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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The Shortest Distance

The purpose of this blog is to take the scenic route at the Shabbat table... Please share...

Mazal tov to Moshe Yitzchak and Goldy (Seinfeld) Steiner on their wedding this week. 

For the above-mentioned nuptials, my sister flew in and out of Washington Dulles Airport, which is southwest of Baltimore.

The shortest drive takes you down I-95 then around the Washington Beltway to Virginia, then due west.

After dropping them off, we asked Waze to get us home and it took us 20 miles further west, then north through rolling hills of gorgeous wintertime Virginia and Maryland farmland, before circling us back eastward towards Baltimore.
Waze didn't tell us how how much time we saved (it should!), avoiding commuter traffic. It could have been thirty minutes faster, maybe it was only five minutes faster. Maybe it was even slower. 

I don't really care because it was a most pleasant drive!

Moral of the story: the shortest distance between two points is not always the most enjoyable distance.

 Moral of the story: the shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line.

About 21 years ago, in Misgav Ladach Hospital, Jerusalem, 2 babies were born a mere 36 days apart.

Both families eventually left Israel, moving several times around North America before landing in Baltimore, a mere mile apart.

Both children grew up happy, energetic, kind... and feeling a pull to return to Israel.

Moral of the story: the shortest distance is not always a straight line.

When wishing someone success in getting married or having a baby, there is a custom to say, "B'shah tovah" - meaning, "May it happen at the right time."

Question for your table - do you believe in fate, luck, neither, or both?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - Yes, the pic above is clickable...

I'm guessing that the readers of this email collectively spend at least $100,000 a year on Amazon. With one easy trick, Amazon will turn that shopping into a $500 donation to JSLI, helping keep our computers humming and programs running. Simply use Amazon Smile, and designate Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your charity — for the same cost to you.

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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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Uncaged

If you read this email last week or the week before then you know about Jeremy.

This week, hundreds of family & friends gathered on Sunday for his Memorial Service. Among the uplifting eulogies, the quote that sticks with me is his mother's comment about his flying helicopters:

"If we had tried to stop him from flying, it would have been like caging a bird. He had to fly."

I mentioned that he had been interested in touring Israel as an adult. His last trip there had been when he was 13. Similarly, there was a man at the Memorial who told me that he hadn't been to Israel for 40 years, but now cannot go because it's too expensive.

Too bad I didn't know on Sunday what I know now — I'll make this a trivia riddle for your table:

  
What's the hottest cold way to get to Israel right now?

Hint: Name the country in the above photo.

Hint: Airport code KEF.

Still not sure?

Here's another image, maybe this will help:

If you're protesting, "But I've never been to Iceland!" - neither have I. But where else in the world could look like that?

Second question: Did you ever think about going?

Too cold, right? Low on your list right?

There's a reason why the median home value in Los Angeles is $500,000. Someone I know was visiting LA this week. He said, the weather is so beautiful, he feels sorry for Angelenos who have to move to the East Coast.

But don't feel too bad for the Icelanders. They are (along with their Nordic cousins) at the top of the world happiness index. California doesn't do too shabby, but not as well as Minnesota. What's going on here?

Well, I suppose it means that happiness doesn't have as much to do with the weather as previously reported. In fact, psychologists have studied this alleged correlation and found it either weak or even negative.

So why isn't the world beating a new path to Reykjavik?

Maybe we are: on Wow Airlines, it is now possible to get to Iceland from most corners of the US for a hundred bucks.

More important, they also fly nonstop Reykjavik-Tel Aviv and it turns out that traveling to Tel Aviv via Reykjavik is cheaper than flying to Mexico.

Bottom-line: go. Don't wait for an occasion. Book it now.

Question for your table: When you go to a new place, is it better to get a general overview at the expense of depth, or an in-depth encounter, at the expense of breadth?



Shabbat Shalom

The purpose of this email is to set loose the conversation at the Shabbat table. Please like it, tweet it, forward ....
Dedicated by friends in San Francsico to the memory of Yermiyahu Matan (Jeremy Dossetter), alav hashalom.
To dedicate a future Table Talk, send me an email.

Sticking Your Neck In

The purpose of this blog is to keep them from nodding off at the Shabbat table. Please print and share, or forward or like it or tweet it.
Do you travel good?

Is that poor grammar?

