The Best Gift

Are you gift shopping for a 'house warming' present?

 

The Parthian king, Artiban, once sent a priceless jewel to Rabbi Judah the Prince (135 c.e. - 220 c.e.), who was the compiler of the Mishna and one of the wealthiest Jews.

 

The king made it obvious that he expected something of equal value in return.

 

 The Rabbi's return gift to the king was a Mezuzah.

 

The king's reply was: "I sent you something priceless and you sent me something that can be bought for a paltry sum!?"

 

The Rabbi answered: "You sent me something that I must hire a guard to watch and I sent you something that will watch over you!" ( Talmud Yerushalmi, Peah 1:1)

 

Many Blessings,

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Tu B'Shvat: The Jewish New Year for Trees

 Dear Editor:

 

January 22 celebrates one of the four Jewish New Years: Tu B'Shvat, the New Year for Trees. It celebrates the rebirthing of trees in the midst of winter, the Kabbalistic reawakening of Divine energy with God as the Tree of Life: His roots in Heaven and His fruit, ourselves and the universe.

 

A spiritual lesson is that  "a person is like a tree of the field." When fortune has turned for someone , and they have lost all hope and are despairing – then they should ponder a tree in winter. Its leaves  have fallen, its moisture has dried up, it is almost a dead stump in the ground. Then suddenly, it begins to revive and to draw moisture from the earth. Slowly it blossoms, then brings forth fruits. People should learn from this not to despair, but to take hope and have courage, for they too are like a tree.(adapted from Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov in 'Ginzei Yisrael')

 

This holiday is the  first Earth Day. The Talmud declares: ''If you have a sapling, and someone says  that the Messiah has come, complete the planting, and then go welcome the Messiah.''   "If you find the land full of  good things, you should not say, 'We will not plant.' Just  as you found trees planted by others, you must plant for your children. As you found trees, plant more, even if you are old."

 

The importance of humankind being stewards of the Earth is as old as Judaism itself. 

 

Shalom,

Rabbi Arthur Segal

 

 

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmud Discourse 25 'Yerushalmi',"Kiddush cup"

 

 Happy New Year R. Abrams and Talmudim:

 

May 08 be a year of Shalom from G!D surpassing all understanding.

 

Thank you for bringing us into Talmud Yerushalmi, or more accurately the Palestinian Talmud, or Talmud Eretz Israel.

 

In the book, Kol Ha'Tor, written by a disciple of the celebrated Vilna Gaon, the importance of studying the Jerusalem Talmud is emphasized. The author reports that the Vilna Gaon told him that in the initial stages of Messianic Redemption there would be a renewed interest in the study of both Kabala and the Jerusalem Talmud.

 

Rashi found this version of the Talmud to be on a higher spiritual plane as well. ''Rav said: As soon as man goes forth from Halachic to Scripture study he no longer has peace. And Shmuel said: It means one who leaves Talmud for Mishnah. And Rav Yochanan said: Even from Talmud to Talmud. Talmud Bavli, Chagigah, 10a ". Rashi explains, ''from Talmud to Talmud: from Talmud Yerushalmi to Talmud Bavli, since the former one is deeper'', i.e. Yerushalmi is deeper spiritually and intellectually than Bavli is. (Rashi on Chagigah 10a, d.h from Talmud to Talmud )

 

The question is posed about kiddush cup design and usage.

 

Working with the assumption, for a moment, that  the kiddush cup in question is one used for Shabbat, we can see why the rabbis asked that it be decorated, clean and full.

 

In Yerushalmi Berachot 1, Shabbat carries the same weight  as all the 613 Mitzvot. Our Chachamim explain that the 613 Mitzvot compare to the 613 limbs in a persons body. The mitzvah of Shabbat refers to a person's soul, without which all other parts of the body would be mundane. Thus Shabbat is the center of our spiritual universe, and it is of the utmost importance that we guard it well and take oneg, rejoicing in it.

 

Our kiddush cups cannot be some earthen ware mug from the cabinet, or a used jelly jar.The cup must be something special, set aside, literally, from the Hebrew root kadosh. It is decorated, as we are to wear our finest clothing on Shabbat, as well. While many Jews think that Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish Calendar, in reality, our weekly Shabbats are. Each Shabbat is like one 60th of Olam Ha Ba, the world to come, and the sages teach, that if all Jews, guard and remember, Shabbat, two weeks in a row, the Messianic age will arrive. ( I am not sure if the sages were saying that this would mean all Jews were deserving of this Age because they finally became spiritually connected, or if we just stopped our infighting, and agreed to all do something, without having rancorous board meetings).

 

The cup must be clean just as we, men and women both, were obligated to be ritually and spiritually clean, before Shabbat, by going for a dip into the mickvah. Just as the rabbis decreed that our tables that we serve our guests on, replace the sacrificial altar of the Temple (s), our Shabbat foods hence become more important than our foods on our other 6 days of the week. This harkens back to the special Shabbat sacrifices.  The sages suggested that during the week, we actually buy items that we are to use for Shabbat, making sure, that even in the poorest of households, that the Shabbat meal is something 'extra.' Hence our wine glasses are filled to the brim, as G!D's gifts to us, are always over flowing.

 

As Jews, from the name Yahudah, grateful, we are not to look at the world as a kiddush cup half empty, nor as one half filled, but as one over flowing with G!d's bounty, chesed and rachmonet for us.

 

As with all Berachoth, we are to say them with spiritual intention, kavenah. Hence, we are not to be side tracked while saying the blessing that thanks G!D for the fruit of the vine,  and immediately drink it, upon finishing the blessing.

 

(Between the recital of the benediction before eating and ingesting the food, we do not interrupt with idle chatter. Such a disruption would require the recitation of a new blessing, for the benediction previously said is rendered invalid by the interlude, according to the Talmud.

Our sages explain that certain pertinent phrases may be said in the interim, since they are not considered a digression of thought (B. Berachot 40a). Thus one who pronounced the benediction over bread but is yet to taste the food, can pass a piece of bread to someone else and say: "Take, recite the blessing." According to another sage, even if the one who recited the blessing said: "Bring salt, bring relish," the initial blessing is not rendered null. The final opinion brought in the talmudic passage allows one to even say "Mix the food for the oxen," without voiding the initial blessing. It is a commandment in Judaism to feed our animal before ourselves.)

The cup was held high, the same way the priests would hold the sacrifice high, acknowledging G!D in His heavens and for the people to see. It elevates the mundane grape and wine, into a holy act.

I will end with the why the use of the right hand.

As we have learned and studied, the Talmud, redacted in its Mishna from circa 200 CE and in its Gemorah additional form in circa 500 CE was a 1000 year old text derived from oral tradition, predating in some areas, back to Torah, perhaps. Each rabbis opinions were recorded, none were censored, and even when they were angry at each other and called each other names, this was included. In times of peace, since rabbis are humans, we read peaceful wisdom, and in times of tribulation, we can sense the bitterness in the pages.

Rabbi Aha was one of the Savorai Rabbeinu, who lived near the end of the 4th century CE. Jerusalem was vanquished by the Romans 300 years before, and Christianity, was now the state religion of Rome, who controlled what was left of Eretz Israel. Rabbi Aha loved life. The rabbinic rule forbidding dancing was ignored by him  [Bava Betsa 30] but the immodesty of concentric male and female circles, carried the day. Ignored was Ketubbot 17a, which described Rabbi Aha dancing with a woman on his shoulders. Kiddushin 82 teaches that intent and not the fact of contact, when between male and female who are not married or dating, determines propriety. This point tends to be lost on some of our Jewish sects today.

Rabbi Aha was no fan of Rome nor of Christianity, as both were oppressive  to Jews.  Rabbi Aha  declared: "there was a man, the son of a woman, who would rise up and seek to make himself God, and cause the entire world to err . . . . If he says that he is God, he lies; and in the future he will cause to err - that he departs and returns in the end. He says, but will not do . . . . Alas, who shall live of that people that listens to that man who makes himself God?" (Yal. Simeoni on Num. 23:7).

Hence the use of the right arm to raise the Shabbat Kiddush cup was significant to Rabbi Aha.  "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy" (Psalm 137). By remembering Jerusalem, which he could walk by and view in ruins, and by using his right arm, he helped make each Shabbat a reminder of the world to come, when the Temple would be rebuilt, in Jerusalem, and the exiled Jews, would be gathered together in 'the land.'

For liberal Jews echoing the words of Rabbi  Gustavus Poznanski , of 1841 Charleston, SC, USA,  who was moved to say "This synagogue is our Temple, this city our Jerusalem, and this happy land our Palestine," we can still find meaning in Rabbi Aba's ritual as Shabbat is a spiritual mystical time, and a time when we can step out of the secular, into the holy, and prayer and direct ourselves to do Tikun Olam, to repair the world, as G!d's human partners, for Shalom, tsadakah and chesed.

L'Chaim!!

