Good Shabbos

I want to wish a Good Shabbos to you all.

It's important that we utilise our time productively this Shabbos. The Jewish people are in a very difficult time. Our country is being threatened disaster from many different fronts.

I just read of some terrible injuries to our people. In an interview, Rabbi Kaplan from Sefad said that his father was sent to Sefad just prior to the Yom Kippur war. Although missiles were falling then as well, he and the other Shluchim remained, committed to their Shlichus. He too will remain. Refuah Shelaimah.

http://www.col.org.il/show_news.asp?21609

I saw an announcement that there will be Tehillim recited before and after all the prayers in the Yeshivah Shul. I hope everyone will attend.

May Hashem have mercy upon us, His children, and may he grant moral clarity to our leaders, that they make the correct decisions for our people and our country. G. W. Bush said clearly that Israel has every right to defend themselves. Maybe we should vote him in for PM of Israel.

Am Yisroel Chai!

Mazal Tov!!!

My sister, Sheva, is enagaged to Chezzi Deren!

It's wonderful. May it be "bsha'ah tovah"

All I can say right now is: L"CHAIM!

ps Maybe my green card will be handy, after all

A night with the Frierdike Rebbe

Tonight, I made the effort to attend kollel and get some learning done. I did something I regrettably haven't done in a while - I opened up a sefer from the Frierdike Rebbe, made a hot tea for myself, and read. And read. And read. Mesmerised. It's unbelievable.

Here are two fascinating points that 'took' (vos hob'n mir dernumen) me:

1) In a letter to his daughter, Sheina, the Frierdike Rebbe makes reference to his father, the Rebbe Rashab, and paranthetically adds: "...I can't write about him as is the regular custom to write about one who is no longer alive in a physical body. He is alive in me, in my heart and in my memory. For me, this is the only tool that can carry me through my life. In my regular letters that I send out, I am compelled to write about him as is the regular custom, however the truth is that he lives on; I can see him right now in my memory."
(Sorry for this dry translation. I know the yiddish version is alot better.)

I reckon these paranthetic words are extremely pertinent for ourselves today. A message very clear.

I haven't got time to write the second one. Sorry. It's quite juicy.

In the meantime, let's try and digest this one!

"Vadai Baby!"

A heartfelt discussion

Chassidus teaches, that "the mind is the seat of all intellect, and the heart is the seat of emotions".

The association of emotions with the heart has always puzzled me. By no means am I a great scientist, but my basic school education taught me that the mind is the centre of all feelings and reactive activity. Through a complex system of the nerves, any sensation to any part of the body causes a stimulation in the nerve, which ultimately sends the stimulation to the brain which in turn translates this message into the appropriate feeling, such as a pain, a sting, a burn, anxiety and so on.

Interestingly, there will often be a change in the heart activity due to certain changes in feeling, or mood. Sometimes the heart will throb faster, causing a faster heart beat, and sometimes it'll even 'skip a beat'. But this can simply be understood as a change in a muscle, just like any other muscle change. Sometimes they expand, contract, pulsate quicker etc.

I once spoke about this to a friend of mine, a pediatric neurological surgeon, in New Jersey. He noted, that the heart has always been the symbol of love, which is one of the most exhilarating feelings one can experience. Broken hearts were always symbolised with a crack down the middle of a heart shape. (Blogger's note: Does the heart shape actually resemble the heart organ? Perhaps their identical names is purely coincidental [if that's possible]?)

His explanation was, that this is an old archaic belief, having root in ancient medieval understanding. However, according to today's updated knowledge of science, there is very little connection between emotions, and the heart organ.

What do we make of this? Does Chassidus ever raise this issue?

A final note: Recently, I met a doctor (I've forgotten her official title, because it was very long and something I had never heard of before) who deals alot with patients who have undergone transplants. She observed (as a personal observation, not a case study) a patient who had recently received a new heart. The patient told her that she was experiencing some changes in her moods, feelings and even her pallete.

Gai Farshtei!

"There's nothing more complete than a broken heart." (The Kotzker Rebbe)

Alas...

Just joking. It's actually great news. A major feat. A well earned result.

I received my Green Card today.

Just a month longer than expected, but we persevered. Against the Australia Post odds.

It's quite an identity change for myself. It's also quite a deciding factor into my destiny. I'm still trying to figure out all the ramifications and consequences that it brings. For the moment, it's all been very quiet. No major paporazzi knocking on my door! Just extra phone calls to the airlines.

The truth is, the Rebbe gave alot of credit to the United States, the "Kind Empire'. In his eyes, it was a country founded on deep faith in the One G-d, and with ideals of care and help to the entire world. "E plubus unum."

And so, as I continue to ponder this added dimension into my life, I can't help but wish myself: "May the G-d who blesses America, bless me too."

Go Aussies!

A gutte Voch

Back from 'dutcheh'.

A bit "sudoku'd" out!

I found out what happens if you leave potato's or apples in the fire for too long.
Isn't it amazing how wood gets consumed by fire? After hours of adding wood, including a great deal of fat logs, all you're left with at the end of the night is a small pile of soot. Makes for a good ho'roah.

I think boggle is a fascinating game. My sister is right - we shouldn't even count three letter words. And make sure to have a more advanced dictionary than a grade-six one.

Now for an interesting vort I learnt:
Chassidus always grabs parshas Chukas to emphasize how every mitzvah, at its core, is essentially G-d's will, which stands higher than any rationale. Therefore, one may not judge between more or less important mitzvahs, and must keep them all with an equal feeling of obligation.
The Rebbe takes this idea and applies it to hafatza as well. It is not in our control to decide which mitzvos are important to influence on our 'mekurovim', but rather, we are empowered with a shlichus to influence our 'mekurovim' with all the mitzvahs possible, even the most seemingly simple and insignificant ones.

