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".
Is there a last day to Hanukkah, technically yes, but there is nothing wrong with celebrating Hanukkah all December long. Does Hanukkah end tomorrow? Three days from now, no, did it end yesterday? Will it end with the coming of the Jewish Fast Day in January? Maybe since the lights were lighted in the Temple for eight days, an eternal light, then there is really never an end to Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah!
She came to visit without a white beard or red and white Santa suit. The twinkle of Santa's eye in her own eyes? Her hair is blonde and her eyes are blue, enticingly gorgeous, high class, who is she? She is a person of endearing lovingkindness, a Jewish female, who is doing her job, her occupation to be an Angel and to visit people who appreciate her presence.
No, she does not call herself a "missionary" on a "mission" she instead asks if she can learn from you, that she does not know all the answers, but what she wants is for your happiness, how she can help improve your life. What is it that you need that she can provide?
She is a Social Worker, has a job where she is paid to help you. Not enough work even though the whole world is crying for help. What does she charge? She does not even ask you for money, her help to you is forthcoming, she believes in what she is doing, she wants to elevate your status, she wants you to feel loved, she is on your side.
She gets along with anyone and everyone, she is guided by the Torah and as she sees your improvement, she has achievement in this way, the better off you are, the happier she is. She wants what is best for you, and your achievements are her achievements. The better you do, the better she does as she encourages you.
Can Santa Claus really be a Social Worker who is a Jewish female? She does not come down sliding through a dirty chimney, instead she can walk welcomed through your front door.
Can we keep our Kosher diet as we travel from party to party, festivity to festivity, served on plates with forks not Kosher purified? How can we keep our commitment to Adonai and stay pure as we skip from house to house, dining room to dining room, meal to meal? Is it appropriate to ask if there is meat included in the sauce? What about getting potent alcohol in dessert sauces? Can we turn down what we do not want to eat, but eat the rest?
All it takes is to ask the chef if there is meat or no meat included in a dish. To try to eat vegan, only the Kosher greens and veggies, this will not only be the healthiest way to eat, as well as the most tasty. God told us not to eat the pork. His Words as we see them in His commandments for us is not to eat the blood either that is in the meats. We need to eat only meat without the blood, and to avoid pork at all costs. This is not difficult. You must be sure of yourself and obligated to follow the rules as God has set them down. How will this change us? For the better indeed.
Know what it is that you want and desire, work towards those goals, spread good cheer to others, as during this season we are all devoted to the observance of love and respect for all humanity.
Be the good example to others, eat Kosher and eat healthy.
From where is your treasure, what do you have, what don't you have, what do you want, what can you live with or without?
Having the love of God from God Himself, to ask of Him everyday to nurse you as though you were His baby, a suckling at your Mother's breasts, nibbling on Christmas cookies we also call Hanukkah cookies.
The colors green and red being as the Zohar says "the colors of evil and sin". Combining red and green as paints mixed to get the color brown, brown being the color of the rich soil of a farmer's field.
A Christmas tree taking on the name of Hanukkah "Bush" a tree like the bush where Moses saw God, it was a burning bush. To smell the fumes of a match or lighter to remember in December your family gathered around bon fires and BBQ's in your backyards or on retreats in the woods. Family reunions toasting to the good health of everyone.
Meeting a Santa Claus in the smile of your neighborhood Rabbi, as he carries bags of books, a Menorah, Hanukkah cookies, and cranberry juice straight to your front door. Not to slide down a chimney like a dusty chimney sweep, gathering coal dust on Santa's white and red suit. A drop of red juice spilled like a teardrop or spot of blood on the Rabbi's pure white shirt, spilling it while serving. Pure as snow, his snow-white beard, even with this spot on his lapel. Words of purity spoken, words "d'varim" straight from the Torah itself, words sung like a Cantor but sung by a Rabbi who wears many hats.
A Cat In The Hat? Why to wear a hat? A Kippah to cover a bald spot, as if made specifically for this purpose? Needing enough hair to clip on the Yarmulke. A pure white bushy beard as perfect as the fur of the Red Hefer, but draped in a triangle sitting relaxed on the Rabbi's chest. but bouncing up and down as he chuckles and laughs.
