A friend in need is a friend indeed. Who a friend where a friend, everywhere a friend, friend. A friend who constantly reminds you of her/his sincerity and thankfulness for you to write to her and to ask how she is doing and how her father is doing. A friend who like you, celebrated Pesach and cooked for her father, a Kosher chicken. She always puts her mother's wisdom in her letters, even though she now has to deal with her mother as a spirit, a memory, a good memory. She taught her daughter the wisdom of being a friend, to find an Elijah, a chair once empty now to be filled on Pesach.
Eliyahu, Eliyahu, Eliyahu Ben David. David indeed means a friend of David indeed. D is for David and D is for Dream, a Dream come true. What of this Dream come true? We as David did prayed and prayed for a friend and David's prayer was answered, David befriended Jonathan.
King David and his Friend in Need indeed being Jon!! On a second day of Rosh Hodesh, David and Jon, and/or Naomi and Ruth, all friends as was the German actress Marlene Deitrich a friend to the Jews during the Holocaust.
Is who you are looking for is a lovely, loving, loving-kindness from a good Marlene in your life? Then you have to be a Marlene in return!! To reciprocate your love for the Jewish people as your people too, and not ever to renege.
A haircut. But why and/or why not. To not cut hair on the Omer, the time of harvest, a semi-mourning time, not to have new hair with the discarding of the old. A fruit tree not to be picked until it is the mature age of three. What is three? The Three Blind Mice? The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost?
A child in his age of three to have his haircut in Jewish ceremony. Another child young too suffering Cancer with no hair at all. Baldness. Sadness. A child who does not smile or laugh. But he was a Happy Kid!! St. Jude's Children Research Hospital taking donations. Middle aged wo/men cutting their hair for these children to have hair. Skin Heads. Women too, with Cancer, wearing hats hand-knitted. I like your hat! But you don't have Cancer do you?!
A Cancerous woman her hair down to the end of her back fully draped in this hair, curtains like her hair to open and close at a theater. Money collected at this theater to go to Cancer victims hoping to become Cancer survivors.
In remission? Want a handful of hair? Real hair? What color hair would you like? A bunch of blonde hair, brunette? Dark black? Red? Braids, one or two. A horse's tail draping down one's back. Not a fly to swish in sight. Rapunzel ,Rapunzel let down your golden hair!
Cold outside. Hair with a new hat. A hat to cover one's ears. Windiness blowing into ears, airiness, covering ears with earmuffs. Listening intently for the voice of God as you stroll along the seashore of a lake. Finding a seashell with the sound of the sea inside it. Hair by the chockfull protecting your ears. But a child who needs it more than you.
A man who donated his cut hair to the Cancer Society and then caught Pneumonia! A Hero as he survived the illness and his child with Cancer survived it too. More hair yet to be grown, in The Omer we can harvest hair as our wheat, more hair yet to cut, another child with Cancer in remission surviving this terminal deadly disease. The generosity of people who donate their beautiful locks of hair, curly, wavy, tinted two tones of browns mixed with blonde. A hand-painted portrait of a Prince/Princess.
Blondes have more fun! Children without Cancer have more fun! Donate your hair for the children of the world, every child in every nation in the world to have fun and to live a long life.
Did you know you have a Guardian Angel? What do you know about Angels? That we are second only to Angels? That we worship Adonai and not Angels? That The Torah speaks of only four Angels. An Angel struggled with Jacob and injured Jacob's hip. That two Angels came to Avraham and forbade him to sacrifice his son Isaac, to instead sacrifice a ram? The fourth Angel to stop the beating of an innocent donkey?
Did you know, in addition to these four Angels, everyone who is a living human has a Guardian Angel of his/her own. We need these Angels for protection, to ask him to watch out for you to be there when you are in need of an Angel, we have him as a shield and sword, a talking parrot upon our shoulder. Need good advice? Don't want to go to "Dear Abby"? Want sound sensible advice from someone who really knows? Someone smarter than Google.com.
