Hear O’ Israel

Hear O’ Israel,

 

The L-rd is our G-d,

 

The L-rd is One!

Peace To All Mankind!

Today is Tisha B’Av.

It’s a solemn day on the Jewish calendar when we commemorate so many terrible events that happened in our history.

We have to remember the lows, but also pray for G-d to bring us ever back to the highs.

Peace, health, prosperity, and happiness.

It all comes from the One Above! 

May G-d have mercy on us and bestow only blessings for good times to come. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Good One for Rosh Hashanah

It’s Tisha B’Av tonight.

But this is a good one for Rosh Hashanah in 2 months. 

Got to contain the spray from the blowing of the shofar. 

It’s a coronavirus time of year.  😉

(Source Photo: Facebook)

A Smooth Jazz Shabbat Shalom!

A Smooth Jazz Shabbat Shalom to all!

A little song.

A little dance. 

We’re back in the groove. 

Thank G-d for Friday, because then comes Shabbat! 😉

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

We Have To Pray Just To Make It One Day

So as we have done for ages…

We pray.

We weep.

We bless. 

We request.

We thank.  

We only control what we say and do.

The rest is in G-d’s merciful, blessed hands. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Times of Mashiach

Truly, we are living in the times of Maschiach. 

Someone contacted me with a friend request on Facebook, and his profile included that he is a:

Torah-Observant Gentile

Wow! 

It’s truly like we say in the Aleinu prayer every day:

All Mankind shall invoke Your Name, to turn to You all the wicked of the earth.  They will recognize and know–all the inhabitants of the world—that every knee should bend to You…The L-rd will be King over the entire earth; on that day the L-rd will be One and His Name One.

We are on the way and I hope we all get to see and cross over the finish line soon. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal) 

Synagogue or Sickness?

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Synagogue or Sickness?“

When I was a kid and my father would {strongly} encourage me to go to synagogue. My father was a man of deep faith and he used to say warningly to me: “It’s better to go to synagogue than to the hospital.” Obviously, he was implying that if I didn’t follow G-d’s word, then G-d forbid, he would punish me and instead of going to Shul, I would go to the hospital. Maybe not the best way to teach someone to want to go to prayer services, but I know he meant it out of complete love for me and ultimately for my best.

Yet ironically, now with coronavirus preventing us from practicing the many communal aspects of our faith, so many of us can only but wish that we could just go to synagogue to celebrate the holidays and Shabbat together once again. Unfortunately, for now at least, we don’t even have the option to go to synagogue⁠—the choice has been taken from us. G-d willing, hopefully soon, we can once again go⁠—with willingness and love⁠—not only to pray at synagogue, but also to the holy Third Temple in Jerusalem itself.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Harris Teeter War Zone

Who would’ve thought that going to Harris Teeter would be a war zone. 

But this guy in the respirator mask is showing us how bad things can start to get. 

As an avid fan of the show The Walking Dead, I think we are entering TWD territory with the people walking around with their face’s half covered and some looking sick with fear and worry or perhaps even with symptoms–who knows!

What is amazing is how things can go from boom to bust, and not just for our economy, but for life and civilization itself at the turn of a dime. 

Yesterday, I read how the CFO of Jefferies Group Investment Bank (NYC) died at age 56 from Coronavirus. 

Even as the Navy’s hospital ships Mercy and Comfort enter the ports of Los Angeles and New York City to lend a hand and about 1,000 hospital beds each, it seems like more and more of these deadly cases are hitting the papers and social media every day.

Where does this sickness stop?   

What happens if the virus mutates again and become even more virulent?

How do we ever feel even remotely secure again?

Can we keep taxing our already overwhelmed healthcare system with more and more sick patients?

How long can we keep printing Monopoly bailout money (incredibly, there is talk of yet another multi-trillion Coronavirus stimulus bill even after we just passed this $2.2 trillion one last week)?

Eventually, as we all know circumstances can indeed overwhelm the health and financial systems, and even our governments…thank G-d we aren’t there. 

But what we are all beginning to see in the midst of crisis is that “there” isn’t really all that far away from “here.”

…That life hangs by a truly thin thread. 

And because we can only do so much, this is where we really need to look up to the heavens and ask for G-d’s help and mercy.  😉

(Credit Photo: my wonderful son-in-law, Itzchak)

Coronavirus Cancels Synagogue

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Coronavirus Cancels Synagogue.“

While I understand the rationale to close the synagogues, not to congregate with others and expose ourselves or spread the Coronavirus, I can’t help thinking and believing that what we need now, more than ever, is prayer to Hashem and the mitzvah of Torah study that the synagogue provides to us. Indeed, only in the hands of G-d is the ultimate power of health or illness, and life or death…To me, this Shabbat was not a full Shabbat, because there was no synagogue, no Rabbi’s sermon, no community to talk and share with. I feel robbed of my religion today. I want to be able to go to synagogue and have a real Shabbat. How many other Shabbatot will we have to continue to go through without being able to pray in a minyan, hear the Torah reading, listen to the Rabbi’s speech, and see our community friends?

Many say and I firmly believe that we are on the doorstep of Mashiach and that he is even here among us waiting for the right moment to reveal himself. We’ve survived so much and finally have returned as a people to our homeland of Israel. Now we must survive the final birthing pains of Mashiach and then we will be able to go not only to our synagogues once again, but also to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray and learn at G-d’s very footstep in this earthly world.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Stop The Coronavirus, Please!

It’s been a few exhausting weeks since the outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) has gone public. 

First case in China in November.

Now as a Pandemic in 126 countries!

Over 132,000 confirmed cases, so far .

And around 5,000 deaths 🕱.

The numbers are projected to climb/////.

With Dr. Faucci of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) warning that it will “get worse before it gets better.”

Everything is closing down from our work facilities to Cruises, Broadway, and Disney.

Of course, we need the government (at all levels), health professionals, and pharmaceutical companies to get their acts together with an effective response strategy. 

Also, this is a wake up call for better preparedness for all sorts of natural and man made disasters that are awaiting. 

Today it’s a virus (natural or biowarfare) and tomorrow it’ll be a devastating cyber attack that we are woefully unprepared for. 

No more playing politics, half measures, and waiting for the next shoe to drop (Spanish Flu, Pearl Harbor, 9/11).

The rest of us need to do our “prepping” parts and to say a prayer or two and keep going. 

(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)