Carpe Diem Syndrome?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

August 25, 2023 • 8 Elul 5783 • Parshas Ki Seitzei (Deut 21-25). 
The purpose of this email is to build some conversational muscle at the Shabbat table...please share.

Announcement - if you are an Apple Books user, our new book is finally available for you - https://books.apple.com/us/book/body-soul/id6451424543?ls=1 !!!!
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Don't know about you, but I love being disabused of false notions.

Every time something I believed to be true turns out to be a myth, that's one step closer to total clarity.

This week's myth-busting is (no surprise) in the area of health and fitness.

The myth: The Jewish/Torah ideal of soul-body balance is not so radically different from other ancient cultures.

Take, for instance, the Latin expression, mens sana in corpore sano – a sound mind in a sound body. It's usually used to justify PE and sports in the school or college curriculum - meaning, physical health helps the mind (or sometimes it is interpreted as a justification for requring athletes to develop their minds).

But when the Roman Poet Juvenal (ca. 2nd Century CE) penned the phrase, he meant something entirely different: that one should pray for both a healthy mind and a healthy body (among other blessings). Meaning: not that they are equally valuable, nor that one enables the other, merely that they are both valuable.

(That misappropriation of Juvenal was initiated in 1861 to promote the Liverpool Athletic Club.)

So what does the Torah actually say about the relationship between mind and body?

A lot more than space here would allow! But first and foremost, on one hand, developing your mind is immeasurably more important than developing your body, and on the other hand, strengthening your body helps improve your mind (acuity, memory, and mood). 

In other words, even if daily exercise weren't a mitzvah (it is), doesn't it simply make good sense?

You don't have to become an athlete, and you don't even have to go to the gym....Start by taking a daily walk. Or merely using one of these.

Question for your table: Why is it so hard to change?

(My answer here.)

The countdown to Rosh Hashanah has begun... what's one habit you'd like to change or improve in 5784? 


Shabbat Shalom

PS - For more exercise ideas and resources, see our Exercise resource page.

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Back to the Future?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

August 19, 2023 • 1 Elul 5783 • Parshas Shoftim (Deut 16-21)

The purpose of this blog is to make it a conversation...please share.

As you know from last week, I'm into the idea of choices.

Despite the research that has shown that too many choices make us miserable.

Isn't the problem that we want to "have it all"? But we can't because life is too short.

And we need to sleep. 

So the most important choice is what you're going to do, or think, right now. 

If you're driven by a mission, then you'll choose to do right now something that takes you in that direction.

If you're not driven by a mission, you're more likely choosing reactively - based on what makes you more comfortable.

That's the ultimate daily choice: meaning versus comfort.

We're now exactly four weeks away from Rosh Hashanah. That's you and me - that's all of us.

What kind of new year do you hope to have? Are you a better human being now than you were a year ago? What kind of person do you want to be a year from now? If you had to stand before a judge or jury and justify getting another year of life, what would you say?

Chodesh Tov and

Shabbat Shalom

PS - What's your reaction to https://www.instagram.com/torahhealthandfitness/?

 

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The mission of Jewish Spiritual Literacy, Inc. (JSLI) is to foster a paradigm shift in spiritual and moral education to enable every human being to access and enjoy the incredible database of 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom.

If Choice Were a Choice, Would You Choose to Choose?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

August 12, 2023 • 25 Menachem Av 5783 • Parshas Re'eh (Deut 11-16)

Would you rather have a meaningful conversation without a Shabbat table  or a Shabbat table without meaningful conversation? - please share.

Announcement - we've launched a new social media channel for Torah Health and Fitness: https://www.instagram.com/torahhealthandfitness/

2 requests: 1. Please send me your feedback. 2. Please share with someone you know who MIGHT enjoy.

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Did one of you reading this happen to share last week's Table Talk about children with my 1-year-old grandson?

Because yesterday Menachem - busy, busy, busy - somehow got his hands into a jar not meant for his hands and his mouth onto the contents of the jar that are not meant for his mouth.

The jar is an activity/game that you can get for one of those long August afternoons or for an evening around the campfire.

It's called "Choices in a Jar."

You take turns pulling these dilemma cards out of the container. When it's your turn, you have to answer the question you draw.

Here are two samples that I randomly drew just now in order to share with you . . . try asking them at your table:

1. If you had to choose: Always be tired or always be tense. What's your choice?

2. If you had to choose: Go back in time and say or do one thing you never got to say or do, or take back one thing you said or did. What's your choice?

(Thank you, Menachem, for reminding us of this wonderful family activity.)

Shabbat Shalom

PS - In case you were wondering, the dilemma that Menachem decided to chew on was, If you had to choose: Wear all pink or all purple to school every day. What's your choice?

PPS - Yes, of course the image above is clickable, isn't it always?

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The mission of Jewish Spiritual Literacy, Inc. (JSLI) is to foster a paradigm shift in spiritual and moral education to enable every human being to access and enjoy the incredible database of 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom.

Child's Play?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

August 5, 2023 • 18 Menachem Av 5783 • Parshas Eikev (Deut 7-11)

The purpose of this email is to bring out the inner child at the Shabbat table - please share.

This week, I have had the privilege of spending time with extended family, including our two grandchildren.

The Talmud says, "Grandchildren are like children."

First question for your table: What does this mean to you?

Perhaps it refers to the "joy of grandchildren" cliché. I do not deny this joy.

Another cliché: when it comes to someone else's grandchildren, most people are satisfied with one single photo - they don't need to see baby on the swing, baby on the floor, baby with a bottle, baby sleeping...

I guess I'm abnormal in more ways than one. 

First of all, I don't particularly kvell from slide shows of even my own grandchildren... one great shot a week gives me a full dose of nachas. 

But I'm even crazier than that: I take after my own grandfather z''l who loved kids in general, even strangers' children.

Question for your table: What can you learn from a child?

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught: We should learn three things from a child: they're always busy, they're always happy, and when they want something, they say, "Please, please, please Mommy (or Daddy)" until they get what they want.

Shabbat Shalom

 

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The mission of Jewish Spiritual Literacy, Inc. (JSLI) is to foster a paradigm-shift in spiritual and moral education in general, including but not limited to Jewish education, towards an experiential pedagogy that transforms students with its spiritual vision and relevance to their daily lives.

We envision a future when every human being can access and enjoy the incredible database of 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom.