Whence Would You Visit?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
June 30, 2023 • 10 Tamuz 5783 • Parshas Chukas-Balak (Num 19-25)
The purpose of this blog is to appreciate the gift of the present. Please share

We continue to add great resources to TorahHealth.org — please send me your feedback!

Quick question for your table: What event occurred in 1895 related to time travel?

(This pic is a hint; and if you need a better hint, click on the pic.)

The answer of course is the publication of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.

Ever since, we've all been fantasizing about going back to witness some great historic event or perhaps to change history.

It seems to me a bit like fantasizing going to the Moon or Mars. Once you learn how uncomfortable it is, it tends to lose a bit of its romance.

So let's put it to the table: If you were offered a round-trip ticket to witness and/or participate in one event in the past, what would you choose?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - We continue to add great resources to TorahHealth.org — please check it out and send me your feedback. 

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To Err is a Mistake?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
June 23, 2023 • 3 Tamuz 5783 • Parshas Korach (Num 16-18)
The purpose of this blog is to lead the Shabbat table toward perfection. Please share.
Happy birthday shoutout to Gina!

As you can see in this screenshot, we've got some momentum! Thanks to many of you for helping get us there.

Along this publishing road, here's something funny that happened to me this week....

We've been working on the e-book version of Body and Soul - for Kindle, Apple Books, etc. - for over a month. The conversion has been slow because of the hundreds of footnotes, endnotes and cross-references that all had to be hot-linked.

Two weeks ago, the ebook-conversion people sent us a "completed" file that was full of errors.

This week, they sent us the revised file.

I'm happy to say that, while not perfect, I think it's good enough to publish. (For now; we'll perhaps press them to get it a bit more perfect in the meantime.)

Publishing it for Kindle is pretty straightforward and it didn't take long to receive this warm confirmation.

The funny part didn't occur until a few hours later, when Amazon sent us the following email:
 

During our review, we found that your book contains interior and/or cover content that’s available from a different publisher. We need you to confirm your publishing rights before the book is made available on Amazon.

 

Body & Soul: The Torah Path to Health, Fitness, and a Holy Life by Seinfeld, Alexander (AUTHOR); Grove, Daniel (AUTHOR) (ID: 54985871)

 

To publish the book(s), reply to this email and send documentation and/or verification showing you hold rights to the content. Please submit any documents you have, along with an explanation of any previously published books within 5 days. If we do not receive the appropriate documentation, the book(s) will be unavailable for sale on Amazon.

 

Acceptable documentation may include:

• A letter from the previous publisher reverting rights back to the author

• A signed copy of the agreement between you and the author

• A signed copy of the agreement between the author and the previous publisher

• A signed letter from the previous publisher indicating that they do not object to your edition

• Documentation showing the previous publisher holds nonexclusive rights

 

If you have questions or believe you've received this email in error, reply to this message.

 

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

The problem with this email is that both books have the same author, publisher and copyright holder! They're asking me to write a letter to myself giving myself permission to publish my book for Kindle!

First thought: "Aha! Amazon made a mistake! Gotcha!"

But then I thought, "Is that plausible? That Amazon made a mistake? Isn't that almost like saying that Moses made a mistake?"

That one reconsideration - that perhaps Amazon did not make a mistake - enabled me to find the true mistake, which was of course mine and not Amazon's. 

On the print book, we have the publisher listed as Jewish Spiritual Literacy Press. On the e-book, we abbreviated it to JSLI. 

It was our mistake, not Amazon's. Amazon does not make mistakes.

Let's repeat that: Amazon does not make mistakes.

But seriously, this is a real question for your table: Is there anyone we can rightfully expect not to make a mistake? Are there some people who ought to feel like they must be perfect?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - The Kindle edition is indeed now live - CLICK HERE.

PPS - The new Torah Health and Fitness landing page is growing and improving daily - please check it out and send me your feedback.

Summer Sleeper?

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone alert at the Shabbat table. Please share.
Three shout-outs: happy anniversary to Marc & Lily and Joel & Lisa, and happy birthday Elliott!

 

Received a thoughtful email this week from a reader of the new book.
 

Sunrise is at its earliest at this time of year. It can be hard to get out of bed so early, especially when you are just getting out of bed for the advantage of praying by haneitz (and not because you have to get to work super early). For me, the struggle is between what my body wants to do (stay in bed) by what my neshama wants to do (pray at the ideal time). 

