What an unbelievable achievement for Israel.
Even without a soft landing, Israel is the 4th country in the world to reach the moon surface.
The Moon Club of Just Four:
USA – The Most Powerful
Russia – The Largest by Landmass
China – The Largest by Number of People
Israel – The Holy Land!
Mazel Tov on this truly great accomplishment.
We are all so proud of you! 😉
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “I Dream of Zion.”
To flourish in the land of milk and honey.
To celebrate the Shabbat and holidays as in the days of old.
To revere the bravery and heroism of the defenders of Israel.
To live and worship as a Jew without discrimination, racism, and hatred.
To fulfill the promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Hope you enjoy and we can all one day live the dream! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So the Capitals won the Stanley Cup. Go DC!
This little figurine made a debut on the counter of the concierge late last week for us to cheer them on!
You can ring the bell for help and while your waiting, get excited about the game.
While these types of sports are not my thing per se, I do like watching a good Rocky movie or action flick where the good guys beat the sh*t out of the bad guys.
Whether you’watching your favorite sports team, your Hollywood dream stars, or even an occasional do (something) good politician, we are living vicariously through them.
It’s not our success we are seeing, but somehow we temporarily suspend our own selves and live through others (their eyes, their actions) and we partake just for a second of what it’s like to be them winning or doing something really significant in life.
We all can’t be superstars in the center ring duking it out (all the time) and so we take a step back to see others that we relate to face up to the challenge, fight and hopefully win big.
We don’t walk away with the trophy, prize money, or fame, but we congratulate ourselves somehow for being on the winning team.
Heck, I didn’t do anything but have faith, go along for the ride, and then take pleasure in seeing my guy(s) win.
Yet, from the humdrumness of perhaps some of our own everyday lives, we fantasize and garner the courage and strength to do our own great things.
We can’t be the strongest, smartest, most good-looking, personable, and talented in the world, but we can see parts of ourselves in others and we can try to model the best of them in ourselves and leverage what we got going on!
I don’t really like spending a lot of precious time living like this through others–I don’t mind getting inspiration when I see something amazing, but really I just want to try my hardest to be the best that I can be. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I had one of the scariest dreams that I’ve ever experienced–and it is a true story from just last evening.
It was so completely real, I can’t even tell you.
There was a devil wolf that attacked me from the the back and literally jumped on me.
It’s claws were wrapped around my neck and I could tell that with any movement whatsoever, they would immediately slice and sever my arteries completely.
His huge jaws were at the backside of my head, it’s hot breath searing my flesh, and his sharp gnawing teeth were ready at any moment to snap into my neck.
His full weight, incredible strength, and evil presence were heavy on me and ripping into my back and shoulders.
It was clear how close I was to the very end of it all.
The pure evil of this devil wolf being and the ferociousness of the attack was the most fearsome that I could ever imagine.
What happened next I will never tell anyone, except that I am alive to tell the story.
But this experience of undeniable and terrible evil so close and foreboding has left me a different person forever.
There are forces of true evil out there–for sure–and we must never let our guard down for a second.
But as Rabbi Nachman says, it is a narrow bridge, but with the good of G-d, we must never fear at all. 😉
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Efraim Stochter)
Wow, I fell in love with this Porsche 718 Cayman.
Blue like the sky and ocean in Miami.
I got my eye on this one!
Now if only my wife would see the wisdom in why I absolutely need this!
Anyway, I can enjoy the photo and dream for now. 😉
(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
So the other night I dreamed.
And in the dream, an angel came to me and was over me as I lay down.
The angel had it’s finger pointing at my head in the right temple area.
The finger was all white and while I could feel it having a solid state, it was able to pass in a non-solid state, transparently through the surface and slightly into my head.
I felt pressure applied there and almost like a healing feeling.
The angel was pure white–like a holy marble, but not like marble.
It was majestic, slender, and tall.
It had white feathery wings that were taller than it’s body.
It’s face was like an adult, but also like a child–it was both.
Its feet were like a smooth and solid arch, and did not have toes.
The angel hovered over my upper body, head area, and was looking at me and touching my right temple–with care and love.
It was absolutely clear to me that the angel visiting me was my dear, dear father.
Although, I woke with a slight headache, I felt happy and at great peace by his visit.
The experience was caring, loving, holy and I was uplifted by it.
With his unbelievably pure and giving heart, it was beautiful to see my father as an angel–this was him all along. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Amazing, they were advertising this in downtown Washington, D.C.:
“A Government Free of Corruption”
Wouldn’t this just be completely miraculous!
WE HAVE A DREAM:
– No lies and spin
– No deception and manipulation
– No public and private faces
– No collusion and cheating
– No hidden agendas and backroom dealings
– No hate, bias, and divisiveness
– No denigrating, name-calling, and character assassination
– No bribery and pay to play
– No intimidation, payback, and shadow government
– No self entitlement and self enrichment
– No fraud, waste, and abuse
Imagine instead, if integrity was the essence of good leadership.
Today, in synagogue, the weekly Torah portion was Genesis–where as we all know, G-d created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was chaos and void” (in Hebrew “tohu va-bohu”).
The bar-mitzvah boy, in his speech, joked about how his first 13-years of life growing up was very much tohu va-bohu (chaos), but he was hopeful that with his wonderful parents guiding him, he would get on track and pay more attention to his schoolwork, all the details, and not rush through things.
I thought to myself, there are probably a lot of people even in their 30s, 40, and 50’s whose life was still tohu va-bohu, but that doesn’t mean we can’t emulate G-d and still create something wonderful from all the chaos, right?
Similarly in the tohu va-bohu chaos of Washington politics, where nearly 80% of the electorate believe that we are going in the wrong direction, it’s not too late to continue make something great that we can all be proud of.
