Rabbi Mendy Herson's Blog

A Day Of Miracles

Friday, February 19, 2021 - 10:30 AM

Miracles.

Have you ever experienced one? Think back on your day, to the moment when you first opened your eyes. Was that perhaps a miracle? Think about so many things we take for granted, like mobility, hearing, cognition etc. Are these things just natural? Or are they Divine gifts that should make our hearts swell with gratitude?
Imagine you saw these ‘normal’ things as gifts from your Infinite Parent, G-d? How do precious gifts make you feel? Grateful? Now imagine that feeling as backdrop to your day.

Every life follows a path with twists and turns. Every day, some things go right and some things don’t. Feeling appreciative for life helps us notice – and savor - the good. It frames our life journey – in its totality - as a blessing. With that perspective, the day’s aggravating bumps take on a different, more manageable, context. They become lessons, exercises in self-betterment, tests of character.
(I don’t mean to diminish the pain of our individual problems; on the contrary, I pray that G-d give us all tranquility and revealed good. But – until then – we need to find a productive way to deal with our inevitable scrapes).
This is the powerful lesson of Purim, the Holiday which we’ll celebrate next Thursday evening (the 25^th) and Friday (the 26^th).
We have Holidays like Passover, which celebrates the open miracles we experienced in the course of our Exodus from Egypt. In our lives, that corresponds to the ‘over the top’ moments of good fortune we may experience in the course of our days.

Purim is different. There is no blockbuster miracle to celebrate, just events that seem to turn out right. Looking at the Megillah, it could appear that the Jewish people had the right person (Queen Esther) in the right place (the palace) at the right time (when Haman’s evil plan was being fomented). Good fortune, but nothing more.

But that’s not how the Jews saw it. When things turned out right, they had the vision to see it as a miracle. And Purim was born.
In the scope of your life, the ‘Passover miracles’ will probably be few and far between. Most of your life will be like today, a ‘regular’ day with nothing ‘special’ to celebrate. Unless you choose to celebrate ‘natural miracles’. Because, rest assured if you’re reading this, you’ve had some ‘miracles’ today.
So, in fact, Purim teaches us that every day’s a Holiday.

Something to celebrate!

A Day Of Miracles

Friday, February 19, 2021 - 10:30 AM

Miracles.

Have you ever experienced one? Think back on your day, to the moment when you first opened your eyes. Was that perhaps a miracle? Think about so many things we take for granted, like mobility, hearing, cognition etc. Are these things just natural? Or are they Divine gifts that should make our hearts swell with gratitude?
Imagine you saw these ‘normal’ things as gifts from your Infinite Parent, G-d? How do precious gifts make you feel? Grateful? Now imagine that feeling as backdrop to your day.

Every life follows a path with twists and turns. Every day, some things go right and some things don’t. Feeling appreciative for life helps us notice – and savor - the good. It frames our life journey – in its totality - as a blessing. With that perspective, the day’s aggravating bumps take on a different, more manageable, context. They become lessons, exercises in self-betterment, tests of character.
(I don’t mean to diminish the pain of our individual problems; on the contrary, I pray that G-d give us all tranquility and revealed good. But – until then – we need to find a productive way to deal with our inevitable scrapes).
This is the powerful lesson of Purim, the Holiday which we’ll celebrate next Thursday evening (the 25^th) and Friday (the 26^th).
We have Holidays like Passover, which celebrates the open miracles we experienced in the course of our Exodus from Egypt. In our lives, that corresponds to the ‘over the top’ moments of good fortune we may experience in the course of our days.

Purim is different. There is no blockbuster miracle to celebrate, just events that seem to turn out right. Looking at the Megillah, it could appear that the Jewish people had the right person (Queen Esther) in the right place (the palace) at the right time (when Haman’s evil plan was being fomented). Good fortune, but nothing more.

But that’s not how the Jews saw it. When things turned out right, they had the vision to see it as a miracle. And Purim was born.
In the scope of your life, the ‘Passover miracles’ will probably be few and far between. Most of your life will be like today, a ‘regular’ day with nothing ‘special’ to celebrate. Unless you choose to celebrate ‘natural miracles’. Because, rest assured if you’re reading this, you’ve had some ‘miracles’ today.
So, in fact, Purim teaches us that every day’s a Holiday.