What do our Guardian Angels look like? They look like The Jolly Green Giant. No kidding!! Bathed in a soft green colored light, he stands at our feet as we sleep and moves with us everywhere we go. This Angel is incredibly handsome! But not a human, he is a real Angel.
Did you lose something? Forgot your purse but do not know where you left it? Retrace your footsteps with the same footsteps as your Guardian Angel. Where were you and where did you go, where are you now, where were you then? Feeling secure and happy, sated, because your Angel was and is with you and never ever left you. You must never leave him. Ask Gd as your Angel's Superior to find your purse. When someone says "Don't worry about it" ask your Angel to worry about it instead. Feeling the burden lifting, what was a heaviness upon your shoulder is now a heaviness on your Angel's shoulder, not yours anymore.
Miracle? What if you found this purse! What if it was not you but instead was your Angel who found it!
Then first, go to Gd and thank Him and then go to your Guardian Angel and thank him too.
If you never found your purse, know it is fate and we have no control. To do without, safely, to not have a purse means you must be thrifty, frugal, means you must get another one.
Still do not give up on your Guardian Angel and do not give up on Gd. Love, fear, praise, and thank Them. Give Them the benefit of the doubt. Then sing "The Shema" and go on your happy way with your Guardian Angel, never to be alone, to have Gd and your Angel as your Security Guards and Eternal Companions.
A fireball of orange tossed into the air by a juggler, an orange Venus. Mars. Spinning and seething. Sucking up oxygen to keep its power. Not the power of a horse or truck. Candlelight power. Two candles burning on Shabbat, a Great Shabbat! Burning. Smoking. Incense-full. Before the First Day of Passover. An orange fruit like fire on one's Seder Plate. An Orange Fruit representing the sweetness and tangy taste of a Woman. The Female Gender. Juiciness. Small seeds to become implanted. Drying the hands of their orange-dripping stickiness.
A Delicious Juicy Orange to Eat!
Not to forget the orange on our Seder Plate. Water, juice, to extinguish the fierceness of manly fires. Not enraged, not to burn, smoke's dying, sputtering itself out. Just a spark.
A Venus planet, orange and red as the red of Valentine's Day. Love. A Venus goddess. Goddess of Love. Orange created from the mixing churning of red and yellow. Fire and sunlight. Fire being red and sunlight being yellow. Boil, boil, toil and trouble. Artistically mixing a pallet. An artist. A prisoner. Orange pants and shirt, overhauls, an outfit to be seen from a distance, chasing an escaped prisoner.
Joseph the Prophet, prisoner and slave. Reading the meaning of dreams of the Pharaoh to elevate Joseph's standing, escaping prison to become leader and chief of all of the nation of Egypt.
Eyes like firebombs, interpreting Gd's Mind, achieving knowledge from His Family Tree. The experience of slavery and imprisonment. A full family of twelve brothers and one sister. Screaming the greenness of jealousy! Joseph fulfilled his father's wishes.
Orange. Fire. The color of the setting and dawning sun. Tiger's furriness, orange stripes. Orange sweet pepper. Carrots. Yams. Sweet potatoes. Apricots. Hazel nuts. Almonds. Pinkish-orange palms of one's human hands. Sweet potato pie. Pumpkin. The Insides of a Butter Finger Candy Bar. The Red-Breasted Robin Bird (really Orange-Breasted not Red). Squash the cooked vegetable. Bran-carrot cake muffins.
Two Thousand Universes of Red Giants. Sizzling. Spitting. White Dwarfs breaking up into millions of pieces floating around in outer space. Orange suns growing in strength and power. Surrounding planets. Rotating.
Is Orange your favorite color? It's mine too!!
Can you pretend for a minute? Take time off to be something someone who you are not, to become someone/thing who you would love to be? To take on an identity of holy Torah animals, the offerings of the good animals that were fed to Gd and to the Priests?