Shavuah Tov,

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal

 

 The Yerushalmi, the Talmud produced in the Land of Israel, is something like
the ugly sister who never gets any attention when compared with the Bavli
,
the Talmud of Babylonia. So this new year, well attempt to address that
wrong.  The Yerushalmi has glories to rival the Bavli's ,so let's get
started! (She ends up being quite as pretty as her sister!)
We'll begin with something that just about every Jew owns:  a Kiddush cup.
Whether you got it when you were 13 or when you were getting married or you
collect them, the Yerushalmi has this to say about it:
The earlier sages asked:  Can the left hand help the right hand hold the
Kiddush cup when we are saying the blessing? We learn from this question
three things:
You must hold the cup in your right hand.
You must hold your hand up at least a handbreadth above the table.
You must pay attention to the cup while saying the blessing it (i.e., you
don't set it down to check the oven, for instance).
Said Rav Aha: Three things were said concerning the Kiddush cup:
It must be full.
It must be decorated.
It must be clean. (Y. Berachot 7:5)
Discussion Questions
First some words on the Yerushalmi.  There are two versions:  the Venice
edition which has all the tractates in one volume and the P'nei Moshe
edition in 7 volumes.  The latter looks more like a page of Bavli.  However,
always, in the Yerushalmi, a mishnah is called a halachah, so if you're
looking into the actual text itself, don't let that trip you up.

The only complete translation of the Yerushalmi into English is edited by
Jacob Neusner, entitled, The Talmud of the Land of Israel, in 35 volumes
from University of Chicago Press. You can buy individual volumes, so you
can
go for the tractates which most interest you.  Finally, the Yerushalmi has
Talmud on Mishnah tractates that the Bavli does not so we're in for a
fun ride!
Now, to the questions:
1. How does your cup stand up to these standards?  (I was appalled, thinking
how much silver polishing I'm going to have to do to bring ours up to
snuff!)
2. Why do you think the cup had to be decorated?
3. Why must you hold the cup in your right hand?  Why do you have to hold
it up?Enjoy! R. Abrams

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Reader Comment on ''Koufax'' from ''Talmudic Discussion on Business Ethics ''

note: Mr. Appel's firm represents the Israeli Baseball league in  Public Relations. Visit him at www.appelpr.com

Shalom Mr. Appel:

 

Thank you for your below email.

 

Yes. It was indeed honorary, and Mr. Koufax  was the last player picked.

 

Koufax, 71, was picked by the Modi'in Miracle in the draft conducted by former major league general manager Dan Duquette, who heads baseball operations for the league and is a former general manager of the Boston Red Sox. "His selection is a tribute to the esteem with which he is held by everyone associated with this league," said former big leaguer Art Shamsky, who will manage the Miracle. "It's been 41 years between starts for him. If he's rested and ready to take the mound again, we want him on our team."

 

The Talmudic discourse, juxtaposing Koufax's ethics with many who seem not to have them, was written soon after his pick, but was posted, along with all of the posts, on my web site after Havdallah last evening, January 5, 08.

 

Thank you for letting me know that he did not play. I was a bar mitzvah lad during the baseball season of '65, and living in the NE, where my Jewish suburban neighborhood, abutted next to the town's "Christian Country Club" with its ''No Dogs, Jews, Negroes, Catholics" allowed sign. Koufax was a hero to us kids being taunted, daily, walking from the public school, to our Hebrew school classes, with anti-Semitic slurs being hurled at us.  In my mind's eye, Koufax has never really left that mound.

 

Mozel tov on your tenth anniversary in your business. May G!d continue to bless you and keep you.

 

Many Blessings,

Arthur Segal

 

 

 

Hello Rabbi; not sure what your source was, but just so it's clear, Sandy Koufax did not pitch in the Israel Baseball League this past year.  He was 'drafted' by Modi'in, but it was an honorary gesture; he was never expected to really play, and he didn't.  He said he was touched by the gesture and appreciative.

 

Marty Appel Public Relations
Celebrating 10th anniversary in 2008
100 W. 57 Street
New York NY 10019
212 245-1772
212 245-6353 (fax)
www.appelpr.com

 

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse 24: how to make New years resolutions stick...Jewishly

 Dear Rabbi Abrams and Talmudim:

 

I have a question. It is timely perhaps with the secular time of the year. In Talmudic Rabbinic Judaism it is a  daily concern.

 

We are read of New Year's resolutions. Many resolve to stop smoking, or stop over eating, or stop drinking, or be nicer to their loved ones, and the list is endless. And many can stick to these ideals for a month or so, but eventually fall back to old patterns.  A few lucky ones, can continue for their lives.

 

Why do we as Jews walk to flowing water on Rosh Ha Shana and throw bread into it, during the Tashlik ceremony, symbolizing casting away our defects, yet walk back up to dry land, with the same defects, resentments, and selfish thoughts, that we just supposedly cast away? Did the bread jump back into our pockets? We can symbolically clean our homes of every crumb of chometz pre Passover, but that bread in our pocket of our defects, be it Tasklik during the Jewish New Year, or during the secular New Year, doesn't want to leave.

 

What is the Talmudic step are we not performing, before Tashlik, or before making these December 31 resolutions?

 

The Chassidim say : ''The virtue of angels is that they cannot deteriorate; their flaw is that they cannot improve. Humanity's flaw is that we can deteriorate; but our virtue is that we can improve.''  We read : "Repentance: a fierce battle with the heart." [ Orhot Tzaddikim, 15C] and "Even if you be otherwise perfect, you fail without humility''. [ Talmud: Kalla Rabbati] and ''How is one proved to be a true penitent? Said Rabbi Judah: If the opportunity to commit the same sin presents itself on two occasions, and he does not yield to it.'' [ Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 86b]

 

Is that we are not doing the Talmudic steps of a complete moral inventory or a complete confession of our defects? Is it that we are missing the invaluable step of truly making teshuvah (repentance) to those we have harmed with our defects and resentments? Is it that in the longest journey in life, from the head to the heart, we truly do not find that which we state we which to cast away objectionable, and still wish to hold on to them, hence blocking that channel from our minds to our heart, but also block us from having a channel open to G!D, our Healer. Instead of being nevi (open...also the Hebrew word for prophet,) we are still narrow, (mitzriam, the Hebrew word for Egypt), and still wish to be in a bondage they we ourselves have created.

 

Is it that we lack humility, and truly do not have belief, faith and trust in G!D and try to depend on our own finite will power, instead of accessing G!D's healing infinite power, and hence we are doomed for failure, as the evil inclination, is greater than an one human?

 

I am interested in how my fellow Talmudim have grown, and continue to grow, and what Rabbi Abrams believes that Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism specifically speaks to us so that New Years resolutions, be they at Tashlik or on December 31, work.

 

Todah Rabbah.

Happy New Year.

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse 23

 

Shalom:

 

Nice medical summary of the deleterious effects of steroid use by Chavar Tom. 

 

It can be followed with an other Talmudic observation long before our sages knew of steroids.

 

Steroids, as Chavar Tom, elucidated, puffs out the one who takes them. It makes him (or her) appear bigger and greater than they actually are and hence even perform this way.

 

When the Talmud discusses stealing, it talks about cheating. Not surprisingly, Judaism condemns cheating, but our tradition recognizes that cheating involves more than breaking the rules. A Hebrew phrase used in the Talmud to indicate cheating is geneivat da'at, which literally means the theft of the mind; in other words, cheaters who intentionally mislead or deceive others to gain undeserved goodwill are considered thieves. "There are seven kinds of people who are guilty of stealing," our sages teach. "First among them are people who misrepresent themselves to others" (Tosefta, Bava Kama 7:3).

 

Certainly, a puffed up exaggerated steroid user in professional sports fits this bill, no differently than a fellow  or gal in a $5000 business suit selling junk bonds or a $200 suit selling sub prime mortgages without full disclosure to a truly understanding client. All are 'con' men or women.

 

Chavar Tom's policeman friend's advice of 'following the money' (the same advice "Deep Throat" Felt gave to Woodword and Bernstein during their Watergate investigative reporting in the early 70s), is interesting in the above context, as the Mishniac word for money or riches, (mamon..."charity is the salt of mamon" {Kethuboth 66B]) has its Aramiac roots from the same root word as 'confidence,' which of course is what a 'con' man is entrusting one with.

 

As implied in my previous post, the problem with steroid use in Baseball, if indeed Baseball is as an American as apple pie and a microcosm of the USA, is the tip of the iceberg of  a nation and its people, who might be statistically the most church or synagogue 'belonging' people, but who truly do not have 100% faith, trust, nor even belief in God, and put their 'confidence' in mamon.

 

Our kesef may record  the words "in God we trust," but our image of the American diety, has emblazoned on it, "in riches we trust." Steroid use is our athlete's version of a Wall Street broker's insider trader or our politician's stealing an election. And 'there is nothing new under the sun,' {Eccl 1:9} as theft and worship of riches, have been taking place long before men (and women)  were rounding bases.

 

Shabbat Shalom:

Rabbi Dr. Arthur L. Segal

 

 

by tshafer3661

So is it time for ML Baseball to go the way of pro wrestling?  Could happen
I guess if the sport continues to be money and ratings driven.

I remember "rasslin' " from the early days on TV in the mid 50's.  Gorgeous
George and Haystacks Calhoun.  Back in those days they actually used to know
each other around to decide who won.  Of course, they had their show stuff
but when they bashed one another on the back with a chair it was  real
chair.

I made a friend a few years ago who "rassled" on the minor league circuit in
the Deep South.  He assures me there was some improvisation of showy moves
but no choreographed bouts.  He recalls vividly getting the stew knocked out
of him in several bouts he lost.