OK, let's make it the first question for your table:

What's the difference between "traveling well" and "traveling good"?

If you travel well, you bring an empty water bottle and fill it up after security.

If you travel good, you offer your extra Southwest drink coupons to the people in your row.

So imagine you're on a long flight headed East. You've got to get some rest because you're losing time and in just a few hours it's going to be morning. Oy, just thinking about the jet lag is already making you tired.

If you travel well, you have figured out how to sleep on the plane.

If you travel good, you have figured out how to sleep on the plane without disturbing anyone else.

Big fan of sleeping on the plane here. Nothing like a window seat with a pillow and eyeshades.

But what about the 99% who don't get a window seat?

My father (z'l) used to say that half of jet lag comes from not getting enough sleep while traveling (and the night before).

(Others say that's a myth, but Dad knew all about circadian rhythm, and research suggests he may have been on to something.)

If so, then inventing the perfect vertical sleeping device would help millions of people (not counting college students) and save the economy hundreds of millions of dollars.

(You thought I was joking about college students? Weren't you ever sitting in a long boring lecture and just wishing you could close your eyes inconspicously? I used to fantasize about an L-shaped device that you could sit on and lean back against, giving you a tiny Y-shaped bar to rest your head on. Still looking for that one!)

Here are some contenders for the best vertical sleep tool:

1. The $20 ZZZ-Band (not to be confused with the ZZ-Top band) straps your head to the seat. Sounds funny, but over 2/3 of reviewers think it's great.
2. The $20 Double-Decker inflatable - I'm rather intrigued by this one.
3. I have personally tried this $18 Caldera Releaf neck wrap and like it.
4. Have not tried the somewhat similar $30 Trtl Pillow.
5. Am also intrigued by this interesting $24 Elenker pillow.
6. Moving up to $37, if you don't mind people's stares, try the Cloud Nine.
7. The most highly-engineered is the $56 Kaz Headrest - you have to check this one out.

Well, in the end I decided to try out the popular Travelrest this summer. Will let you know how it goes.

What's your best advice for beating jet-lag?

Finally, for your table:

If you travel well, you ___________________________________.

If you travel good, you __________________________________.



Shabbat Shalom

(PS - yes, the picture above is for real and is clickable if you really must ask)


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The One Less Traveled By

The goal of this blog is to turn the Shabbat table into an adventure. Please print and share.

A couple years ago I wrote an amazing "true" story that allegedly happened in an airport.

This week, I learned that the version I told is not entirely accurate.

In fact, the true story is even better.

Last week, someone asked me if I had ever verified the story, and I hadn't. So I decided to do so.

I was able to track down one of the actual participants.

His name is Mordechai Koval. I reached him at his home in Cleveland. Here is his story, in his own words.

+ + + +

It was mid-August, 1988, a month before Rosh Hashana. I, my brother and a business partner were traveling to New York for a trade show at the Jay Javitz Center.

Because it was going to be Rosh Chodesh, we really wanted to davven in a minyan. So my brother worked out that if we took the first plane to Laguardia at seven a.m., we would arrive early enough to make a minyan and still get to the trade show early.

I'm telling you that I never oversleep. I'm usually up before my alarm. But for some reason, that day, I am lying in bed and am awakened by a knocking on the door. I'm thinking, "Who's knocking on the door in the middle of the night?"

I go to the door and it's my brother and his partner. They're ready to go and I'm in my pajamas.

What am I going to do? I still have to get dressed and get my coffee (I don't go anywhere without first having my coffee).

My brother said, "What should we do?"

I said, "You go without me, I'll see if I can catch up. There's no point in all of us missing the plane."

You know, I've never got dressed and out the door so fast in my life. Eleven minutes, including the coffee.

I also grabbed my radar detector, because I was going to need it.

It was early the morning, maybe I didn't need the radar detector. Don't the cops have anything better to do than to stop a guy trying to catch a plane? But if I was going to catch that plane, I had no choice. At one stretch of the highway, I floored it - you couldn't even see the odometer! A couple times the radar detector lit up and I slowed down, but fortunately I didn't get pulled over.

I get to the airport and am running like mad, and I caught up to my brother and his partner on the shuttle bus, totally out of breath. You should have seen the look on their faces. They were totally amazed. I was totally amazed! I don't know how I made it, I don't know why I made it, but I made it.

The flight from Cleveland to New York should take about an hour, and when we should have been landing, I could tell something was wrong.