In the Wall Street Journal today, Peggy Noonan described a recent focus group led by Democratic pollster, Peter Hart, where all 12 voters (Democrats, Republicans, and Independents) unanimously and sadly agreed that “America was off track.”
In fact, one person wisely intimated that things seemed to go off track with 9/11 and “never quite recovered.” Unfortunately, more than the World Trade Center came down in America that fateful day.
But it’s not the first time in history that things have been tohu va-bohu, and perhaps it’s okay…that why G-d teaches us things can change for the better…order and sense and progress can be made to rise from all the chaos.
The good news is still out there, “And G-d said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
As we live day-to-day in near endless and escalating cycles of hate, discrimination and violence along national, religious, racial, gender and other divides…
It is nice and refreshing to see someone wearing a t-shirt this morning that says:
“One World, One Dream”
I don’t know what the Asian characters above it say…but hopefully, it’s more hopefullness!
Unfortunately, without a common enemy–whether disasters, plague or alien invasion–what divides us normally seems stronger than what holds us together.
Hence, routine murders, maimings, abductions, rapes, enslavement, and harrassment of one neighbor against the other.
We behave like little children fighting for the toys in the sandbox except with consequences that can elevate all the way to genocide or WMD.
As we squabble with each other, perhaps there are moments when we can have the self-awareness and strength of character to actually look in the mirror with some shame for how low we’ll stoop to get our share in a world of divine comedy.
Wouldn’t it be nice for humanity to change ways and instead have compassion on each other (children of G-d), share the toys, and end the miserable hate. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So last night, I dreamed about my beloved dad.
He was in synagogue praying–something he did every day.
I was telling my dad that it was time to go.
But he didn’t want to leave–synagogue was his favorite place to be close to G-d and his friends.
My dad was in the front of the synagogue elevated on the steps before the Holy Ark (where the Torahs are kept).
I looked at my dad and somehow knew/felt that he was near death.
I ran to him and threw my arms around him in an incredible completely loving hug–clutching on to him to stay with us, longer.
In this embrace, I could feel his total and undying love for me.
Now he no longer looked like my dad but like a being of light–such as I had never seen.
He had died, but was still somehow alive in another way.
I miss my dad–he was a truly holy man (a Tzadik) and a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who would do anything for us.
I wish I could sit and speak with him again, hold his hand, hear him sing when we came over, and see him smile.
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Taltopia.com)
The following is all true.
So I dreamed last night a scary dream…
I was lying prone in a horizontal but bent position.
My clothes were tattered rags and my legs bare.
I could see my legs, but could not move them–at all.
The bottom of the legs by the ankles were completely skinny, diseased and bright sore red (like burnt), and the skin was falling off them.
I knew I was in immense pain, but could not feel anything.
My legs completely useless, in hopelessness, I looked upward and called out:
“Father! Father! Father!”
I was looking for my dad, and hoping for him to come and help me somehow.
Then, my voice turned and called:
“Father that art in heaven” and repeated this again.
I was turning to G-d as the only one who could help me when everything else was stripped away.
Then I awoke, and I was very afraid and yet somehow comforted–I had turned heavenward and found G-d.
Later this morning, I went to the pool for a swim and as part of my post surgery rehabilitation.
As I was swimming, I saw an old somewhat hunchback lady come to the pool.
I recognized her from other days when she does a little self-defined exercise routine against the side of the pool.
But today, her lane at the sides were taken.
Seeing that she was upset and couldn’t do her exercise in the center of the pool, I stopped swimming and went over to her.
I said, “Why don’t you share with me (there is plenty of room)?”
She hesitated and I could see maybe she needed help getting under the swim rope that divides the lanes, so I lifted it for her and told her reassuringly, “It’s no problem.”
And then she went under and did her exercise thing–and we shared.
It was such a small thing for me, but yet I could see it was a big deal for her–she was old and I could tell that she needed her routine.
The following is all true.
So I dreamed last night a scary dream…
I was lying prone in a horizontal but bent position.
My clothes were tattered rags and my legs bare.
I could see my legs, but could not move them–at all.
The bottom of the legs by the ankles were completely skinny, diseased and bright sore red (like burnt), and the skin was falling off them.
I knew I was in immense pain, but could not feel anything.
My legs completely useless, in hopelessness, I looked upward and called out:
“Father! Father! Father!”
I was looking for my dad (who I know deeply loved me and vice versa), and hoping for him to come and help me somehow.
Then, my voice turned and called:
“Father that art in heaven” and repeated this again.
I was turning to G-d as the only one who could help me when everything else was stripped away.
Then I awoke, and I was very afraid and yet somehow comforted–I had turned heavenward and found G-d.
Later this morning, I went to the pool for a swim and as part of my post surgery rehabilitation.
As I was swimming, I saw an old somewhat hunchback lady come to the pool.
I recognized her from other days when she does a little self-defined exercise routine against the side of the pool.
But today, her lane at the sides were taken.
Seeing that she was upset and couldn’t do her exercise in the center of the pool, I stopped swimming and went over to her.
I said, “Why don’t you share with me (there is plenty of room)?”
She hesitated and I could see maybe she needed help getting under the swim rope that divides the lanes, so I lifted it for her and told her reassuringly, “It’s no problem.”
And then she went under and did her exercise thing–and we shared.
It was such a small thing for me, but yet I could see it was a big deal for her–she was old and I could tell that she needed her routine.
Sort of funny but, when I offered to help, I could practically here the angels of heaven let out a little song of joy–seriously, I did.
And I thought to myself…Andy, you can learn! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Sort of funny but, when I offered to help, I could practically here the angels of heaven let out a little song of joy–seriously, I did.
And I thought to myself…Andy, you can learn! 😉
(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
andyblumenthal