Nowadays there is total choreography of the bout.  It starts out week before
with mock tussling and arguments between the fighters, carefully scripted to
enrage the fans.  This is where the villain gets especially villainous and
die hard fans fear he will truly defeat their champion of truth, love and
the American way.  It build to a crescendo where they do fight in the ring
sort of.  Actually they stomp beside the other guy's head and break balsa
wood chairs on each other's back.  And they practice the bouts before hand
so all the carefully panned moves including the pin for final victory come
off perfectly.

Now these guys are finely tuned athletes.  They look like big muscle bound
men but actually are very talented gymnasts and actors.  Nothing as hard to
play as a fight scene.  It is just they are no longer competitors because
the final victor is determined before the bout by management as the outcome
best designed to keep the fans flared up and increase attendance and viewing
at the rematch bout.

Of course, the pro wrestlers use steroids too, lots of them.  They feel they
need to get that massive physique.  A cop friend of mine once told me if you
want to go where the action is in a case, follow the money and the drugs.
Good advice in life I am sad to say.

An interesting part of the discussion appeared in an editorial on sports
medicine in the Journal of the American Medical Association a few years
back.  The author pointed out that steroids really have minimal anabolic
intracellular muscle building effect unless your client had a low level in
the first place.  A high level can cause growth of things like brain tumors
and liver nodules but the determinant of muscle growth is how much the
muscle is stressed and worked.

Steroids do make the athletes more aggressive so they tend to do more and
faster reps when they work out, leading to muscle growth.  However the JAMA
author pointed out that you can accomplish the same thing with a good
trainer who pushes you beyond your self perceived limits.  And this is
without the danger of medical problems down the  road or more immediate
danger of injury due to excessive exertion.

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse (Jewish Business Ethics)

 

Dear Rabbi Abrams et. al.:

 

What a wonderful d'var Torah (sermonette) on business ethics (below)

Thank you!!

 

It needs to be repeated often, unfortunately.

 

While you were moved to write it by the use of steroids in Baseball, giving one an unfair advantage over others, i.e. cheating and defrauding, your d'var is apropos to those lenders involved in making mortgage loans to those who could not afford the balloon payments, or who they knew were borrowing the 20% elsewhere.

 

The days of Sandy Koufax not playing ball in game one of 1965 world series because it was Yom Kippur, have long gone. Koufax, now 71, is pitching for the Modi'in Miracles, of the Israeli Baseball League, which was formed in the spring of this year (07).

 

Our sages in our Talmud took the Torah admonition of ''not putting a stumbling block before the blind'', (Lev:19:14 lifnei iver lo sitten michshol) and said that this was clearly about business ethics. (Bava Kama 118B, Bava Metzia 5B, 75B, and Midrash Sifre Leviticus ). 

 

 We Jews have an obligation for full disclosure, even if the law of land, says we do not need to do so. Caveat Emptor, [let the buyer beware], is a Roman Pagan law, and is an anathema to Judaism.

 

We are to be rigorously honest, taking a bow to the old Kosher hot dog commercial, implying that we must go beyond the laws of the government (in that case, meat inspectors) because we yield to a Higher Authority.

 

Yet it is sad to still hear the worn out canard of the Jew being the perennial ''cheat'' in business.  I still remember the shock that ran through the audience and the gasp of my Bubbie [of blessed memory], and my mother and father, when we saw Roth's novella, "Goodbye Columbus," produced into a movie in 1969, and the nouveau riche Jewish father character, played by Jack Klugman,  stating that ''one needs a little gonef (thievery) to be in business.''

 

As you so wonderfully cited, our Talmud states that when we stand in front of Moses before the gates of Paradise, we will not be asked if we kept kosher, nor asked if we kept Shabbat, but will be asked if we were honest in business.

 

Our yetza ha ra, our evil inclination, is always chasing after us, literally to kill us. (Talmud Tractate Kiddushin 30B). The Talmud in Bava Batra 16A says it and Satan and are the same thing. Ibid 17A says that only three humans were not swayed by the yetza ha ra, (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) but my read of the Torah, shows them to have lied, cheated, and done other things, that all of us have done, or will do, in our human life times.

 

Indeed Tractate Sukkoth 52B, says we Talmud students have the worst chance of being influenced by the evil inclination. Chigigah 16A says that the inclination of our hearts is towards evil, always. And that G!D regrets creating it, in  Sukkoth 52B.

 

Yet without it, if we were all angelic, no one would go to work, houses would not be built, and babies would not be born. So we must work ethically, build homes with parapets on the roofs, (Deut. 22:8) and keep our sexual urges in check.

 

Of course, for the yetsa ha ra, G!D gave us the antidote, and it is Torah study and prayer. We are taught "Asei ritzono ritzoncho, Make His will, your will," in the Talmud in Perkei Avot. "Before you I have placed life and death... Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live." (Deut. 30:19)

 

But here is the trap and the dilemma. Using our own will, as Rabbi Abrams suggests, is not the Talmudic answer to beating back the yetza ha ra. The Hindus know this and eventually so did European ethical philosophers such as Schopenhauer.

 

Our own will comes from our ego. And we as humans can be the best rationalizers (lying to ourselves) than anyone else can ever lie to us. The Talmud teaches that one small sin leads to another, and we have all said to ourselves, in one way or another, 'ah, another piece of cake won't matter.'

 

No one wakes up one day and says "let me become a steroid junkie, throw away my multi million dollar  a year contract, my profession, my reputation and my liberty.'' But one does say "let me just take a little steroid, just this once.... after all 'everyone' is doing it.''

 

The Talmud teaches us that only by real Tephelia, [prayer which is self -judging], and asking G!d to negate our will, not give us more of our will power, and by asking G!D to give us His power, can we over come the yetza ha ra. Only by doing the Talmudic asked daily chesbon ha nefesh (inventory of soul) and daily vidui (confession of our defects and even thoughts of doing wrong to G!d and to another), can we beat this evil inclination, that is always at our door.

 

Self knowledge and our own will power is no defense against it, according to the sages.

 

Let me close with this recent personal experience. Back in the end of June, a fellow, not a Jew, but someone who for 5 years purported to me to be a good G!D loving Christian, asked me to join him in his 18 year old business. As with anything new, even dating, it takes a while until things become known. And they don't unfold like an instruction manual. After 3 months, I suspected him, to although being with in legal codes, not to be within ethical codes, and I got out, even though, I left a lot of money, and potential earnings as well. Doctor's order also played a part.

 

I could ONLY have done this with G!D's power. Left to my own, with my yetzah ha ra, sitting on my shoulder ready to pounce and kill, I would have continued to believe his lies, when I asked him questions, and continued working with him.

 

It was only because of the Study of Torah and Talmud, and prayer, that I knew what G!D expected of me, and was able to walk away.

 

Getting 'home,' be it to ''home plate'', or 'back to the garden' of Gan Eden, [ before we were given free will and a yetza ha ra], takes effort, but once we place our lives and will into G!d's hands, and pick up the yoke of G!D, the Talmud promises us, all earthy yokes, fall from our backs.

 

Again, thank you Rabbi Abrams, for this bit of mussar, (ethics), that really rang out to me. G!d bless you!!

 

Shalom.

Rabbi Dr Arthur Segal

 _________

How Do We Find Our Way Home?
Rabbi Judith   

 The revelations of this past week about the use of steroids in major league
baseball leave us feeling disgusted? Disappointed? Disillusioned?  Certainly
we feel a sense of loss regarding the honor and traditions that are so much
a part of baseball and its history.
So, how can we frame this experience?  Quite easily.  If major league
baseball is to be a legitimate sport something more than professional
wrestling ,then we should hold it to the standards that Judaism sets for
every single one of us in our businesses:  absolute honesty.

Rabbinic literature teaches us that we are required to be absolutely hone
st in our business dealings.  We may not mix two kinds of produce, even if the

difference between their worth is only a penny (Tosefta Baba Metsia
3:26//Sifre Deuteronomy 295)

not even if we sell them at the lower price.

Indeed, the very first question each person (not just Jews) will be asked
after they die and are facing judgment is, Were you honest in business
?
(Bavli Shabbat 31a).  It doesn't get much more basic than that.

I understand the temptation on the part of the players to achieve better
statistics.  I understand the management  desire to put on a better
show that leads to higher revenues.  We always struggle with our urges to have
more. But that  the point, we struggle with these urges.

We need the Evil Inclination to urge us to achieve, but it cannot rule us:

 

Once, the sages prayed for mercy, and the Evil Inclination was handed over
to them. God said to the sages:  If you kill the Evil Inclination, the world
will fail.  They imprisoned the Evil Inclination for three days, then looked
in the whole Land of Israel for a fresh egg and could not find one.
Thereupon they said:  What shall we do?  If we kill him, the whole world
would fail. They put out his eyes and let him go.  (Bavli Yoma 69b)

Perhaps the Evil Inclination was simply allowed to grow too strong.  So here
is the way back:  we make ourselves stronger than the Evil Inclination
again. We remember who the true hero is. The true hero is the one who
masters his or her Evil Impulse (Pirkei Avot 4:1).  We remember the high
level of honesty demanded of us and come back to it  feat of strength
that can only be accomplished through strength of will and spirit, not drugs.
  And through this exercise of will, we will be able to repair this situation and
baseball can return to its home in our hearts.

