How's Your Alignment?

Please print this post and turn the Friday night journey into an adventure....

Did you hear this week's 8-minute podcast? See below….
Sending condolences to Tova NessAiver and family on the loss of their mother/grandmother, and Happy Birthday shoutouts to Moriel and DJ.
 

Did you hear this week's 5-minute podcast? See below....

How's Your Alignment?

Try asking this question at your table:

Did you ever dream of traveling to the Moon or Mars or Saturn (or more likely Titan)? 

Tonight is a great night to dream that dream.

This evening, if you have clear sky, find the moon.

Down to the right (towards four o'clock) look for three bright stars - that's Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. 

If you have binoculars or a small telescope (and a tripod) check out Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings.

Questions for your table: 

Which of those planets is closest to us? Which is farthest? How close, how far?

[moon: 380,000 km, Venus 55,000,000 km, Jupiter 789,000,000 km, Saturn 1,500,000,000 km]

That means that seeing Saturn is seeing sunlight that traveled about three hours round-trip from the sun, bounced off the planet then came all the way back to your eyeballs. 

I know there are some people (including our daughter) who consider a three-hour drive to New Jersey for Shabbat no big deal, but for me personally, if anyone proposes a trip more than an hour or so I suddenly and unapologetically turn into a homebody. We know people who seem to make the New Jersey or New York trip every other weekend so maybe some people are just better cut out for it. But unless you're going to pacify the kids with a video how do you survive confined a steel box with your family for three or four hours?

I almost think a long flight would be easier - at least you can sleep. (Unless you're one of those people who can't sleep on airplanes, in which case you should click on the above image! And/or bring along the game I mentioned last week.)

Now what if your prodigal daughter disappeared for 10 or 20 years and then you found out she had secretly moved to the Moon? And that CEO of the Moon Elon Musk had made her Queen of the Moon? And then she sends you a dire warning that Global Warming and China and Russia and all that are going to get so bad, would you please join her on the Moon - "Please pack up everything, and move here ASAP?"?

Question for your table: Would you sell your house and go?


Hope you enjoy this week's 7-minute Torah Health & Fitness podcast (see below),

and Shabbat Shalom


Podcast details:

The Doctor's ViewDr. Grove tells us why taking care of your health NOW is so important, what's the number one habit to change, why it's so hard, and why you should never give up.

There are ten ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

PS - When shopping at Amazon, please use http://smile.amazon.com and support this blog by choosing Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your designated charity. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases - it doesn't sound like much, but if everyone reading this did so, that would translate to hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars.

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Flying Friendly Class

The purpose of this blog is to turn the Shabbat table into a rest stop. Please print and share.

Having spent much of the past five days traveling by air, car and sailboat....

....it's on my mind.

So here are three travel-themed stories for your table this week.

Maybe you saw this one:

A baby with an oxygen machine enjoyed the perks of a first-class flight to Philadelphia, thanks to the kindness of a traveler who gave up his seat.

Details, details, details, then the conclusion:

As a result of her post, she subsequently connected with the passenger. “He was thanking me for (giving him) a birthday to remember. It was the best day."

For your table: Is this newsworthy?

Second vignette:

Is there anyone besides myself out there who doesn't use Facebook to keep up with family and friends?

What I'm really getting at is the experience of bumping into someone whom you have not been in touch with or even heard about.

Like for a year, or five or ten.

That happened to me this week and it gives you this wonderful feeling, a joy that is hard to compare with other joys.

The question for your table: Why is it so wonderful to see a familiar face that you haven't seen in years?

Presumably that's why the rabbis of old created a special beracha for such an occasion.

Third vignette:

Someone I know flew across the country this week for the sole purpose of catching up with two or three old friends.

There was no event, no party, no holiday.

When asked why he went, he said, "I've realized over the years that most of the important things that happen to me are because of my relationships to others. So I try to maintain them."

Question for your table: But why did he have to fly accross the country to do so?


Shabbat Shalom



PS - The pic above was from my travels this week... click on it for something interesting about trees and travel.

 

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Can a Bribe Be Ethical? (Let's say it's for good intentions...)

The goal of this blog is to induce some better behavior at the Shabbat table ...  Please share.
Continuing to wish a speedy recovery to Tamar Adina bas Kayna Shulamis and to Ruth bat Sarah.
Happy 11th birthday to Devorah!

In honor of 2017, a new feature this week.

At the end of the email, there will be both a basic question for your table and....

an ADVANCED question. Don't worry, we'll try to keep it not-too-difficult.

