“Holiness is not piety, holiness is caring.”
Julius Lester from Lovesong
Lovesong One
L’Shana Tova
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
A happy and sweet New Year to all.
“L’shana tova, tikatevu”
This is the happy holiday. A bit over a week later is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It requires a bit of introspection and commitment. Kind of like New Years Resolutions on steroids.
Simon Says Postcards 12/11/2012
“It is better to
light a candle than
to curse the darkness.”
Happy Hanukkah
Simon
The Eight Levels of Gifting
Want to find the perfect gift? This list might help you. Try to choose from the top of the list and buy:
- A Gift that the receiver wanted but didn’t expect.
- A Gift that creates new opportunities for the recipient.
- A Gift that is made or discovered rather than just purchased.
- A Gift that is purchased because the giver would like to have it.
- A Gift that is purchased because it is easy to buy or generic.
- A Gift that is outside the expectations of cost or effort.
- A Gift that is specifically requested or clearly needed by the recipient.
- A Gift that is purchased by the recipient and labeled as if from the giver.
Last year I created this list of the Eight Levels of Holiday Gift Giving. It is loosely based on Maimonides famous list of the eight levels of giving.
Weeding Books
Last Sunday I went to the Library at PJTC (Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center) to help get ready for the Book Sale on October 28th. I am the titular head of the library and call myself the “esteemed librarian” (formerly the “astute librarian”) but most of the real work is done by Sharon G. She is a trained librarian and is willing to work most Sunday mornings and keep the library open. I do the publicity and communication with the Temple management.
The non fiction collection at PJTC
When Sharon arrived last Sunday she was ready to get to work and suggested that we spend some time working together weeding the collection. “Weeding” when used by librarians means taking old, out-of-date, unpopular or damaged books out of the collection. I immediately went into complaining and obfuscating mode. I don’t have enough time, we need to be getting ready for the book sale, we don’t have a plan. Sharon gently insisted that we could at least get started. I agreed since I really only had a half an hour. I was completely wrong. Weeding is easy, it is therapeutic, it didn’t need a plan and you could get a lot done in a short time.
The first lesson I learned is: Stop complaining and get to work.
The second lesson is: Weeding is a good technique for cleaning and tidying.
Simon Says Postcards 9/18/2012
Simon Says Postcards 9/11/2012
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“In a just cause
the weak will
beat the strong.”
Sophocles
May 24, 2012 Maxim
“Nothing makes a place holier than
the competition of another religion.”
Simon Sebag Montefiore
in his book:
Character Plagues
I’m pleased to reproduce here a thought provoking piece by Lisa Feldman about the 10 plagues.
In our house we don’t do the plagues at Passover because Jack G thinks that they celebrate the wrath of God striking innocent people. I have always tended to agree. This is a different interpretation:
The Ten Character Plagues
by Lisa Feldman, Weizmann Day School Head
I recently learned a teaching by the Ishbitzer Rebbe that I thought you might find interesting. Rabbi Mordechai Yoseph Lainer of Ishbitza lived during the first part of the 19th century in Poland. He suggests that the 10 plagues do not just commemorate a historic moment, but rather they are character traits that plague us throughout the year.
“Frogs” – Exaggerated Speech
Dam, “blood” is symbolic of anger; Tz’fardea, “frogs” – exaggerated speech; Kinim, “lice”-gossip; Arov, “wild beasts”-wicked thoughts; Dever, “pestilence”-self-centeredness; Sh’heen, “boils”-arrogance; Barad, “hail”-imbalance of life’s priorities; Arbeh, “locusts”-gluttony/tenacity; Hoshekh, “darkness”-boastfulness and Makat B’khorot, “slaying of the first born”-being too proud.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve probably been plagued with many, if not all of these at times throughout the year and it is at this season that we are asked to take a moment to reflect on our past actions Rosh Hodesh Nissan, the month in which Pesah occurs, was originally the beginning of the New Year. Although we now celebrate the New Year in the fall with Rosh Hashanah, the holiday of our freedom-Pesah still serves to remind us that we can be free if we do not allow ourselves to be enslaved with negativity and poor choices. As we relax over the next 10 days I charge us to consider each day a different one of these character traits and to try and purge these behaviors from our daily lives.
Weizmann Day School is located at 1434 N Altadena Dr in Pasadena CA. Lisa Feldman the Head of the school writes a weekly column for it e-Paper. I have reproduced her column for this week here. You can subscribe by following the link to the school.
What Enslaves Us Today?
Tonight is the beginning of Passover when our people celebrate the escape from slavery under the Egyptians and eventually making it to freedom in the Land of Israel. It is a great holiday for reflecting on freedom and the right to move around. I have posted a reflection on the implications of Passover and Immigration on my Rational Immigration site.
Simon at the Western Wall
Rabbi Grater who is my Rabbi at Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center published in the Huffington Post a Top Ten List of Enslavements. I thought his list was a Progressives distorted view of the world. Full of bad assumptions and even worse solutions and so I prepared my own list of the Top Ten List of Progressive Enslavements.
To give you a flavor of it so you don’t have to go to the jump: The Rabbi’s first item is:
We are enslaved to the notion that capitalism and money are an excuse to do anything we want in the name of freedom.
Mine is:
We are enslaved to the notion that governments can create prosperity even though we have 200 years of evidence showing that less government and more economic freedom make everybody’s lives better.
To read both lists click here. Your comments are welcome.