It's the answer.
What's the question?
(Credit Photo: Dossy Blumenthal)
It's the answer.
What's the question?
(Credit Photo: Dossy Blumenthal)
Luv Is The Answer
Love the orange and red rims too.
Fast and fancy!
Functional art ready for the road. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Panther Cat Car
In the dream, I saw a celestial being come to me.
And it was clearly my mom.
She didn't exactly have a physical body, but more like an angel and the manifestation of the spirit I recognized immediately as my mother.
I experienced an unbelievable and overwhelming feeling of missing my mom.
Like the feeling of the last years that I had been holding back suddenly burst forth.
I started crying hysterically how I had missed her and that I was sorry for any way that I may have failed her (and my dad).
She stood completely straight and beautiful like an angel, truly.
And I could feel her love for me and she told me in a soft and genuine voice that "It is okay."
This was not like a regular dream, but completely real in a metaphysical sense, and I not only saw, but also remembered every detail vividly.
Afterwards, I felt immobilized for about 20 minutes; just feeling all the feeling and still seeing it all in my mind's eye.
I was shaken from such a life-changing "dream" and still can't really get over it.
It was wonderful to see my mom and know that she is okay and at peace, and everything is okay.
Thank you G-d for letting me experience this and to connect with my mom once again.
May it be for a blessing for us. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Janbaby at Pixabay)
Dreaming An Angel
What a difference 73 years of the State of Israel makes! While the anti-Semites and anti-Zionists out there like to call us occupiers, colonizers, and an Apartheid state, it couldn’t be any further from the truth. The Jews are indigenous to Israel for four thousand years, and it is the Promised Land by G-d to our forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moreover, Israel is a free and democratic nation driven to equality and progress, and with outstanding opportunity for all that are able to live peacefully together.From a historical perspective, it is absolutely clear that after the Jewish people had been forcibly expelled by the Romans in the year 134, Israel fell into a state of wasteland and utter desolation...Contrast what Mark Twain and the others saw for hundreds of years in terms of the ruin, decline, and depopulation of the so-called “Palestine” (as named by the Romans “Syria Palaestina” to delegitimize the Jews from their promised homeland) with what Israel is today, and it is nothing short of a truly miraculous transformation back to its essence as the Garden of Eden.
Israel: A Uniquely Jewish Miracle
Israeli Salad
Tomato Salad
Cole Slaw
Baba Ganoush
Eggplant
Onions
Spicy Sauce
Falafel Balls
Tehina
Good enough to eat it all up! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Appetizing Falafel Platter
Absolutely Mind Blowing Humanoid Robot
The flight isn't even delayed!
It's like 9 or 10 in the morning.
These days everything goes. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Sleeping or Dead?
Although getting in was easier than getting out of it! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Threaded Blue Chair
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.
The Plan Amidst The Pain
Beautiful flowers to end, to start.
Peace, rest, Shabbat! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Beautiful Flowers
Don your bathing suits.
Set up the chairs.
Get the inflatables ready.
Jump into the ocean waves.
Who needs turkey on Thanksgiving. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Thanksgiving Beach
20 calories per piece!
At least it's colorful.
And fruity. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Loads of Skittles
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
They lose their head over a simple game.
Golf anyone? ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Losing Your Head At Golf
It's the saddest umbrella in the world. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Sad Sad Umbrella
As many of you, I have been following the news about sexual abuse allegations against Rabbi Chaim Walder and have been horrified and disgusted that this renowned ultra-orthodox Children’s book author and therapist is now accused of abusing the same. Like community Rabbis (e.g. Rabbi Barry Freundel) or Jewish educators (e.g. Stanley Rosenfeld), this phenomenon of using a privileged position to take advantage of women and children is certainly, by this time, not new and remains a stain on the Jewish community, no different than that of the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts for the abuse by its priest and leaders on those that trusted them and the religious values and ideals they represent.
Truly, these horrible acts of hurting, abusing, and scarring for life women and children (including boys) are regrettably all around us, whether with domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse, and human trafficking. But fortunately now they are at least “out of the closet” where rather than have the community deny the possibility that such evil exists or even circle the wagons to wholly protect the perpetrators (before fully investigating the facts), we now have greater recognition and are working towards accountability of these wrongs, and hopefully, far greater protection for people in the future.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
When Hypocrisy Leads To Abuse