What a cute little dog.
Little fur ball.
Ready to play.
Love for the family.
A companion and friend.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Category Archives: Love
We Are Family!
I like this definition of family:
Family means NOBODY gets left behind.
We take care of each other.
No matter what.
My father used to say:
Blood is thicker than water.
It’s not just from the battlefield that we make sure to bring everyone home.
Home is where the heart is. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Tunnel of Luggage
Tunnel of love?
No, tunnel of luggage.
Nothing comes out the same on the other side.
This is called bumps and bruises.
Still it’s a long way to paradise. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Happy Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day to my dear, beautiful, and special mom!
Even though it’s been 6 years since you passed over to Heaven, I can still see you here with me today.
The love and caring you showed for me, my sister, and Dad as well as the grandchildren filled all of our lives.
You always worked hard for the family and to do your best.
Life was not always easy especially coming with your parents from the Holocaust.
Yet, I never doubted for a moment that our family was the world for you.
And both you and Dad still mean the world to me and I know you both are with me always.
I can feel it!
Happy Mother’s Day–we love you! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Matzo Ball Soup For The Soul
It’s a pretty well-known Jewish tradition that Chicken Soup is almost like an cure all.
Our moms for centuries have preached chicken soup whenever you didn’t feel well or felt like you may be coming down with something.
Hmm…I wonder if it even works on Coronavirus. Heck, I’d try it for sure. LOL
From an alternative medicine perspective, like it says on the package:
It’s penicillin in a pot.
Anyway, I thought this package kit of matzo ball soup was pretty cute.
With the old lady that looks like she’s about to fall in the soup saying:
Good. Not as good as mine. But good.
Hey, I guess there is no package matzo ball soup that is going to be as good as homemade.
Especially as I was taught that the magic ingredient is not chicken, but love! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
From Hate To Love
Just a self-reflection today…
Important to me.
It’s about who I thought I was and…
Who I became.
Truly, I went full circle from a child’s hate to an adult’s love relationship with:
– Reading
– Writing
– Swimming
– Hebrew
As a kid, I tried to avoid these like the plague, and as an adult I like to practice these every single day of my life.
I wonder to myself is it that I strove to become good (or decent) at what I have previously been bad at or was somehow afraid of.
Yet now, they are integral to my life, learning, and growth.
Like the hands of a clock that circle and tick the hours and minutes.
My life takes me full circle and brings me home to who I am and what I really love spending time at. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Hope Amidst Coronavirus
This is absolutely what I call:
Hope Amidst Coronavirus.
Life is hope.
The children are our future.
Love and caring is our continuity.
G-d’s is the Master over it all. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Why The Happiness of Purim?
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Why The Happiness of Purim?“
In a world that is constructed of the story of Purim, everything looks like it’s based on mere happenstance and there seems to be no G-d involved—this is a world of randomness and meaninglessness. Whatever happens, just happens by nature or luck, and what can be more meaningless and depressing than that! Thus, the Rabbis had to decree all the laws for the happiness of Purim, because happiness is not innate to a story that is seemingly happenstance and devoid of G-d. That is the big difference between Purim, where Hashem is hidden, and Passover or Hanukah, where Hashem revealed Himself and made incredible miracles—the 10 plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea or the one day of oil that lasted for eight days.
On Purim, we celebrate our deliverance from the evil Haman and the king’s decree to kill all the Jews, but also we are overflowing with Joy remembering that G-d is always with us—in good times and G-d forbid in the bad times–we are not afraid of anything (another indecisive election, the stock market downturn, our enemies, Coronavirus, etc.) knowing that He loves us and cares for us, and will deliver us in the old days and in the new. May the final deliverance soon be completed with the arrival of the Mashiach—and the hidden will become revealed like on Purim and the joy will be forever increased. Amen.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Visit Back Home
On the way to a family wedding in Monsey.
We stopped back home in Riverdale, NY after 20 years.
Wow, old building still here.
And the KeyFood supermarket too.
Had a nice lunch at Kai Fan kosher Chinese food (the Sesame Chicken was great!).
Went up to my parents old apartment and saw the outlines of where the mezuzah had once stood.
I wanted to hear their voices through the door and go in to see them again.
It was very emotional, but I felt like their presence was there with us.
Enjoyed seeing how some (very few) things have changed and all that has otherwise stayed the same
With seeing my wife’s family, some after many years, it was like I had never not seen them.
I imagined that this is what dying must be like when you go to the afterlife and there is no time and you see everybody and it’s just like they have always been there.
That was an amazing realization and feeling for me. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The Beauty of Tefillin
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “The Beauty of Tefillin.”
Like the colorful coat that Jacob gave Joseph to wear, the mitzvah of tefillin that G-d gave us to wear is also filled with spiritual color and the love of Hashem. This is in no way intended as sacrilegious or as trying to change our holy mitzvot. Rather it is an artistic attempt to see the tefillin in a new way that perhaps excites and bring Jews back to this important mitzvah.
Over time, as I continued to learn and grow as a person and as a Jew, I found much of my way back to Yiddishkeit and to wearing my holy tefillin with love and Joy. To me they are forever colorful and full of spiritual energy that are uplifting to me as I pray with them on for Hashem’s everlasting mercy and blessings for all of us.
(Credit Image: Andy Blumenthal)
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