AM Inspiration

Synagogues across the country are stepping up to the plate to meet the needs of the next generation of Jewish people. Many of these synagogues have been collected into a single database that specializes in publicizing these dynamic services. No Membership Required is a free and comprehensive online database of synagogues across the country that offer social, engaging and educational Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services for non-members. It lists Synagogue details (and prices where relevant) and indicates what range of services are offered including additional programs such for youth, teen, and explanatory services. Anyone interested in learning more about the No Membership Required service can visit the website www.nomembershiprequired.com. Boiler Statement No Membership Required is the leading website providing Jewish people across the country the opportunity to find the synagogue to match their needs during this year’s High Holiday season. It enables...

I never thought I would be lonely. There have been rare occasions in my life until now that I have experienced such a sense of loneliness. There is no one to talk to when I get home at night. I can't call my parents and complain about how hard it is because they'll just take it harder than me and feel worse that I am so far away from home. There is no one to give me a hug when I'm down. There is no one to make me dinner when I'm just too tired to cook. There are no left overs in the fridge to just grab. There is no one around to bounce ideas off. There is no one to ask if my outfit looks good. These shoes or these? No one to offer solicited or unsolicited advice. There is no one to practice blood pressure on. No one's eyes I can look into with my ophthalmoscope. I never felt the need for Facebook till now. I considered it for a second, should I sign back in? That tells you how desperate I've been for some sense of social in...

I love Friday. I love the feeling that Shabbat is coming. Shabbos is a day like no other.. and that means that erev Shabbat is by association just as special. About a year and a half a go...maybe longer...I started buying flowers " lekavod shabbat kodesh!"  In seminary, Rabbi Geisler told us something that really stuck with me. He said that he does not buy his wife flowers on Friday. He and his wife go and buy flowers for Shabbat together. Rav Shimshon Pincus, in his sefer on Shabbat, also talks about flowers. He says that he went to the store to buy flowers for Shabbat. He went to the roses. Only the best for Shabbat. Only the best for the Queen. But he couldn't decide how many to get. A dozen. two dozen..there is no value for Shabbat. Maybe he should just buy them all? In the end he bought three roses; one for each of the avot, which in turn correspond to the three meals of Shabbat. The greatness of Shabbat is often ignored, trampled on. R'Pincus explains tha...

I don't think I would've done it any better. This is the time of year where give an exact accounting for all our moments, all our actions, all our words. This  is a great list of questions compiled by Shocked! to help us lead the way.

With the  ימים נוראים      fast approaching, we are no doubt seeking additional inspiration and there are many wonderful opportunities to gain  חיזוק  thanks to a plethora of special Teshuvah events in our communities. One notable event that I'd like to recommend is The Ohr Na'ava Avinu Malkeinu campaign which will take place this Sunday, Sept. 25th in Brooklyn, NY, at Brooklyn College, Whitman Hall. To view a short video advertisement of this event, click  here .   For live stream of the event, click  here   Thousands of women will gather together to  daven  and to be inspired by an outstanding group of inspiring speakers, including: o     Harav Shmuel Kamenetsky  שליט"א o     Rabbi Yisroel Reisman            o     Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein o     Rabbi Eli Mansour o     ...

Elul is such a scary time. Every year it creeps up on me. I have no idea how its Elul already. I have no idea where the time went. During Elul, I start being hyper critical of myself. How could I not be learning? How could  I miss davening? its ELUL! but it happens. We are still human during this month. We do not magically transform into super-people on Rosh Chodesh as much as we would like to. I'm in college again. I'm sitting in a room full of people I would not necessarily pick to be my friends hour after hour, day after day. The influences are not the greatest. But I cannot help it. I cannot force them to use cleaner language. I cannot force them not to make dirty jokes. I cannot change any of those things. When I was in college at home, it didn't seem to be such a problem. Maybe I didn't spend as much time with the people in my classes. Maybe people in the south are just more polite. I don't know. All I know is that I have all these 4 letter words r...

....in preparation for the upcoming High Holidays. So..njoy..tell me what you think.

"If you want to catch beasts you don't see every day, You have to go places quite out of the way, You have to go places no others can get to. You have to get cold and you have too get wet, too." —  Dr. Seuss I think this is very applicable now in the days of Elul. If we want to fight the Yetzer Hara you have to go look in places that are not comfortable. It gonna take us into the deepest and darkest part of us. Places that we have locked up eons ago..determined to forget. But they don't go away. They just stew. They simmer and eventually it may boil over. This is a fight that we have to do. No one can do it for you. We can ask for advice, but no one is going to go into your deep, dank and dark cellar and fight the fight for you. Its not comfortable. Its not easy. There is a reason that we have stored it away for so long. There is a reason that it has been under lock and key for years on end. We have to get cold and wet. There may be tears. We may need to get...

"Things may happen and often do to people as brainy and footsy as you" —  Dr. Seuss  ( Oh, the Places You'll Go! ) "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities." —  Dr. Seuss

 I am honored to have Nechama Ralsk, the author of Words From The Soul    guest post. So show your love by commenting, leaving feedback...you know what to do.. Words  you say them without thinking, not aimed to wound the heart, but simply unfiltered, you didn't mean it, regretted it rather quickly, but it was just a joke, after all, right? they laugh right along with you, but they are crying inside, words once thrown away, can never be retrieved. On a separate note-  would you rather say something and regret it? or regret not saying something you should have?

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The ego is a fragile thing. A blow to the ego is just that..a blow and it hurts. It can be the most seemingly insignificant thing. Objectively, really its not that important. If we were detached, it would not matter. But we aren't so it does. If you think about it, things that hurt us the most is when our pride is slighted. I didn't get invited. I didn't make the grade. She didn't call me back. He said no. Its the moments when we are hit with the harsh reality that we are not good enough. I didn't study hard enough. I was not pretty enough. Not interesting enough. Of course, how we view "reality" may not be the truth at all. When we are down, the yetzer hara pounces. It exacerbates everything. It turns everything in your head. You see yourself as this unloved victim. If they really loved me, if i was really  worth anything, this would not have happened. We all get in these "moods" when all we want to do is sulk. We cannot move beyond ...