I know a big worrier. Everyone told him that worrying doesn’t help anything. One day he realized that 90% of the things that he worried about never came to fruition. His conclusion: Worrying does help!!
And he is right. Worrying does help. But you don't have to be the one to do the worrying. You can outsource it. Let G-d worry for you. It comes as a surprise to most of us to learn that we are not running the universe. We are only given control over a small sliver of reality. We choose our behavior, our actions and reactions. We do not choose what impact our actions will have. Whether we succeed or fail, whether we are accepted or rejected, whether we are appreciated or misunderstood is not in our control. It would be unfair of G-d to make us responsible for a problem that we are powerless to resolve. We can only do what we can do. We can make plans, and we can take precautions. They may or may not be successful. That is G-d’s problem. So let Him do the worrying. Try this little worry-delegating meditation: Close your eyes, and breathe deeply and slowly. Envision your worries as a weight you are carrying on your shoulders. Each time you exhale, release some of the burden from your shoulders, and transfer it over to G-d. Repeat this several times, until you feel light and unburdened. Then turn to G-d and say, “I need a job (or whatever you need from health to happiness etc). But there is only so much I can do to make that happen. The rest is Your problem. I will do my part. I will seek out work and follow every lead that comes my way. But whether I succeed or not is out of my hands. Because I am in Yours. Which is fine with me. So, G-d, I give my worries over to You. I will now get on with what I have to do.” This is not easy to do. But it is liberating. Give it a try. And if you are concerned that it might not work, don’t worry. That’s G-d’s problem, not yours. Menachem Mendel Bluming and RAM
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Gratitude is an acknowledgement of choice. When someone does me a favor, they could have chosen not to. Yet they chose to give me their time, energy, attention or resources. So they deserve my gratitude. I appreciate that they chose to share themselves with me, so I say thank you.
This only applies to a free agent who can choose. An inanimate object does not deserve thanks, because it did not choose anything. We don’t thank the oven for the food, or the car for the ride. We need not thank Siri for her answers. She didn’t choose to share her knowledge with us. The choice was ours, and she is merely the tool. (You may have an obligation to thank the tech giants who made Siri. But you thanked them plenty when you paid for the device. And you continue to thank them by giving them your personal data.) Now you may ask, is there anything wrong with saying thanks to Siri? Isn’t it at least ingraining a good habit? Maybe not. Thanking a robot may be the beginning of a very dangerous habit. It is the automation of relationships. And history has taught us how dangerous that can be. Adam and Eve knew that G-d was their Creator. But their grandson Enosh invented idol worship, and people started bowing to the sun. Their rationale was that the sun provides us with the light and warmth that makes our food grow and gives us life. We should offer the sun our gratitude for the blessings we receive. Their mistake, however, was giving credit where no credit was due. The sun has no choice but to shine. Thanking the sun, rather than G-d who created it, was an easy way to avoid a true relationship. The sun does not expect anything of me. G-d does. Idol worship is impersonal and undemanding. It releases you from the obligation to follow a moral code. That’s why it is attractive, and that’s why it is dangerous. Replacing G-d with an idol undermines our moral responsibility. And treating human inventions like they are humans will undermine our relationships. Real people are demanding. They have their own opinions and needs. They can hurt us and be hurt by us. They can bring us joy, and we them. Our actions toward other people matter, our words have impact, our relationships are real. That is because people have free choice. We can't control them. They are free agents. Siri doesn’t come with all that baggage. Her offense is not real, her friendliness not genuine, her assistance not by choice. When you humanize Siri by thanking her, you are de-personalizing friendship, you are befriending an idol. It is a small step from artificial intelligence to artificial emotion. We don’t want to go there. She is not a she, she is an it. Save your gratitude for the real people in your life, who have done good for you when they could have chosen otherwise and keep your relationships real. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi A”M One of the biggest challenges in life is to stay motivated. Your fire and passion and drive burn brightly... until they don't.
