Get to Heaven Keep the Seven

Everybody wants spirituality. To be a good person means to walk in G-d's ways. How does that translate to reality? The only guidebook to spirituality that has stood the test of time is the Hebrew Bible. The Bible says that the Jews will be a light onto the nations. But if you are not a born Jew, you have to convert, which is not so easy!! If you do convert, it is a lot of work to be a Jew (three times a day prayer, keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath).

This blog will show you how to be Jewish without the work!!

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Other Fast days on the Jewish Calander since we just got done with Yom Kippur with more inspiring Kol Nidre editions

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Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor

Disagree Respectfully

 

 

Learn to disagree without creating an unpleasant argument.

A mature disagreement is when two people both listen carefully to the other's position in order to understand the position and why the person feels that way.

The Torah obligates us to treat each person with respect - even if you disagree.

Here are some left over Yom Kipper thoughts, with some fresh ideas that are too good to wait until next year.

 

Love Yehuda Lave

Yom Kippur guide for the perplexed, 2017
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative"
Based on ancient Jewish Sages, September 29, 2017, http://bit.ly/2hAmQ3A

More on Yom Kippur and other Jewish holidays: http://bit.ly/137Er6J
1. Yom Kippur is one of the six main annual Jewish fasting days:

(a) The 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei is Yom Kippur, an annual day of repentance for one's misconduct toward fellow human-beings – in order to minimize future missteps – the cleansing of one's behavior, recognition of one's fallibilities, forgiveness of fellow human-beings' misconduct. Therefore, Yom Kippur is a day of hope, optimism and improved relations with one's family, friends and community. It requires a deep level of personal, focused concentration through humility, soul-searching, thoughtfulness, magnanimity, accepting responsibility, consideration, compassion and faith, which are facilitated by avoiding food and most forms of luxury.

(b) The 10th day of the Jewish month of Tevet commemorates the 589-586 BCE siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar;

(c) The 17th day of the month of Tammuz commemorates the 586BCE and 69CE breaching of Jerusalem's walls by the Babylonian and Roman Empires, and the breaking of the Tablets by Moses upon encountering the Golden Calf collapse of faith;

(d) The 9th day of the month of Av commemorates the destruction of the first (586 BCE) and second (70 CE) Jewish Temples, by the Babylonian and Roman Empires respectively, the beginning of Jewish exiles, and the Ten Spies' bankruptcy of faith;

(e) The 3rd day of the month of Tishrei commemorates the murder of the Jewish Governor of Jerusalem, Gedalyah Ben Achikam, by another Jew, Yishmael Ben Netanyah (586 BCE);

(f) The 13th day of the month of Adar is the Fast of Queen Esther – whose Hebrew name was Hadassah, which means righteousness - the day before the Purim holiday, commemorating Queen Esther's three-day-fast prior to her appeal to the Persian King Ahasuerus to refrain from exterminating the Jews (around 480 BCE);

2. The substance of Yom Kippur is reflected through the Hebrew spelling of "fast" (צם and צום) – abstinence from food. צם and צום are the roots of the Hebrew words for "narrowed-down focus;" "concentration of attention;" "reduced consumption" (of food and material elements); miniaturization (צמצום) of one's wrong-doing; enslavement of oneself (צמית) to an annual process of soul-searching and cleansing, but not to fellow human-beings; and eternal (צמיתות) faith in such values. The Hebrew/Biblical synonym for "fast" צם) and (צום is תענית, a derivative of the Hebrew words ענה and עני, which means to torture one's body through soul-searching and fasting, to respond to spiritual needs, and to identify oneself with poverty during the cleansing process.  

3. Yom Kippur concludes ten days of genuine, heart-driven atonement, repentance and soul-searching, which began on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of Tishrei, which commemorates the Creation. Ten has special significance in Judaism: God's abbreviation is the 10th Hebrew letter (Yod - י); the ten attributes of God – Divine perfection – were highlighted during the Creation; the ten Commandments; the ten Plagues of Egypt; the ten reasons for blowing the Shofar; the 10% gift to God (tithe); the ten Martyrs (Jewish leaders), who were tortured/murdered by the Roman Empire; the ten generations between Adam and Noah and between Noah and Abraham; the ten-person-quorum (Minyan in Hebrew), which is required for collective Jewish prayer;  etc.

4. Yom Kippur is observed on the tenth day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, whose astrological sign is Libra (♎), which symbolizes the key themes of Yom Kippur: scales, justice, balance, truth, symmetry, sensitivity and optimism. Libra is ruled by the planet Venus (Noga, נגה, in Hebrew, the name of my oldest granddaughter), which reflects divine light and love of other people. 

5. The Hebrew word Kippur, כיפור (atonement/repentance), is a derivative of the Biblical word Kaporetכפורת ,, the cover of the Holy Ark in the Sanctuary, and Kopher, כופר, the cover of Noah's Ark and the Holy Altar in the Temple.  Yom Kippur resembles a spiritual cover (dome), which creates separations between the holy and the mundane, between spiritualism and materialism. The Kippah, כיפה (skullcap, Yarmulka'), which covers one's head during prayers, reflects a spiritual dome. 

6.  Yom Kippur is concluded by the blowing of the Shofar (the ritual ram's horn), which represents humility, determination, optimism and peace-through-strength. The Hebrew/Biblical word Shofar – שופר – means to enhance and improve (שפר), which is a key message of Yom Kippur.
More on Yom Kippur and additional Jewish holidays: http://bit.ly/137Er6J  

Alan Shulman Kol Nidre for cello and piano (1970)

Prominent New York City cellist/composer Alan Shulman (1915-2002) composed his powerful Kol Nidre in 1970. Steven Honigberg, cellist and Audrey Andrist, piano interpret the work close to 50 years after its creation.

Chained Melody: A Violin "Recital" in Auschwitz

This is the finale from the Yiddish film Overture to Glory (1939), based on the story of Joel David Lewensohn Strashunsky (1794-1872), sometime cantor of Vilna, in Lithuania. But after about ten years as a dazzling cantor, he was 'seduced by the dark side' - he abandoned his family and his congregation and went to Warsaw, where he performed in operas and concerts. After several years in show business he apparently suffered from severe emotional problems and was admitted to an asylum, where he died. In this movie version, starring the great Belarussian-American cantor, Moshe Oysher, Strashunsky has left the asylum and wandered hundreds of miles on foot until, on the very eve of the Day of Atonement, by pure chance, feverish and dying, he staggers into Vilna, into his old synagogue, just as the replacement cantor (Manfred Lewandowski, another world famous cantor) is beginning to chant Kol Nidrey.

Victor Borge -- Piano Jokes and Mozart Opera

See you tomorrow

Love Yehuda Lave

Rabbi Yehuda Lave

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