 

 

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse 21 Hanukah-Women

 Judy:

Off the top of my head, I seem to remember a woman who has seven sons die
during the Maccabbean rebellion.  Anyone else remember her?

 

DEAR RABBI JUDY et al:

There are two Chanukah women. This is a longer post, but I implore the reader to read it through.

 

One, (Hannah and her seven sons)  our rabbis left out of our Tanach because it is from the several books of Maccabees, whose Greek name is Hasmonean, and while Judah and his Maccabees were heroes, the later Hasmonean's were Roman Quislings, who killed so many Rabbis it is said they didn't have enough for a quorum to say the Berchot ha Mazon (3), and which cruel King Herod was married into their family.

 

The Catholic 'old' Testament has the books of the Maccabees as part of their canon.

 

The second is about Judith, told in the "Book of Judith," also left out of our Tanach by our sages.

 

The Hannah story however is read on Tisha B'av. Reform Jews, (and I am liberal) do not fast nor celebrate this day, as the restoration of the Temple is not part of Reform ideology, nor mine, but I fast, because of the spiritual significance. The Talmud tells us the Temple was destroyed, because of senseless hatred among Jews, and frankly tells a story of  a slight over a party dis-invitation. I see these things occur at synagogues today, and it is this I mourn, and pray to G!D to take away from us.

 

The Ballad of Hannah and her Seven Sons tells a story well known from the Apocrypha II Maccabees 6:12-17. During the persecution of the Jews in Syria at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (d. 163 B.C.E.), the seven sons of Hannah were commanded to worship an idol. Each refused, and each in turn was slaughtered. The Babylonian Talmud Gittin 57b sets the story in the time of "Caesar," that is, at the time of the destruction of the second temple in 70 C.E. The ballad follows the medieval version of Jossipon in its account of the mother's death. The Judeo-Arabic ballad based on this story appears to have been very popular, and like so many of its type, is "known only in its variants." It is found throughout the eastern dialect area extending from Libya to Iraq, and the western dialect area has a different ballad on the same theme. In the past century or so, the eastern ballad has been printed in such far-flung spots as Calcutta, Bagdad, Aden, Tiberias, Leghorn, Tripoli and Tunis. The version translated here is that printed in Tunis in 1910 by Mardochée Uzan and brother, and sold by him at his "modern bookstore" in Rue Sidi Mardoum, Tunis. At that time Tunis had a large Jewish population, perhaps as much as one third of the inhabitants of the city.

The ballad is chanted on the Fast of the Ninth of Ab, which commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem on two occasions. On that day, Jewish tradition dictates that only sad and depressing materials may be read, and this includes this ballad which fosters the frame of mind suitable for the occasion.

In the Tunis version given here, Nebuchadnezzar is named as the tyrant. Other versions follow the Talmud and refer to "Caesar." Tradition places this at Hanukah time, as it is in the book of Maccabees and the heroine is named Hannah.  This is the eastern version which seems to have reached as far west as Tunis. Its language is somewhat adapted to the Tunisian dialect, but it is probably Iraqi in origin.

In form the poem is a zejel, a kind of poetry brought to its flower by the Spanish Arabic poet Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Malik ibn Quzman, who died in 1160. Characteristic of the zejel is its colloquial language, as well as a typical rhyming scheme: aaab cccb dddb where b rhymes with a constantly recurring refrain of one or two lines. In the version given here the number of syllables per line varies greatly. The strophe has four or five lines. After each strophe the refrain It is proper for us … is repeated.

The poem possesses a pathos which is simple yet compelling, and is somehow not marred by such illogicalities as Hannah's suffering in silence, although she is always talking, and the precociousness of a three year old who demolishes the king's ideology. There is constant contrast between the gruesome physical sufferings of the sons, and the mental anguish of the mother, and there is no doubt that the mother suffers more. Impressive too is the unshakeable faith of the martyrs, who never doubt the justice of God, the rightness of their cause, or the certainty of their reward.   

The Ballad of Hannah and her Seven Sons

I am Hannah. Listen to my speech, and look what happened to me.
I had seven sons, whom I cherished and honored and pampered.
Among them was a baby whose face brightened the night.
But they fell into the  unbeliever's hands who feared not Almighty God.
It is proper for us to weep all our nights and days!

Nebuchadnezzar spoke gently to them and said: "Worship my idol.
Come forward the eldest, intelligent Jew.
Worship my idol, and you will not be slaughtered and laid low.
Listen not to what others say   and disobey not my intent,
For if you disobey, woe to you. You will fall like a bird from the sky.
It is proper for us etc.

He answered him scornfully: "Listen, king,
I worship only God, creator of mankind.
You are nothing by comparison, for soon you will be in the dust.
Your idol does not profit, nor money, nor images."
He said: "Kill the unbeliever by my leave and on my responsibility."
It is proper for us etc.

They grabbed and held the poor man, and tied his hands behind him.
They pulled off his clothes, and threw him into a pit.
They brought his mother to see his severe torture.
He cried out: "Mother, have pity on me by enduring,
For where is the love we bore, Mother who pampered me?"
It is proper for us etc.

They brought the second one weeping, his tears running like a flood,
But his heart was strong in the Lord, creator of mankind.
Four men grabbed him, and dragged him to the king.
He said to him: "My child, obey me, get up, worship the image.
Do not listen to what other people tell you."
It is proper for us etc.

He answered him: "King, do not prolong your speech.
What are you, you miserable man, and what is your status?
Soon you will perish, and your affairs will be in disarray.
He will destroy all your wealth, and make nothing of your officers."
He said: "Kill the unbeliever, and do not annul my words."
It is proper for us etc.

They took the boy, and slaughtered him in his mother's presence.
She cried: "My child" and pressed him to her bosom.
She threw herself upon him, and wallowed in his blood.
She found no one to be close to her and exhort her to patience in her trouble.
"Be sad for me and dwell on my trouble and grief."
It is proper for us etc.

They brought the third handcuffed, and his tears were flowing.
He said to him: "My child, obey me in a single matter.
Arise, worship my idol and your days will be long.
We shall raise you to high rank, and give you great power.
If you hear and obey me you will be exalted over all my servants."
It is proper for us etc.

He answered him with fine speech. "Pay attention and listen.
Your idol is the work of man. He has ears and does not hear.
He has a nose and does not smell, eyes and does not see.
He has hands and does not grasp, feet and does not walk.
You are like your idol, you ignorant unbeliever."
It is proper for us etc.

He condemned him to death and said: "Bring a firebrand.
Take him and torture him, roast and fry his flesh.
He disobeys my religion, he constantly speaks arrogantly.
He despises my idol and mocks my deeds.
Bring his blood to me in haste, hurry up and do not delay."
It is proper for us etc..

They took the poor fellow, mutilated him, and stripped the skin from his head.
They cut off his hands and feet, and threw him next to his brothers.
His mother saw it with her eyes when they drew out his insides.
She could not say a word, but her soul was with his soul.
She wept and cried and said: "Oh, my babies."
It is proper for us etc.

They brought the fourth, poor fellow, apprehensive, heart-broken.
He said to him: "My child, obey me, do not disobey my order.
See what your brothers have become, lying unburied.
Obey me, listen to me, and you will escape and get great riches.
I will build you high castles if you do not oppose my will."
It is proper for us etc.

The boy spoke up and said to the king: "O tyrant,
We accept upon us the judgment of God, and all of us will die by your sentence.
On account of our sins he has caused this, and cast us before you.
We accept it and will not obey you, and will not serve your images.
We shall worship only our God, who is honored above the mighty."
It is proper for us etc..

The king gnashed his teeth and said: "Kill him speedily with an ugly death."
They slaughtered him in his mother's presence, but she was obedient to God.
They slaughtered the child in her presence, while she suffered in silence.
She looked at him, and was distressed, and said: "Oh, my babies."
It is proper for us etc..

They brought the fifth and he cried in distress:
"Mother, accept God's judgment and do not oppose his decision.
Though he destroy a thousand of us, we will not worship in his manner.
Let God judge as he pleases in all matters."
It is proper for us etc.

They stood the child before him, and he said to him:"My child, I inform you
That my idol will profit you and save you from your anxieties."
He answered him thus: "Do not rely on your images.
Soon you will die and pass away, you and all your counsellors,
You are like your idols, soon you will be burned in fire."
It is proper for us etc.

The king arose, and stamped his foot and said: "I will not retract."
They took the poor fellow, and tortured him, so that all his flesh felt pain.
In great torture, poor fellow, two days he agonized,
Stretched out two whole days and nights in the sun.
It is proper for us etc.

Then they brought the sixth, shackled with iron chains.
And when he saw the idol, his face changed.
He said to him: "O unbeliever, do not speak much to me, but do not overlook what I say.
Kill me quickly. The Lord will take vengeance on you.
I will die rather than disobey the command of God Most High."
It is proper for us etc.

The king spoke up and said: "Kill him, and let his mother see."
They slit his throat from ear to ear, and the tears flowed from her eyes.
And she cried out and wept, and her heart could not bear it.
And she cried out and wept and said: "My babies."
It is proper for us etc..

