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- The precious time we have with our loved ones
- Selflessly caring for and giving to others
- Living faithful, holy lives in the eyes of the Almighty
(Source Photo: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/room-money-dollar-wealth-success-1288438/)
Showing posts with label Giving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giving. Show all posts
April 23, 2023
Jealous Over Nothing
December 18, 2022
Giving the World a Hand
While we ourselves can do positive things to learn and grow as individuals, it’s a bigger and greater mitzvah when it’s shared with others! Just like Joseph, who rose above being a slave and prisoner to save the world, we can all rise above ourselves and our life predicaments to do good that spreads far and wide, perhaps even beyond our wildest imagination.
(Source Photo: https://pixabay.com/photos/hands-world-map-global-earth-600497/)
November 11, 2022
Thank You To Our Veterans
May 21, 2022
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.
April 17, 2022
Making Off With The Passover Buffet
(Credit Photo: Dossy Blumenthal)
April 15, 2022
December 31, 2021
The Power of Giving to Overcome Abuse
We can't outsmart G-d, and we can't take what isn't rightfully ours. In effect, the charity we must give, already belongs to G-d, and we can't keep it or invest it, because at the end of the day, G-d will have what is His. And with this realization, lying back down in bed, I sung the words from Proverbs many times to myself and smiled, thanking G-d for my children who teach their parents and for G-d enabling me to learn new lessons for my soul and how the blessings from G-d are ultimately realized.In short, while sexual molesters (i.e. monsters) steal from the bodies of their victims and inflicts devastating harm to them physically, mentally, and emotionally, in stark contract are those who give charitably to others, giving of themselves in order to make others that are in need whole again in body, mind, and soul.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
October 31, 2021
What’s Your Kindness
When we are happy, we are able to graciously and generously give to others, and when we give to others, we are able to be happy! All the other pursuits in life such as wealth, ego, good looks, and so on are nothing but vanities (like King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes), and in the end lead to nothing but loss and suffering. However, giving and the happiness and positive spiritual energy it creates endures.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
September 29, 2021
True Self Is Helping Others
The Rebbe’s message was that self-improvement was really about helping others! All the changes we commit to around the Jewish New Year and make in ourselves is not really about us, but rather about us being able to develop ourselves in order to “give it all away” to help others. Too often, people think in terms of self-help, self-improvement, where everything is sort of in terms, well, ourselves–my looks, my degrees, my career, my bank account, my family, and so on. However, people should not lose sight that everything that Hashem gives us is really for a higher spiritual purpose, for giving to others or “paying it forward.”
In this vein, we learn Torah not just for the sake of learning, but rather in order to actually do Mitzvot! Rabbi Kaplan explained that the Rebbe would make each and every person feel special and important. Why? Because by building up the individual, each could then go out and build up the world. And this is one of the reasons that I love and respect Chabad so much—from my experience, people like Rabbi Kaplan and Chabad in general, are all about living this life lesson from the Rebbe and giving, giving, and then giving some more in order to really improve the Jewish community globally and by extension the world.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 7, 2021
Remember To Always Be Kind
September 28, 2020
The Yom Kippur Bank Account
Please see my new article in The Time of Israel called, "The Yom Kippur Bank Account."
However, even if we are a little blind to our own accounting, certainly, just like we don’t want to be physically poor or bankrupt in this world, we definitely don’t want to be coming spiritually empty at Yom Kippur or when we arrive in the world to come. Put in more than you take out! Much more if you can! That’s what every parent should teach their child about their bank or brokerage savings account, building healthy relationships with others, and most importantly, how to live our lives towards our Father in Heaven and the King of the Universe.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Instead of worrying about accumulating earthly and material treasures: money, houses, cars, exotic travel, and more, we would be well advised to pay attention to our Heavenly treasure that we should be accumulating. Whether tomorrow, when our judgement will be sealed on Yom Kippur or when we, G-d forbid, die and are called for an accounting before our Maker, we should have plenty in the spiritual bank to speak well for us.
However, even if we are a little blind to our own accounting, certainly, just like we don’t want to be physically poor or bankrupt in this world, we definitely don’t want to be coming spiritually empty at Yom Kippur or when we arrive in the world to come. Put in more than you take out! Much more if you can! That’s what every parent should teach their child about their bank or brokerage savings account, building healthy relationships with others, and most importantly, how to live our lives towards our Father in Heaven and the King of the Universe.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
August 31, 2020
Just Call It By My Name
It a matter of Quid Pro Quo!
Just a few examples of naming after people:
Carnegie Hall
Rockefeller Center
Whitney Museum
If you call it by their names, then they feel like they are somebody!
Even the rich and mighty people know they are going to die, but they want to be remembered long after.
Everyone should say their names!
But honestly, it's not only completely egotistical, but also idolatrous.
The wealth that G-d grants us is for us to live and do good in the world--not to glorify ourselves.
Having your name on a building, museum, hospital, university or stadium doesn't demonstrate you're charitableness as much as your narcissism and desire for some sort of immortality.
However, there is only one G-d and it's by Him that we should give honor, credit, and thanks!
