AM Inspiration

A long time ago, I watched the The   Jett Jackson Movie. Yes i was a Disney Channel junkie. For those who haven't seen it, which I am assuming is most people, the bad guy is basically stealing cities from earth and putting them into his world. First New York City disappears and then Chicago, LA..etc. Dr. Kragg (the bad guy) occasionally looks into his world, through his peep hole, checking in on his world.  This is how I feel our world is. We are going about our daily lives, doing the things we do. We have our conversations, our tears, our laughter. We shop, we eat, we sleep. But none of this is real. This is not the true life. Lately, I've been more aware than ever of this. I walk around and i try my best to do what it is that i am supposed to, yet it just seems so meaningless.  I find myself constantly asking myself " what is it exactly that Gd wants from me? Why am I here?" Sure, the Torah gives us guidelines. We have rules tha...

The last post got me thinking about the heart on a different level.  We often refer to the heart as the source of our emotions, our spirituality. In essence it is our life source on so many levels.  A defective heart has catastrophic ramifications. Someone who is emotionally stunted will have difficulty with relationships. A spiritually defective heart will have a hard time connecting to G-d, to one's own spirituality. No one needs me to go into the myriad of problems that come about for a person that has a physical defect.  We all do things to make sure we keep "heart healthy." We eat our cheerios, exercise. We carefully guard who we let in and who we don't. Spiritually, the Torah gives us guidelines. What will keep our hearts healthy. Clearly, keeping the mitzvos all 613 of them, maintain the strength of our heart, it allows for us to maintain a relationship with G-d. But there are certain mitzvos we know that define us as Jews. Certain mi...

"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...

So I dont't usually make it to shul until the afternoon. But this week, my father insisted on me coming early to hear the Rav's Sermon; he was going to be talking about Leiby Z'"L. I've avoided talking about it while the blogging world was all aflame about it. I wanted to wait. The truth is there is really nothing to say. There are no explanations we can make. If we do, that is just insulting to his memory and insulting to G-d. Who do we think we are trying to understand the "mind" of the Creator of the world, who Was, Is and Always Will Be, who "sees" past, present, and future simultaneously? But as humans we need to understand. We have to be able to make it tangible. We need to be able to wrap our heads around it, try to make some sense of it. The alternative is too scary. So we give reasons. With the Itamar Massacre, people tried to make excuses. With the expulsion of Gush Katif, we gave reasons. With the Holocaust even, we had reasons. B...