Is It That Time Of Year Again?

 

 

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 25-26, 2025 • 1 Av 5785 • Matos-Masai (Num 30-36).
In memory of Dovid ben Eliezer.

Thank you for all the positive feedback on the new teachers website.

This week, for the twentieth time in late July or early August, I have to speak about my late father zl in the past tense.

Anyone who ever lost a loved one knows the feeling. During shiva you're still talking about them in the present tense. It takes weeks or months to get used to using the past tense.

His death twenty years ago this week (on the Jewish calendar) was so sudden, violent, and young (65) that the Pierce County newspaper editors were moved to write a rare editorial-obituary.

Headline: We've Lost One of the Good Guys

I think that my mother summed him up best when she asked that his epitaph read, "Champion of Justice".

In that spirit, when we made a donation to our shul in his memory, we asked for the plaque to read, "One who chased tzedakah, loved Jews, and honored all creatures."



It seems to me that an epitaph is like a eulogy — it should at the end of the day inspire the rest of us to a higher sense of being and purpose.

Question for your table: What would you want your epitaph to say in order to inspire others about your life?


Shabbat Shalom


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Raise the Bar For Our Children?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 18-19, 2025 • 23 Tamuz 5785 • Pinchas (Num 25-31).

Whether you are a parent or grandparent, or an aunt or uncle, or neighbor: you surely have children in your social network whom you care about.

The question is - have these children ever had a less-than-stellar teacher in any classroom?

I wish that this were a sincere question and not a rhetorical one. 

In my opinion, having an untrained teacher in any classroom is usually a bit of a tragedy. 

Finding great teachers is the dream of every principal. But it ain't easy. Sometimes they have to settle, and hope for the best. That's why we launched JTI 8 years ago.

But this week the game has changed, and I need your help, dear reader, to get the word out.

Our Jewish Teachers Institute (JTI) project has until now serviced only the Baltimore community. But as of this week - any school in the world can stream our workshops!

Please check out https://trainings.jsli.org 

I have two requests:

1. Spend 4.5 minutes perusing the site.

2. If you like what you see, share it with anyone you know involved with education.

Including: teachers (including college professors), principals, parents and grandparents of school-age children...

Most of our workshops are universal - even a public school teacher would benefit.

I have personally spent many hours over the past month trying to get this website right. I would very much appreciate your critical feedback if you see anything that can be improved! 

Many thanks to the generous supporters of JSLI whose partnership has made this new level of teacher training possible. 

Let's end as usual with a question for your table... One of the workshops on the new site is called PIVOT: Teach Any Subject Effectively - it's an acronym for 5 key practices of master teachers. Can you guess what each letter stands for? 

Shabbat Shalom


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Boerne Again?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

 

 

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 11-12, 2025 • 16 Tamuz 5785 • Balak (Num 22-25).
 

 

Here's a question to start your Shabbat table conversation: Have you ever heard of Boerne, Texas?

"Sure, it's about a half-mosey from Fair Oaks Ranch, and a mosey-and-a-half from Comfort."

Related question: How do you pronounce Boerne?

("Burn-ee".)

The town has a website, a news site, plenty of green, wonderful things to see and do, and.... can you guess what else...?

Yessir, yes ma'am, a Chabad House.

Apparently Rabbi and Rebbetzin Marrus are doing tremendous acts of chesed to help victims of this flooding tragedy — everything from cash and food to chainsaws and refrigerators. Not to mention priceless emotional support.

(If you want to participate in the mitzvah, click here.)

Question for your table... Helping victims of a distant disaster is an unmistakable chesed (act of lovingkindness). But would you call it a duty?

Shabbat Shalom


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Do You NEED a Miracle, or Do You WANT a Miracle...?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

 

 

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 4-5, 2025 • 9 Tamuz 5785 • Chukath (Num 19-22).

There are two types of people in the world.

One kind of person, like my Bubby of recent fame, who saw miracles in the small things. Everyday miracles.

(BTW, this book image is clickable - highly recommended!)

The other type of person sees the same everyday events and says, They are not miracles, they're "nature" or "random". 

First question for your table: Which kind are you?