They brought the seventh, poor child, who was only three years old,
And he wept with flowing tears and said: "O master of the worlds!"
His mother bent down behind him and cried in a pleading voice:
"Do not obey them, my precious. Do not let them persuade you against what I say."
It is proper for us etc..

"Arise, young man. Hear and be obedient to my words.
Do not disobey my command and reject my idol and my images.
I shall make your rank high, and make you a leader.
A minister of the realm, a minister of state, you will be chief of my counsellors.
Everything will be yours, prosperity and wealth."
It is proper for us etc.

He answered him: "O evil-doer, you are afraid of created things,
And forsake God Most High, living and existing, who is all-powerful.
How can you tell me to worship your images made of wood from the street?
A pity for your intelligence. You have taken leave of your senses."
It is proper for us etc.

And he said: "O child, obey me in what I tell you.
I shall put down my ring among the soldiers, next to the idol, I shall throw it down for you.
Stoop and give it back to me, and repeat it twice.
Tell your mother to worship my idol, and you will not be killed or harmed.
Your brothers would be glad, since you are the youngest of all."
It is proper for us etc..

And the king said to the servants: "Bring Hannah before me."
"O Hannah, urge your child to do obeisance to my images.
And we shall make him chief minister, he will be chief of my counselors.
You shall live, your child shall live, only do not disobey my words.
Hannah, tell your child to listen to my commands."
It is proper for us etc.

She gave answer to the king: "Include me with my children."
"Precious, do not obey them, my breath, my life,
Look how you were nine months in my womb, my child,
I brought you up and reared you and fed you in my house
Day and night, year after year."
It is proper for us etc.

He answered her: "Mother, let me go to them.
Let them do what they want, and what their heart desires.
I am more precious to you than my brothers, so is my death than theirs.
I worship none save one God who is exalted over all others."
It is proper for us etc.

She clasped him to her breast, and wept and said:
"My child, my little one, accept the decree of your Lord.
Your place in paradise with all your forefathers is assured.
Our God will judge Nebuchadnezzar, and punish him severely."
It is proper for us etc.

They took him from her, and she wept and said: "My little one,
What are my sins, what my deeds, what my behavior?
My Lord has left me neither oldest nor youngest.
Fate has deprive me of them and taken my babies from me."
It is proper for us etc.

They slaughtered him in her presence, and she saw it with her eyes.
She fell upon him, and stamped her foot, and her spirit went up to God.
She died for what she underwent, and what happened to her children.
Praise be to Him who desired this. To him is the command and the action.
It is proper for us etc.

A voice went out from Heaven: "Happy are you, Hannah,
Paradise is open to you and your seven sons."
Soon he will build our sanctuary, and we shall dwell in it as we were.
All our enemies will perish, and he will pity all our people.
Elijah will come with good news  with Messiah, son of David!
It is proper for us to rejoice all our nights and days!

 

Judith's story is also linked with Hanukah.

Once Hanukkah festivities included the celebration of two heroes—Judah Maccabee and Judith. Although for several centuries the Rabbis included Judith in their Hanukkah narratives, her story, recorded in the Book of Judith, never made it into the canonized Bible. The Book of Judith promised that her "praise will never depart from the heart of those who remember the power of God," and she acted with a certainty that her legacy would "go down through all generations of our descendants." Neither she nor her contemporaries could have imagined a time when her story, as a story of courage in the face of enormous risks, would cease to be part of the story of the Jewish people passed from one generation to the next.

And yet today, Judith's story is a little-known part of the Hanukkah narrative. Who was she? What is her significance to us today?

In the second century B.C.E., as the powerful Assyrian army invades the Near East, the town of Bethulia is besieged by the cruel and domineering Holofernes, foremost general of the Assyrians  . If Bethulia yields, the whole country will fall into Assyrian hands. Discouraged, the city's elders agree to surrender the famine-stricken city if they are not rescued within a few days. Judith, a young widow and most unlikely savior, challenges them to take responsibility for the future of their community. She enters the Assyrian camp where Holofernes, smitten with her remarkable beauty, invites her to a banquet. Judith,   was a daughter of the Hasmoneans. She fed cheese to the leader of the enemies of the Jews. He was made thirsty by the cheese and began to drink much wine. When he grew quite drunk she cut off his head. For this reason, it was said, Jews eat cheese delicacies on Hanukkah  With the Assyrian army thrown into confusion, Judith inspires the Israelites to launch a surprise attack from which they emerge victorious.

Behind every successful man, there is a strong patient guiding  woman, and a surprised mother-in-law.

Many blessings,

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal

 

 

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse 20

 

Judy:
You're reading through romanticizing eyes.  R. Zera was on the road a
lot...a latter day road warrior traveling between Israel and Babylonia...she
was obligated.

 

Shalom Rabbi Judy et. al.

 

Indeed R. Zera's wife, and hence all women from the edict, became obligated to say what we today called the second Hanukah blessing, upon seeing a lit Chanukeah.

 

R. Zera was  a very serious rabbi and took the law and the emergence of Judaism quite seriously.

 

He is mentioned in the Talmud Bavli  in almost every Tractate and yet, the only time it is mentioned he went to Israel, was his first (and last time) when he made alliyah there.

 

Before going, he fasted for  a series (but not in continually) 100 days so he could forget the Bavli dialectic method and be 'pure' to learn the Palestinian Talmudic method of learning.

 

He had to keep his plans for emigration from his teacher R. Judah who disapproved of anyone leaving Babylon, which was considered the seat of higher learning, and of course, which today even, we use as 'the' Talmud and not the one from Palestine.

 

When he reached the Jordan River, he was so impatient to cross, he crossed wearing all of his clothes. A non-believer scoffed at him to which he replied " Why should I not be impatient when I pursue a blessing which was denied even to Moses and Aaron."

 

He made his living selling linen and was so honest he consulted R. Abbahu how far he could ethically go in improving the look of his linen without rendering  himself liable to the slightest degree of a charge of fraud.

 

We do not know his wife's name, but they were married during Sukkoth.

 

In the Tractate Rabbi Abrams begin this interesting discussion , on Shabbat  77b, R. Zera and R. Judah engage in one of the most humorous debates in the Talmud concerning everything from chicken's eyelids, the short tails of camels.

 

However R. Zera is quoted as saying he did not believe in laughing until the Messiah comes and creates a world of peace and justice. (Sanhedrin 59b).

 

Was he then serious when he asked : ''If a piece of meat resembling a donkey, falls from heaven, may it be eaten?'' To which R. Abbahu called him a yarod (an ostrich looking bird) and said,'' anything that comes from heaven is kosher.'' Zera's point was that a vulture could be carrying carrion, and drop it, and that would literally be traif.(road kill).

 

Rabbi Yirmiyah was always trying to get Rabbi Zera to laugh, by asking him the silliest of questions.

 

He asked R. Zera once "what is the law is the father receives an animal born from a woman as a token of betrothal. Is the person considered married to the animal?" ( R. Meir had ruled that if a woman aborts a fetus that looks like an animal (deformed) it is a valid abortion, and she is as ritually unclean as if she aborted a healthy fetus. Yirmiyah question is absurd because such an unfortunate child in that time would not live).(Niddah 23a).

 

 Yirmiyah was temporarily expelled from the Talmudic academy for his silly questions to Zera (Bava Batra 23b).( E.g.: The law is if a chick is found with in 50 cubits of its cage, it belongs to the owner, if it is found 51 cubits from the cage, it belongs to the one who found it. R. Yirmiyah asked: " what if one foot is with in 50 cubits and the other is with in 51 cubits?")

 

R, Zera was not one to hold his tongue either. He was known to rebuke his fellow rabbis and others. He once witnessed R. Abbahu swimming in a lake on Shabbat and brought this to the Academy's attention. While a guest at the  Exilarch's home, he rebuked a slave, over changing feathers in pillows on the Sabbath. (Shabbat 55a) On the other hand, he lived in a rough neighborhood in Palestine and prayed for, but never rebuked, the sinners near him. To them, he lead by example.  When he died, not having anyone to pray for them, they repented.  

 

He took the mitzvoth seriously, and once he and Rabbah got seriously smashed on Purim (one is to get so drunk on Purim that one cannot distinguish the between the names Haman and Mordechai ), and Rabbah slit his throat with a knife, accidentally.  R. Zera almost died but Rabbah prayed and R. Zera survived. (Megillah 7b)

 

R. Zera found his students studying Torah on Shabbat. He rebuked them and told them they were violating Shabbat by studying, as Shabbat is a time for pleasure, and they should go home and 'eat, drink and be merry."

 

"Ashrénu ma tov chelkénu umanayim gorolénu. "We are fortunate, how good is our portion, how pleasant our lot, and how beautiful is out heritage!"

 

Many Blessings,

Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse 19

 

Judy:
How is it extemporaneous?

 DEAR RABBI ABRAMS: THE POSITIVE MITZVAH, BEING INCUMBANT ON A WOMAN, OF SAYING A QUICK BRACHOT, UPON SEEING ANOTHER'S LIT CHANUKAH MENORAH, IS ''EXTEMPORANEOUS'' BY DEFINITION. 

