In heaven there is abundant blessing waiting to come down to us. But as those blessings descend to earth, they can become corrupted. The freshest water can be polluted if the pipes are dirty. Good mazel means the flow from above reaches us unadulterated, in the form of positive and happy experiences. If the flow is blocked or contaminated, that’s bad mazel, and things don't come out as blessings. When we say Mazel tov on a special occasion, we are wishing that the blessings should flow freely from ab...

The choice of words the Torah employs to describe the role of the spouse — "a helper against him" — seems contradictory. If a wife is supposed to serve as a helper to her husband, she is obviously not poised "against him?" Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that the woman becomes a "helper" for her husband by sometimes being against him. For a husband to become the maximum he can be, he must profess the courage to welcome the ideas and feelings of his spouse which may be "against" his own. Some men cannot tolerate their wives disagreeing with them, and conversely, some women cannot handle another opinion. They grow angry and frustrated, exploding or imploding. What often transpires, as a result, is that the woman, or the man, in order to maintain a peaceful atmosphere in the home, remain silent. Or, to avoid confrontation, they just drift away from each other emotionally. Conversely, the arguments and fighting never cease. The Torah is ...

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...