For thousands of years through our many persecutions, we have been reading promises in our books of Prophets that the day will come when we see will see extraordinary events that even the latter kind of person would have to admit are miraculous.

Unless your head is in the sand, you are surely aware that we have arrived to the foretold time.

These stories don't make your Google or Yahoo news feed. But they are being told. Mili

Question for your table... Which kind of person are you?

Shabbat Shalom (and Happy 4th!)



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Gotta Love People...?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

June 27-28, 2025 • 2 Tamuz 5785 • Korach (Num 16-18).
In memory of my grandmother, Yehudis bas Alexander, on her 19th yahrzeit.

My grandmother, Bubby, loved people.

Due to this trait, taking her on an errand was never a speedy activity.

Unlike many of her peers, into her 90s she wasn't mobility challenged; she never used a cane etc. Even after she gave up driving because she realized that her reflexes had dulled, she continued to walk everywhere and enjoyed every step.

But what slowed her down was that she seemed to be able to find an excuse to talk to everyone she met. It could be a stranger walking a dog or merely wearing a hat - anything slightly unusual would be an excuse to start a conversation. And if the person had absolutely no unusual garment or pet, she would break the ice with something like, "Are you enjoying the fabulous weather?"

Those were the quick conversations. The longer ones were in the stores. She couldn't buy a box of toothpicks without getting the salesperson's life story and without explaining why she needed that box of toothpicks on that particular day.

But I cannot recall anyone ever responding to her in anything other than the most warm and lovely way. The reasons is obvious - her questions were genuine - she truly was interested in everyone and spoke from her heart.

Question for your table... In Proverbs (27:19), King Solomon says, "As water reflects one's face, so does the heart of person to another." - Do you think that's true?

 I
Shabbat Shalom



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Who's the We?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

June 20-21, 2025 • 25 Sivan 5785 • Shelach (Num 13-15).

 

The happiest Jews I know right now are those who spend the least time online.

It's obviously heartening to read pro-Israel comments.

The anti-Israel comments are to be expected, nothing new here. But the pro-Israel comments from around the world are a big boost.

Including President Trump's.

Here's a question for your table: 

When Mr. Trump said, "We have complete control of Iranian airspace" — what did he mean?

Presumably, he was talking like a Yankees fan watching his team trouncing the Dodgers in the top of the Ninth.

"We've got this one in the bag..."

Mr. Trump is a big fan of Israel. He's rooting for the Jews.

Just pause for one minute and think about this one fact: regardless of your personal opinion of Mr. Trump, regardless of your opinion about his policies or his style or anything else - how does it feel to know that the President of the USA is rooting for your people?

It feels almost like a Biblical moment:

- When we left Egypt in 1300 BCE, why did there need to be 10 Plagues? Couldn't God have taken us out without all that? The answer is: God wanted the King (Pharaoh) to green-light our freedom.

- When we left Persia ca. 380 BCE, King Cyrus not only green-lighted the return to Israel, he underwrote it and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

But these facts give us a theological question for the table:

Why would God set it up this way? Putting aside realpolitik, in the big scheme of things, why should it matter whether or not the most powerful person in the world supports our sovereignty?


May we share good news.

Shabbat Shalom

PS - Want to know a trick for having a truly peaceful Shabbat? Try going 25 hours - from 18 min before sunset tonight until 48 min after sunset tomorrow - without looking at a screen or listening to the radio. Guaranteed serenity. Added serenity if you light candles this evening before sunset - a simple act that connects you to Jewish people around the world and going back in time for thousands of years.



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When In Rome?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

 

 

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

June 13-14, 2025 • 18 Sivan 5785 • Behalosecha (Num 8-12).
In memory of Sima bas Mordechai Yaakov and Eliezer ben Zelig.

 

This week was the yahrzeit of my paternal grandparents (Gigi and Poppy), pictured here.

In many ways they were great role models. They loved each other, they were very family- and community-oriented. And as far as I know they lived clean, ethical lives. And they loved life - they were happy people.

While they were very Jewishly active and oriented, they had their limits.

For instance, in my mid-twenties, when I took time out from my career in order to spend some time studying Judaism in a yeshivah, Gigi was unable to comprehend my motivation.