 

 IF I UNDERSTAND THE GEMORAH DISCUSSED ON THIS   DAF, AND PLEASE REBUKE ME IF I AM INCORRECT, THE WOMAN, IS NOT BEING ASKED TO PLAN THE EVENT, NOR TAKE TIME AWAY FROM WHAT THE RABBIS CALLED HER 'MORE IMPORTANT' DUTIES, SUCH AS CHILD REARING, TO GO AND VISIT A CHANUKEAH AT A SPECIFIC TIME AND THEN SAY THIS BLESSINGS.

 

SHE IS ASKED TO SAY IT,    ONLY, IF IN HER NORMAL COURSE OF HER DAY, PERHAPS WHILE SHOPPING, ( IF I AM SOUNDING NON-FEMINIST HERE, I AM PLACING MY LANGUAGE CIRCA 2500 YEARS AGO, AND HENCE NOT SAYING, ''WHILE ON HER WAY TO HER PULPIT WHERE SHE IS A RABBI''), AND SEES A LIT CHANUKEAH, TO SAY  A PRAYER.

 

SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO LITE THE CANDELABRA. JUST SAY A 15 SECOND PRAYER. SHE COULD DO THIS WHILE NURSING TWINS, I IMAGINE THE SAGES THINKING.

 

ALSO, SINCE CHANUKEAHS ARE LIT AT NIGHT, IN ALL CASES DURING THIS TIME, WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, THIS WOMAN, WOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY HER HUSBAND, OR A PARENT, AND I SUPPOSED THE SAGES EVEN BELIEVED, THAT IF SHE WENT INTO LABOR, SHE COULD STILL MANANGE TO MUMBLE THE PRAYER WITH KAVENAH.

 

Judy:
Please...you dont really agree with Rambam here do you?  That on the whole, women are more spiritual, so they can do housework?!? GOSH NO RABBI JUDY. BUT UNTIL THE RAMBAM, FOR AT LEAST 1500 YEARS, JEWISH WOMEN WERE TOLD THEY WERE LIGHTING SHABBAT CANDLES TO MAKE UP FOR THE SIN OF EVE.

 

THAT IS A HEAVY BURDEN OF GUILT TO PLACE ON 1/2 OF OUR POPULATION, AND DOES A PRETTY NEAT TRICK OF KEEPING THEM IN THEIR 'PLACE'.

 

JUDAISM EVOLVES. THE WORLD HOPEFULLY EVOLVES, ALTHOUGH FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS WE HAVE TAKEN SOME STEPS BACKWARDS.

 

IT WASNT SO LONG AGO, IN THE USA, WOMEN COULDNT VOTE, AND NOW ONE IS HAVING A SERIOUS CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT, AND THERE IS NO SILLY PRESS ABOUT A FEMALE NOT BEING UP TO THE JOB BECAUSE HER HORMONES MAY BE OFF, AS WE WOULD HAVE READ IN THE 1950S.

 

THE RAMBAM, SAYING THAT WOMEN LITE CANDLES BECAUSE EITHER A) THEY ARE TO DO HOUSE WORK ANYWAY, AND LITE CANDLES EVERY OTHER NITE (ONE HAD NO ELECTRICITY 1000 YEARS AG0), OR THAT WOMEN LITE CANDLES, BECAUSE THEY ARE MORE SPIRITUAL BEINGS THAN MEN, IS A MUCH KINDER WAY, THAN BLAMING 50% OF HUMANITY FOR ALL OF MALE'S CHARACTER DEFECTS.

 

ADAM DIDN'T PHYSICALLY DIE FROM EATING THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, HE SPIRITUALLY DID. HE BECAME HUMAN WITH A YETZER HA RA. AND WOMEN WERE BLAMED, IN THE TALMUD, FOR THEIR HUSBANDS' STUPID ACTS.

 

MY WIFE AND I SPLIT HOUSE HOLD CHORES, EACH DOING WHAT WE ARE GOOD AT. I COOK. I CLEAN THE DISHES. SHE SETS THE TABLE, BECAUSE I STILL HAVENT FIGURED OUT WHERE THE THREE SPOONS AND 2 FORKS GO, AND DON'T CARE. LOL.

 

SHE LIGHTS THE SHABBAT CANDLES BECAUSE OF TRADITIONS WE SAW OUR BUBBIES ,OF BLESSED MEMORIES, DO.

 

AND WE USE TWO CANDLES, ALTHOUGH, THERE IS NO TALMUDIC RULE THAT SAYS WE MUST.

 

AS FAR AS WOMEN BEGIN MORE SPIRITUAL THAN MEN: ELLEN HAS MORE SPIRITUALITY IN HER PINKY THAN I HAVE IN MY ENTIRE BODY. I HAVE TO, NOT BECAUSE OF SOME RULES, BUT HAVE TO, PRAY AND MEDITATE THRICE A DAY, TO STAY SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED. SHE JUST IS.

 

BUT ON THE WHOLE, IT DEPENDS ON THE PERSON, AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GENDER.

 

I WAS QUOTING, NOT PROMOTING.

 

THE TALMUD IS FULL OF QUOTES FROM SAGES WHO  SEEMED CLUELESS WHEN IT CAME TO THEIR WIVES, MOTHERS, OR SISTERS:

 

 The Talmud contains quotes that may be seen as both laudatory and derogatory of women. The Talmud states that:

• Ten measures of speech descended to the world; women took nine  Kiddushin 49b   
• Women are "light on raw knowledge" — i.e. they possess more intuition Shabbat 33b (our dafs this week) 
• A man without a wife lives without joy, blessing, and good; a man should love his wife as himself and respect her more than himself Yevamot 62b 
• When Rav Joseph heard his mother's footsteps he would say: "Let me arise before the approach of the Skenhinah ('divine presence')" (Kiddushin 31b)
• Israel was redeemed from Egypt by virtue of its righteous women (Sotah 11b) 
• A man must be careful never to speak slightingly to his wife because women are prone to tears and sensitive to wrong  (Bava Metzia 59b) 
• Women have greater faith than men (Sifre # 133) 
•  Women  have greater powers of discernment (Niddah 45b)   
• Women are especially tenderhearted (Megillah 14b)  

WHILE SOME OF OUR PEOPLE STILL KEEP WOMEN BEHIND MEKETZAHS AND NOT PART OF A MINYON, OTHERS ALLOW WOMEN TO BE RABBIS. IT IS THE LAWS THAT ASKED WOMEN TO DO THESE CERTAIN MITZVOTH, THAT HELPED US GET TO THE POINT WHERE RABBI ABRAMS COULD BE A RABBI. MOST OPINIONS BASED THIER POSITIONS ON AN ARGUEMENT THAT JEWISH WOMEN ALWAYS WERE, OR HAVE BECOME, LEGALLY OBLIGATED, TO PERFORM THE SAME MITZVOTH AS MEN AND TO DO SO IN THE SAME TIMELY MANNER. 

 

ONE OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE TALMUD IS THAT IT RECORDS MINORITY OPINIONS, AND WHEN IT DISCUSSES MINYONS, AND THAT IF TEN ADULT MEN ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND, A CHILD HOLDING  A TORAH CAN COUNT, AND ONE WOMAN CAN COUNT. THIS OPINION OPENED THE DOOR, FOR WOMEN TO BE PART OF A MINYON, 2500 YEARS LATER,  AND IF THEY CAN PRAY WITH MEN,. THEY CAN STUDY WITH MEN, AND EVENTUAL LEAD TO THEM LEADING MEN AND OTHER WOMEN IN PRAYER AND STUDY, AS CANTORS AND THEN RABBIS.

 

SHABBAT BLESSINGS, RABBI DR ARTHUR SEGAL

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourse 18

 1. Why do you think saying the blessing upon seeing the lights fell by the
wayside? 

FIRST, MAY I WISH ALL Y'ALL A HAPPY CHANUKAH AND A JOYOUS SHABBAT TONIGHT.

I WAS NOT AWARE THAT WE AS JEWS HAVE FORGOTTEN TO SAY "she-asa nisim la-avotenu ba-yamim ha-hem ba-zeman ha-zeh," WHENEVER WE SEE ANOTHER CHANUKEAH LIT.

 

 IT IS NOT A  BLESSING OVER LIGHTING THE CANDLES, BUT ONE THAT CAN BE SAID THRU OUT THE 8 DAY HOLIDAY AND WHEN SEEING ANOTHER'S LIT CHANUKEAH.

 

I WAS TAUGHT IT AS A CHILD AND I AM FROM A JEWISH LIBERAL BACK GROUND AND REMAIN SO TODAY.

 

IF IT HAS FALLEN BY THE WAY SIDE, AS MANY OTHERS OF OUR TRADITIONS AND MITZVOTH HAVE, IT IS DUE TO A NUMBER OF FACTORS WHICH I WILL LEAVE FOR ANOTHER DAY.

 

 Will you add this to your celebration of Hannukkah? 

I HAVE BEEN DOING IT FOR YEARS.

 

 Let me know
how it goes  ACTUALLY, RABBI ABRAMS, SADLY, I GET TO SAY THIS PRAYER, LESS AND LESS. JEWISH HOMES I WENT TO THIS WEEK, HAVE XMAS TREES, AND UNLIT CHANUKEAHS, IF THERE WAS A CHANUKEAH AT ALL. PERHAPS I SHOULD NOT CALL THEM JEWISH HOMES AS A RARELY SEE MEZUZOTH ON DOOR POSTS AS WELL. I END UP KISSING BARE WOOD.