+ + + +

Now, here's a lead question for your table:

What should you do when there is another student in the class who is disruptive?

Do you:

A) Tell them to settle down?
B) Tell them they are bothering you?
C) Complain to the teacher?
D) Complain to the Principal?
E) All of the above?
F) Something else?
G) Do nothing?

According to our newly-turned-seven-year-old, the correct answer is....F - something else.

For week's she had been complaining about a certain girl in her class who was constantly disruptive and rude to the teacher.

Our daughter is very sensitive to this sort of thing.

Finally, a couple weeks ago, the school found a solution - they bumped the trouble-maker up a grade!

So yesterday I asked our daughter, "How is it going now?"

"Well, since they moved that girl into second grade, now another trouble-maker has stepped up to take her place."

Based on the evidence she provided, an email was crafted and sent to Admin to ask them to look into the matter.

So today's converation went something like this:

"How did it go today?"

"A little bit better. That girl is still misbehaving, but not as much. So I keep telling her, her prize is getting smaller....!"

"What prize?"

"I offered her a prize if she stops misbehaving."

"You what? What are you talking about?"

"A few weeks ago I offered her a prize."

"A few weeks ago? So this has been going on for a long time? Where....when...did you do this?"

"In the bathroom. I told her, if she behaves nicely she's going to get a prize."

"What's the prize?"

"I don't know yet. We'll see. Every time she behaves nicely the prize gets bigger. And every time she does not behave nicely, the prize gets smaller."

This revelation of my daughter's clandestine intervention in the management of her first-grade classroom left me speechless.

The question for your table: How should I react (if at all)?

Advanced question: what does this anecdote have to do with this week's parsha?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - advanced video

PPS - Thanks to those who responded to last week's "word from our sponsor".

Angelology

The goal of this blog is to invite angels to the Shabbat table. Please print and share.
 
Just about every year somebody asks about the Jewishness of Thanksgiving.

For example, the funny coincidence that "hodu" in Hebrew means both turkey and "give thanks".

To add to that interesting detail, a friend in Jerusalem sent us a fascinating article by CNN's Charles Garcia.

Evidently, Columbus himself may have been one of Spain's (or Portugal's) tragic secret Jews.

For this year's installment, I'd like to share a personal note of thanksgiving.

As you may know, every week I study Jewish wisdom with individuals and groups around the country, both live and long-distance.

Today, I surprised my phone-study partners with a guest-voice from the past.

The voice was none other than the legendary Billy Joe Ferguson, whom you read about a few weeks ago.

After more than a decade, he finally paid our family a visit, driving 1,000 miles in his pickup.

The reason I brought him to the phone study session is because these two study partners had met him many years ago.

Despite the many years, they instantly recognized his inimitable Mississippi drawl.

One of them, who had visited our home a few weeks ago, warned him: "If (5-year-old) Tehila challenges you to any game that involves skill, do not take her on."

Well, he failed to heed that advice. The results were not pretty.

But remember how unusual this man is.

This is a man who has spent very little time in his life outside the 600 square miles of Carroll County, Mississippi.

This is a man who is so dedicated to his students that in 28 years as a classroom teacher he called in sick only once, and that bothered him so much that he dragged himself out of bed for a school event that night.

He is so dedicated that he ran for Superintendent on a platform to improve the schools and won by a whisker, then the enemies of the public schools through him out four years later and replaced him with a woman who was so incompetent that over 10 years later he is still trying to undo the damage she wreaked.

He is so dedicated that after that defeat, rather than pack, he fought back and won re-election four years after that, and four years after that, and four years after that.

And this is a man who still farms 100 acres as a hobby. And he's still looking for his bashert.

As you can see in the photo, seeing his face is almost like seeing an angelic being.

As he was departing last night, the Thanksgiving guests of our neighbors across the street were also heading out. One of these guests approached the truck to speak with him literally as he was about to the pickup into gear. It turns out that while unloading the night before, in the darkness he had left a small bag sitting on the truck's saddlebox.

This lady, not knowing whose truck it was, had been so concerned that the bag would be stolen, she moved it beneath the saddlebox, out of sight. Angel meets angel?

So as he journies back to his homestead, we are greatful for such friendship and goodness that can be found in such an out-of-the way place the world hasn't yet heard of called Vaiden, Mississippi.

Question for your table: Do you know any angels?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Now's the real Hannuka countdown... (so hurry up and click here.)


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