Showing posts with label Growth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Growth. Show all posts

December 3, 2023

It’s All in Your Perspective

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "It's All in Your Perspective."

Learning is a lifelong pursuit. None of us know everything. Here are five lessons about perspective in life that I wanted to share, and I hope you appreciate their wisdom as much as I do.

All in all, we need to maintain a flexible mindset and avoid approaching the world with rigid thinking, because when we do that, we miss out on so much that can enrich our minds, touch our hearts, and uplift our souls.

(Source Photo: https://pixabay.com/photos/wormhole-time-travel-portal-vortex-2514312/)

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October 30, 2022

A “Sign” of Good Synagogue Character

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "A 'Sign' of Good Synagogue Character."

I was literally sitting in the synagogue and crying, watching the speaker sign and listening to the voice from the interpreter. I really believe that all our synagogues, schools, work places, and organizations need to better incorporate diversity and disability into the environment, and not just by paying meaningless lip-service to it, but by enabling everyone to come, feel welcome, participate, and be together as all children of G-d naturally should be.
Finally, it was beautiful to have the synagogue let someone who was deaf have the pulpit and the ability to speak to us. It would be so awesome for everyone’s voice to be heard. We take our abilities (such as speaking, hearing, and being mobile) for granted. So let’s design the community with all the people in mind and give everyone a true voice. In the end, it’s not just what they say, but some things are communicated more than words.

(Source Photo: RODNAE Productions; https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-on-heart-sign-done-by-woman-10029313/)
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July 22, 2022

Leadership With Heart

 
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Leadership With Heart."

“Leadership with Heart“—you’ll see this as my byline for my Times of Israel blog, and which I also use daily under my signature line in my professional emails. To me, it represents my goal of becoming a leader and doing it with a “lev tahor” (pure heart), represented as much as possible to others through good thoughts, words, and deeds.

In terms of impact, I was pleasantly surprised recently when at least three different people came up to me after I did or said something, and they responded with something like, “Oh, I get it. That’s what ‘Leadership with Heart’ means in your tagline.” I can’t tell you how happy that made me to hear that. I wasn’t just saying it, but acting it, and others noticed it positively.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 30, 2022

1,000 Days of Duolingo

Wow, thank you Hashem!

1,000 days trying to learn Hebrew. 

I still have such a long way to go. 

But as they say, it's the journey.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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May 21, 2022

Measuring Success Like G-d

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Measuring Success Like G-d."
Never more than today are we living lives of total excess. This week, we saw a Mercedes-Benz 1995 car sell for a record-breaking $142 million. Last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, authorities seized a Russian oligarch’s $793 million mega yacht. And this last year, Morgan Stanley predicted that Elon Musk may eventually become the world’s first trillionaire.
In a world where marketing, sales, advertising, branding, and the media all seek to convince us that life is essentially about “things,” self-satisfaction, the next high, and happiness, we can easily forget how transient and valueless all that really is. Inside each of us though there is a deeper, true voice that seeks a life of real meaning, purpose and immortality, where faith, compassion, giving, and self-sacrifice is the true measure of our character and the ultimate gauge of life success.

(Source Photo: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/smiley-emoticon-greed-822993/)

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April 2, 2022

Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews

 
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews."

What happened to genuine faith in G-d, belief in the holy Torah, our duty to abide by the 613 commandments, and generally doing right in this world by our fellow man and before G-d Almighty? Maybe I’m being too literal here but being a “good Jew” has got to mean something important. We are keeping alive the tradition of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents, spanning back thousands of years to our Forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to G-d delivering us from Egyptian servitude, and His giving to us the Torah on Mount Sinai, and to His bringing us to Israel, the Land of Milk and Honey, and keeping us from being wiped away by one great empire after another. Being a Jew means being part of an important important and yes, “chosen” for a special mission of being a “light unto the nations” and that means action on our part: thinking, saying, and doing what’s right all the time!
We are tested daily to do what’s right, even when it’s not convenient, easy, enjoyable, or popular. What is a Jew? We need to really ask ourselves that question. It’s not trivial and neither should the answer be. Our lives in this world and the next are depending on how we live up to the high bar that is set for us each and every day of our lives that Hashem mercifully grants to us.

(Photo: My dear parents Fred and Gerda Blumenthal at my Bar Mitzvah)

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March 14, 2022

Read, Read, Read

The joys of learning.

Sitting and reading.

Mental calisthenics.

It takes discipline. 

Got to work those neurons!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Michelle Blumenthal)


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February 12, 2022

Overcoming The Inquisitor

 

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Overcoming The Inquisitor."
While anti-Semitism and persecution for being Jews is horrible and should never happen, in a sort of obscene and ironic way, it ends up making us stronger as Jews. In short, testing our faith, ends up solidifying our faith!
No one likes adversity, suffering, or persecution, and G-d only knows that we as Jews have known our deeply painful share. Yet whether from Egyptian slavery to the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and more, it’s our test as Jews to survive, and to learn and grow from it our faith in Hashem.

Yes, these things are far easier said than done, but when we face these terrible events, we must try with all our might to overcome them, heroically and faithfully.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 4, 2022

Stop The Excuses

Change is hard, but often necessary.

As they say, "adapt or die." 

Of course, you can change when you stop:

  1. Procrastinating
  2. Being lazy
  3. Accepting the status quo
  4. Making excuses 

Take control of your life: change yourself before life bites back at you (and maybe hard).

We've got to slay our own demons not only outside, but inside. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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January 16, 2022

A Trust Beyond Faith

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "A Trust Beyond Faith."