No, a Hanukkah Menorah does not hurt and is not meant to burn down property or scare someone into submission to avoid its burns. A finger can strum through each Menorah candle like a guitar string in a wisp without getting a burn or feeling any discomfort. This is truly a miracle of this Holiday season! Being able to flip your finger over the hot flames of the Menorah is truly an incredible miracle!!
To then use clean hands to shake the hands of a friend, to open the Torah, to read and to write, to send Holiday cheer to everyone you encounter who you can please.
A Christmas tree is a Hanukkah Bush, the same in every home, we are more alike than different, as this tree accommodates all of humanity, under One God.
Which do you do best? Thinking or feeling? Is thinking a better talent than feeling? Which do you prefer for your own self? From others? Is feeling an unstable action and thinking stable and even keel?
How can we enlighten ourselves to feel instead of think? What are our feelings? We need to act out our six senses in order to feel. Sight, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, prophesizing. To think, we need to test our numbers, do mathematics and use the written words. Is one way better than another? Can we enlighten our entire brain, and do it all?
There is not one commandment in the Torah that one cannot do. All commandments are humanly possible. In following these commandments, all 613, we are putting our brain in safeguard. If there is no abuse, abuse by others towards you, or abuse by you towards others, the commandments are said to be all in effect. In this safety, this calmness, a place without anxiety, lies the peacefulness of prayer. To know your blessings, memorization, to pray often and to love each thought as it comes to mind as you pray, freedom of thought, one thought after the other coming and going in the brain. To welcome all thoughts, to understand yourself and be good to oneself and others.
A holiday season upcoming. A prayer during Chanukah for the safety of all our men in the military service, a prayer for all good people, a prayer for our loved ones as well as all humanity.
To eat three Thanksgiving dinners, not one, not two, but three!!! Is this manna falling from the sky? To not have to do any cooking or cleaning, or any preparation, no shopping?
Turkeys that are sacrificed for our taste buds, perfect species, a bird whose life and death is for you, s/he died to save us from our sins. A bird whose body is to be fattened up so we can eat his/her juicy meat in ceremony like the Pilgrims before us, what are we thankful about?
To be thankful to receive three turkey dinners, and to eat the best of foods, no indigestion, no heartburn, no sick stomach feelings, a tummy that is full and sated, a stomach that is churning like that full of butter, churning cottage cheese, not to need Tum's, a sated belly.
Yes, on Thanksgiving we can be thankful for our foods, and thankful to our cooks.
To then shine with the halo of an Angel after a good meal, and to invite others to try on a halo so to love the turkey and all we have and all we will get.
To be thankful for a future of happiness because we have this eternal love, a love we learned when we were inside our Mother's womb, and throughout our childhood, as she and your Father loved you, now you are able to love others too.
Kiss my lips with your eyes, but I will not kiss your lips with my eyes. Sorry but my sweetness is savored, saved, for those I love, true to few, lovingkindness to those who are honestly my friends and not my gapers.
On my lips is the purity of lip gloss, coconut flavored, climbed up a palm tree to tickle the coconuts to fall down one after the other, not leaving even one on the tree, bouncing, crashing in their hairiness, slam them with a screwdriver and a hammer, sweet white fruity juices forthcoming, Mother's milk, to eat the coconut meat too from the middle of the fruit.
How else can we be sweet? We can be sweet as pudding if we can love puddin' and pie. Sweet apples from your backyard tree, apple cobbler, apples galore! Sweet Cherry tree, no political scientist to chop it down, no George Washington chopping down a Cherry Tree.
Not discussing politics or religion, how about discussing the ecology of fruits? Fruits are very sweet! How can we be like fruits? Is a fruit a "nerd" and so we cannot be like one? Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? Is this doctor actually just a nerd but not a sweet one?
