What Can You Learn From Fireflies?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 26-27, 2024 • 21 Tamuz 5784 • Pinchus (Num 25-31).

The goal of this blog is glowing Shabbat table conversation ... please share.
Happy birthday shout-out to Aaron in San Rafael!

Did you have fireflies growing up?

When I was growing up, they were something you read about in stories. I never actually saw them until the college summer I spent on the East Coast.

Surprisingly, fireflies are found in every US State of the Lower 48. How come we never saw them on the West Coast?

Apparently, of the 170 firefly species in the US, the ones west of the Rockies flash their lights only on the ground and not while flying, so they're very hard and rare to see.

OK, but... so what? In an AP feature story this week it was mentioned how each species has a unique light pattern, for instance:

The Smoky Mountains have Photinus carolinus fireflies that have become a tourist attraction with their tendency to flash in unison.

Some fireflies — nicknamed femme fatale — mimic another species’ light pattern to attract males, kill and eat them.

No surprise, like many creatures, fireflies are apparently disappearing.

Question to ask at your table: Should that bother us? And if so, why?

It turns out that they do more for us than entertain children. For example, they actually eat mosquitoes, slugs and snails (among other things).

Did you ever hear of a slug-eating fly? 

Well, it turns out that fireflies are not actually flies – they're beetles. And it also turns out that they're very hard to study and we know very little about them.

“It’s kind of like we’ve taken fireflies for granted for many decades. Everybody just assumes that we know all about them and that we know all the species and that everybody loves them. You know, they’re bioluminescent, so that’s really cool. Kids love them. But it’s amazing how little we know about them.”
— Delaware State University environmental sciences professor Christopher Heckscher

Question for your table: Is there a moral to this story?

It seems to me that we like to believe that our leaders and experts "know what they're doing." Sometimes they do and when they do we're lucky. But don't ever put your faith in them.

And the very best experts have no trouble saying the third hardest phrase in the English language to say: "I don't know."


Shabbat Shalom 

This week's Table Talk also appears online at blogs.timesofisrael.com
 and http://rabbiseinfeld.blogspot.com.

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

If You're Angry and You Know It Clap Your Hands?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 19-20, 2024 • 14 Tamuz 5784 • Balak (Num 22-25).

The goal of this blog is a happy-clappy Shabbat table ... please share.

Let's follow up on last week's Shakespearean death theme with a thought about life.

Shakespeare undoubtedly knew and was inspired by this week's Torah Portion.

Let's focus on one line that I think most people miss. I think it teaches one of the most important lessons in the Torah.

Balak became enraged at Bilam and clapped his hands (24:10).

   
Try asking this at your table: Why is he clapping his hands?

Everyone knows, "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!"

Who claps their hands when angry? 

Many years ago I was in Paris and decided I should go see an opera. It was at the historic Bastille Opera House and the star was a Spanish soprano. I didn't think he was that good, but the crowd thought different. When the final curtain call came, they booed! They let him know how unhappy they were with his performance! I have never seen anything like that in my life, neither before nor since.

I assure you, no one was clapping! Who claps when they're angry?

Balak's clapping I think comes from his sense of dignity. He's a dignitary and has a certain decorum to uphold. He's clapping because he's trying to avoid losing his temper.

This scene is so theatrical, I'm sure it inspired many scripts throughout history. 

Let's say you find yourself getting angry with your spouse or your parent or your child or your sibling. You've got all this angry energy that you want to release.

Would you just get angry, or would you control yourself?

How about someone who has internalized the Torah teaching that losing one's temper is akin to idolatry — i.e., very bad. But the anger is so strong you feel like punching someone. What do you do?

Some people might go punch a pillow. What if there's no pillow around?

Would you perhaps just punch yourself, i.e., clap your hands? 

Would that look silly? What would be worse, losing your temper or clapping your hands and risking looking strange?

The lesson I take from Balak is maintaining your dignity and not losing your temper is so important that it would be better to look strange to people than to lose control. 

And if you express your anger by clapping your hands, maybe they'll just think you're happy.

Who is truly strong? Someone who has self-control. (Avot 4:1)


Shabbat Shalom 

(Yes, click the pic!)

This week's Table Talk also appears on my Times of Israel blog.

Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it,  email it....

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

Three Shakespearean Questions

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 12-13, 2024 • 7 Tamuz 5784 • Chukas (Num 18-23).

The goal of this email is a life-changing Shabbat table ... please share.

Here are three Shakespearean questions for your table:

1. Hamlet Act III, Scene 1 ("To be or not to be") is possibly the most famous poem in history. How much of it can you recite by heart?

2. What is the correct punctuation of the phrase, "To be or not to be"?

3. In a nutshell, what's the theme of the poem?

The answer to Question #2 is: a comma after the first "to be" and a colon after the second one. As in:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?

The answer to Question 3 is that it's a meditation on death, and he decides that the only thing that prevents a troubled person like himself from committing suicide is fear of death.

But try asking this: What's so fearsome about death?

Our tradition teaches that the only thing to fear about death itself is the two movies that they're going to show you. 

The first movie is the film of your life.

Imagine viewing a movie of your entire life - every great thing that you did and every dumb thing you did, including the dumbest one of all - wasting time.

The second movie is the film of what your life could have been had you made different choices. Especially if you had wasted less time.

What you could have achieved — intellectually, creatively, in your relationships, in your legacy.

For some, the pain of confronting those squandered opportunities will be great.

Others won't have such a hard time, because they read this email, shared it with everyone they knew, and started living every day to the fullest, every day until...

Good night sweet prince:  

  And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Shabbat Shalom 

(Yes, the pic is clic-able, as always...)

This week's Table Talk also appears on my Times of Israel blog.

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Bubbly Bubby

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 5-6, 2024 • 30 Sivan 5784 • Korach (Num 16-18).

The goal of this blog is a bubbly Shabbat table ... please share.

In memory of my grandmother, Yehudis bas Alexander, whose 18th yahrzeit is tonight. 

Last week I shared some wisdom from my paternal grandparents. 

This week from a maternal grandparent.

One of the strongest memories I have of Bubbie is that she was the epitome of a "lifelong learner." 

Whether via books or lectures or documentary films, she loved learning something new.

And she loved sharing what she learned. She was a voracious reader of the newspapers, but not for the news as much as the feature articles, which she shared with great enthusiasm.

We used to visit her every Sunday afternoon, and conversation with her was always interesting not only because it was always something new that she had learned, but also because she shared it with such enthusiasm.

She was indeed a bubbly Bubbie.

For decades, she was a loyal attendee of her synagogue's Sunday morning lecture program, until....

... she stopped driving. 

Now, many elderly people need to be told to stop driving by their children or the DMV.

Bubbie did it on her own. At around age 90 she decided that it was too risky at her age to continue driving, so she sold her car and threw away her license.

But now that she couldn't drive, how would she attend the Sunday morning lecture?

We repeatedly encouraged her to take a cab for the 2-mile journey. She repeatedly demurred... "It's too expensive," she said. 

We offered to pay for the cab, but she demurred, "It's too expensive."

She didn't complain – never a word of complaint that she couldn't attend anymore. But somehow taking a cab was too much outside the box for her. For some reason, paying $10 to get to her Sunday lecture seemed exorbitant in her eyes.

May we all always cherish learning the way that she did, may we all be as bubbly, and may we all never feel that it's too dear!
 

Shabbat Shalom 

(Yes, the pic is clic-able, as always...)

This week's Table Talk also appears on my Times of Israel blog.

Enjoyed this Table Talk? Vote with your fingers! Like it, tweet it,  email it....

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