AM Inspiration

So this was different than normal for the simple reason that i was in a different work environment for most of the week. I had to travel nearly an hour there and back and this is not something i am used to doing.  My other jobs are merely 5 mins in either direction to my house..so you could say this was an adjustment. A bigger adjustment was going from an all frum office to a completely secular non-jewish one. The verbiage that was used..the topics that were discussed..the way they spent their time...all different. The most prevalent conversation was.."so..have any fun New Year's plans?" Towards the end of the stay, one of the overly friendly..male..employees at the office started on me.. "Nu? any New Year's plans"(he obviously didn't use the term nu..) No, not really..(cue the pity for the poor nerdy girl without plans on the biggest party night of the year..) "Thats no fun.." Yea well.. ~end of conversation. Now, there are many ways t...

So I got this today on Ben Olam Haba.. Let me know what you think.. Pain. Pain is real. It's a message from Hashem. No question about that. Yet, it's still painful. But. Think about it. Put it in perspective. Pain is necessary. To have it here... ...means not to have it there. Which would we rather? Think about it. Here is a shadow of reality. There is reality. Wouldn't we rather have the pain in the world of shadow? Wouldn't we rather enjoy the world of reality pain free? Put it in perspective. The pain here removes the pain there. It isn't really pain at all. ~ Yes, the pain in this world is to lessen the punishment in the next, but i don't think it takes away from the pain that one has now. It is comforting to know that there is a purpose to it..does not mean it doesn't hurt..that's just my two cents.

So  as is clearly obvious, i have been messing with the look of my blog. I was getting bored and i decided it was time for a girl to move on and make some changes...So here i am..attempting... So to blog skins i went..looking or something inspired to say the least. Something funky, something morning-y. Finally i found something that i could bear to use..yes...but it would not work with the new blogger..anyways..to cut a long story short i found myself in the foreign land of HTML. I did not have any background in this arena of computers. But i went ahead, i figured i could Google it right? there has to be blogger for dummies right? Anyways..I'm moving along pretty impressed with myself , and the progress i am making..till i get stuck on a pretty important issue. No matter how hard i tried..i could not figure out how to enable the comments. That doesn't really work when it comes to having a blog, kinda the point no? Whats a blog without comme...

al  tistakel be'kankan ela bema sheyaish bo dont look at the vessel rather what is inside It is  a well known Chazal, don't judge a book by its cover. we are urged to look beyond the obvious, beyond the externals and see what lies beneath the surface. Easier said than done granted, it is something that is expected of us. We are commanded to judge our fellow favorably. When we see someone eating a cheeseburger we are to assume he has an ulcer and has no other choice. We are instructed to look past what seems to be staring us in the face and dig down deeper and see what we can find.  This concept also comes to light in the realm of Torah study. We are encouraged to delve, seek and ask. We are not to take the words at face value and accept them as such, rather to push the limits, and question every word and phrase. We don't believe that what you see is what you get, rather what you see is just the beginning of the journey.  Paradoxically, we have the idea of clothes ...

Now that Chanuka is over and we are back to real life, let the diets begin! Until now I kept telling myself, its chanuka its a mitzva, this is what Hashem wants from me, I am supposed to indulge in oily donuts and latkes..not to mention the carbs..(but we are not mentioning them so moving along..) the real question is..besides the calories..what else did i gain in these 8 days. Yes, I played draidle, i sang the songs, watched the lights..but did it create a lasting impression..am i the same person i was 9 days ago? Has anything changed? The role of candles/lights/fire is quite significant in Jewish life. Every week we light the Shabbat Candles, we have havdala, in memory of a loved one, in zchut of R' Meir Baalhaness..the list is endless. During Kiddush Friday night we are supposed to gaze into the candles as they restore the vision lost during the week. This of course does not take the place of your spectacles rather it gives you a renewed sense of purpose. It is the opportunity...

Everywhere you go, they are there. Everyone everywhere is bopping along to their sound of their own beat. The sales of ipods and  mp3 players have skyrocketed to unprecedented highs. It always strikes me as strange when i walk down the street and i see 90% of people plugged in. When did it become normal to have wires sticking out of you? This general phenomena of "being plugged in" is a bit worrying. Except for the 25 hour intermission of Shabbat, most of us have plugged ourselves in and we no longer hear the birds chirping, don't hear the cars honking and usually don't hear the people around us talking. Which is why so many people decide to plug in; they are looking for an escape. They want to tune out (literally) everything around them and curl up into their own world. It is a method of coping. A way of dealing. I don't want to deal with x,y and z so I will just ignore it and maybe it will go away. I do not want to hear what she has to say so maybe she'll ...