The ‘bless you’ response to a sneeze was enacted by one of the popes during the bubonic plague. So it definitely has a non-Jewish whiff about it.
But long before that, Jews blessed each other upon sneezing. The Talmud records that in the earlier generations, people didn't get sick before they died. They simply sneezed and their souls left their bodies. So it was customary to wish a sneezer "To Life!" for fear that their sneeze was a herald of death. Things changed in the times of our forefather Jacob. He prayed that one should rather get sick some time before dying, in order to have a little warning and time to prepare for leaving this world. His request was granted, and so sneezing alone was no longer a sure sign of impending death. But it still could be a symptom of illness, so the custom arose to wish a sneezer good health - Assuta in Aramaic, Tzu gezunt in Yiddish, or Labriyut in Hebrew. Interestingly, one source says that after being blessed with health, the sneezer himself should respond to the one who blessed him "Bless you!" (Baruch tihyeh in Hebrew). Another interesting note: the sages taught that one does not respond to a sneeze while in the middle of studying Torah. Torah study is too holy to be interrupted, and anyway its power will protect the sneezer from harm. Indeed these days most people survive a sneeze without any major consequences. But that doesn't mean we should no longer wish each other good health. Words have power. The more we bless each other the better. A sneeze is as good an excuse as any to bless someone. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming Sources: Talmud Bava Metzia 87a, Brochos 24b Pirke D'Rebbi Eliezer 52 Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 241:17 etc
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The new pictures from the James Webb telescope are nothing short of incredible.
We understand so little of the vast universe before us. With all the unprecedented scientific and medical knowledge and even with this incredible ability to see crisp pictures from a telescope placed 1 million miles away, we are still left in the dark. Do we know why there are 925,000 species of insects on earth? Why these billions of stars and galaxies exist in the vast universe? For me the lesson is humility. I know and understand so little of the vast universe before us and therefore for me to become conceited or arrogant is so out of place. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming Nope. It was never meant to be.
In the Torah in Numbers chapter 19, the Torah says, “this is the statute of the Torah” and then it teaches about the red heifer. When the Torah refers to a statute it is speaking of a mitzvah that has no logical understanding. Rather than saying this is the statute of the red heifer, as the Torah does about Passover: this is the statute of Passover, instead it says this is the statute of the Torah. This teaches us that the entire Torah is predicated on its being a statute, a law that cannot be logically understood. We are encouraged and commanded to engage our minds in the study of Torah so that logic too can be a part of the process but yet the Torah itself never becomes logical. Even laws that make a lot of sense have details that defy logic. So what is the Torah? Pure Godliness. Yes, sometimes it is enclosed in emotion or in logic but it always remains way beyond our understanding. The opportunity to study Torah is an invitation to connect with the divine. What a great merit it is to study Torah! Mendel (Menachem) Bluming based on Likutei Sichos I have heard many people say that if G-d would only do a miracle they would believe. After all in the Torah we read of many miracles that G-d did on a regular basis. Why don't we see these miracles these days?
The Lubavitcher Rebbe once addressed a similar question from a skeptic. If you look at his response with an open mind, it could change your perspective. In a letter from 1956, the Rebbe wrote the following. This to someone who said that if G-d would show me a miracle I would then believe: “Take a good look at your own past, and you will recognize that you have already witnessed miracles and wonders. Do you really want to test G-d? Do you really want to be brought again into a place of mortal danger and have to be saved? You know very well the trauma that is experienced by being in danger, because you have been there. It is just the evil inclination’s voice inside you trying to come up with an excuse to avoid observing G-d's commandments.” May we all notice the miracles that G-d bathes us in every living moment. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming In the Jerusalem Talmud when the word mitzvah is mentioned it refers to tzedakah. The Talmud in Bava Basra page 9a teaches that tzedakah is equal to all the other mitzvot combined.
The power of tzedakah is self transcendence. To give away that which can be used for your own food and shelter and basic needs for another is to put yourself aside. Even if this money is not needed for your basic needs the money means so much to a person to the point that in the United States we ask how much a person is worth and we refer to dollars! Every mitzvah connects us to Hashem and through tzedakah we are connected to G-d holistically. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming based on Tanya We all know people who as kids misbehaved terribly, but turned out to be wonderful adults. It could be that they ended up that way not in spite of their childhood cheekiness, but because of it.
You see, rambunctious kids get reminded of what they should and should not be doing more often than quieter children. It may not have immediate results, but the oft-repeated messages eventually sink in. As parents we sometimes forget what the goal is. It isn't about having well behaved children (though that would be lovely), it's about rearing well behaved adults. Childhood is the time to test boundaries and discover the do's and don'ts of life. Every naughty little episode is one such test, giving the parents another opportunity to define those boundaries. You are lucky. You get ten teaching moments every day. Your repeated chiding of your child, when done calmly and firmly, will help reinforce his sense of right and wrong. Even if he continues to break those boundaries, he knows where they are. That will help him later in life. Your toddler is doing what toddlers are supposed to do - climb on the counter. You are doing what a parent is supposed to do - gently remind him, again and again, that he shouldn't do that. And you'll see, it will work. When was the last time you saw an adult climb on the counter? Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi Aron The days pass rather quickly and when you look back a week and then a month has flown by in the blink of an eye. In fact as you get older time seems to pass by more quickly. One theory offered for why it seems so is because a smaller percentage of your life goes by each day and therefore when taken in contrast the passage of time seems shorter and shorter.
