Sending condolences to Tova NessAiver and family on the loss of their mother/grandmother, and Happy Birthday shoutouts to Moriel and DJ.
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.
Appreciated this Table Talk? Like it, tweet it, forward it....
