Some Reign Must Fall?

The purpose of this blog is to bring some clement weather to the Shabbat table....please print and share.

It is still possible to get that tax deduction for 2021 with a charitable donation to support our educational mission. Or shop at Amazon using http://smile.amazon.com and support this blog and our other projects by choosing Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your designated charity. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases - it doesn't sound like much, but if everyone reading this did so, that would translate to thousands of dollars - at no cost to you.

Quick trivia question for your table - What does 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth and the Pharaoh of Egypt (in the Passover story) have in common?

A: They're both called "Mummy". (Seriously - that's actually what her children call her.)

Here's how it happened (the Queen part, not the Mummy part):

On February 6, 1952, King Albert Frederick Arthur George (George VI) died in his sleep. He was only 56. (He had been a heavy smoker and suffered from lung cancer and related infirmities.)

On the Hebrew calendar, that was the 10th of Shevat, just about 70 years ago.

In addition to being the King of England, Scotland, Wales and beyond, he was the last Emperor of India.

At the moment of his last breath, his daughter Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth, heading Down Under, immediately returned to London to plan her coronation.

It's not every day that a person gets coronated, especially not as Head of the British Commonwealth, so naturally she wanted it to be well planned. 

The planning took more than a year and much of it was guided by tradition, going back to King Arthur I'm sure. 

But one of the hardest decisions to make was the date. Her Majesty gathered the most expert British meteorologists to determine the ideal date for the Coronation. They advised her that June 2 would offer the very best odds of fair weather: based on hundreds of years of records, they assured her that there her that a June 2 coronation was almost certain to be blessed with blue skies.

Ahh... the pageantry! The pomp and circumstance! The ornaments! The horses! And it was broadcast around the world on the new fangled television. 

The latter decision displeased Churchill. He told the House of Commons, "It would be unfitting that the whole ceremony, not only in its secular but also in its religious and spiritual aspects, should be presented as if it were a theatrical performance."

Alas, perhaps in his honor (or perhaps not) - it rained!

Now, you might say how unfortunate for her that it rained on her parade! That's not how these fairy-tale moments are supposed to go.

So here's a question for your table: In what way might that rainfall have been the very best thing that could have happened to Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on her coronation day?


Shabbat Shalom


PS - Speaking of milestones, here are 10 ways to hear this week's 10th Episode of our weekly 7-minute Body&Soul podcast, "It's a Mitzvah to Eat ______" ... 

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.
 

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Baby With the Bath Water?

The purpose of this blog is for the Shabbat table to improve with age....please print and share...

This week's 7-minute podcast is below....you 

This is a sequel to last week's "What if you knew of the day of your death?"

Do you remember Bến Tre?

That's the Vietnamese village on the Mekong River nearly wiped out by American bombing in February, 1968, after which a USAF Major Chester Brown told AP reporter Peter Arnett: 

"It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."

(The people of Bến Tre seem to harbor neither appreciation for the favor nor malice as they don't even mention the event on their website.)

It sounds absurd, and maybe it is . . . . but sometimes it could be true, right?

Sometimes don't you have to destroy the old in order to build the new?

In order for a plant to sprout, doesn't a seed need to disintegrate?

In order for redemption to occur, doesn't bondage need to precede it?

How about people? Does the next generation need - even long for - the passing of the old?

Think of the poor Prince of Wales.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty the youth of old age. - Victor Hugo
You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old. - George Burns
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. - Mark Twain
Youth is wasted on the young. - George Bernard Shaw
 

Question for your table:

True, most things fall apart; but does anything actually improve with age?

The Talmud notes two: wine and olive oil. 

Wine symbolizes wisdom and olive oil symbolizes the spirit.

Even if the elders tell you to destroy, and the youngsters tell you to build, you should destroy and not build, for the ‘destruction’ of older people is really building, and the ‘building’ of young people is really destruction. - Talmud

Yesterday someone young (or is he old?) told me that he isn't very motivated by long-term benefits of healthy daily living: "If it doesn't make me feel better right now, then I'm not too motivated to worry about it."

Is he praiseworthy for living in the moment? Or is he unwise for not planning for the future?


Shabbat Shalom



PS - This week's podcast is "Do You Guys Have Heaven?"
There are ten ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

PS - It's still possible to get that tax deduction for 2021 with a charitable donation to support our educational mission. And it's always possible to shop at Amazon with http://smile.amazon.com and support this blog by choosing Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your designated charity. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases - it doesn't sound like much, but if everyone reading this did so, that would translate to hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars.

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What if You Knew the Day of Your Death?

  The purpose of this blog is to enter each Shabbat as if it were the last....please print and share...

(Have you heard this week's 6-minute podcast yet? See below….)
 

I feel like just leaving that title as your table-talk question of the week and ending right here.

But let's flush it out with a story.

I'm guessing that you never heard of Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754).

First, he was a Huguenot, who were allegedly descended from Spanish Jews. (See also this.)

Second, he was a ground-breaking mathematician who fled the religious persecutions of Louix XIV (the "Sun King") and befriended Isaac Newton among others. His legacy includes a seminal work on probability theory.

(He understood probability so well that earned a living consulting for London gamblers.)

So according to legend, as he grew older, he became lethargic and needed longer sleeping hours. He noted that he was sleeping an extra 15 minutes each night and estimated that when the sleep time reached 24 hours, he would die, which should occur on November 27, 1754 - and it did.

De Moivre wasn't the only one (Mark Twain and a few others have done so). 

Maybe that's the power of suggestion?

But it still is a good question for the table.