Moses stands at the burning bush and he sees a bush aflame and there is no burnout. On Chanukah the cruse of oil was supposed to be out in a day and it lasted longer than anyone could have expected. From where did that lack of burnout come? It is a result of a deep sense of connection to the mission. If our lives are not a repetitive task or a necessary evil of earning a livelihood but rather we feel connected with a mission with which we identify than we feel no burnout because our soul is inexhaustible. The miracle of the menorah was that despite the outside tremendous pressure they felt very connected to the mission and never stopped for a moment to feel nourished by that inner flame. It is interesting that over this Covid time so many people have changed job positions. They felt the lack of mission in a previous employment and they seek something new. They seek work that is accompanied by mission to nourish that inner inexhaustible indefatigable flame of Chanukah. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming, Maryland The Torah observant community should be the easiest customer for climate activism and environmental concern. Our tradition is clear about the responsibility we have to care for our world.
Every child attending a religious Jewish school knows that the Torah forbids us to waste any useful resources. The kabbalists taught that every leaf on every tree has a soul, and must be treated with respect. And our sages record G-d's words to the first man, Adam: "Look at the beautiful world I have created. I have created it all for you. Take care not to corrupt and spoil My world, for if you do, no one will come after you to fix it." However, Jews are not big fans of apocalyptic prophecies and doomsday predictions. Other religious groups may be getting ready for Armageddon, but we have always believed in a happy, bright and peaceful future. After all there is a Captain to this ship! The claim that "we have five years to act or it will be too late" was said five years ago too. People, including scientists, are notoriously bad at predicting the future of a dynamic and ever-changing world. We can still be inspired to live responsibly without being scared into thinking that the world is about to end. So we need more of a non-alarmist, balanced and pro-human, G-d centered and responsibility centered platform for sustainable living. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming and Rabbi Moss Each fall we get this surreal opportunity of reliving an hour that has already passed. It makes me think about the year that has gone by.
If we were given the chance to live over an hour, a week or a year that we had already lived, would we make different choices? We think that we would but would we actually act differently? The Talmud in tractate Yomah page 86B teaches that when one does true repentance and return to G-d out of love their past misdeeds actually become merits. The explanation for it is that this strong feeling of connection came because of the distance and therefore the distance became a merit. Sort of like when a couple are not getting along and they realize how much it hurts to be apart and that distance draws them so much closer together. Ultimately what the Talmud is saying is that you can retroactively change your past. You can relive that past hour or that past week even if it is not Groundhog Day! Menachem Mendel Bluming, Maryland There are multiple biblical obligations to actively save the life of another and not stand by your brother’s blood (Vayikra 19:16).
The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin (73,a) teaches that one is obligated to be willing to endanger himself to some extent in order to save another's life, by doing such acts as jumping into a river to save someone who is drowning, or warding off wild predators or bandits, even though all of these acts involve some level of danger. A person is not obligated, however, to save his fellow if it puts him in great danger. The exact parameters of a great danger are discussed in Jewish Law but they are clearly greater than fighting off bandits or a wild animal. We would not want another to be overly cautious when considering whether or not to save our life and we must be willing to do the same for another, as long as the danger is not considered a great danger. To give a meal to a starving person is an obligation. To give a lobe of one's liver is permissible but not required due to the risk involved. How about a pint of blood if that person needs your pint of blood to live? What about a kidney? What about bone marrow? G-d gave you the incredible opportunity to give another a second chance at life by giving your bone marrow. (The extraction of bone marrow carries almost no risk to you. You only give a few percentages of your body's bone marrow and it regenerates quickly). Bone marrow is the soft, spongy material found inside bones. Bone marrow contains stem cells that give rise to white blood cells (to fight infections), red blood cells (for oxygenation) and platelets (to prevent hemorrhaging). The chief function of bone marrow is to produce blood cells. The other chief function of bone marrow is to give you the chance to give LIFE to another! What an opportunity and mitzvah to give another the gift of life! Menachem Mendel Bluming G-d turns to Abraham and says, “I would like to make you into a great Nation but first go to the Land that I will show you, Israel. Only there will I make you a great nation.”