Sweetness of our words and whispers, not to reserve your honey for those who are sour. To find somebody who is as sweet as honey on their own and merge with them. Brown sugar and white sugar, stir them up, add honey, sugarcane, sugary whipped cream, butter cake frosting.
NOW, you are Sweet! Sweet becoming a proper noun! Stay this way. Love your neighbor not just your "fellow" and your sweetness will pass on as an inheritance that is greener than cash, being the green leaves of the palm tree, speaking Green English and having a ball that is a chocolate piñata!
Chocolate in our imaginations to sweeten our disposition even without swallowing the candy!!!
Just call me "Sweetheart" from your fine lips and you then will become a "Sweetheart" too!!
Imagine a picture and then to draw it, to print it out from your computer, go to google images and find the perfect pic. What pic in google will be your companion pic, a pic of something that will be all you need, a pic as a friend, a pic that is of Rembrandt quality, to fold this pic like a letter and to put it next to your heart. What kind of pic could heal a broken heart?
His name is God, and he was born as Jesus. What does he look like and why is his image important, why if we hold his pic close to our heart will he heal us and how could this miracle happen, and how to us, you and me, and anyone who loves him.
It is love that cures. But you need to love someone who is real, someone who was born a human and surfaced up from the normalcy of humankind into a hero, a hero who saved humankind.
Do you like pretty pictures? How about a soft pic of the grayness of a man, just a man, who became God. His eyes are so full of love you cannot keep your eyes off of him, and it is okay to look at him as much as you want. His soft blonde beard covers his face like a Teddy Bear, soft curly blonde hair, long, wavy, sits upon his shoulders, his blue eyes being a Recessive genetic inheritance from both his Mom and Dad, blue eyes, or green eyes, even to imagine him with brown eyes, eyes on a pic that look back at you directly towards you, no matter which angle you look at him. His lips are caressing, full and plush, a pinkish in color, with soft pink cheeks like the cheeks of an Eskimo in the winter blooming like roses on his face beneath his dove peaceful eyes. Eyes that shine, a nose that is thin, breathing in soft gasps, steadily, filled with oxygen, expelling carbon dioxide, lips that although are closed on the pic open into the form of a kiss at your command, a picture is worth a thousand words, let him kiss you and return his kiss, kiss him back.
To mend relationships, having people who know you wishing to know you better, establishing bonds, uniting small business owners with potential customers, talented workmen, blue and white collar workers, people with good work ethics, to be on time, timely, to help you out, deserving of rewards, to be paid and paid on time, people who survive from day to day, dollar to dollar, struggling to get work, jobs in their dreams, awaking early, an early bird gets the worm.
Working day hours, a hot sun as solar energy, energy alive as energy of love, to love and to work, to love your customers, to love your employers. What kind of love? Real love, love for humans who need love and reciprocate their love for yours. A helping hand, to hold her/his hand, to support him with your hands, working hands, honest hands, hands of creativity, hands of skill.
My hands to massage you as your hands rest and continue to love my hands, to hold up the world with our loving skillful honest imaginative hands.
Do we like "new" things? We eat new food everyday for breakfast lunch and dinner, some days we eat rye bread some days we eat Challah. Challah is a holy bread, rye is not. We can certainly enjoy rye bread at Jewish restaurants filled with Kosher corned beef and mustard. We can bless the bread ourselves as we sing the Motzi to thank God for the Kosherness in the meat and thereby also blessing the rye bread in addition to the meat.
So we want new foods? Can we go out and eat shrimp and lobster and complain our Kosher diet is too regular, not "new" and therefore boring?
No, we cannot hurt ourselves when we are angry at others. Ingesting non-Kosher foods is an act of hurting oneself, if you are Jewish. We must stick with the security of Kosher foods so not to hurt oneself, even if there are people who disapprove, but this disapproval is just based on ignorance.
As Jews we can eat new Kosher foods in our diet that we have not eaten all year, such as blueberries and raspberries because they come into season regularly grown during the summer months only. Or watermelon. We can then eat the fruits and thankfully to God to sing the new foods Blessing: "The Shehekeyanu". Or sing this beautiful Blessing when buying new clothes or the purchasing of a new electronic item or new appliance.