We were not landing. We were circling.

Sure enough, the pilot came on the PA and announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, all New York airports are fogged in. We have to land at Washington Dulles. There will be an estimated half-hour wait until we can take off again for New York.

As I said, it was Rosh Chodesh, and we needed to davven. Now, that Shabbos, Cleveland had hosted a Rebbe. The Nikolsburger Rebbe  (also this). It was Sunday morning, and he and his entourage were going back to New York, they were on the same plane. We counted the Jewish men on the plane.

Would you believe we had exactly 10? I said to myself, "That's why I made the plane - I made the minyan! It was meant to be."

So we went through the airport and found one of those glass rooms that was empty and we davened in there.

As we finished, this guy pops his head in. He's wearing one of those black mourning ribbons that the Reform wear during Shiva. He asks us, "Can I say Kaddish?"

"Sure," we say.

So he says it, and he's crying.

Afterwards, someone says, "Hey we're going to miss our flight." We all dash out of there. Except the Chassidim. They seem to be taking their time. Their attitude is more like, "If Hashem wants me to make the flight, I'll make the flight." Don't worry, they made the flight.

Anyway, the whole day I'm just so happy that I made the minyan.

That night, my brother says, there's a Jewish event at the New York Hilton, let's go. So we go. After that, we find there's another dinner in the same hotel, for a school for special education for chassidim.

We pay a visit there and I happen to run into a friend. When he finds out that I came on the early flight from Cleveland, he says to me, "That's an amazing story of what happened this morning!"

I'm about to ask him, "How do you know?" when he continues, "This guy Robert, just an amazing story!"

I say to him, "Who's Robert?"

It turns out Robert is the name of the mourner. After we dashed to catch the plane, he told the chassidim his story. He said that he lives in Virginia far from any Jewish community. On Saturday night (the night before), his father came to him in a dream and said to him, "Please say Kaddish for me."

In the dream, he said to his father, "But Dad, I don't live in a Jewish community, there's no minyan here."

"Robert, if I get you a minyan, will you say Kaddish?"

"Sure Dad."

He wakes up and thinks, "What a strange dream!"

"Imagine," he told the chassidim, "I'm walking through the Washington-Dulles Airport. I see all these Jews davvening. I said, OK, Dad, you got me a minyan, I'll say Kaddish."

So I thought that the reason I made the plane was to make a minyan. But little did I realize there was an even bigger plan at work.

God in his kindness has been ery good to me. I see the hand of God in everything. Only the Creator of the world can put things together that way. But the average person just sees randomness.

+ + + +

Question for your table — What's more important, the journey or the destination?


Shabbat Shalom (and happy travels)

PS - How many days did you say it is until Hannuka? (You may need to click here too.)


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Scientific Mystery

This week's email is dedicated to our friend Steve Goldstein, who had his second brain operation yesterday to remove a malignant tumor. Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery! (to dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email)

Just back from Israel.

On the flight back from Tel Aviv to New York, I witnessed something that I would guess very few people ever see.

I will give you the facts that I know, and see if any of our astute subscribers can solve this one.

The plane left at around midnight and arrived around 4:20 am (both local times).

At some point during the flight, I woke from my slumber to see a beautiful sunrise in the making. The horizon (I was on the right side of the plane) was filled with a thin but gorgeous band of colors.

An hour later, the sky was completely black again, and when we landed in New York one could see a hint of the earliest dawn light, but it was still dark out.

Question: What 3 unusual factors coincided in order to make this phenomenon possible?

This trip enabled me to reconnect to my friend Raffi, currently working on a Master's in physics at the Hebrew University after completing 15 years in yeshiva.

I complimented Raffi for pursuing the Rambam's (i.e., Maimonides) vision for science. Learning about nature, says Rambam, is REQUIRED for the path of transcendence.

Raffi retorted, "Many people say that, but that's a misreading of the Rambam." He says it's the CONTEMPLATION of nature, not merely learning it. If you spend all your time crunching the numbers and never step back to appreciate it, you're missing the point."

(Note, Raffi is preparing for an examine in lasers.)

Question #2 for your Table: Assuming Raffi is right, is the scientist better able or less able than the non-scientist to contemplate the amazing natural world?

Shabbat Shalom

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.
- Albert Einstein

PPS - Don't forget to print and share!