I recall her specifically asking me, "Don't you want to have nice things?"

Apparently, she assumed that I had chosen a life of poverty. Because unlike a grad student, my studies were not even ostensibly career-building.

Poppy was a bit different. He had gone to law school so could appreciate somewhat the value of study for its own sake. But what puzzled him more was why I would want to keep kosher. Although his own upbringing had been Orthodox, he had learned from his Reform rabbi that the entire idea of kosher was outdated. While he wasn't critical, he would chide me with a smile, "Haven't you heard of the expression, When in Rome...?"

To which I would reply, "Sure, but look at what has happened - the Romans are gone, and we're still around."

To which he would laugh.

Question for your table: When, if ever, does the expression, "When in Rome..." apply these days?  


Shabbat Shalom


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Basketball, Symphony, or Diamond?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

June 6-7, 2025 • 11 Sivan 5785 • Naso (Num 4-7).

Last week's message was about Gentiles doing Judaism. This week is about how Jews "do" Judaism. 

Here's a real question from my inbox this week that I think represents a common view not only of Judaism but of "organized religion:"

I'm proud to be Jewish, I'm fascinated with our history and many of the traditions, I love our food, I love recognizing my traits in other Jews and vice versa. I want to dive in much deeper and finally 'live Jewish'. But. Religion feels forced to me, even the Jewish religion. Why do we need to follow rules to mourn a certain way? To eat a certain way? To sit through services that repeat the same messages, over and over again? It all feels unnatural to me.

Question for your table: how would you respond to this person? 

It seems to me that the main part of the message is the words, "I want to dive in much deeper, but..."

I'd like to share my response to this person, in case it may benefit anyone reading this, or someone you know...

Believe it or not, this desire for "deeper diving" is very familiar situation that many people have experienced lately! And it was foretold by our Prophets thousands of years ago that in the lead-up to the Messianic Age, many disconnected Jewish people (and even many who didn't even know they were Jewish) will appear "like grass sprouting from parched land."

You say your understanding of "religion" isn't meaningful to you. What about our weekly holiday? In my opinion an easy way to start getting a deeper connection would be to start by taking the simple action of lighting candles 18 minutes before sunset every Friday. This will connect you to millions of Jews around the world and your grandparents and great-grandparents going back thousands of years. You could try it this week and see if it feels forced or authentic! 

Beyond that, here's a suggested reading list that I think you will find very informative:

Judaism: A Historical Presentation
My Friends We Were Robbed!
The Art of Amazement
Living Inspired
The Everything Torah Book

Putting aside ritual, Tribal membership is magnified and enriched by community, I would certainly encourage you to try finding a group of Jews whom you enjoy being with - whether it be for services or classes or social events.

Some of us believe that nothing occurs randomly - if this is your background and your story, it there's undoubtedly a reason for it! There is a traditional teaching that each one of us was sent to this world to fulfill a mission, and if you are Jewish, then your mission is possibly bound up with whatever that means. 

Bottom line, Judaism belongs to you as much as to any other Jew, regardless of how you were raised and regardless of what you choose to do with it! The above suggestions will surely help you along that path and you can go as far as you want to — as others have before you! Just take it slow and over time try to find a rabbi to guide you.

Hope that's encouraging and helpful.... enjoy the journey!


Second question for your table: I've heard Judaism compared to basketball (we're all playing the same game, but with different talents and styles), to music (we're all members of a symphony orchestra, each playing a different instrument), to a diamond (we're all facets of the same gem, but each person needs to self-polish for the gem to shine). Which of these analogies - or other - appeals to you the most?


Shabbat Shalom


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X-Mezuzah?

May 30-31, 2025 • 4 Sivan 5785 • BaMidbar (Num 1-4).

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

Christians hanging mezuzahs on their front doors?

Apparently it's a thing.

Not to be confused with the solidarity mezuzah.