One thing for sure is that if you are this holy animal about to become a sin-offering, you can absolutely have NO blemishes. Do you have a rash? Hydro-cortisone lotion must be applied to the affected area. Whallah! It then disappears after a week or two and you then become considered "pure" enough for even Gd to eat. To leave a morsel of food on your plate as you eat some for your own sustenance but also leave some for Gd. To pray aloud in Hebrew prayers before you eat and then Gd will be happy to eat with you. Find a chair for Gd that is fit for a King and for Elijah and then you can feed yourself and them.
A bull? Ever hear about a "Bull in a China shop"? A goat? Not to mix the meat of a kid [goat] with its Mother's milk. (Which goes for all animals.) A lamb? Not to worship this lamb [ram] no matter how hard someone urges you to do so!! Instead to cook Lamb Stew! Pigeon? To slaughter it for a meal. How? To snip a snap at its neck! To swing it around your head three times. To bless it before you eat it. To sing the blessings aloud.
Meat? Okay to eat if it is processed as Kosher meat and if you do not mix it with dairy products. Dairy may be eaten after you eat the meat but not before. If before, one must wait four hours before eating the meat. Why? Gd says so. That is reason enough. It is a Commandment in our Torah, and so we obey it to stay holy.
Blood must not be left in the meat, we must not eat the fat of the offering, we must not eat "round" meat which includes pot roast. Not to eat the meat at the back end of a bull. Brisket? Okay. It is located in the front of the bull in its chest area. We cannot eat of the back hip of the bull because Jacob was injured there when wrestling with an angel and so we empathize with Jacob's pains.
So, as we eat and indulge in these holy meals with Gd as our eating partner. We can ask Gd to forgive our transgressions. To take an afternoon nap after lunch and to ask Gd to visit us in our sleep.
If you are human, and not a bull, goat, lamb, or pigeon, it's okay. As humans we look identical to what Gd looks like, we are made in His image. Look into the mirror and wash your hands with and then without soap. Smile at yourself in this mirror and so connect with Gd as you please yourself with this cheerful countenance, and please Gd because you look just like Him!
A toy, a stuffed cuddly animal, a child, like a doll, soft all over, something at night to hold in one's arms and hands, to cradle it, a soft comfy cloth material, white and pink, little decorative spots, red valentine hearts as eyes, a thread in the torso that is snipped, she is your child but with a separateness, being from you and for you, so very together are you both! A baby girl or baby boy, to always have him as a child. A curly thread sewed as a mouth that grins sheepishly at you as you continue to hold her, to love her.
To give her a name, a name that like a streak of lightening came to you, the only name she could possibly have. Her name is "Anna". To have an Aunt Anna who crocheted me a blanket, white and blue, a soft Linus's blanket to carry with me everywhere, to now have Anna as a doll.
Where to keep Anna so she will not be stolen?! To keep her under lock and key on the top shelf of a closet, a closet that is locked with a key you keep on yourself hanging from your neck never to be lost.
How can Anna be your "Savior"? She is there always for you and never moves, she stays in one place, she does not get up and walk away. The hearts embroidered into her white eyes, are red hearts, like red candies, she looks at you always with love in her eyes and never takes away her glare.
Not to worry if Anna maybe hungry, she is never hungry and never thirsty, she will remind you to hydrate yourself and to eat when you are hungry, but not in this hungered condition herself. She is safe, secure, well nurtured, she is in existence purposely, singularly, to nurture you and only you, and she does this as you touch her, you feel her softness, a body of cotton and silk cloth, her skin of felt, to feel her felt, seeking closeness. Ask her to love you back, and her never ending smile will say "Yes, I love you back".
To shake her hand that feels like a paw, the paw of a Teddy Bear. To kiss her threaded lips.
Never to lose her, she remains always and forever on your top shelf. To know she is safe and sound, and accessible to you at your will.
"Are you okay Anna? I will tuck you into bed and see you in the morning! Good night, Anna".
"Good night, Sweetheart" ;-)
The color green. Why is there so much dissension and discussion about the color green?
What do we see in our lives that are the color green and why are these things green, all the creatures, animals, plants, etc. being green, as in the infamous being Green With Envy!