To watch the moon change every night: a new moon, a quarter moon, a half moon, a three quarter moon, a full moon. The moon changes every night predictably and we as Jews can count on a Rosh Chodesh once a month to celebrate the newness of this astronomical fact and turn it into a wonderful religious experience, to love the moon.
To yet find out this past week that Saudi Arabia did not even legally allow its women to drive motorized vehicles, it was against their law. Who is hurtful and who is not? The people who oppress women are the hurtful ones and the people who love and care for women giving us our equal rights to men are the people who are merciful and good, righteous people to be honored and respected.
So this change and newness has been expressed and honored by the Jews in Israel as we now allow women to pray at the Kotel, to read Torah at the Western Wall. Finally also to have the newness of being a Muslim woman and being behind the wheel of a car.
So, what you like is change? Newness? I do too. But not as in a "New Testament" as one's Bible. Instead to stick with the true and tried and turn the original old wheels (i.e. Honor One's Father and Mother, Do Not Murder...) Commandments that we already know work, instead of turning back-breaking new wheels that will end up in flat tires because they are not the truth, they are not The Jewish Faith.
What can we do to heal the world and try something new? Help a woman find new employment or start a new small business.
Find a way you can honor the women in your lives, be for us a way to newness as each day everyday you bring to us your delight in different ways, not the same: a box of chocolates or/and a bouquet of flowers, a new and different flower each time, Roses and Geraniums of redness or Lilies that are the pureness of whiteness.
Sukkot next on the lunar calendar, a holy day of living in a tent, a hut, a Festival of Booths, like the booths the Jews lived in as we were traveling 40 years in the desert to the Promised Land of Israel. A tent with a roof of willow and palm branches but to let the rain come in, to know what it is like to live in exposure to the rain and lightening and thunder, like the homeless, to have only the sparsest of material goods, to live frugally, to sleep on a pad on the ground, the ground being stiff and not soft, a place for one's head without a pillow. To eat in this Sukkah, a meal of salads, green items, orange veggies, yellow, and even Kosher Sushi for a meal.
To again sing the Shehekeyanu, the prayer for the newest of our experiences. A new etrog, being a fruit of the most delightful of smells, giving the etrog to a friend, stem downwards for him to turn right-side up. A lulav of tree branches, (Hebrew: לולב) is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the Four Species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The other Species are the hadass (myrtle), aravah (willow), and etrog (citron).
Shaking the branches back and forth, shaking away evil out of our existence, a shake in front a shake in back a shake to the side to the other side, a shake to fight and kill wickedness on the sharp sides of the leaves like swords made of plant branches that we dash back and forth.
To afterwards hover together, to try to physically avoid the rain not to get our bodies wet, but to pray for rain for our harvests, to beckon The Lord to water our gardens, enough produce of fruits to last all winter long, deep into the coldest of the winter months, food in jars, to open and digest food everywhere in the world.
Fun and music in a Sukkah as we decorate it with gourds and artistic creations, as God created the world in 6 days with one day of rest, our Shabbat, we too create this Sukkah.
May the spirits of the souls of our Prophets and Prophetesses come inside our Sukkahs as we invite them to dine with us, to party with us, to protect us, to love us as we feed them and love them and they return the favor to us all year round.
God is in many places, He is everywhere you want Him to be. First and foremost He is in your body, beneath and on the surface of your skin, on your fingertips as you type an email or text, upon your lips when you speak, in your footsteps as you change a slovenly walk into a dancing step, playing hopscotch as you step into the dance and feel goodness in each foot.
God is in front of us, in back of us, and within us. He circulates in our bloodstream going inside and pumping out of the heart, into all veins and arteries and capillaries, around one leg into the other, a leg torso leg arm, head brain, eyes, nostrils, mouth lips. Blinking an eye, twinkling that same eye, two eyes that see one God, two becoming one, a man and a woman creating children, generations after generations, more and more populace, the choice instead to remain single, to worship only God as you feel Him inside and outside, He is the delicious taste on our lips, the feeling we have inside our hearts as we appreciate Him and include Him, the weight of our life's endeavors as we feel Him on our back/neck between our shoulders, as strong as the shoulders of an ox.