Giving charity is what you do because you can and it's the right thing to help others, especially when you have an overabundance.
Donating to put your name in lights and on people's tongues is nothing but self worship.
All building should be stripped of the names of these people.
Recognize and raise up G-d. Man is just his servant. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
August 24, 2020
90-10 Charity Rule
In Genesis 14:20:
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
In Genesis 28:22
[Jacob says] And in all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.
In Leviticus 27:30:
A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the L-rd, it is holy to the L-rd.
In general, G-d lets you keep 90% and he commands that you give 10% to charity.
I understand that some righteous people even give 20% of their income to charity.
I learned from Rabbi Yaron Reuven that:
For those that are miserly and not charitable and don't tithe, G-d reverses the equation, and He takes back the 90% and lets you keep the 10%.
Very ingenious and where the punishment fits "the crime" so to say.
So what do you want the 90% or the 10%--it's your choice to give or have it given for you! ;-)
(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)
February 6, 2020
Build Others Up
It says:
"Don't Cut Down Others"
It's far better to build people up then to tear them down.
Jut like with trees, it's better to plant a trillion trees than deforest the Amazon Rainforest.
Trees are life and people are life.
Be constructive and not destructive.
Offer a nice word or compliment; provide an attentive and empathetic ear; give direction with some advice or guidance; lend a hand to someone in need; and in general, be a good influence.
Unfortunately, too many people default to cutting down the old cherry tree! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
January 1, 2020
Holiday SHOULD BE Giving To Children's Hospital
While it gets your attention (who sees three pink bears lite up on the street at night?), asking people with a small impersonal sign on the floor to remember to login and make the donation later isn't very effective.
People act on the spot, especially when it's an emotional appeal for charity for sick children that need help.
The children deserve for there to be a way for would be donors to actually give on the spot--where they can swipe or tap their credit card, write a check, or drop some money in for giving.
Later, later, later...and unfortunately, it may never happen for the Children.
Come on--it's the new roaring 2020s--we can create some urgency and convenience and do better than this! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
April 23, 2019
Hopefully, All's Well That Ends Well
When the end is good, all is good.
Or as we commonly say:
All's well that end's well.
Lot of truth to this.
And there are so many languages that talk to this.
I remember my father used to say it in German as well.
When things end well, it's as if everything went well. And when things end badly, it's as if everything was bad.
The human mind seems to focus on the last thing (and forgets virtually everything leading up to it).
Perhaps, we justify the means with the end (i.e. all the time and effort leading up to it).
Or maybe we recap our lives as either a success or failure by how things ended up.
In 20/20 hindsight, we can see the consequences of our actions.
- Was all the hard work worth it?
- Did we even focus on the right priorities and goals in life?
- Were the choices and decisions we made well-founded?
- What was the impact on ourselves, our loved ones, and more broadly?
We look for meaning and purpose in our lives, and hopefully in the end when we look back, we are blessed to see that it was all for the good. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
January 28, 2019
Welcome Back - Leadership and Donuts
Really impressed today going back to work after the 5-week Federal government shutdown...
And who is at the front gate, in the dark and freezing cold welcoming every single person back?
The director of the agency!
And not only that, but he is handing out morning donuts to the crew.
This was a truly spectacular display of leadership.
I've seen this only one other time in my 30-year career and that was at the Secret Service, where the director stood behind the dessert table at the agency holiday party serving out the ice cream.
Humility and giving are what true leadership is all about.
I am proud to serve under such leaders as these. ;-)
(Source Photo--not from today--by Andy Blumenthal)
November 23, 2018
Carlos Ghosn - Success and Failure
November 15, 2018
Listen, Empathize, Give A Little
He said something I liked:
Listen, empathize, and give a little.
Yes, we each have our beliefs and positions on things.
But we don't live in a vacuum.
Other people have their own views, sensitivities, and wants.
We have to get along so we can work together, and get things done.
It starts by listening--not just hearing, but really listening to what the other person is saying.
But that's not really enough.
To really understand the other person, we have to try to empathize with what they are feeling--we need to try to walk in their shoes even if just for a moment.
But that also isn't enough.
We can't have it all our way--we need to give a little to get a little.
No one can have everything and have a good relationship like that.
We need to compromise--as long as it's not on things of integrity, conviction, or G-d.
Everything else we have to listen, empathize, and give a little. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
October 25, 2018
It's Not Really Yours
Didn't someone say, "Money is the root of all evil."
Of course, it's not money itself that is bad, but the greed for it, and the use and hoarding of it for selfish purposes.
On this topic, my daughter sent me this interesting story:
One business tycoon in China passed away.We can have all the money in the world, but it's never really ours.
His widow, was left with $1.9 billion in the bank, and married his chauffeur.
His chauffeur said: "All the while, I thought I was working for my boss... it is only now, that I realize that my boss was all the time, working for me!"
It all belongs to G-d, as does our entire life.
He decides what we have or don't have (any longer).
We need to realize that life is ephemeral and all material things are given to us just for the time being.
We should be generous with whatever bounty that G-d has given to us, because in the end that is all that is truly lasting.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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