If G-d ultimately wanted to give him a set of laws and rules to live by what difference would it make where he lives? Jews are observant in keeping the Torah in Russia and Argentina, the USA and Greece why could G-d not make Abraham His chosen nation until Abraham went to Israel? G-d's purpose in creation is for you and I to make G-dliness comfortable within the physical world. Israel is meant to be a manifestation of that mission. An entire land that expresses clearly its G-dly connection. G-d was making that clear to Abraham at the onset. If you create a corner in your home that is expressive of a higher calling. If your refrigerator reflects the food that G-d wants you to eat. If the books in your home express a spiritual calling and G-d given mission not only have you done holy things, you have made that space holy. Israel is the full manifestation and expression of that mission. Next year in Jerusalem! Menachem Mendel Bluming Imagine if the entire world was destroyed and only you and your family was saved by being on a specially designed ark. The water has subsided and all of mankind has been wiped out and now you open the hatch to finally leave the Ark. Before you do that you sit down with your family and discuss how to build a new world.
What would you do first to build a new reality? The first thing Noah does is plant a vine for grapes; he drinks and he becomes drunk. He drank too much but his thought process might have been the following. You cannot build this world without happiness and joy. If we are infused with happiness in our lives we will be far more driven to do what is right and selfless. Generally when we act selfishly it is because we are feeling down and insecure. Happiness and joy leads to giving and seeing the best in the other. So he said Lchaim! Alcohol was a bad choice but seeking happiness and joy makes a lot of sense. How do you act when you are happy? What are you doing to actively create a happier atmosphere in your home? The Torah teaches that all the difficulties in life come when we do not serve G-d joyfully (Devarim Deuteronomy 28). Live your mission, your every day, with joy! Mendel (Menachem) Bluming, Maryland The utopian Garden of Eden came crashing down because Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. What was it about this fruit that they could not withstand?
This is how the Torah describes it in chapter 4 of Genesis: “The tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise.” Very interesting description for a fruit! So here is my 2021 perspective, after all the Torah is eternal and its message is as pertinent in our time as it was back then. Our very risky fruit is the iPhone... I certainly don’t mean to offend the iPhone whom I love and depend on... I mean all smart phones. They are a delight for our eyes. Our eyes light up when we get a new text, a new email, a new like on a Facebook post etc. They are desirable to us they are exciting and they make us wise, it can be so enjoyable. Yet it can also be dangerous.... G-d turns to Adam and says where are you and he says I was hiding... Yup, his smart phone has started to take over his life and he is hiding from his life to escape into the virtual world. He is no longer at the dinner table and no longer interacts with family because he is too busy on his phone... where are you Adam?! iPhones are a great blessing if they do not consume us. Yes there is great wisdom and great delight on our smartphones but once they become a forbidden fruit they can destroy the Garden of Eden of our lives... Mendel Bluming, Maryland The keys to being a Jew are in your hand, when you hold your Lulav.
The Lulav (palm branch) reminds us to stand proudly as a lulav does. Do not cower. Keeping our Judaism quiet has never healed anti-Semitism and never built our next generation. Stand proud of your rich heritage and people. Your Etrog is similar to the shape of a heart. Have a heart for another. Reach out with kindness and goodness to each other. The Hadasim (myrtle leaves) are shaped like eyes. Watch what you allow your eyes to gaze at. The movies, websites and TV shows and even news casts that you allow yourself to watch. Have a good eye for another. Not everything that knocks needs to be allowed in. The Arravot, willows, represent your lips. Speak carefully. Speak positively, kindly and wisely. Right after the High Holidays G-d provides us with a visual aid to guide our path forward as Jews. Mendel (Menachem) Bluming |
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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