Now you know where God is, He is you, He is all about you, He is separate from us when we want separateness or together with us when we want togetherness.
He is all we need, Psalm 23: "The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall lack nothing."
What words did you associate with the Shofar blowing on this new year Rosh Hashanah? Tishrei 5778. A call from a ram, an animal of grace and goodness, a Kosher animal that chews its cud and has cloven feet. The ram is not a predatory animal, does not eat meat, a vegan animal, fed the best of the greenest of good Godly grass.
Gardens still blooming, hot temperatures, flowers not withering, green vegetarian Mother Earth of soil, compost heaps in our backyards, jarring the veggies to save for the deep cold winter months.
Our hands in this soil, to nurture our plants, soil from the greenness of Mother Earth in between our fingernails, molding the soil around like clay pots, like an artist potter, forming a collar of goodness around the stem of a newly formed plant, keeping the plants firmly united with the dirt, dirt not being dirty dirt, instead being the nourishment from our Earth, Mother Earth.
Hands that become clean again after being soiled, hands even cleaner than they started out to be, clean hands clean hearts. Hands of generosity as your green produce is food, food for you, food for your family, 10% as charity for the poor.
The miracle of bread becoming cake! For one's meal eating Challah, the miracle yellow holy bread of the Jewish religion. Also with this bread being served cake, so to eat a holy bread and a delicious cake. If not cake, to eat a Kosher New York cheesecake. A cheesecake drizzled with chocolate syrup. A graham cracker moist chewy crust. Not a fasting holy day upcoming, instead a Rosh Hashanah when we celebrate and live it up, we have happiness and happiness is cultivated for us and our loves ones through Kosher sweet as honey foods galore.
Cakes of every flavor, buttercream, whipped cream, you name it, it is there for us to eat. A sweet table, real honey, bee's honey, a table filled with every cookie or/and chocolate candy you can imagine, our imaginations transforming into reality, wonderfully coming true. Needing an imagination to feel the existence of God.
To imagine God feeding us as when we were babes, softly coaxing us like a mother who uses a silver spoon to feed her children. One's mother who sings a song as she places the Kosher food sweet bread or cake upon our tongue.
Pleading for more sweetness, as Moses sweetened the River Nile with just a piece of wood. An entire river becoming as sweet as Kosher wine upon a touch of the staff of Moses, a staff (or walking cane) becoming a pen, a writing tool, the wood in the Nile becoming the Torah, the Torah of our lives to be recorded in "The Book of Life". In writing we read with a "yad", the Jewish Torah pointer. Bread becoming cake with the touch of a magic wand. The wand used by an orchestra conductor. A wand of Moses becoming a snake to chase away evil, the Hebrew slaves freed upon the death of the Pharaoh's son, never again to be enslaved.
As a birdie, a hungry baby birdie with opened beak or an adult mother bird to feed our youngsters with our Torah teachings our writings: To be followed by God and to be led by God.
To remember always, to "Keep the Faith of Judaism", our journey is never alone, God is always with us.
Angels. Do they exist? In the Torah, there are four angels mentioned. Yes, four. Not thousands, and the angels are not babies, not cherubs, not children but also not sure of what gender. When one leaves the Synagogue after worshipping on a holy day, after Kol Nidre or Rosh Hashanah, the Rabbi tells us, we are all angels, to look for an angel in one's mirror.
To feel your arm or/and hand and its smoothness, with or without lotion applications, your arms and hands are gentle, as gentle as an angel's. Can we feel like Michael and Raphael, or to be the angel who saves the mule from a lickin'. Or to be the angels who save the life of Isaac? To come directly from the heavens blowing Shofars of warning for Abraham not to kill his son, but instead to sacrifice a ram. To be the angel who fought Jacob, and Jacob became then of the honorable name Israel.
