Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | Grow From Each Moment Right now, in each present moment, your life is perfect for you to continue fulfilling your life's mission. Each moment of life provides you with opportunities to develop your character and elevate your life. Some moments will give you exactly the experience you would want. Grow from each of these moments. Some experiences will not be exactly what you would choose. You may wish to be someplace else or to do something different at that moment. Grow from each of these moments. Your thoughts can make every moment meaningful. Love Yehuda Lave | | Kavanaugh comes clean about school and college years "I spent the last two years of high school in a daze, locking away the questions that life seemed insistent on imposing. I kept playing basketball, attended classes sparingly, drank beer heavily, and tried drugs enthusiastically. I discovered that it didn't make any difference if you smoked reefer in the white class mates sparkling new van, or in the dorm room with some brother you'd met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl."
Just kidding…That's directly word for word from Obama's book "Dreams of my Father" describing his high school and college days.
(Think There's A Double Standard Nowadays?) | | Hikes By Train And Bus In Israel - A Great Chanukah Gift! Tripping out of Tel Aviv Introducing the only hiking book in Israel focused on public transportation.Category "Tripping out of Tel Aviv," by Ronit Slyper and Moshe Haiym Polacco, is a colorful English-language hiking book. The book contains thirty day hikes, each accessible by public transportation. Whether you're an eco-friendly visitor to Israel, a student spending a gap year, or an oleh looking for inspiration for a Friday hike, this book has something for you!
Each hike in the book includes:* photos* travel & hiking times* clear directions starting at Savidor Train Station in Tel Aviv* friendly maps to get you right to the trailhead
Let's explore the beauty of our land! Makes a great Chanukah gift for friends & family in central Israel.
Buy the book in Israel at https://www.trippingoutoftelaviv.com . (For your Israeli-to-be, worldwide shipping is available from amazon.)
Happy hiking and happy Chanukah!
"Tripping out of Tel Aviv" is an outgrowth of the Metaylim Be-Sababa hiking project, led by Moshe Haiym Polacco. Moshe leads olim & Israelis on free hikes by public transportation at least once a month - join us! Ronit Slyper is an avid hiker and dilettante author who reminds you to always hike with food, a hat, and at least three liters of sunscreen. | | From Rabbi Ephriam Schwartz-a plesure only a Jew has There are certain pleasures in the world that only a frum person can experience. That is the topic I wanted to write about this week. It started when I came into shul, it was a Monday. It's a long tachanun on a Monday. I finished repeating shmona esrey and was about to start vi'hu rachum, when a chasan walked in. Kaddish! No tachanun. If it would've been a Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday there would have been some joy. Tachanun on those days is only about 3 or 4 minutes. But on a Monday or Thursday when you just knocked off a good 7-9 minutes from our morning services the elation was palatable. There wasn't a face that wasn't smiling. Someone commented to me afterwards. This is one of those pleasures in life that a non-religious person or a gentile will never experience. They may have cheese burgers, Santa Claus and the Super Bowl, but the joy of unexpectedly getting out of a few extra paragraphs of davening… that's something only a frum yid can appreciate. Ashreinu ma tov chelkeinu- Fortunate are we and how good is our lot. So that got me thinking what other uniquely frum pleasures are there out there that no one else gets to appreciate. Of course there is chulent-chili, stew, goulash and something called mélange, but it isn't even close to a real chulent. You've got herring, kishka, chopped liver and kokosh cake. But that's me I jump to food right away. But that's really not fair because every cultures got their own ethnic cuisine. I was looking for distinctly religious pleasures. Not to say that chulent, particularly my wife's, isn't a religious experience but you know what I mean. So what do you do when you don't know something. I googled Uniquely Jewish pleasures that goyim don't experience, and nothing came up relevant. All it gave me was links about Shabbos goys. That meant that this was a still undiscovered thesis waiting to be written. Google had left me room to expand on this narrowly researched area. So I went to work researching. But where? How? Thank God for Facebook. So I put up a post and all my friends chimed in within 3 hours I had close to 200 responses. There were some that were better than others. I'll give you the ones I like best and maybe throw in a few more by the jokes below. These four words being sung after the Torah reading "Chadeish Yameinu Kikedem-Yisgade'eel"- no speech this week. Gebrochts on the last day of Pesach- for ChasidimBeing in an unfamiliar town and finding a kosher restaurant, or flayshigs in supermarket, or kosher crackers in a vending machine Having someone bring you some milk chocolate as a present and realizing you're the only one not flayshigs for the next 5 hours. Lying down in bed and remembering as you're falling asleep that you really did daven mariv already. When your host cries out its time to bentch and he didn't say a vort (or read Rabbi Schwartzes E-mail) at the table. Really short selichos on Erev Yom Kippur A cloudy Motzai Yom