(AI generated image via Gemini)
March 16, 2025
Queen Esther's Legacy of Faith
January 20, 2025
September 1, 2024
Life is Full of Oohs and Ahs
These are collectively the ah-ha moments in life when we realize that oohs are often really ahs, and the ahs are frequently really oohs. As we head towards Rosh Hashanah, this is a good lesson that if we can take a step back to see the consequences of our actions, we need not be surprised by the iced bucket of water in the sauna anymore. We can work to make every moment ultimately meaningful and spiritual ahs in our precious pursuit of life and good.
(AI generated image vai Designer)
Life is Full of Oohs and Ahs
April 14, 2024
Reincarnation: Try, Try Again
(AI generated image via Designer)
Reincarnation: Try, Try Again
March 24, 2024
Finding Strength in Difficult Times
- Life is not meaningless, but it is an opportunity for us to make it meaningful by trusting G-d and knowing that He has a plan for us and everything He does is for our action and benefit.
- What we think, say, and do isn't irrelevant but is, in fact, very important since we have the G-d-given power to sanctify our lives and positively impact ourselves, others, and the world through ever-present opportunities for giving and righteousness.
Finding Strength in Difficult Times
December 3, 2023
It’s All in Your Perspective
(Source Photo: https://pixabay.com/photos/wormhole-time-travel-portal-vortex-2514312/)
It’s All in Your Perspective
October 30, 2022
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/)
A “Sign” of Good Synagogue Character
July 22, 2022
Leadership With Heart
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Leadership With Heart."
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)
Leadership With Heart
May 30, 2022
1,000 Days of Duolingo
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)
1,000 Days of Duolingo
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.
Measuring Success Like G-d
April 2, 2022
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.
Teaching Our Children To Be Good Jews
March 14, 2022
Read, Read, Read
Mental calisthenics.
It takes discipline.
Got to work those neurons! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Michelle Blumenthal)
Read, Read, Read
February 12, 2022
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)
Overcoming The Inquisitor
February 4, 2022
Stop The Excuses
As they say, "adapt or die."
Of course, you can change when you stop:
- Procrastinating
- Being lazy
- Accepting the status quo
- 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)
Stop The Excuses
January 16, 2022
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)
A Trust Beyond Faith
November 23, 2021
Strong and Knowledgeable
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)
Strong and Knowledgeable
September 5, 2021
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)
The Last Kiss Goodnight
June 2, 2021
What Children Learn
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)
What Children Learn
May 17, 2021
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.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
How Hashem Was Found
April 21, 2021
Flower In Context
(Credit Photo of painting: Andy Blumenthal)
Flower In Context