If we did not go to sleep there would be no complete unit of time, life would just continue on and on. So here's an exercise. Every evening, don't just go to sleep, actually complete your day. Make sure that what you planned to accomplish that day was accomplished and make a plan for the next day. Assess honestly your performance in your mission of life. Rethink your relationships with G-d and people and recalibrate your priorities. Clear from your heart anger and reprisal. When possible forgive and cleanse your heart. Anger and revenge are ultimately drinking poison and allowing destructive forces rent free space in your precious and sacred psyche. Sleep signals the end of one segment of time giving you the opportunity to embrace a brand-new day! Each day is a brand-new creation and opportunity. Clear the past and embrace the future with vigor and positivity! Sleep gives us that invitation. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming Are there parts of your life that make absolutely no sense? Do you see certain chapters of your story as essential because they express who you are and others as just a distraction?
On Purim this story only begins a few chapters into the Megillah and yet the Mishna asks (Megillah 2:3): To fulfill one’s obligation to hear the Megillah, from which point in the story must one begin to read? Rabbi Yehudah said, from the part of the story where Mordechai is introduced. Rabbi Yossi said, from the point where Haman is elevated to viceroy. Rabbi Shimon says one must hear from the point in the story where the king cannot sleep. Finally, the Mishna records the opinion of Rabbi Meir, who says, “One is obligated to hear the entire Megillah.” In Rabbi Meir’s view, there are no shortcuts; one must hear the entire story from the very beginning, including the sordid details of Achashveirosh’s wild parties and beauty pageants. And the Talmud proclaims (Megillah 19a), “The Halacha follows Rabbi Meir.” In other words, the Talmud says, “don’t think that any part of this story is superfluous or unimportant; every word is crucial to the plot.” There are no superfluous chapters or verses in your life. There are no wrong turns every word of your life is meaningful even those monotonous chapters are part of your story part of your Megillah. Often it is only in retrospect when we look back and see how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming We are taught to be the masters of acceptance. All that G-d does is for the best, Judaism teaches us repeatedly.
Yet we do not become comfortable with death, internally we do not accept it. When Jacob was faced with the tragic death of his precious son Joseph, the Torah tells us, “Vayimaen lihisnachem” (Breishis 37), he refused to be comforted. Some understand that to mean that he had an inkling that his son was really alive, and he was indeed right. Others say that this is a general rule for the Jewish approach to refuse to be comforted or to accept the “reality” of death, because our loved ones are never really dead. Yes, the body is buried and that is very tragic and painful. Yet if we used 3 words to describe our departed loved one it would rarely describe their body. Kindness, thoughtfulness or happiness are not properties of the body they are expressions of the soul. The soul doesn't die when the body is buried and we instinctively know that and therefore refuse to accept that the person is truly gone. Ultimately that is the greatest comfort that our loved ones continue with us… whenever we let them in. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming A lot of people call themselves "culturally Jewish." They feel connected to the Jewish people, are active in the community, advocate for Israel, and may attend shul on major festivals. But they don't keep Jewish law.
For example, when it comes to Shabbat, they will argue that the laws are not important, it is all about family time. If you come to Shabbos dinner, whether you walk or drive doesn't make a difference. As long as you eat chicken soup, it doesn't matter if it was cooked before Shabbos came in or after. These people believe it's all about the feeling, not the little details. Let's call them Chicken Soup Jews. On the other side of the spectrum, there are some Jews who are scrupulous in their observance of Shabbos, keep every law down to the last dot, but do it without joy. They keep Shabbos neurotically, obsessing over what you can't do and making the day of rest into a day of stress. Let's call them Chicken Coup Jews. Both are missing something. Chicken Soup Jews have their heart in the right place, but Jewish feeling without observance is wishy-washy and short lived. And the Chicken Coup Jews are indeed truly committed, but their robotic observance can become dry and uninspiring. The only Judaism that survives and thrives is a Judaism of passionate commitment, observance with feeling, the forest and the trees. When I am Jewish in my heart and in my head, in my kitchen and in my office, in what I do as well as what I say, that is living, breathing Judaism. That's why we light two candles, to symbolize the duality of Shabbos. There are the laws we have to keep, as well as the meaningful messages we have to remember. There is the technical side of Shabbos, its rules, as well as the meaning that those rules are supposed to bring and the feelings they arouse. There is structure, and there is soul. When you study the laws of Shabbos and appreciate their deeper meaning, you have the best of both worlds. You really can have your soup and eat it too. The Shabbos rules are not there to make you feel cooped up, they are there to free you from the mundane, so your soul can fly. Shabbat shalom! Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi Moss |
AuthorRabbi Mendel Bluming also dedicated six years to serving on the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where he received the Matthew H. Simon Rabbinical Award for exceptional communal leadership. Archives
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