Why are sea monsters green? Why are teeth that are decayed and dirty, green? Why is mold, the plant that grows on dead trees the color green? We say "He has moldy green teeth." The color of money, the bills are all the color green. So they say "Money is the root of all evil". A Snake? There are harmless small Green Garden Snakes. But they are annoying and serve no purpose other than to frighten the gardener!
Green grass? It grows but then it withers, it becomes chaff. A plant that hibernates in the winter turning from green to yellow. If one is homeless, he can walk down the streets of his town and be tempted to eat the greens in the trees or plants, but finding it all to be bitter, not digestible. To pluck a leaf off a tree, to bite it in your mouth and to find it has a horrible taste. and to then spit it out! Seeing greens everywhere that have these horrible tastes! Rabbits? They can eat it. We as humans cannot. So these green plants tempt us, but deceitfully turn us down, green everywhere but no green to eat! Getting hungrier by the minute as you walk, tripping, without a home to rest yourself.
The Jewish Holy Kabbalah titled "The Zohar", tells us that green is the color of evil. Why so? I think it is because most items that are green are indigestible and they tempt us to eat them but we cannot do so.
But what about water? Is water green or is it blue? Let's give it a happy medium, to say the water is a grand royal turquoise. There is Sea Green and Ocean Blue. It just depends on how the waves pick up the reflection of the color of the skies on the surface of the water, sparkling it up like silver as the light dances on its waves. Can we color a river green and claim it is a Patrick's Day green? Not if the water is originally blue. Changing it is an action of deceit, the water was not green in its origin.
Coveting, stealing, it is all about green. Green with jealousy and stealing green cash money. Your neighbor's backyard being greener in color than yours and coveting all your neighbor's property.
The military, the defense corp., greenish khaki uniforms, green as evil to fight others who are green with evil. An eye for an eye. St. Patrick's Day green, a way to say green is good. St. Patrick was said to have converted all the "snakes" (being the color green) in Ireland. Using the Evergreen trees at Christmas time to say the trees that are always green and do not change color are the "good" trees. Notice the sharp pierce needles on Evergreens, to stab and to poke, a tree not a peaceful tree, a tree to be in war.
Green sunglasses, a way to shade the eyes from fierce sunlight. Not to see your eyes, a mystery, what do you have to hide?
Fruits before they ripen are the color green. They mature into another color: yellow, red, orange. When the fruit is green it cannot be eaten.
Tigers are said to have green eyes. To look into a tiger's green eyes is to stare him down into a state of submission. The tiger is frightened and shrinks back and will not attack you. This is how tigers are trained in circuses. There are people born with green eyes, instead of saying his eyes are green, we say his eyes are "hazel".
The kingdom of the Wizard of Oz is said to be "emerald green". Emeralds being a precious stone, a jewel. The word JEWEL can be seen as the Jewish People and EL after Jew, to be as JewEL, the EL as a word for the Name of Gd.
To change or convert the color green to be a beautiful blue like the skies and ocean, to grow a green garden of vegetables, and making sure you are eating Vegan, Vegan eating is a Kosher cuisine. Loving the color green as your cholesterol level becomes healthy again! Giant salads with all the trimmings, a green that is not a sickly green, instead a permanent light green that satiates the appetite. To eat Kosher foods and not to have an appetite anymore, not to hunger.
Foods that are good. Plants that are good. Gd will tell us what to eat and what not to eat if you have any questions, the answer is in The Bible, The Torah. Bible being just another word for TORAH.
One udder, two udders, does not matter if you stutter, sweetly singing as wind whistles through barn door shudders, flip flap, opening closing flying open and then shut, flowing with the waves of the wispy wind.
Cows alert, standing on two and then four legs, shifting from leg to leg, tails like orchestra conductors' wands swinging to and fro, tails hitting barn flies as they try to land on the cow's legs and bite their skin. Whip and smash! A dead fly to fall deader than a Dandelion after weeded.
