Heading Down The 613

So today another amazing mystical and holy 613 (commandments in the Torah).

This one is a country road between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

How apropos to be on the 613 road!

Tomorrow, in my next post, I hope to show you where this road is personally taking us now.

But wherever 613 leads that is where I want to be. ;-)

(Source Photo: With gratitude to my dearest sister, Roz Blumenthal)

Heading Down The 613

ISIS Ruined Our Vacation

So we rolled the dice this Thanksgiving vacation and came up sort of empty.

We were supposed to go to Las Vegas, but then there is ISIS threatening to strike the U.S. 

Already, ISIS is claiming 71 soldiers in 15 states in the U.S., and the FBI is saying that ISIS terrorists are being recruited in all 50 states. 

Yet our leadership doesn't want to fight ISIS while they are still over there--instead, we are foolishly waiting for the next big terror attack over here, as if 9/11 with 3,000 dead wasn't enough!

We are stubborn, deaf to the terror threats, reactive, and refuse to wake up to the danger that is facing our country. 

Dancing around the issue with some drone and airstrikes--no matter how lethal--is not going to remove this enormous terror threat--coming from some of the most barbaric of enemies that we have ever faced. 

My sister told me from a lecture she heard recently about the terrorist threats we are facing, "We are used to fighting finite wars--there is a start/middle/end. [But] they [ISIS] fights infinite wars--not defined [by time or space]."

So how did we come to cancelling our Vegas holiday vacation?

Here is our story...

The number 613 in Judaism is very important--it represents the number of commandments in the Torah.

We have been seeing this number lately wherever we go: We look at the clock, it's 6:13. We are driving and look at the license plate in front of us--613. We go shopping and the receipt is for $6.13. We rolled a pair of dice (above), that's right 613, and much more. 

We asked what this means and were told it's a warning and to do teshuva (repentance) and follow the commandments more stringently. 

On Shabbat this week, I was reading the Wall Street Journal, and then saw an article on a new illustrative book of the commandments called, "The 613."

That night, I dreamed the entire night about 613--and the need to unlock the code of what it meant for us. 

The next day, my wife said "I have a really bad feeling about Vegas, let's go visit your parents graves."

When we got there, my wife touched the tombstone, and said she could hear my dad telling her not to go to Vegas--was this just playing on her imagination?

So she calls her father who is chasidic and he contacts a famous, pious and mystical Rabbi, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe--and without asking him about the trip--the Rebbe just pops out to my father-in-law that he should tell us not to go on our trip, and if we have to go, to take a different path.

My wife tells her father that we already made plans, have tickets, and don't want to cancel the trip, so we are instructed to give charity (so I immediately write a check for $613!) and do other deeds for repentance instead. 

Then the night before we are supposed to fly out, my daughter comes out with her iPhone and a news items on the State Department issuing a global travel alert "amid concerns that terror groups and individuals plan more attacks after the Paris massacres."

If all this wasn't enough, my back which has been hurting the last week, then completely gives out out on me--and in enormous pain, we simply can't go anywhere.

One warning, two warnings, three warnings...we can't be deaf to G-d's message.

So on this Thanksgiving, a sincere thank you to Hashem (and the Vizhnitzer Rebbe) for guiding us and keeping us from danger.

And a not so thank you to ISIS for implicitly spoiling our Thanksgiving holiday plans to Vegas. 

A small and insignificant, but nevertheless a casualty to our political disengagement, false appeasement, fearfulness to recognize the enemy, and war-weariness to take the bastards down and take them down hard and for good before something, G-d forbid, serious and much worse happens. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

ISIS Ruined Our Vacation

Reflections On Our Journey

As we approach the holy Yom Kippur, the annual day of Judgement following the Jewish New Year, we realize how everything is in G-d's hands...

But we can repent, pray, and do good deeds to influence our journey and Hashem's decree. 

Thank you Bettty Monoker for sharing this wonderful, thought-provoking video at this reverent time of year. 

Reflections On Our Journey

The Shofar: We Can All Improve

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is tonight, and it is a time of introspection and commitment to do better in the future.

On Rosh Hashanah, we blow the Shofar (traditionally made from a ram's horn) in synagogue.

My sister-in-law, Sara Herbsman, told me a beautiful learning about the three types of blasts on the Shofar that correspond to 3 types of people that think they may be beyond repair, but who can still improve their lives:

1) Tekiah--tekiah means rooted and is one long blast--a person is never too stuck, stubborn, or set in their ways to change.

2) Shevarim--shevar means broken and the sound is 3 short broken blasts--that is a person is never to broken to fix.

3) Teruah--comes from the word Ra which means bad and is 9 rapid very short alarm blasts--that is a person is never too bad or evil to repent.

For those who have heard the Shofar blast, it is a moving experience--as if your very soul is stirred to introspection and fear of heaven.  

I remember learning in Jewish Day School that our prayers would ascend to G-d in heaven on the blast of the Shofar. 

But what I always like the best was the story of the one little boy in synagogue who did not know how to pray, but instead just cried--and his tears, full of sincerity, ascended beyond all the other prayers all the way to throne of the Almighty. 

May G-d bless us with a happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful New Year. 

Andy

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Elias Punch)

The Shofar: We Can All Improve

Leadership Lessons From The Shaolin

I watched a Sunday movie called Shaolin, a martial arts film from Hong Kong (2011). 

What I really enjoyed about this movie aside from action and adventure was the teachings of the Shaolin monks.

Some highlights that I took away:

- Everything has a purpose: "Which is more useful a pile of gold or of mud? To a seedling, it is the pile of mud." One thing or one person is not better than another, but are just different and each serves their own purpose in life. 

- Greed is the root of all evil: "All negative deeds are done for greed." We need to be willing to let go of the desire for material things and instead value doing good deeds.
 
- Evil causes suffering: "From evil comes suffering. With justice, they are gone." In Judaism, there is a similar notion that one bad deed begets another and causes suffering, and vice versa good deeds spur more good in the world.

- Repentance is learning and growth: "The one who repents is a hero." Everyone makes mistakes and does bad at some point in their life--no one is an angel--but the key is to learn from these and commit to do better the next time. 

- Compassion is the way to peace: By being compassionate to others, we can purge ourselves of discontent and anger, and find inner peace and enlightenment.

Below is how I summarize the steps from materialism to enlightenment.

Hopefully, we can all find our way to achieving our true potentials for the good.
 

Leadership Lessons From The Shaolin