And Jewish people are divided. Here are some sample comments:

• I’m so infuriated.
• I'm not gonna lie, this kinda irritates me.
• Who cares?? As long as they support Jewish people, I do not care. Seriously baffled by the reactions here!
• Guys, do you not realize that it's too late for gatekeeping? Literally their entire religion is an appropriation of ours. I highly doubt it's going to be such a trend that all Christians follow so that you wouldn't be able to tell if it's a Jewish mezuzah or not. If we let ourselves get offended every time something like this happens, we won't have time or energy to do anything else. Pick your battles wisely.
• If I saw this at someone’s house, I’d leave.
• So many negative messages here. It does not bother me at all.
• According to the Gospels, Jesus’ teachings replaced the old laws of Torah. So why do Christians want to be like Jews? It makes no sense.
• A growing trend is to do stuff like this with an intention of showing solidarity. We’re free to take it as we want (I don’t agree with it), but at least they aren’t breaking out the torches and pitchforks to run us out of town.
• Don't care. As long as they're not using kosher mezuzah scrolls, let 'em have fun. Honestly, it's much better than hating every single thing about us and wanting us all dead.

First question for your table: What's your opinion? 

Second question: In your mind, is there any difference between the Christian mezuzah and the Messianic one?

(PS - Rabbi Tovia Singer has an opinion about this.)

Shabbat Shalom

and 

Chag Sameach!


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HARdball Questions?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 23-24, 2025 • 27 Iyar 5785 • BeHar (Lev 25-end).

If you read this "Table Talk" blog regularly, you know that sometimes I pitch softballs and sometimes hardballs.

The weekly aim is provocative open-ended questions that hopefully anyone can have an opinion about, fostering dinner table conversation.

By “hardball,” I mean questions that have a higher chance of pushing emotional buttons.

Today, this week’s current events have prompted such questions. 

I’m referring to this DC tragedy, the wanton snuffing out of life of these two young Israelis.

Some have labeled the murder anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism means of course, Jew-hatred.

First question for your table: But were they targeted for being Jewish or for being Israeli? And does it make a difference?

How about this…

It turns out that Yaron Lischinsky has a Jewish father and Christian mother who raised him Christian and he was a member of the FFOZ Bram Center for Messianic Jewish Learning in Jerusalem. Therefore, according to most definitions of "Jewish" (other than Jews for Jesus), he wasn’t an MOT.

Therefore (second question for your table): Does that fact change your assessment of whether or not the murder was anti-Semitic?

Third question – and this is the hardest one: Was this tragedy a wake-up call that it's time that we start to consider Messianic Jews to be part of the Jewish People? What do you think? And if not, was it a wake-up call in any way?

Another angle on the same topic: 

This week I had a conversation with someone who considers himself Jewish and whom others consider Jewish who calls himself an atheist. When I asked him to clarify if he meant atheist as opposed to agnostic, his response wasn’t crystal-clear, so it is possible that he was technically agnostic. But either way, he calls himself atheist and celebrates a few Jewish traditions like Pesach because he enjoys them. 

Now, is such a person any less Jewish than a Jew for Jesus who keeps all of the holidays, eats kosher etc.? What do you think?


Shabbat Shalom


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Are You Heart of Hearing?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 16-17, 2025 • 20 Iyar 5785 • Emor (Lev 21-24).

Does this every happen to you — the same subject comes up repeatedly in one week from unrelated sources?

Like a recurring dream, but in real life?

Is it a sign that I should be focusing there?

This week my recurring-dream subject was hearing.

As in the physiological process of converting sound waves into information via the two marvelous instruments on the sides of our heads.

It came up in several unrelated conversations.

One was an email from a friend who wrote,

I believe blasting music at a wedding is anti-Torah, and unacceptable. King David showed us that dancing at a simchah should indeed be with all our hearts. But David did not give into the music (which could not have been very loud at all compared to today’s amplification) – he celebrated before Hashem and for His glory.

That's an interesting angle. I'm personally more concerned about the hearing damage caused by loud music which is real and permanent.

Another hearing-related conversation this week - Someone told me that a certain teacher used our "Ear" unit from our Ma Rabu!/Amazing Nature Curriculum, and that (predictably) her students were enthralled. (Here's the general-studies version.)

Today is Lag B'Omer, a holiday closely associated with music. It's also strongly associated with Torah and the most foundational foundation of Torah, Love Your Neighbor.