Udders of the female sweet and gentle cow to be full and flowing with the pureness of a Mother's milk. To be a farmer and to touch these soft udders with your palms and fingers, to pull gently as you squeeze the milk out of its nipples, to make a sound like a squirt gun as it fills up a metal pail, a sound like a tin man squeaking his joints, like silver coins falling into a cup, not the cup of a beggar, a farmer who pays all his bills and is not in debt, not in the red, but instead steadily employed in his own business, not bankrupt.
No mortgages to pay, a farm house humble and a farm barn to be re-painted, a white picket fence around the yard of the bull, a bull not angry, not a warrior bullfight, instead a sated bull to impregnate his cows, small youngsters to be born, more and more milk to flow, more pails to fill, more cups.
More milk, less thirst, not water, not waste material, milk is like the sweetness of milk chocolate, milk to fill the tummies of the calves when they are born. Milk to fill our tummies, the tummies of the farmers and their families.
To be a proud farmer, to donate ten per cent of the produce of their fields to the poor. A farmer not poor and his family not poor, instead flowing in a river of this sweet cow's milk, and udders producing more and more milk.
Cottage cheese being created, a rock on top to strain the cottage cheese milk through a cheesecloth to become cheese, a mouthful of preciousness, dry cottage cheese sprinkled on top of fruit dumplings! Fruit dumplings: cheese, prune, cherry, strawberry, blueberry, you name it, it has been cooked. A sure wonderful mouthful of a treat that is a meal and a dessert all in one serving.
To lick the tips of your fingers of drips of this milk, the English word "milk" in the language of Czeskia is "mlako". Delicious MLAKO to digest! Not hungering not thirsting.
Cows who lick salt blocks, getting thirsty with the salt on their lips and inside their mouths, salt blocks persuading cows to drink more water. More water and then producing more milk. A cow who is prosperous. She is a pet in a farmer's family.
White, sweet, clean, scrumptious cow's milk. More! And more! And more!
And they all lived happily ever after.
How to have life after death, literally to have happiness after sadness. The sadness being your death and the happiness being life again after the sadness, after experiencing sadness as death.
To mourn and deeply feel a loss. To deliberately go into a state of mourning to feel this loss, to feel how it feels to be without. A self-inflicted wound like the ripping of a lion's teeth while you are wearing goat skins, Daniel to be one's mentor of surviving the death of a den of lions. Blood poured onto the jacket of Joseph, shown to his father Jacob, Joseph remained alive, his Father too. Joseph imprisoned, enslaved, falsely accused of rape. His grandiosity so threatened his family, his brothers would have nothing to do with him.
To be grandiose. What is this condition and is it a good or bad state of mind to let occur. To see the stars as your universe, and to love this universe as if it were all yours. Yours alone. To share this love with another who does not have this love, this incredibly great and awesome love, to then sicken him into a state of hate for you because you have this love, more than he, just because you can imagine it. How to stop the negative effects of grandiosity? Simply give to others.
A humungous universe maybe two thousand universes, all representing Gd's creations. A Shabbat representing rest on the seventh day [Saturday] when Gd's creating ceased, to be our day of rest too!
An imagination is an incredible gift! To imagine how Gd created thousands of universes. A lively active mind, a deeply felt personal relationship with Gd, a lofty state of grandiosity caused by a cup of coffee or two. Not to slide off Jacob's ladder, not falling off the balancing beam.
Let's toast! Toasting with morning coffee on a Friday! To feel as great as Gd, to have compassion and empathy for Gd, to know how He feels. To have a Shabbat Shalom! A DAY OF REST to be written in CAPS!! To allow yourself to feel good enough as one who is "chosen" to enjoy it all!! And to share your happiness with others so they feel it too.
We have choices. Lots of choices. We can love everything or nothing on Valentine's Day. We can narrow it down to loving only and foremost and forever, Gd. Gd as God, or G-d, or L-rd, or HASHEM, or Adonai. This narrows it down to one Gd that is the only Gd, not to love idols and
not to worship or love images. Not to create them.
Feel Gd in your body, you have a finger on the hand we bind with Tefillin that is the middle finger on your left hand, if your right is dominant. This middle finger is your marriage finger to Gd. Even without Tefillin we can remain conscious of this finger and stay faithful to Gd as our only one and Al-mighty Gd.