When we have faith in G-d, it generally means that we believe that He created us and that He is the Master of the Universe. However, faith does not necessarily imply trust. Trust in G-d means that we believe that He not only created us, but that He sustains us and that there is Divine Providence in this world. When we trust in G-d, we believe that G-d is close to us and has a personal relationship with each and every one of us, and actually to everything in the world.
We all need to leave our egos at the door! No matter how strong or smart that we think we are, even the little grass above us (or above our graves) is greater than us. Certainly, G-d Almighty who is our creator and our sustainer, all-knowing and all-powerful, He is over us and watches over us in better times as well as those that are perhaps more challenging, but always we trust, for the good!

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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November 23, 2021

Strong and Knowledgeable

If you know your own strength and what you can do...

Then you also know what you can't do.

While our dreams and imagination can be "the sky's the limit,"

The reality is we are human and we have to learn, grow, and make progress incrementally.

Still it's a fight every day to get stronger as people and as souls. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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September 5, 2021

The Last Kiss Goodnight

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "The Last Kiss Goodnight."
Certainly, every human being has the desire to live and goes about fighting for life. It’s part of our genetic makeup and our very survival instinct. Yet, we all know that the cycle of life brings us from the beginnings of infancy to growth, the maturity of adulthood, then decline, old age and ultimately death itself. Truly, we all know the end from the very beginning, and with that we can achieve a greater awareness that what’s good in living isn’t the materialism and chasing the next “high,” but rather the ability to choose to do good and to be on a higher spiritual plane.
Life is choice and having control over how we respond to life’s circumstances. Death is simply observing and being. Therefore, even if we merit being in the Divine presence in the afterlife, we still can’t actively help anyone, like those we love, any longer. This is why we want to merit life where we can continue to work on ourselves and help others. Thus, despite all the pain and suffering associated with life, it is more than offset by the opportunity to learn, grow, and transform our very essence in a purification process of our souls.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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June 2, 2021

What Children Learn

Excellent poem by Dorothy Nolte:

What children experience at home is what they learn to become. 

Sure people can change their thinking and actions.

But any negative voices of the past may still echo in theirs heads. 

That is until people tell them "hush, be quiet!"

And they replace old voices and experiences with new thinking about themselves and what they are capable of positively doing with their lives and in their relationships with others. 

We all need to know what we value about ourselves and our lives and then make sure that we do those things. 

So at the end of days, we can answer for our lives in an affirmative way! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Etsy)


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May 17, 2021

How Hashem Was Found

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "How Hashem Was Found."
This disabled man was then charged with DUI and spent the next 8 1/2 years in prison. But the Rabbi of the prison helped him to find G-d in all this suffering and slowly he returned to his Jewish roots. Now, for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, commemorating the giving of the Torah to all the Jewish people, he was in synagogue, holding his prayer book and receiving the Ten Commandments with the rest of the congregants.

If this man who's body was crushed, leg lost, and who spent so many years in prison could find the good and his way back to Hashem, then there is hope for all of us who can learn, grow, and turn our lives around as well. G-d is there in the darkness and in the light, and we have to find Him and believe.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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April 21, 2021

Flower In Context

Pretty awesome painting of a flower, grass, sky!

(Credit Photo of painting: Andy Blumenthal)


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April 2, 2021

Climbing Up, Falling Down

Thought this was insightful.
All paths up are different.

All paths down are the same. 

Climbing up is challenges and we all have to find our determination, strength, and skill to make it up rung after rung on the ladder of life.

Falling down is when the sh*t hits the fan and the walls come crumbling down and we freefall into the abyss.

The key as we usually learn early in life when we take our first falls is to quickly get back up (on the horse). 

Life is never just smooth sailing.

It's not meant to be. 

You wouldn't learn or grow if it was. 

Be prepared for the occasional fall from grace, and get your tushy back in the saddle and ride again.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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February 26, 2021

It’s Never About Luck

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "It’s Never About Luck."

Today is Purim, when we celebrate the Jewish victory over the evil Haman and his conspiracy to annihilate the Jews in the Persian Empire. Haman drew a lottery to determine what he thought was a fortuitous day, the 13th of Adar, to murder the Jewish people and pursued this plot through a decree by King Achashverosh. But as we know, G-d made miracles through Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai, and Haman and his ten sons ended hanging by the noose that he built for Mordechai. 

This has been my personal experience as well, as I can see both now and in 20/20 hindsight that there is a definite Divine method and not just a world of random chance and madness.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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February 25, 2021

Teach Me To Fish


This photo is perfect with the quote: 

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. 

Please G-d, we should all learn to fish and pay it forward to others to teach them as well.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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February 13, 2021

A Reason For Everything

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "A Reason For Everything."

Reincarnation actually makes so much sense, especially when you see that G-d can and does bring people back to the world when they still have life lessons to learn and growth to be achieved. It’s part of our preparation and our soul’s purification process to go back to Hashem.
Obviously, we are not G-d, and don’t have the time and event perspective of Hashem who was, is, and will be. However, if we understand that G-d has a plan, everything is connected, and there is a reason for everything, then we can go through life inspired to do the right thing ourselves even when we are challenged by our circumstances.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 11, 2021

Hmm, Different Is Necessary

So in my more mature years, I've come to terms with some important life lessons. 

One of these is that it's okay for us to be different; in fact, it's necessary! 

We each have our own personality, experiences, and journey in life.

What works or is right for me in my life, may not work for you or be right in yours, and vice versa. 

Celebrate the differences, because we are all here to learn and grow.

Let us each follow his/her own path as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. 

Now that makes a lot more sense then everyone do it my way!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)


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