Question for your table: What's the connection between music and Love Your Neighbor?

Maybe you'll get some interesting answers from the table. Here's mine:

Great music in ensemble can only happen when the musicians are listening to each other. It doesn't matter how great the music is on paper - it could be the most exhilarating Beethoven symphony, but if the musicians are not listening to each other, it's going to sound terrible. 

That's exactly how Love Your Neighbor works. I can't treat you properly if I am not paying attention to you. I need to listen to you and really hear you. To listen with my heart and not only my head.


Happy Lag B'Omer and

Shabbat Shalom


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What's Great Spiritual Leadership?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 9-10, 2025 • 13 Iyar 5785 • AM-Kedoshim (Lev 16-20).

Now we're talking! An American Pope. 

But do we really care? 

First of all, you can ask this at your table - Does anyone know what the word "Pope" means?

It means "father" - from Greek pappas - and the full appellation is "Holy Father."

What makes him holy? Among other things, celibacy.

In their religion, the body and the physical world are ultimately unholy and the source of sin, and therefore the holiest people practice celibacy (which regardless of the sociological and historical basis, is the lived reality and projected value of their holiest people), and they teach that the ultimate goal of life is to escape this world of sin and go to Heaven.

Note our diametrical disagreement with them! Judaism teaches that the world is not inherently sinful, that it has the potential to be elevated, and indeed it is our job to elevate the physical to its spiritual potential - we are the bridge between Heaven and Earth.

Now, since we have all this chatter about American-bred spiritual leadership, what's a Jewish example?

While one could find many historically great examples, one of the all-time most famous and influential American-born rabbis was Rav Avigdor Miller (1908-2001) ztzl. His pre-Holocaust European yeshiva studies made him a great Torah expert, and his upbringing enabled him to fully relate to the American Jewish experience, and making him particularly quotable. Here are a couple of my favorites:

If people would know how to live properly - and by properly I mean happily - they would live with moderation. They would eat what they have to eat, and they would drink what they have to drink, and they would enjoy it so much that their lives would be overflowing with happiness and satisfaction. It would be a life of lo chosarta davar [not lacking]!

~

When you eat breakfast, learn to enjoy it to the hilt! Fully! Live deeply, richly, on your piece of bread and salt and water... When the tzaddik eats, he enjoys it. He really is happy with his food. That glass of water is more delicious to him than the most expensive champagne. Tzaddikim are not only people who look forward to the pleasure of Olam HaBa (the Next World) but have pleasure in this world, too.

These glimpses into the mind of a great Torah leader can lead us back to our main theme  — What's great spiritual leadership?

Shabbat Shalom


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Vegetative Electron Microscopy?

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

May 2-3, 2025 • 5 Iyar 5785 • Tazria-Metzora (Lev 12-15).

Dovetailing on last week's theme of AI-generated art, try reading the above title to your table and ask, Can anyone can guess what it means???

If anyone guesses that it is meaningless, they are 100 percent right.

So how do you explain that it appears in published scientific papers?

The answer is long and convoluted. In short, apparently there was an error in an automatic scan of an old article where the word "vegetative" and the phrase "electron microscopy" appeared in adjacent columns of text.

Once that error was out there, it became replicated when non-Anglophones used AI to generate translations (or possibly to generate fraudulent papers). 

The details of this story were explained recently by Aaron Snoswell et al. in The Conversation, as an example of a real phenomenon:

Like biological fossils trapped in rock, these digital artefacts may become permanent fixtures in our information ecosystem.

We Jews have a great sensitivity to the subject of transmission accuracy. Our entire body of wisdom and culture known as Judaism relies on accurate transmission and our scholars are always on the lookout for errors. Even when reading the Torah ritually in shul, if the Torah scroll contains even one error, it must be put aside until fixed, and if the reader makes even a tiny error, anyone paying attention shouts out the correction.

Question for your table - which system of knowledge transmission is in the long-run going to prove more accurate - the traditional Jewish one, or the new AI one?


Shabbat Shalom

Good, Bad, Or Ugly?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 25-26, 2025 • 28 Nissan 5785 • Shemini (Lev 9-11).
In memory of my maternal uncle Mike Goodman (Michael ben Chaim) who passed away last week and whose Shiva is being observed this week.