 1. What do you think of women being bound to do this mitzvah? 

WONDERFUL, AS ITS EXTEMPORANEOUS AND NOT REALLY TIME BOUND.

 Does it
undermine the whole women dont do time-bound, positive mitsvot idea? 

NO.

 Can
you think of other examples?

iN BEROCHOT, MISHNA 3-3, WOMEN ARE OBLIGATED TO DO TEFILAH, MEZUZAH, AND BIRKAT HA MAZON. THEY ARE POSITIVE AND THE LAST TWO ARE TIMELY. THE FIRST, SHE MAY DO, AT HER OWN SCHEDULE.

 

 KIDDUSHIN 33B, GIVES WOMEN A PASS ON ALL NEGATIVE MITZVOTH EXCEPT TWO: TRIMMING BEARDS, AND VIEWING THE DEAD. HENCE A WOMAN CAN VIEW THE DEAD, AND IF SHE WERE ABLE TO GROW  A BEARD, SHE WOULD BE ALLOWED TO TRIM IT OFF.

 

WOMEN MUST DO THE RULES OF NIDDAH AND MICKVAH AS PER THEIR MENSES CYCLE AND THESE ARE POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS AND VERY TIME BOUND.

 

THEY MUST ON SHABBAT SAY KIDDISH ON THE WINE, AS THE 4TH COMMANDMENT  OF REMEMBERING THE SABBATH WAS GIVEN TO WOMEN ALSO. AND THEY MUST LIGHT THE CHANUKAH CANDLES.

 

WOMEN ARE OBLIGATED TO LIGHT SHABBAT CANDLES, AS PER SHABBAT 31B, BUT FOR AN ODD REASON. THEY ARE ATONING FOR EVE'S SIN OF BRINGING DEATH INTO THE WORLD, BY KILLING ADAM'S PURE SOUL, BY FEEDING HIM THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT.  PROVERBS 20:27 SAYS "THE CANDLE OF GOD IS THE SOUL OF MAN." SO A WOMEN MUST LIGHT SHABBAT CANDLES TO BRING LIFE AND LIGHT BACK INTO THE WORLD.

 

THE RAMBAM IN HILKHOT TEMDIM V'MUSAFIN CHAPTER 3 REPEATS THIS BUT ADDS THAT ITS A WOMENS DUTY ANYWAY TO DO HOUSE HOLD CHORES, AND MORE SO, WOMEN HAVE MORE SPIRITUALITY THAN MEN DO, SO THEY ARE GIVEN THIS SPIRITUAL MITZVAH.

 

WOMEN WERE OBLIGATED  TO MAKE THE THREE PILGRIMAGES, OFFER THE PASSOVER SACRIFICE, AND OFFER THE TODAH (THANKSGIVING ) SACRIFICE WHEN THEY GAVE BIRTH. THESE WERE POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS AND TIME BOUND, BUT SINCE 70 CE, WHEN THE TEMPLE WAS DESTROYED, NO LONGER CAN BE PERFORMED.
 
Happy Hannukkah! THANK YOU, AND TO YOU AND YOURS AS WELL. MANY BLESSINGS, RABBI DR ARTHUR SEGAL

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Judaism, Spirituality and Bluffton, SC

 

Judaism and Spirituality

 

Shalom Y'all!  Welcome to Bluffton Today's first regular column on Judaism.

 

 

 

It may be a surprise to some, but Jews are not new to the South, Bluffton or to the Low

 

Country. On July 11, 1733, 40 Jews arrived in Savannah chartering Mickve

 

Israel, America's third oldest synagogue. One hundred years later their

 

descendants and other Jews did business with Blufftonians.  In 1890, Abram

 

and Moses Patz settled in Bluffton opening Calhoun Street's Planter's Mercantile.

 

Affectionately known as the "Jew Store," it remained in Jewish ownership  and was in

 

operation until 1972. But only now does Bluffton have the first incorporated Jewish 

 

Congregation.  Oseh Shalom's over 350 members are celebrating its first anniversary.

 

 

 

 

 

This column will at times explore Jewish history as the experiences of the Jews are linked to

 

the development of their religion. It will explain Judaism, and help Jews understand their own

 

traditions, and help our Christian neighbors understand the religion of Jesus, and the roots of

 

Christianity.

 

 

 

 

Judaism has  roots in what some call the ''Old Testament'' but which Jews call the

 

Tanach, (Jewish Bible).  For the Jews, their covenant made by God  at Mount

 

Sinai, 3500 years ago, has not been obliterated. However reading  the Jewish Bible

 

illustrates that this is not how Jews conduct themselves religiously today. There is no

 

priesthood,  no animal sacrifices, nor thrice yearly pilgrimages to  Jerusalem's

 

Temple.  Certainly no Jew is slaughtering a lamb on  Passover, and no Jew is

 

sitting in darkness on the Sabbath nor being stoned for picking up  wood. What happened?

 

 

 

 

In 586 BCE, the Hebrews tribes of Judah and Benjamin were taken into captivity by the

 

Babylonians. They had no way to worship God. (The other 10 tribes were lost to the

 

Assyrians, 136 years before). They had no Temple, no sacrifices, and priests could not be

 

their intercessors. Within time, a new religion developed in Babylon, with Rabbis as

 

teachers, prayer, and new ways to celebrate Holy days. This was codified into the Talmud,

 

called Judaism. Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem circa 50 years after their

 

captivity to rebuild their Temple as Hebrews.  Many remained in Babylon establishing

 

Talmudic Jewish academies and synagogues. 

 

 

 

Judaism speaks of a God of forgiveness and love. Followers are to emulate these

 

traits. The Rabbis abrogated many Hebraic legalisms. Future columns will elucidate this

 

spiritually centered religion.

 

(Dr. Arthur Segal, retired from practice in 1996 and moved to Hilton Head. He was ritual chairman at HHI's Temple Beth Yam , and became Scholar in Residence at Congregation Mickve Israel. He received Rabbinic ordination, after years of study, in 2007, and is a member of Oseh Shalom, in Bluffton. He can be reached at DrArthurSegal@AOL.COM to submit questions.)

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourses 17

 

Shalom:

 

 Bringing Holiness in one's daily life is a recurring theme in the Talmud and in many great texts like Duties of the Heart by Ibn Pakuda, 1000 years old and which reads as fresh today, and has been translated into paperback for some years now.  The Cofetz Chaim's Ahavath Chesed, about 100 years old, is also wonderful showing us how we can spend our day doing acts of kindness and filling our life with Holiness.

 

You ask about wax, and it reminds be of Michelangelo looking for marble in the quarry, and making sure it was sincere, literally sin (without) cere (wax). Sincerity in our own lives, not filling void with wax, but facing defects with a Talmudic chesbon ha nefesh,  teshvuah and asking God to help us change, is daily Holiness

 

Wax drippings of a Chanukeah have no holiness. The flame does. The oil does.

 

The Rabbis of the Talmud juxtapose Holiness (i.e. Torah study) with the mundane (working):

 

Our Sages seek to define the relationship between the grand enterprise of Torah study and the necessity of earning a livelihood (B. Berachot 35b) and open by questioning the message of the verse: And you will gather your grain, your wine and your oil (Deuteronomy 11:14). One of the commentators explains the Talmud's question (Rabbi Ezekiel Landau, 18th century, Poland-Prague): Is it not obvious that once the rains have fallen in a timely fashion and the produce has grown, that we then proceed to gather the produce? What additional lesson is contained in this passage?

The Talmud tackles this verse by contrasting it with the Almighty's instruction to Joshua: This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth (Joshua 1:8). From the directive to Joshua, we might conclude that we may never cease studying Torah. If this were the case, a person would be precluded from earning a livelihood. The promise of gathering produce teaches us that the all-encompassing obligation to study Torah retreats before the responsibility of gainfully employment.

One commentator explains that those who study Torah while relying on others to provide sustenance will eventually abandon their Torah study (Rashi, 11th century, France). Indeed, elsewhere our Sages teach that Torah which is not combined with work ultimately comes to naught and leads to sin (M. Avot 2:2). Torah study and earning a livelihood form a relationship which can be described as commensalism, where Torah derives benefit from work without adversely affecting it. To ensure that this book of the Torah shall not depart from our mouth, the Almighty tells us that we will gather our grain, our wine and our oil.

The approach of Torah and labor rendered by Rabbi Yishmael is juxtaposed with an opposing view, that of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai: "If a person plows at the time of plowing, and sows at the time of sowing, and harvests at the time of harvesting, and threshes at the time of threshing, and winnows at the time when the wind blows - what will become of Torah?" Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai was concerned that if people were so busy earning a livelihood, this preoccupation with worldly matters would prevent Torah study. The relationship between Torah and labor can only be described as parasitical, for work preys on every moment of the day and relegates the pursuit of Torah to an unrealized ideal.

Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai therefore suggested a different modus operandi: "When Israel do the will of God, their work is done for them by others and indeed Torah need not depart from their mouths." This is indicated in the prophetic verse: "And strangers will arise and shepherd your flocks" (Isaiah 61:5).

