On Friday I took a walk in a nearby Christmas tree farm. Many people who live near to me walk there. It’s quite beautiful. I walked in the morning because in the afternoon the tree farm would be filled with people buying trees–or rather cutting down trees. As I walked I looked at the trees. [...]
How to Heal, Find Happiness and Feel Grateful
November 4, 2010 By 1 Comment
Not long ago I wrote a post in which I asked what people do to make themselves happy. I also publish many of my posts at VibrantNation.com, and there I received a comment from someone struggling with HOW to be happy. The woman’s daughter was struggling with a difficult situation. With Thanksgiving and the holiday [...]
Finding Consolation in a New Translation of Psalm 23
October 1, 2010 By 2 Comments
On Erev Yom Kippur, my rabbi, Eli Cohen, gave a moving sermon about Psalm 23. This psalm is most often read after someone dies, so for most of us it bears a negative connotation. Yet, it is meant to offer us consolation during difficult times in general, not just when someone has passed on. If [...]
Restore the Meaning and Spirit to Memorial Day
May 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
On Monday we celebrate Memorial Day. This holiday started off as a somber day of remembrance, a day where we in America went to cemeteries and placed flags or flowers on the graves of those who died in battle or in some way during the course of war. We remembered our ancestors, family members, loved [...]
Alternative Ways to Celebrate Mother's Day
May 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Everyone has a mother…or had a mother. We are all born into this world from a mother, but some of us may be orphans, adults whose mother’s have died, or estranged from our mother. Even those of us in these situations can celebrate Mother’s Day. We need only think outside the box a bit. One [...]
A Shoah of Faith
April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday many Jews observed Holocaust Memorial Day. Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah, literally the “Day of (remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism,” is celebrated on the 27th day in the month of Nisan, a week after the seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers). It marks the [...]
Life is Worth Living
March 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today another young man in my children’s school took his life. (This is not the first, and it is the second that my daughter has known well.) Some people on Facebook were commenting on this tragedy…we were trying to understand why children feel the need to take their lives. There never seems a good reason. [...]
Memories are a Blessing and for Blessing
February 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
It’s a Jewish tradition when someone dies to say, “May his or her memory be for blessing.” The actual honorific is “of blessed memory,” a translation of the Hebrew “zikhrono livrakha” (m.) or “zikhronah livrakha” (f.). It’s an odd type of statement really. I tend to say, “May his or her memory be a blessing.” [...]
The End of an Era
August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Today I signed onto the Internet to discover that Senator Ted Kennedy had died. Those who know me well would say I’m not very politically inclined, and they’d be correct. However, Ted Kennedy’s death moved me. It seems his passing marks the end of an era. The Kennedy era. We could sing, “Where have all [...]
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