We do not have to participate in a holiday that is not a holy day. Hallmark holidays can be circumvented. We must pray harder, call to our Gd more often on these days. To remember our love for Gd is 365 days a year, not just to love on Valentine's Day. Go into your Torah and read, it is Gd Who wants us to love Him. Only Him. He wants us to honor our spouses, not to ever commit adultery. He never commands us to love anyone except for Him. Honoring our parents too.
The question of love, who to love, and to love unconditionally:
Gd, only, everyday of the year.
Are you hungry? It is lunchtime here in the world where I live, and this lunchtime varies from town to town all over all of the nations of the entire world. Are you eating or are you hungry? Examine why you might be hungry, are you hungering or thirsting for more than food? Are you desiring love??
What do we expect as we study Torah? A way out of the mundane and boredom, a way to satiate our hunger and thirst because we love God? We love God and no one else. Do we love our parents? We are supposed to HONOR our parents. It is much easier to just love them though without helping or honoring them. Are you looking for a way out? Honoring your parents is the key to success and is the key to understanding our LOVE for God.
Were you thirsty and suddenly a downpour of white mountains of snow like the snow from a blueberry snow cone came forcefully falling all over your yard!
What is snow? Snow is natural water, rain water that has hardened and frosted, real water, not chlorinated bleach water. To walk safely in this water that became snow, to not take a tumble. To shovel for your parents, to tell them to take it easy, that you will handle everything. We do this out of honor, to put our parents first, especially if our parents are senior citizens. If we can honor our parents then we save our love for God, God as our Beloved. Our parents happily living forever as we feed them and shovel their snow.
White snow as manna? Licking lips, not chapped, putting a small amount of water on our lips after we wash our hands with the Hebrew blessing. No chapped lips in the cold. Sure footedness as we walk on shoveled walks. Full meals at home of breaded Kosher fish. Tingle it with tartar sauce. A fish that no longer swims but was raised and living in natural waters. Mikvah waters were his home. Why then can we see that fish are healthy and why most fish are Kosher. Except of course, shellfish is not Kosher. Stay away from non-Kosher eating. Yes, pork is pig. There is no way around it.
To find a way to communicate and to love people on a full stomach of Kosher foods. To laugh and love the snow, as it flies everywhere and settles as mounds, lightly puffy and white, loving the snow as it was created by God.
We love snow and love its Maker, to Love God the Creator of All!!
The word Love as in LIPS, beginning with a capital L, definitely not as oops!!!
A prayer for someone who needs it. Offering a prayer and blessing for someone who needs it. Asking them to pray for you. Long distance praying from one person one place to another person another place. A person who respects you for being a person who needs prayers and who will reciprocate and pray for you in return when you need it. A Family member who goes to a religious facility everyday, every morning and prays for you. In his/her death her spirit is still in prayer for you. She is at peace and hence you are at peace.
A miracle it is to have people accept your prayers. To be the one incognito who has the relationship with God that others do not. The widow, the stranger, the orphan, the poor. In these categories where you are the one in need, God listens to you first. It is better to accept a prayer from one who has less but is more righteous than from one who has more but is less righteous. A donation from the poor is more valuable than a monetary donation from the rich because God is involved and gives just enough to the poor to give to someone else.
A miracle to not be misinterpreted and to keep up a relationship with a friend who does not imagine ill repute. Words that have an impact but if misunderstood become twisted.
A word from Torah. A word from God's voice. His voice. Whether masculine or feminine. A voice that you hear that others don't. Not as a sound of thunder or flash of lightening, but as a purr from a kitten. Not in belief that someone could be as good for you as the preciousness of a kitty cat who gives you unconditional love. Not a believer in unconditional love because no one has ever loved you this way. Not having had the experience of love going both ways, to you and from you.
A miracle to have just a few friends who give you respect even though there are others who want your scalp skinned. To appreciate those who have the ability of giving love and to forgive those who do not.