Something to celebrate!

How A Half Makes Us Whole

Friday, February 12, 2021 - 10:31 AM

Money is an incredible tool. It lends power, and broadens one’s possibilities.

As its basic level, the money in your pocket can buy you pleasure and prestige. It can give you peace of mind and security for the future. The dollar represents your ability to get what you want, which is why life, and even self-image, is so often anchored in the glitter of our personal gold.

Even more, so often the money we have is the fruit of difficult hours and thankless labor. We often work very hard, taking risks, beating off threats, putting in long hours to earn the money we possess. So, the money can represent more than potential pleasures, it represents the lifeblood we’ve invested in earning a living.

Our dollars can embody yesterday’s struggle and tomorrow’s reward.

With that in mind, we can appreciate the immense beauty of giving charity. When someone gives money to a greater need, they are parting with something very deep, with an embodiment of their toil and their pleasure. They are giving of themselves toward a Higher Objective, and - by doing so - they elevate their entire lives as represented by the money.

But why? Why would anyone willingly give their money away to someone else?

The answer is that charitable people recognize that they are part of a greater whole. When someone realizes “what I need is only half the picture, and the other half is what I’m needed FOR,” life’s equation changes. My assets don’t only represent my pursuits in life; they represent my responsibility to life.

That’s why we call charitable giving ‘Tzedakah’ in Hebrew. ‘Tzedaka’ means justice, because generosity reflects a fair-minded mindset of responsibility to the world.

In the Torah, G-d tells each person to give a ‘half-Shekel’ to the communal fund. The Shekel was silver coinage, each weighing 20 ‘gerahs’ (a Biblical weight measurement) of silver, so a ‘half-shekel’ was obviously 10 ‘gerahs’.

Why couldn’t the Torah just tell each person to give 10 ‘gerahs’? Why the emphasis on ‘halfness’?

The Torah is driving home our point.

When we recognize our own ‘half-ness,’ we’ll be ready to give ourselves whole-heartedly to our neighbors’ needs.

The half-Shekel – Tzedaka - makes the giver whole.

What a concept.

The Sinai Challenge

Friday, February 5, 2021 - 10:34 AM

Conventional wisdom is that Judaism doesn’t believe in Asceticism (the practice of self-denial), and that’s true…to an extent.

There’s a huge span between self-denial and self-indulgence, and eschewing one pole doesn’t necessarily put us at the other. So, no, we’re not into self-denial (for its own sake); but we’re not into self-indulgence either. Judaism is about living a life of Purpose, a life of Connectedness (to our Divine raison d’etre), and a life of Holiness.

And self-indulgence can get in the way.

Purpose, Connectedness and Holiness all share an inner rhythm. They’re all about living our days for something greater than our personal impulses and immediate needs.

And self-indulgence runs in the opposite direction.

It’s a simple equation: The more I live my life to serve my impulses, the less I live my life to serve a Higher Purpose. It’s not evil. It’s just not Purposeful.

The fifth Chabad Rebbe (Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch) was once approached by a disciple who asked for help in controlling his own devious nature. The Rebbe told him to fast on a regular basis. The disciple was very surprised, since this kind of self-denial isn’t a common Chabad practice. The Rebbe told him: “Simply refraining from eating all day is self-emaciation. ‘Fasting’ is a course of self-betterment.”

The Rebbe then instructed him to dedicate some time every day to introspective self-analysis, since controlling his physical appetite would facilitate his self-betterment efforts.

Practically speaking. when we all sit down to dinner tonight, we can eat to simply feed our appetites and household pets do pretty much the same.

Or we can choose to eat what makes sense for our individual health, recognizing our collective responsibility to use food-generated strength and nutrition to brighten the world in which we live.

It’s not about self-denial. It’s about Purposeful Living.

We are created with some strong human impulses. Yet we are asked to harness those impulses so that we are not overrun by them.

We are asked to engage the world, without being TOO engaged by it.

That’s our challenge.

That’s the challenge of Torah; the challenge of Sinai; the challenge of a meaningful life.