In honor of Uncle Mike (see note above), this week's questions are about art.

Mike was a very special kind of artist, what we call an artisan. His chosen art form was rare MGs and occasionally other sports cars. He was one of those guys who could dismantle a car and rebuild it like new. What a career for a guy born and bred in LA. 

While he loved his work, he also loved people, and would do anything for anyone. He truly made the world a better place.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Speaking of artistry, try asking at the Shabbat table: how did you like last week's AI rendition of Abraham Lincoln as a Biblical shepherd?

Good, bad, or ugly?

Assuming the former, here's the 2nd question for the table: Who gets artistic credit?

On one hand, I indeed conceived the project, instructed the AI, and guided it to completion.

On the other hand, I certainly did not create the image.

Where is the "soul" of art — in the idea, or the execution, or both?

How about this week's self-portrait in bronze? Scale of 1 to 10?

It would take me many, many years of study to create such art from my own hands.

I imagine that people have been asking these questions since the invention of recorded music. 

Now, not everyone cares about visual arts or even musical arts. But I would like to suggest that everyone has an artist within.

How so?

This is a very Jewish take: our lives have the potential to be a work of art. But no AI can ever create my life for me - I have to be the artist. 

And... if you'll allow me to use a music analogy: we are all like musicians in a giant orchestra, so while we can each make beautiful solo music, there's nothing like playing together in harmony.

That, in a nutshell, is the point of Judaism — it's a musical score! All those rules? They're like all the notes, the key signatures and time signatures, the dynamics.... there are rules of intonation and of rhythm.... and when we are all playing the same score, we create a great symphony.

Perhaps AI can create great art, but not the greatest art? What would Uncle Mike say?


Shabbat Shalom


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Who's Happier - Avraham or Abraham?

Apropos the Kit, try asking these two questions at your Shabbat table:

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

April 18-19, 2025 • 21 Nissan 5785 • Pesach (Ex 13:17-15:26).

Try this opener at your table: When's the last time you thought about John F. Kennedy? 

No, flying into JFK Airport doesn't count.

(I wonder: does getting an airport named after you raise or lower your standing in History?)

53 years ago, on April 29, 1962, President Kennedy hosted fifty Nobel laureates and dozens of other intellectuals for dinner. He famously quipped, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Since Jefferson, the US has been lead by several great intellectuals, not the least of whom was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was remarkable in that he was mostly self-taught and had such a thirst for learning that he was rarely seen without a book. One of the keys to his learning was "by never being ashamed to confess his ignorance of what in fact he did not know, by always asking questions where he could probably elicit information, and by studying all his life. I have seen him repeatedly around upon the circuit with school books" (Leonard Swett, a lawyer who worked with Lincoln).

We are fortunate to live in a world that honors learning and people like this on pedestals.

But there are two questions we should ask about these role models.

First, these people all have natural gifts. Sure, one can (and should) be a lifelong learner like Lincoln. But not everyone is cut out to be constantly studying, are they?

Second – and more important – does knowledge lead to happiness?

Perhaps it does for some. 

But achieving breakthroughs in knowledge, even on a personal level, can take months or years of work, and it's hard work. Jefferson himself quipped, "Most people will go to any amount of trouble to avoid the effort of thinking."

For those who don't feel cut out for such intellectual life, you may be interested in the 2025 "World Happiness Report" from the Oxford University's Wellbeing Research Centre. Based on data from 140 countries, they have concluded that one way to achieve   And turns out that one way to become instantly happier is sharing a meal. 

And they found that the health impact of the opposite – loneliness and isolation – is "roughly equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day."

It turns out that our Patriarch Avraham was both an intellectual and a great gatherer of people to eat together. But we remember him primarily for the latter quality. His intellect was a gift, his learning was certainly a pursuit, but his loving kindness via food was his art.  

Abraham Lincoln's art was politics, and he saved his country. Not bad.

Avraham Avinu's art was people, and he saved the world.

May we all learn to cultivate the great arts of happiness.

Happy Pesach and 

Shabbat Shalom

This message also appears on my Times of Israel blog.