But is being so tired harmful, as you write in the chapter on sleep? Is it really a matter of health or just tiredness? Shouldn't the body be a servant to do mitzvos in the ideal fashion? Maybe the answer is: Yes, if we were malachim (angels), but as humans, the answer is No as we have to deal with an imperfect match between the guf and neshamah. What do you think?

In the next email, he suggested that he might have to ask his rabbi what to do.

This is a great question for the Shabbat table: What would you tell him?

Here's what I said:

It seems to me that first and foremost, this is a question for your doctor, not your rabbi. Your rabbi is going to tell you, "Get as much sleep as you need." If pages 233-235 don't clearly answer your question, I have failed. It's absolutely a matter of health. 

One of the main points of life is to learn self-control. So overcoming the desire to stay up too late is also a religious duty, just like overcoming the desire to eat too much sugar. Saying, “I’m staying up past my healthy bedtime in order to do an extra mizvah" is a “frum (pious) yetzer hara."

That, as my grandfather would have said, is my two bits.

Here's wishing you a good, healthy night's sleep!

Shabbat Shalom

PS - Please visit the new Torah Health and Fitness landing page.

Mazal Kvell?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

June 9, 2023 • 21 Sivan 5783 • Parshas Behalosecha (Num 7-12)
The purpose of this email is to make you a star at the Shabbat table. Please share.

The Yiddish word kvell means to feel proud, often said about a loved-one's accomplishments.

People naturally kvell about their own children.

You know

What about other people's children? What about other people?

The real question for your table is this: Why is there this tendency to kvell about our own people but not others? 

You know, I'd like to try to practice what I preach.

At this time of year, there are a lot of graduations - from elementary school, from middle school, from high school and beyond. I want to wish a hearty kvelling mazal-tov to all of the graduates.

But let's also wish a hearty kvelling mazal tov to their families. Just like our book was made possible by many dozens of individuals who contributed intellectually, editorially, creatively and (last but far from least) financially to the project - so too, every graduate made it there thanks to parents, teachers, siblings, sometimes grandparents, bus drivers and (last but not least) friends. 

Your mazal tov is my mazal tov and my mazal tov is your mazal tov. So mazal tov to you all, and mazal tov to us all.

And unlike a book in a bookstore, you don't need to do anything to stand out - by pushing yourself this far, you are already a star.

Shabbat Shalom

PS - 2 updates on Torah Health

1. Yours-truly was invited to write this week's Project Genesis Dvar Torah. I found a major connection to Body & Soul which you may enjoy.

2. As you can see in this pic, the book has indeed finally made it to (some) bookstores.

"What about my favorite bookstore," you ask? Simple rule: any bookstore that orders it from their distributor carries it; any bookstore that does not order it from their distributor does not carry it.

So if your favorite bookstore isn't carrying the book yet, do you know what to do?

(They're apparently selling at a decent clip everywhere including on Amazon, so our hope of accelerating the 2nd printing (to correct the errors and omissions) may come sooner rather than later.)

Would you say that Body & Soul gets lost in the sea of books, or that it stands out?

I myself think that it "pops out at you." That would be a vindication of the advice of my friend, Mr. Frank Storch, to whose parents the book is dedicated. He had strong feelings about the cover design, and the "pops out at you" litmus test was his foresight. 

The other update since last week is that torahhealth.org website has been significantly improved and we're now about ready to start adding content. Please give it a test-drive and send your feedback.
 

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Why Would God Laugh?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

June 2, 2023 • 14 Sivan 5783 • Parshas Naso (Num 4-7)

The purpose of this blog is a stress-free Friday night dinner table. Please share.
In memory of my grandparents, Sima bas Mordechai Yaakov and Eliezer ben Zelig, whose yahrzheits are yesterday and tonight, respectively.

 

So the book is out... sort of. 

It is certainly available on Amazon. You might even be able to get it by Sunday if you order there.

And the e-book version should be ready by next week.

And the torahhealth.org website is up (although still needs some tweaking).

But I do believe in supporting local brick-and-mortar bookstores. They were all supposed to have it by June 1. 

We called around yesterday and only one store in the country said they had it - here in Baltimore.

That's OK - I sort of liked the way that sounded - like having a Baltimore premiere.

So, based on that information, we dutifully blasted out messages to hundreds of people in Baltimore that the book is available.

This morning, throngs of expectant customers were turned away empty-handed. The bookstore employee had given us false information.

My own phone rang this morning - it was the bookstore calling me to ask me where the books are!

This is apparently a case of Mann tracht un Gott lacht - Man plans and God laughs.

But what does that Yiddish proverb mean? Why would we want to think of God as laughing at us?

 

Shabbat Shalom
 

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