But we are talking over thousands of years ago. Do angels still exist? If you feel rescued by a human, say at a store in a check out lane, the cashier not taking your gift card, lying and saying there is no balance on it, and then, as a miracle the person standing behind you in line is the person who gave you this gift card, and she then tells you that "The cards do not give cash, that you have to come back to the store to spend it on another day".
Angel? I definitely think so! The argument was solved, I knew I could trust her, I saw her angelic shine as she patiently kindly steered me into the right direction, to come back another day to the store to spend the remaining balance on the store gift card. Not led out of the store by security for a misinterpretation, but yet coming so close!
We all had a good laugh and my admitted ignorance was the funny bone!
Mouth-watering green leafy salad for lunch today, this addition to my Kosher lunch was added, the greenness jumped out from under a Ranch Salad Dressing and like a lucky green leprechaun or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, this greenness in a good cholesterol abundance was added to my diet. How did this come about? I prayed to God and He answered my prayer. Do you mean it is as easy as that? For some but unfortunately not for everyone.
What can we add to the lettuce to make the salad even tastier. We can add purple or golden raisins, but how can a Nazirite eat these forbidden raisins? First, one must give raisins to a Jewish Kohen Priest as a gift for him to eat before you and then you as a Nazirite may eat them too. A Nazirite is a Jewish Priest who is forbidden to eat raisins, grapes or to drink alcohol. But a salad, yes, a salad s/he can eat and enjoy if it is there for him.
Adding orange shredded carrots, red juicy tomato quarters, sunflower seeds. Red, orange, yellow and green peppers, chopped into small squares and sprinkled on top of the lettuce. Eggs but not fertile eggs, fertile eggs are not Kosher eggs. How can we tell the difference between a fertile and non-fertile egg? A fertile egg contains a spot of blood on the yolk.
Cheeses sprinkled on top too. American cheese, Muenster cheese, Greek cheese, White cheeses, Parmesan cheese, Wisconsin cheeses, any cheese that waters your palette, but no meats added if there are cheeses, to keep Kosher not to mix dairy and meat.
All I did was pray, but I made sure I prayed to the ONE God, the God of Abraham and Sarah, and whallah! There was the salad on my plate. Feeling now like a satiated rabbit after eating bunny lettuce, greens that are as deep as greens can be.
To have a handful of old friends who never leave you, like God, they are always there, to keep in touch either by phone, email, postal letter or a person to person visit. To know all about these old friends, they opened up to you sincerely when you first met and keep opening up to you to ask of your advice or encouragement. People who have something in common with you, mentors they are to you and mentors you are to them.
To eat together, to read Reader's Theater together, to create poetry or visual artwork together, to want to know how each other's creative streak is going, to take pleasure in the pleasure they have when they create.
To know their creative works like books in your library, establishing a connection of the artists' lives as you see it in their works. Knowing their favorite colors, their politics, the same religion, and on and on.
An old friend who brings you love and caring, year after year after year. Him being a friend to God, as you are.
Listen! What can you hear? Listen is SHEMA as the Hebrew word. To seek and to find, to find a tune that makes you move, to feel a dance in your steps even while you are sitting down in a chair. How can you locate God? Where is He? Are you looking for Him? Listen to this music and find Him there.
Huge timpani drums, six or eight of them, pounding on them, getting bass, echoing bouncing against all the walls around you, sound-proof, only the best of sounds coming through, hitting the drumheads harder, leather animal skins, clanking the metal cymbals, one against the other, clinking clanking, the Psalms teach us that this is an appropriate way to call upon God. Making noise, can He hear us?? Make more noise! Say, "God, can you hear me now?"
A violin, a baby girl, sitting on one's shoulder, carefully cradled, a string bow, not to shoot an arrow but to caress the violin so it kisses the air making sounds delightful to the ear, a violin child all grown up after a bat mitzvah having become a cello, a large violin, a blast of a womanly sound, a cello as a large body in one's arms, to strum a harp, a harp for you and a cello for me. Finding a clarinet player, a flutist, all together, a combination of musicians to show us the music of God, to strum and to then hear God sing, He is singing to us as we play music for Him.
