(AI generated image via Designer)
April 14, 2024
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
September 24, 2023
Checklist for Yom Kippur
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "A More Important Checklist for Yom Kippur."
(Credit Photo: Pixabay via https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-marking-check-on-opened-book-416322/)
Checklist for Yom Kippur
August 20, 2023
Lessons in Life and Menschlichkeit
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Lessons in Life and Meschlichkeit."
(Credit Photo: makamuki0 via https://pixabay.com/photos/hairdressing-barbershop-barber-2142482/)
Lessons in Life and Menschlichkeit
April 23, 2023
Jealous Over Nothing
- 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
Jealous Over Nothing
February 25, 2023
Make Your Life a Sanctuary for G-d
If you lived your life for G-d, for good, and for a greater purpose, then your inner spiritual legacy will live on beyond your years and even your name. If you build a sanctuary for G-d, it will have holiness and permanence not only in this world but, more importantly, in the next.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Make Your Life a Sanctuary for G-d
February 12, 2023
The Worst Curse
(Credit Photo: Kindel Media via https://www.pexels.com/photo/an-elderly-man-behind-the-glass-window-8172602/)
The Worst Curse
January 26, 2023
Kung Fu Tea
Green Tea - Green
Black Tea - Red with black in center
Oolong Tea - Yellow (from Camellia sinensis plant which has yellow in the center)
Color makes it taste better!
Hey, it sort of makes sense. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Kung Fu Tea
January 22, 2023
Ten ‘Points to Ponder’
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Ten 'Points to Ponder'."
My dear father, Fred Blumenthal (ZT”L), like many from his generation, used to read Reader’s Digest. I remember that there was a section called “Points to Ponder,” which I thought was a good title for things that can have a deeper and more profound meaning in our lives. So in this vein, I’d like to share a variety of thoughts that may give you pause to ponder as well.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Ten ‘Points to Ponder’
September 4, 2022
Finding Truth in a Topsy-Turvy World
In terms of seeing the world and life clearly, you have a choice of how to live. You can choose to endlessly chase meaningless material things and the next physical high, or you can live your life with a deeper understanding that this world is just a corridor to the future world, where the “breath of life” from G-d returns to Him for everlasting revelation and reckoning.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Finding Truth in a Topsy-Turvy World
September 2, 2022
August 30, 2022
Madness and The Soul
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Madness and The Soul
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
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 28, 2021
The Plan Amidst The Pain
In life, not only do we have to be determined and work hard, but G-d throws us curveballs and challenges all along the way that can often make us drop to our knees or throw our arms up in despair. However, we need to be faithful like Jacob and Joseph, knowing that it’s all a part of G-d’s plan and mission for us, and through these we learn and grow and become better versions of ourselves.Moreover, if we but open our eyes to the miracle of our creation and our sustainment every moment of every day by Hashem, and remember that He put us all here for a purpose, then we can pay the daily price for what G-d puts in front of us and how we choose to handle it.We can do this knowing that it’s all really just a small price to pay in the end for so much that we gain in this world and that we will carry forward to the hereafter. In the end, nothing is free, but the price and the reason is always just what G-d wants it to be.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The Plan Amidst The Pain
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)
What’s Your Kindness
June 21, 2021
WTF Is It?
Do these thingamajigs represent people standing tall and with arms raised high?
Are you supposed to hang things off of it like jewelry?
Can you place on it reminder notes or small pictures using push pins?
Then again maybe it's a toy for a child or even a pet?
In the end, all I can say is WFT is it?
Perhaps that's what the meaning of art is! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
WTF Is It?
February 5, 2021
Success, Israeli Cuisine Style
This notion of success and failure in life makes you think about not only the imperative to be successful in our lives, but also to question what does that success even mean and look like? Is success really the goal or is the journey with its growing pains and lesson learned the real goal towards purifying our souls?
When we read the Ten Commandments, we are reminded of what the foundational elements of success in life actually are all about: How did we treat others (were we compassionate and giving)? Did we behave as Mensch’s in our lives? Did we try our best to do the “right thing” by our fellow man and by G-d? If you can answer in the positive to these latter questions then maybe you have achieved real success, regardless of what any culinary chef or life maven would tell you!
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Success, Israeli Cuisine Style
December 19, 2020
I Know He Exists
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "I Know He Exists."
G-d, who is infinitely compassionate, did the most compassionate thing, which was to create us and give us the ability to be compassionate on others. The way we bring Hashem to reside with us is to transform the world (tikkun olam) “to make it a place that G-d can call home.” We do this by performing acts of loving kindness, making the mundane holy, and manifesting G-d’s divine providence. In essence, it’s not enough for us to know G-d exists, but we need to be a light unto the nations to reveal G-d’s unity, sanctity, and ongoing relationship with his creations to everyone in the world.
Like the story of the priest from the Holocaust, we don’t believe G-d exists, but rather, we know He exists. And when we perform our mission in this world by doing good deeds and manifesting G-d’s oneness and divine providence then we make this a place where G-d wants to reside with us in this world as well as in the world to come.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I Know He Exists