To have heard from someone's lips that they loved you. But years down the road they do not even remember your name. To then have become a bother, a person they do not want to befriend. Love that fades, trust that evades, a smile with a wink of the eye that means nothing. No love. Not even a friendship. Not understanding how someone can love and then not love.
They will tell you, not to care not to brood. Go on with your life and find someone who will return your good will, a person who does not imagine evil intent where there is none.
How old are you? Are you like a warm cuddly kitty cat with nine lives? Have you surpassed this to have ninety-one lives? Are you in waiting for the Tooth Fairy, for Santa Claus, for The Messiah? Are you expecting to see God in your life on your Birthday!
We are all celebrating your birthday and not your day of death, not "yarhzeit". We are waiting to see the halo of goodness and righteousness gleaming over your head as you perform mitzvah loving-kindness deeds everyday. You love your family and friends.
Ninety-one years of accumulating more and more friends. More and more generations in your family tree. A Family beginning with a capital "F" for Future. A Family with a Future that procreates as did the family of the Prophet Noah. A Future generation and then another.
Noah was in his 700's when he died, (may he rest in peace). Yes, it is possible to live nine or ninety lives. Or 700? Or is it?
We wish and we hope!! We pray! Exceedingly we "DAVEN" for the length of your life, as our Dear "Mominko". Our Mom. Our Mother. Our Grandma. For an extended life of a great many years. Long. Longevity. Longer. We pray for your longevity and it is to God (the God of All) to Whom we pray.
Birthday cakes. Birthday candles. Birthday cake slices. Fiery flicking candle flames. Chocolate cake. Smooth. Butter. Frosting. Yellow insides. Sweetness licking teeth and lips. Lips to be ready to kiss!! A spatula dipped in a fountain of chocolate. Twirling it in your mouth. Milk chocolate. Dark chocolate. A Dove ice cream dark chocolate candy bar! Coldness of ice cream in one's mouth. Swishing. Wishing. As you blow out your candles. A wish that is for you. Exclusively you. No one else to know except you and our God. To know and to believe the content of this wish.
An on-going Mantra...A Kiss...A Wish...A Prayer...Etc...
Dear God. Can You hear me? It is me. Your servant. I am reaching out to You and want if it please You to hear my prayer. Where are You? Remember me? I am here again. I wish again to ask You to be here with me in my presence.
So. You today wish for me to enjoy the outdoors? Yes. It is beautiful outside Adonai! I agree. You are Someone Who I like to agree with.
If I feel the color yellow is a beautiful color, I know I can enjoy it in the sunlight. Sunlight as being the transliteration as the Hebrew word "OR". Boker Tov, Boker OR. I want to taste sunlight in my mouth and feel it on my skin. Warming. Even hot! My arms feeling excitingly alive with my blood inside. Circulating around. More alive as I see the word mORe in English as it agrees with me. Either OR, Iron ORe, Do you hate OR love me?
Where are you now God? I see you in the computer wires that attach to cyberspace. My words from Your mouth into my fingers as I type letters and poetry. Do you taste me in your saliva, as me being a servant of Yours, God? I taste cleanliness and purity on my lips when I pray to You. Dear God. I swallow like a fish, and whet my entire mouth with Your water.! The water of Miriam. Are You thirsty God? Is it allowable to think of the needs of You, God, and not only my own needs?
Of course. Be who God wants you to be. Say as He says, pray to Him, ask Him for deliverance.
Thank You God, I feel redeemed.
Yes, we have heard of cults throughout history who worshipped trees. Green Giants, sturdy California Redwoods, fires wiping out entire forests, what is it that we love and hate about trees? Tree cutters, sawing trees with diseases to be chopped down, George Washington who as a child chopped down a Cherry Tree.
Tu B' Shevat, a Jewish Holy Day tonight and tomorrow when we as Jews take time to appreciate trees, to love trees, but not to worship trees. To be a member at a Seder to eat nuts and fruits, to drink sweet red and white Kosher wine, hot herbal teas, to sing and to daven, to pray to Adonai and to thank Him for blessing us with wonderful trees.
