Just Visiting?

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Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

October 31-32, 2025 • 10 Mar Cheshvan 5786 • Lech Lecha (Gen 12-17).

A couple weeks ago, an out-of-the-blue message came in from a cousin:

"Here's a beautiful antique cabinet that belonged to our grandparents... we're remodeling and have no space for it, would you guys like it?"

Frankly, it's amazing that it stayed in the family this long.

Did you ever have to deal with the estate of someone recently deceased?

Beyond the financial obstacle course, there's all that stuff.

Unidentified photos. Random files. Notebooks and scraps of paper. 

When my grandmother died 20 years ago, she left gorgeous vintage fur coats that NOBODY wanted.

And the thing that bothered me the most is that she hadn't worn those coats in decades. 

So here we are, you and I, each of us hopefully healthy and with many years ahead of us.

But how much of our stuff is really unneeded fluff?

What kind of burden are we bequeathing on our heirs?

Are we living as if we'll live forever, or are we mindful that this world is a prozdor, in Talmudic parlance, a corridor between where we came from and where we're going?

Once upon a time, a visitor from America to the home of the Chafetz Chaim (Rav Yisroel Meir Kagan) was taken aback by the sparse furniture - only benches, not even chairs.

"Where are your chairs?" he asked.

"Where are yours?" asked the Rav.

"Mine? But I'm just a visitor here."

"So am I," said the Rav.


We are all (myself included) so busy that it's easy to forget how very fleeting life is... If you were 100 percent mindful of being "just a visitor here", how would you live your life differently?


Shabbat Shalom

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Time Flies Like An Arrow...

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Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

October 24-25, 2025 • 3 Mar Cheshvan 5786 • Noach (Gen 6-11).

Happy news - Body & Soul is back in stock. Just in time to help you and your family get healthier in 5786 !

 

...Fruit flies like a banana.

Try that one at your table and see (a) if anyone gets it and (b) if anyone can guess who said it....??

(Groucho Marx)

In addition to killing it with the Dad Jokes, I myself was killing some drosophila (fruit flies) this week. 

I'm sure that you've done the same.

And I never bring fruit into the office. Certainly no bananas.

So what are they pestering me for? Apparently the coffee grounds in the garbage. Maybe it's time to take out the garbage.

But why not finesse an otherwise annoying experience into something more meaningful?

First of all, try asking at the table: Do you personally have any qualms killing a fruitfly?

We all know how hard they are to kill with their crazy zig-zag flight algorithm. But what else do you know about them?

They can detect odors from 30 feet away.
This olfactory prowess is attributed to their highly specialized antennae, which are rich in sensory receptors
They can taste with their feet.
Specialized chemoreceptors located on their legs allow them to detect sweet and bitter substances when they land on potential food sources
They have a unique brain structure for processing smells.
Their brains contain about 100,000 neurons, with distinct areas dedicated to processing smells. This structure allows fruit flies to quickly discern and respond to various odors, aiding in foraging and mating behaviors.
They share 75 percent of their genes with us and are used in 70 percent of genetic research studies.
For example, flies eating a lot of sugar also exhibit symptoms of type 2 diabetes. Researchers can also genetically modify fruit flies to study a variety of other conditions. Using fruit flies as test subjects, researcher Vicki Losick recently discovered that in wounds, cells enlarge by polyploidization—or the multiplication of chromosomes—to compensate for cells that are lost. This suggests that cellular damage caused by wounds either leads to cell proliferation or cell growth, depending on context, changing our understanding of how the body reacts to injury.
They are master beer tasters.
Fruit flies are masters of discernment when it comes to the yeasty flavors of beer. An experiment at Stanford found that fruit flies were attracted to beers with fruitier base yeasts, which tend to be the beers humans prefer as well

So kill them if you must, but maybe pause for a moment to appreciate the little drosophila? What do you think?


Shabbat Shalom

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We Knew, and Lost, a Giant

Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

October 17-18, 2025 • 26 Tishrei 5786 • Bereishis (Gen 1-6).

The joy of Simchat Torah on Wednesday turned to sadness Wednesday night when word spread of the sudden passing of Rav Moshe Hauer ztzl, aged 60.

He died on Monday night during the Festival and his righteous wife/widow gave strict orders that it be kept a secret in order not to diminish the community's celebration.

A Baltimore funeral was hastily organized for Thursday morning in order to enable burial in Israel before Shabbat. 

Whatever I have to share will pale in comparison to what his regular congregants and students will say. His shul was a mere 10 minute walk from our home and had many opportunities to hear him speak with great depth and always with subtle humor.

What I would like to share today is a small but significant personal interaction - a 1-on-1 meeting in his office nine years ago.

I was deep in the R&D phase of the Torah Health and Wellness project.

I requested the meeting in order to ask two things:

1. Would the Rav allow me to list him in the "Current Leadership" chapter as someone who tries to eat healthily and exercise?

2. Does he have any suggestions or guidance to help the project achieve its goals?

To the first answer, he responded - without hesitation - Yes. He immediately understood the need for leaders like himself to publicly model this mitzvah in which so many are struggling (or not even trying). 

You'll find his listing on p. 341 of Body & Soul.

(There you might notice that during the seven years between our meeting and going to press, Rav Hauer left the synagogue position in order to take the helm of the global OU organization.)

To the second answer, he gave me a number of important suggestions, not the least of which was to connect with someone named Daniel Grove, MD.

In case you don't recognize that name, he's my co-author.

The fact that I was neither a member of his shul nor a regular attendee of his classes underscores the kind of person Rav Hauer was. He was there for literally anyone who asked for help.

(Here is one eulogy that is just the tip of a very large iceberg.)

He apparently took the hostage crisis very, very deeply and personally, and many have wondered if their release on Monday had anything to do with the Rav's petira on Monday night.

(If you click on his image above, you'll see a 3-minute video that illustrates how he felt about the suffering of people he had never met.)

Rav Hauer stood physically, intellectually, and morally taller than most; the Jewish People have lost a giant.

May his family be comforted.


Shabbat Shalom

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This post may also be read on Times of Israel.

Is Your Iron Still Hot?

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Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

September 26-27, 2025 • 5 Tishrei 5786 • Vayeitzei (Deut 31).

Happy New Year!

Wait, aren't we past New Year? Aren't the High Holidays in the rearview mirror?

If you think about it, everything we do on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is pure lip service.

Literally.

And there's nothing wrong with lip service. But actions speak louder than words, to coin a phrase.

What are you going to do TODAY to put your proverbial money where your mouth is?

Ready to do one extra mitzvah, to show God (or at least yourself) that RH and YK actually meant something to you and wasn't merely lip service?

There are so many mitzvot to choose from.

Doing one extra one today would be BRONZE.

Doing an extra one a day for a month would be SILVER.

Committing to an extra one a day (or a month) for a year would be GOLD.

Please watch my new video and then decide: BRONZE, SILVER, or GOLD? 

Today's the day to make it REAL. Don't wait. Strike while the iron is HOT!

Shabbat Shalom

and Happy Sukkot!


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