I reckon this is difficult. It also means that we have to be scrupulous about them ourselves.

In any case, gotta run. Hope your Shabbos was uplifting!

An ode to happiness

Here's a beautiful poem I found:

If birds can fly
and fish can swim
If the sun can warm
and the snow can cool
If babies can cry
and old men can sigh
If feet can walk
and mouths can talk
If water can flow
and flowers can grow

Then I can be happy

(anonymous)


Anyohw, I'll be off for a family Shabbos in 'dutcheh'

Good Shabbos to you all

Hakunah matata

Imagine, Six Million!

Here's something interesting I received today:


The thing to remember is that the six million Jews who
were murdered would, today, be the parents and
grandparents of 20 million.

IN MEMORIAM - The event that cannot ever be erased!

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War
in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial
chain. It was launched in memory of the six million Jews
who were massacred during the Holocaust.

This e-mail is intended to reach six million people around
the world!

Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us
distribute it around the world.

Please send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them
to continue the memorial chain.

Please don't just delete it. It will only take you a minute to
pass this along - Thanks!


Reminds me of the film "Paperclips". A Great project!

Ibbi ob"m

Baruch Dayan HaEmes

My granfather's first cousin, Ibbi Kramer, passed away last night.

It might sound quite distant, but we were all very close.

She was an old woman, but a young spirit. Always jolly, happy, and cheerful. She fought to live, surviving a stomach cancer and several small strokes.

Pesach Shabbos lunches won't be the same.

And a lesson in life: We were in Sydney a few weeks ago, and didn't manage (or try hard enough) to visit her. Well, never give up an oppurtunity.

To the Kramer Family: Hamakom yenachem eschem mitoch shaar avelei tziyon biyerusholayim.

Life before life?

I've been doing some studying on abortion, and have found something really scary.

Much has been debated on the status of the fetus within the mother's womb. Aristotle had conjectured that immediately after conception, the fetus is considered to be in a vegetative state. A few days later, this is exchanged for an animal soul, and possession of a rational soul only occurs later, 40 days for a male, and 80 for a female.

Now, interesting he uses the 40 day idea, which is also used in the Gemorro to describe the fetus as "mere water" until the 40th day. However, as will soon be explained, his theory seems quite wrong, and is generally no longer accepted. The Gemorro's, however, will still make sense.

It is in error to postulate that a fetus grows into life. Rather, it is life that make the fetus grow. So, we can't divide the fetus' life into stages, attributing different degrees of life to it.

The Tribunal of the Holy Office, the so called 'Beit Din' of the Catholic Church, clearly ruled that life begins even at the fetus stage, and thus any type of abortion is prohibited, at any stage of the pregnancy. This opinion, although seemingly quite logical to the Orthodox Jewish mind, goes so far to state, that even when a mother's life is at risk, the fetus may not be killed, and nature must take its course. Furtheremore, even if the newborn will survive for only a few hours, it is still prohobited to terminate it's life for the mother's sake.

Still logical?

It seems that Judaism's approach is the 'middle' path, the true path.

Indeed the fetus is alive, and deserves (almost) all the protection and attention Torah devotes to anyone elses life. (Perhaps it only begins after 40 days, but as soon as it begins, it is life.) However, when evaluating the value of one life against another, which Torah generally doesn't allow ("mai chozis etc"), here we can say that the mother's right to live is stronger than the fetus'.

My mother told me about a friend of hers which was registered to give birth in a Catholic hospital. When a friend of hers heard about it, she told her to immediately change hospitals. Now I understand why!

ps BH both mother and daughter survived, and are alive and healthy.

L'chaim - To Life!

Welcome aboard!

Hi to you all.

Please feel at home, and join in.

I've been debating about this move for a while. I used to be vehemently anti-blogs, thinking that the power of expression, especially with regards to philosophical / halachic / general opinions, should be given to those that are worthy of it, ie those that have passed a type of 'smicha' ordination that allows for their ideas to be widely spread. I also believed in censorship, where not every 'narisheh' thought by every 'narisheh' person could be published.

In some ways, I still do believe in all the above.

I think the music world has gone chaotic, because every shnook feels the right to record his 'beautiful' voice or musical talent. I think the book world is also out of control. Here's an interesting statistic i found recently:
"One of the surprise critical hits of 2003 was "So Many Books" by the Mexican critic Gabriel Zaid. As devoted a book lover as Birkerts, Zaid celebrates rather than mourns. Fifty years after the introduction of television, he writes, the number of titles published worldwide each year has increased fourfold from 250,000 to 1 million - from 100 books for every million humans to 167. A book is published somewhere in the world every 30 seconds."

In my opinion, it's a disgrace!

And so, what does this leave for me?

Well, firstly, I'm as human as anyone else, and tend to believe that my opinions, although not always correct, are sometimes interesting and worthwhile sharing.

Secondly, in line with the saying "live with the times" (R' S Z of Liadi), todays procedure of communication and socialising happens to occur on the platforms of blogs and the like.

Thirdly, and yes I know this will sound quire cliche' to anyone who has attended Farbrengens, I thought of using this blog as more of a formal arena to have discussions with myself, where my daily thoughts and change of opinion can be jotted down and recorded neatly.

Anyhow, I'm not sure if these reasons fully justify my move, and perhaps over time I'll have a clearer opinion. For the moment, it should be Their only exuse to burn me up there!

Rightio. Enough for a beginning.

Shalom