Knowing about the Druids and about the goddess Asherah who was worshipped by a cult when she came to her worshipers in the form of a tree. Moses sweetened the River Nile by tossing a wooded tree branch into the waters representing The Torah. Can we as Jews worship trees? No, definitely not, but we can appreciate them, harvest them, grow them, rake their leaves, call them beautiful.
A tree outside your window can come in the shape of a Chanukiah, a Chanukah Menorah. All the branches like arms with hands reaching upwards, beckoning God for His attention, tree branches which are living as the tree itself is living, it drinks water, soaks up sunshine and photosynthesizes it, breathing in carbon dioxide and expelling oxygen, the very oxygen we as humans inhale and breathe in is from our trees. A tree can save our lives!
The tree has bark, like a dog's bark loudly to bring to us the attention we need to realize that a Birch tree bark can be pealed off its tree and cover a canoe with it so it does not sink. Wood floats in water, Noach's Great Ark he built out of wood saved the lives of humankind, as it floated on top of the water and its inhabitants did not drown and humans and animals were saved to create generation after generation, all of us descendants of the righteous Prophet Noach.
Love trees? What about Fruit Trees? We must wait three years before we can pick the fruit of a tree and eat it. To delay the reaction Adam had when he bit into the fruit, to make a decision but first waiting, to weigh the pros and cons and evaluate whether to eat an apple or not. When we wait three years before eating the fruit we are honoring the tree and not destroying it before it matures.
During times of war, we must not fall any Fruit Tree. The Fruit Trees must all be saved and not bombed, yes, we can appreciate them, and save their lives as if they were humans but we know we must not worship them.
Instead to love honor and obey.
Alcohol and drug abuse, called AA for Alcoholics Anonymous and NA for Narcotics Anonymous. The Big Book, looks like a Bible, a thick black leather book cover, a book filled with case studies of folks like you and me, who decided against the worship of the bottle or drug, and instead to turn our souls and hearts to the worship of a "Higher Power" which includes the religions of ALL people.
To be born a Nazirite, which is a Priest of the highest status, the Jewish Priest chosen as female or male by his/her father to not use alcohol, to keep the covenant with The Lord to not drink or do recreational drugs, not to eat grapes or even raisins unless you share some with a Kohayne, the ancestors of Aaron, the High Priest. To have a father and mother who wants you to keep clean and sober, to drink not from a cup any wine, no red wine, no white wine, no Scotch, nothing mood altering that is from artificial means. Coffee and tea? Okay.
Who is our higher power and why and how can we worship Him? We are not to break any promise to Him. Our Book as The Torah, is also a "Big" Book and gives us the history of people who lived their lives as Prophets, Joseph imprisoned and enslaved thrown into a pit of lions, who instead of becoming a failure because of past experiences we would today identify as post traumatic stress disorder, we see Joseph rising up out of Hell like a phoenix as becoming the closest companion to the Pharaoh of the times and ruling with him to save the people, all people from destruction because of a famine. Joseph's higher power, was much higher than the power of the Pharaoh and his goals to save humankind were answered by God.
Drink from the fountain of youth, not to imbibe in wine, to instead go into deep Hebrew prayer and meditation, to make a goal of New Year's resolutions, twice every 12 months, as we as Jews celebrate two new years. Ask our dear Lord for help to stay clean and sober, to call upon our ancestors for help instead of causing yourself liver damage from the wineskin.
Sing the Hebrew blessing over non/alcoholic beverages while dancing and not tripping over your feet in drunkenness.
Sing loudly and clearly over a Kiddush cup overflowing with golden sweet apple juice: The Hebrew transliteration of the prayer for non/alcoholic drinks: "Baruch Atah Adonai, aleiheynu melech ha' olam, she he k'ol yiyeh b'divro".
To join in Covenant with The Lord our God, to keep in Nazirite Priestly abstinence from liquor, to ask God to provide us with our "highs" and our "power" as our Beloved "Higher Power" in purity and goodness, truthfulness, and honesty, generosity and strength, a discipline to stay "clean and sober".
-1-Full.jpg)
