Holocaust Memorial Day

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

It is Yom HaShoah today. This is the International Holocaust Memorial Day. Today we remember the 6 million dead Jews who were brutally burned, gassed, and shot in the Holocaust.

 

When the sun set last night, at the beginning of Yom HaShoah, I saw a flash of  lightening outside my window--a thunderstorm started brewing just as the night started. It flashed a picture of memory in my mind--of all the horrific photographs of the anonymous burial grounds where my family is buried in mounds in Proskurov, Ukraine, (one is pictured here on the left). Proskurov used to be a highly populated Jewish city, and now it is a burial ground.

 

My lesson from my Rabbi today was very helpful to me. I told her I felt sick to my stomach thinking about the Holocaust and could not get out of bed in the morning to face it. She told me, we do not get sick about these things, we choose life. She helped  me heal from the atrocities I have experienced around this issue of the Holocaust, as a Jew. I stopped feeling the pain in my stomach, and my head cleared up. I was able to continue my good work as a leader in my community: being cheerful to all people, showing love to my neighbor, peace with my fellow, truth with my family, and justice with all humankind; as Adonai guides me to do.

Greet Every Person With a Cheerful Countenance

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

In the Jewish Literature Tractate "Pirkei Avot" or "Ethics of Our Ancestors" in Chapter 1:15 there is a rule that promotes peace and love toward one's neighbors and gives instructions on how to have this peace and love with a very easy method. The rule is "To greet every person with a cheerful countenance."

 

I have been experimenting with this easy method of creating peace in my neighborhood and at my residence. I smile in a cheerful way at everyone I meet. It is that simple. One does not even have to have an explicit stimulus to become cheerful, except that one does this with the desire to create peace and love with one's neighbors and to follow a Jewish rule.

 

This peace-making method of smiling at everyone cheers one's own heart. Especially when one gets a smile back--but one should not do this to seek a reward, but do it whether or not one gets a response or not. It is this cheerfulness that becomes contagious, and if one is cheerful towards another, it is a show of friendliness, a show of lovingkindness--to change a sour look on one's face into a smile. This is a gift from Adonai and to use it as a peace-making tool can change your life as well as everyone's life around you for the better.

Choices and Gratitude

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

To feel the miracle of happiness, one must recognize that one has choices, and one needs to be grateful to Adonai for everything--for the sunlight, and the moonlight, for a rainy day, and for all that goes with it--all the people in your life, and for all the people who were in your life, and yet will soon be in your life. Happiness is choice. One can feel sad, and that is a choice. If one chooses to feel sad, one must be thankful for the ability to feel sad. To be thankful to Adonai that you can cry. There are people who cannot cry, or who are afraid to cry, or who are not allowed to cry. Crying cleanses the sinuses, and gives you an opposite to happiness so when you do feel happy, you have a down time to compare it to. So this makes one happier still. One becomes happy that one is not sad. You can be happy that you know what sadness is, so you can have a choice to have happiness instead. If that is what you want. There are people who are afraid to complain when they have sadness, and this is unfortunate, because they will not receive the help from people that they need to then become happy--to feel happiness--and to share happiness with others.

 

Yes, life is always filled with choices. There are choices everywhere. You make your life livable by recognizing that you have choices, and using your judgment to make good choices. Then to become happy that you made a good choice, and to thank Adonai for giving you the choice, the good judgment, and the happiness that follows the process.

 

Feel good. Feel bad. But make sure you allow yourself to feel. And then thank Adonai for the great range of feelings that you are able to feel and to express. It is all about G-d---G-d is the one who is making it all happen. Believe it. Know it. Don't doubt it. G-d is a choice. Use your choices, and benefit, have success, feel the greatness and goodness of this holy choice. It is all YOURS.