Would you want to know the date of your death in advance? (And if not the day, perhaps the hour?)
What would you do if you did?
Would it affect how you eat?
Would it affect how you sleep?
Would it affect how you work?
Would it affect how you play?
Would you do more stargazing?
Would you try to read only good news?


Shabbat Shalom


PS - This week's podcast is "How to Change a Habit"
There are ten ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

PS - When shopping at Amazon, please use http://smile.amazon.com and support this blog by choosing Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your designated charity. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases - it doesn't sound like much, but if everyone reading this did so, that would translate to hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars.

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How's Your Alignment?

Please print this post and turn the Friday night journey into an adventure....

Did you hear this week's 8-minute podcast? See below….
Sending condolences to Tova NessAiver and family on the loss of their mother/grandmother, and Happy Birthday shoutouts to Moriel and DJ.
 

Did you hear this week's 5-minute podcast? See below....

How's Your Alignment?

Try asking this question at your table:

Did you ever dream of traveling to the Moon or Mars or Saturn (or more likely Titan)? 

Tonight is a great night to dream that dream.

This evening, if you have clear sky, find the moon.

Down to the right (towards four o'clock) look for three bright stars - that's Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. 

If you have binoculars or a small telescope (and a tripod) check out Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings.

Questions for your table: 

Which of those planets is closest to us? Which is farthest? How close, how far?

[moon: 380,000 km, Venus 55,000,000 km, Jupiter 789,000,000 km, Saturn 1,500,000,000 km]

That means that seeing Saturn is seeing sunlight that traveled about three hours round-trip from the sun, bounced off the planet then came all the way back to your eyeballs. 

I know there are some people (including our daughter) who consider a three-hour drive to New Jersey for Shabbat no big deal, but for me personally, if anyone proposes a trip more than an hour or so I suddenly and unapologetically turn into a homebody. We know people who seem to make the New Jersey or New York trip every other weekend so maybe some people are just better cut out for it. But unless you're going to pacify the kids with a video how do you survive confined a steel box with your family for three or four hours?

I almost think a long flight would be easier - at least you can sleep. (Unless you're one of those people who can't sleep on airplanes, in which case you should click on the above image! And/or bring along the game I mentioned last week.)

Now what if your prodigal daughter disappeared for 10 or 20 years and then you found out she had secretly moved to the Moon? And that CEO of the Moon Elon Musk had made her Queen of the Moon? And then she sends you a dire warning that Global Warming and China and Russia and all that are going to get so bad, would you please join her on the Moon - "Please pack up everything, and move here ASAP?"?

Question for your table: Would you sell your house and go?


Hope you enjoy this week's 7-minute Torah Health & Fitness podcast (see below),

and Shabbat Shalom


Podcast details:

The Doctor's ViewDr. Grove tells us why taking care of your health NOW is so important, what's the number one habit to change, why it's so hard, and why you should never give up.

There are ten ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

PS - When shopping at Amazon, please use http://smile.amazon.com and support this blog by choosing Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your designated charity. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases - it doesn't sound like much, but if everyone reading this did so, that would translate to hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars.

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Outrageous Answers to Honest Questions

Please print this email and provoke some outrageous honesty at Friday night dinner table....
Did you hear this week's 5-minute podcast? See below….  

 

Did you hear this week's 5-minute podcast? See below....

Outrageous Answers to Honest Questions

I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that after years of yawners, we've finally found a new family game that EVERYONE enjoys, all ages and personality types.

It's called TBH: The Game of Honest Answers to Outrageous Questions

You take turns asking outrageous yes-or-no questions and then guessing how everyone else would answer.

Here's the kind of question the game uses so you can test it at the Shabbat table:

A spooky person gives you a crystal and tells you that you will have a good fortune as long as you keep the crystal. Ten minutes later, someone offers you a lot of money for it. Would you sell the crystal?

Less fortunate — this is the bad news of the week — are those who might be planning a trip to Israel. This week, for the second time in your lifetime (and mine), you and I cannot on a whim buy a ticket and travel to Israel.

Exceptions are made for student visas if you do not have an Israeli passport or visa, you may not travel to the Holy Land.

Exceptions are made for certain urgent events, such as a family wedding.

But mere tourism? No way. 

We're so sorry, you 7,000 licensed Israeli tour guides, and multiples of that of bus drivers and other service providers. Those 4,000,0000 tourists support a $2,000,000,000 slice of the economy.

The government in its wisdom created an "Exceptions Committee" who have granted permits for weddings (immediate family only), bar/bat mitzvahs and medical emergencies.

And.... the Miss Universe pageant in Eilat.

You're a lowly person who merely wants to walk four steps in the Holy Land? Door's closed.

You're a beauty pageant contestant? Door's open.

You're some other VIP? Door's open.

2 questions for your table:

Would you say that this decision occurring during Channukah is ironic?
Did the Exceptions Committee make the right decision?


Hope you enjoy this week's 5-minute podcast (see below),

and Happy Channukah,

and Shabbat Shalom


Podcast details:

Know Thyself: The Foundation of Weight LossWhether you're Jewish or Greek, most people would either like to lose weight or not gain weight - but it's really hard. Jewish wisdom offers two practical tools to lay the foundation of a healthy body weight.

There are ten ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web (if you use the latter, scroll down to see all the episodes).

PS - When shopping at Amazon, please use http://smile.amazon.com and support this blog by choosing Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your designated charity. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases - it doesn't sound like much, but if everyone reading this did so, that would translate to hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars.

Appreciated this Table Talk? Like it, tweet it, forward it....