Conversely, "when Israel do not do the will of the Almighty, their work must be done by themselves" and thus you will gather your grain, your wine and your oil. Moreover, Israel will do the work of others, as per the biblically described punishment "and you will serve your enemies" (Deuteronomy 28:48).

This model was practically applied by Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai during his years of hiding in a cave from the Roman authorities (B. Shabbat 33b). As he and his son sat buried to their necks in sand and solely occupied themselves with Torah study, water and carob sustenance was miraculously provided for them.

Thus our Sages suggest two conflicting models of the relationship between Torah and labor. According to one approach, earning a livelihood facilitates Torah study and both should be pursued. According to the other, working comes at the expense of Torah study and therefore should not be considered.

Fast forwarding a number of generations and moving to Babylon, the Talmud records two responses to this argument. The first response of Abbaye is an observation: "Many did as Rabbi Yishmael advocated - combining Torah study with work - and were successful; others did as Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai suggested and they were not successful."

The second response is Rava's entreaty to his disciples: "I beg of you, during the days of Nisan - when the grain is harvested - and the days of Tishrei - when the grapes and olives are pressed - do not appear before me so that you will not be preoccupied with your sustenance the entire year."

It would appear that the Talmud concludes in favor of the commensal approach promoted by Rabbi Yishmael. A thought must be spared, however, for uninterrupted study and total devotion to plumbing the scholarly depths of a discipline without financial burden. In many institutes of higher learning, scholarships are awarded with the goal of providing the student with an environment free of fiscal stress and strain. The hope is that students freed from economic concerns will be able to reach greater heights of scholarship, thus contributing to our society.

In this vein, later commentators focus on the exact formulation of Abbaye's observation: Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai's course was not fruitful for the many who tried to walk that path. Yet for a chosen few this route is certainly advocated, and from the standpoint of society we desire individuals who can totally devote themselves to scholarship. Of course this approach is not appropriate for all; it is a path that should be open only to suitable candidates.

Such people should be able to follow in the footsteps of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai, removing themselves from this-worldly pursuits and devoting their entire beings to fathoming the depths of our tradition and unraveling its mysteries. The majority of people, however, are encouraged to see their labor as a necessary and desirable tool for Torah study.

Rabbi Yishmael may not have been describing a relationship of commensalism. While the commentators explain that work can benefit Torah study, Torah should also positively impact work. In a poetic formulation, our Sages declared: "If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour" (M. Avot 3:17), thus describing a symbiosis between Torah and earning a livelihood, where mutual benefit is derived from the association between Torah and labor.

Simply put, as the Chasidem, taught, all acts that we do each day should be aligned with God's will, and then all our acts become Holy, so even when Tevah milks his cow, in the Shalom Aleichem stories, he blesses God for creating such a creature.

Happy Thanks Giving:

Dr. Arthur Segal

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

Talmudic Discourses 16

 

Shalom Rabbi Abrams and fellow Talmudim :

 

It is quite tragic about the fires in California, but it does bring to mind the Talmudic teaching that when bad things befall us we are to look to see what we have done to cause such. This is not a ''blame the victim'' philosophy. We are to be  stewards of the earth, (Gen. 2:15), and "to guard it." We tend to cause our own problems, when we do not. Tractate Megillah  29a gives us eternal hope that whatever befalls us, including the Diasporas (of the residents of California and New Orleans?), God will be with us, giving us another chance.

 

1. How do we act in a crisis? Action first and prayer later. When Moses was at the banks of the Sea of Reeds with Pharaoh's chariots behind him, (Ex 14:15), he prays to God, who says :"Why do you cry to Me?" A Midrash tells that Moses was considering a day of fasting and prayer. God  says, "Now is not the time for prayer! Go into the sea and trust Me."

 

2. The question is begged: did R. Nakdimon pray for God to make the Sun come out in the night and stand still, (shades of Moses and Joshua) to show the Roman Governor that the rain that came was divinely sent , or did he do so to get back his silver? We really are not to pray to God for material things and should be instead thanking Him for what He has already given us. It is ironic that Leah, the Talmud teaches, is the first person in the Torah, who thanks God. The story of R. Nakdimon is in the Gemorah  of the Mishna of  Honi  the Rain Maker who would make circles in the sand, vowing he would not step outside of the circle, until God brought rain.(Taanit  3:8)

 

R. Nakdimon was one of the 3 richest men in Jerusalem and help support the Jews their during the Roman  occupation of Vespasian .  Yet we learn he lost everything, and his daughter was found picking barley seeds from the dung of Arab's donkeys because R. Nakdimon reneged on her dowry of one million gold dinars as he became impecunious.  (Tractate Ketubah  66b)

 

She explained to a shocked R. Yochanan  that her father when he walked from the Temple to his house and back, would have his servants, lay silk carpets along the streets for him to walk on. As an act of tsaddakah, R. Nakdimon, would then have his servants give the carpets to the poor. The Gemorah  chides R. Nakdimon for doing this act out of glorification and for his own ego, and further, while he was very generous, for a man of his wealth, he could have given much more.

 

R. Yochanan  ben Zakkai then burst into tears, and said, "Happy are you, Israel. As long as you perform the will of God, no nation or people can rule over you. But when you fail to perform the will of God, you are delivered into the hands of a humiliating nation; and not only the hands of a humiliating nation, but also into the hands of the beasts of the humiliating nation."

 

Honi's life was Nakdimon's upside down. When he was in his circle and it began to drizzle, he told God that this was not enough. When it began to pour, he told God it was too much. Finally it rained normally. Honi was about to be sentence by the Sanhedrin for charem (excommunication) until R. Simone, the brother of Queen Salome, intervened.

 

The circumstances of Honi's  death are described in the Talmud (Taanit  23a) : He fell asleep and awoke after 70 years, and when nobody would believe him that he was indeed Honi  the Circle drawer, he prayed to God and God took him from this world.

 

Now, the Gemorah , relates this story of prayer to juxtapose the prayer of R. Nakdimon . Honi was captured by the followers of Hycranus  II Hasmonean, a supporter of the Rabbis, in 63 BCE. He was commanded to pray for the demise of the priests backed by Astrobulus II Hasmonean. (The two were brothers). Honi  however prayed: "Lord of the universe, as the besieged and the besiegers both belong to Thy people, I beseech Thee not to answer the evil prayers of either."

 

Shabbat Shalom.

Dr. Arthur Segal

 

 

 

  1. New Study Materials:  The California Fires, Katrina and Two Prayers to Say
 
 
   At such times, sometimes our only
option is prayer.  The Talmud, naturally, gives us an example of what
prayers we might offer at such a time:
Our Rabbis taught: Once all Israel went up on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, an=
d
they did not have water to drink. Nakdimon ben Guryon approached a certai=
n
governor, [and] said to him: Lend me twelve wells of water for the pilgri=
ms,
and I will give you twelve wells of water. And if I do not give [them] to
you, I will give you twelve talents of silver. And he set a time for him.
When the time arrived and the rain had not fallen, he sent to him in the
morning: Send me either the water or the money you owe me. He sent to him=
: I
still have time, [for] the entire day is mine.
At midday he sent to him: Send me either the water or the money that you =
owe
me. He sent to him: I still have time left in the day.
In the afternoon he sent to him: Send me the water or the money that you =
owe
me. He sent to him: I still have time left in the day. That governor snee=
red
at him [and] said: All year long rains have not fallen, and rains will fa=
ll
now? He entered the bathhouse joyfully.
As the lord entered the bathhouse joyfully, Nakdimon entered the Temple i=
n
sadness. He wrapped himself and stood in prayer. He said before Him: Mast=
er
of the Universe! It is revealed and known before You that I did not do
[this] for my [own] honor, nor did I do [it] for the honor of my father's
house. Rather, I did [it] for Your honor, so that water would be availabl=
e
for the pilgrims. Immediately the sky became covered with clouds and rain
fell until the twelve wells filled and overflowed.
As the lord left the bathhouse, Nakdimon ben Guryon left the Temple. When
they met each other, he said to him: Give me the money for the extra wate=
r
which you owe me. He said to him: I know that the Holy One blessed be He,
did not shake His world except on account of you. But I still have a clai=
m
against you that I may collect me money from you, for the sun has already
set and the rains fell in my possession.
He went back and entered the Temple, wrapped himself and stood in prayer,
and said before Him: Master of the Universe! Make it known that You have
loved ones in Your world. Immediately the clouds dispersed and the sun
shone. At that time the lord said to him: If the sun had not broken throu=
gh,
I would have had a claim against you that I could have collected my money
from you [but now, I cannot]. (B. Taanit 19b-20a)
=20
I love this story about Nakdimon ben Gurion for so many reasons.  In the
present crisis, it=B9s a great example of leadership and proper prayer.
=20
Discussion Questions
1. Nakdimon first supplies what is needed, then he prays.  How can we use
this as a model for acting in a crisis?
2. Nakdimon=B9s second prayer is most poignant.  He does not ask for anyt=
hing
in specific=8Ahe can=B9t, as he is asking for something for himself and t=
hat
seems to go against his personal principles. Again, how can we use his
prayer as a model for prayer when we want to ask something of God but don=
=B9t
want to seem selfish?
=20
May the winds die down and the rains come soon!

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Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.