Clear your throat, let pure air come into your lungs, heave your chest and find oxygen, expel carbon dioxide, when you breathe in call Adonai with every breath, when breathing out give Yah your gift of breath, in Adonai, out Yah, breathe again and again, in unison with the one God, in unity with two of His names, searching and straining the air purifying it, pour white flour powder into a sieve and puffing it up, granules mixing together, as white as white can be.
White flour to become cakes and cookies, brown sugar integrated with white sugar, using a large wooden spoon to circulate it, as a wand of direction in an orchestra, a symphony, baking your bakery to sounds, playing Classical music, a cello and violinist as you are, strumming the strings to the sounds you hear and the sounds you create, playing exciting music, playing it as a praise and thanks to God.
Rosh Hashanah just a month away, soon to be here, clocks ticking, dates on calendars changing everyday, Monday to Tuesday, and Tuesday to Wednesday...
Skimming through fashion magazines and getting the perfect style, one's haircut and fingernails painted, beauticians to beseech you. Fur coat dry cleaners, a higher heel than the year before, tiptoe through the tulips. To wear a full skirt like an Alice In Wonderland or a tight short skirt that exposes the knees? Curly hair or braided hair, dyed hair black or blonde? New eyeglasses that are of a golden metallic rim with the vision of a great artist to see your Cantor singing on the Bemah from your seat in the back of the Sanctuary, as if she is standing next to you, with you, all her words memorized singing with her. Time to sing at the services, singing along with the beat of the Cantor as she sings with you and with God.
Excitement! "Will you be at Temple on Selichot?" she asks you.
Sweet Kosher Red Wine and delicious finger desserts, a Nile River colored red, red wine from clear river water, a beautiful baby boy Moses rescued from the Nile, an infant, a new Prophet, the greatest of all Prophets!
God used Moses as His mouthpiece. Moses speaking God's Words from his soft stuttering young tongue, Words inscribed on stone tablets from Mount Sinai, 10 Commandments becoming 613 Commandments, soon to be Maimonides's 13 Commandments. Rambam, Talmud.
Our instructions: simply to love and fear God.
Skipping into the Sanctuary in keen cowboy boots humming to a Rosh Hashanah holy service, to welcome a new day, and a new month and a new year. Rosh Hashanah being 1 Tishrei the beginning of the new year 5778. A New Year's Eve to welcome the future!
A new you, an improved you, as a graduation reunion, friends from Hebrew School, a get together, "What's new? Did you receive my Rosh Hashanah Greetings card?"
Using a yad pointer to follow the Hebrew text Words, Hebrew language as your first language from your two souls reincarnated. Biblical Hebrew, "goo goo ga ga" Moses spoke to his Mother, and then he spoke to God.
If he can do it, we all can do it! Moses as a mentor, our leader, a great orator, a gentle smooth confident speaker, a prayer, a song, singing to God and praying to God for a good new sweet new year L' Shanah Tova!
A miracle. Do you want and pray for a miracle in your life? Something to happen that would cause you a burst of excitement, a happy happening, a wild wishful thinking desire that comes true?
Do you want to change someone? Do you wish for someone to alter their behavior towards you, but you try and try again but forever getting naught, not knowing how we can change someone, so instead must to change ourselves, our attitude toward the situation, to forgive someone of bad behavior, even when s/he does not solicit our forgiveness.
Needing to forgive so we do not hate. Fighting hatred, and fighting to not hold grudges.
Needing to forgive before we go to bed at night, forgive someone's dishonoring you or/and dishonoring your property.
We must call out to God, beckon Him, pray to Him, be serious-minded about our praise and our thankfulness to Him, it is not a fairyland, religion is real, it is non-fiction, it exists whether we believe in it or not, and we have our choices as to which religion to make our own.
We need to take our choices serious-mindedly even though they may not be respected as our chosen choices by others. It is also our choice to forgive someone of transgressions towards us whether they want the forgiveness from us or not.
-1-Full.jpg)