Kippur so you don't have to say Kiddush Levana and can run home and eat right away. Finding a big piece of flanken on bottom of chulent pot at a Kiddush that no one else realized was there Two words- Hoicha Kedusha (for my readers that are frummly illiterate- that's when rather than repeating the entire Mincha amida you just say a quick kedusha and your done) Being at a simcha and being able to eat whatever you want because your spouse is on other side of mechitza And on and on and on… Send me yours. It's a great topic. But perhaps the greatest pleasure in my mind that is Torah. I'm not getting frum on you here. I'm not trying to pitch you or sell you anything. And truth is that it's not a pleasure that most of us get enough of the time. It's probably one that I can tell you that I personally don't get most times I crack a book, open up a Talmud or prepare a class or sermon. But it's a joy that you get like no other. When you work hard at a good vort and poof it clicks. When the Talmud opens up after working on it a bit and all the pieces you were struggling over all fit together into a glorious tapestry. When something that you never saw before in the Torah or the parsha all of a sudden reveals itself to you. When you hear a great class shiur or weekly E-mail :) that touches parts of your soul you knew existed but never thought could be inspired. Could be blown away. It's more than just a Eureka! light bulb moment. It's like you've just connected to something older, higher, more incredible than you ever thought you could. You found your place in the Torah. You appreciate that you have just gotten a taste of olam haba- the world to come, in this world. You want to, and sometimes do, jump up and dance. A goy will never have that. That's ours and ours alone. | | A Menorah that Defied the Swastika By JOL Staff In 1932, the Nazi flag waved on a cold December night, when the light of the Menorah defied the darkness of hatred. It was the eighth night of Chanukah in 1932 in the town of Kiel in Germany, where about 500 Jews lived. Rabbi Akiva Posner was lighting the last Hanukkah candle in his house, in front of the Nazi Party barracks in the city, minutes before the entry of Shabbat. Rabbi Posner's wife, Rachel, ran and took a picture of the Menorah in front of the Nazi building. Then, she wrote in the back of the photo: Chanukah 5692 (1932) "Death to Judah" So the flag says "Judah will live forever" So the light answers After Rabbi Posner publicized a protest letter in the local press expressing indignation at the posters that had appeared in the city: "Entrance to Jews Forbidden", he was summoned by the chairman of the local branch of the Nazi party to participate in a public debate. The event took place under heavy police guard and was reported by the local press.The When the tension and violence in the city intensified, the Rabbi responded to the pleas of his community to flee with his wife Rachel and their three children and make their way to Eretz Israel. Before their departure, Rabbi Posner was able to convince many of his congregants to leave as well and indeed most managed to leave for Eretz Israel or the United States. The Posner family left Germany in 1933 and arrived in Eretz Israel in 1934. Currently the original photo and chandelier are on display at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Each year the museum returns the menorah to the descendants of the rabbi who continue to use it every Hanukkah. H/T Yad Vashem | | Make up quotes from my Sister Whether I'm wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I'm always the same person inside. Lady Gaga, Singer-Songwriter I love the confidence that makeup gives me. Tyra Banks, Actress Makeup can help you capture a moment. Carine Roitfeld, Fashion Editor Honey, I am going to my grave with my eyelashes and my makeup on. Tammy Faye Bakker, Singer Makeup can make a woman look more beautiful at every age. Francois Nars, Photographer Problem-solving becomes a very important part of our makeup as we grow into maturity or move up the corporate ladder. Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker Don't overdo it. Don't over-diet, over-exercise, overeat, overdo the makeup, and don't stress out. Cheryl Ladd, Actress I like glasses so I can go out without my makeup. Just grab your coat and get your hat and go. Elaine Stritch, Actress The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. Peter Drucker, Management Consultant Don't blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive. John D. Rockefeller, Millionaire | | | This is what you call a "stacked deck." Info like this can be a great benefit to the general public and help more and more people to wake up to who their real enemies are. IF YOU HAD A HUNCH THE NEWS SYSTEM WAS SOMEWHAT RIGGED AND YOU COULDN'T PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT, THIS MIGHT HELP YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLE. ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, Obama's former National Security Adviser. CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications. ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman is married to former Whitehouse Press Secretary Jay Carney ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Katie Hogan, Obama's former Deputy Press Secretary ABC President Ben Sherwood is the brother of Obama's former Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood CNN President Virginia Moseley is married to former Hillary Clinton's Deputy Secretary Tom Nides. Ya think there might be a little bias in the news? | | See you tommorrow Love Yehuda Lave | | | |
