How a Sticky Situation Taught Me Some Empathy

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “How a Sticky Situation Taught Me Some Empathy.”

Thank G-d, he finished the blood draw, and it was over. But as I reflected afterwards, I thought to myself that this guy is just one of probably millions out there who are unhappy with their jobs, their relationships, their lives, and maybe more broadly, the direction things are going in for them.

To “move the needle” of the world in the right direction, perhaps we must fundamentally change the order of things so that people are paramount while profit and power are not. What that means is that we don’t tolerate the conditions that lead to tyrants, corruption, and endless greed.

(Credit Photo: Anna Shvets via https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-syringe-3786215/)

Are Leftists Driving Us Off a Cliff?

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “Are Leftists Driving Us Off a Cliff?“

2023 so far has been disastrous for Israel at home and in the public sphere as the world watches the leftists endlessly rally, scream, block highways, burn cars, steal tanks, name call, threaten, refuse military service, take money out of the country, shut down businesses, hurt the economy (check the stock market, currency, etc.), ask for international intervention, and create hate and disunity at a time when we need to work together more than ever.

The left protests that they have the moral high ground, but while they vie for power, they ostensibly don’t seem to care whether, in the process, Tel Aviv is reduced to radioactive ash. Instead of being overly focused on power politics, let’s listen to each other with respect and work together to constructively solve problems in a good way.

(Credit Photo: SHVETS production via https://www.pexels.com/photo/expressive-bald-woman-shouting-in-studio-7194740/)

Measuring Success Like G-d

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “Measuring Success Like G-d.”

Never more than today are we living lives of total excess. This week, we saw a Mercedes-Benz 1995 car sell for a record-breaking $142 million. Last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, authorities seized a Russian oligarch’s $793 million mega yacht. And this last year, Morgan Stanley predicted that Elon Musk may eventually become the world’s first trillionaire.

In a world where marketing, sales, advertising, branding, and the media all seek to convince us that life is essentially about “things,” self-satisfaction, the next high, and happiness, we can easily forget how transient and valueless all that really is. Inside each of us though there is a deeper, true voice that seeks a life of real meaning, purpose and immortality, where faith, compassion, giving, and self-sacrifice is the true measure of our character and the ultimate gauge of life success.(Source Photo: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/smiley-emoticon-greed-822993/)

Putin Is A Mega Thief

Great explanation in the Wall Street Journal today for why Putin is focused in grabbing the east and south of Ukraine.

That’s where Ukraine’s energy reserves are!

To the tune of:

– $1 trillion of natural gas

– $400 billion of oil and condensate

– The worlds 6th-largest reserve of coal

And don’t forget the strategic ports of both the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

Russia will control the energy supply chain for decades to come! 

The West’s nonsense sanctions against Putin don’t even make a dent compared to what Putin is getting out of this deal! 

Lesson from Putin is you can get away with massive theft and murder, and no one in this lawless world will stop you. 

What do you think China is going to do with Taiwan next?

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Stand Up!

Wow, I thought this speaks volumes. 

All the greedy and corrupt power players at the table with their fancy suits, money, gold, and properties around the globe.  

And their game is sustained up on the bent backs of the simple people with nothing (not even clothing). 

But a Seeing Eye (and a Hearing Ear) in Heaven is watching the evil perpetrated. 

Eventually, faith tells us that the game will be over and the simple hard-working people will be fully restored and the corrupt will suffer their just desserts.  😉

(Source Photo: Facebook)

$$$Yachting Mean Some Big Dough$$$

Big yachts usually mean big mansions too, and that is certainly true here in Florida.

Often it means multiple mansions across states or even in different countries.

In one case, we saw two mansions demolished to build an even bigger single mansion in their place. 

All the while others are going homeless and are having difficulty making ends meet. 

The last boat isn’t a yacht per se, but I like the ocean blue color!

(Credit Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Shabbat: Time Vs. Space

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “Shabbat: Time Vs. Space.”

When we choose to keep the Sabbath, we mark a day of the week in time, where we reject all the worldly pursuits of space and materialism in lieu of recognizing that there is a higher power, G-d Almighty, and that as Ahmari says ‘everything else is ephemeral and passes away with time.’

What we do to make things holy in time rules over what we do purely physically in space, that nothing but G-d is timeless, and everything material reverts back to its origins and is gone from time as if it never even was. In the end, we need to live our lives with the forethought that the spirit goes to the everlasting afterlife, but the body goes to the physical grave.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

In the hands of heaven

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “In The Hands of Heaven.”

From Passover, we learn the Egyptians didn’t earn the riches, but built their wealth on the backs of the starving people of the world and of course that includes their Israelite slaves. As the Egyptians gloated on their arrogance, power and wealth, eventually the Master of the World showed them who is really boss. All the money, materialism, fancy titles, and honors are all just fleeting. In Hashem resides the glory and He has the say over who gets what and when.

G-d can redeem 600,000 men, women and children, and a large mixed multitude of people with them and very many flocks and cattle in the Exodus and to Him, it’s just another day on the throne of Heaven. In our own times, we have experienced a miraculous redemption from the death camps of Europe, and have returned like the Israelites to the Promised Land of Israel. G-d decides then and now what the plan is and how it unfolds, and everything we have is by G-d’s grace, and these are Seder lessons worthy of celebrating.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Cost Is The Cost

Brilliant quote by Sholem Aleichem:

The less you pay for something, the more it costs. 

You might think you’re getting a bargain by paying less, but in the end, paying less ends up costing you more in troubles and headaches. 

The cost is really the cost. 

When you cut a penny in half, it still costs you the whole penny! 

You can’t nickel and dime it to death. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

We Are The 99%!

This election demonstrated one thing…that we are the 99%!

The too often proverbial suckers under the heel of the power and money elite in society. 

Fed phony and biased information to try and turn us against each other and manipulate us to believe and act in ways beneficial to those who want to retain, and endlessly grow, their wealth and status. 

Like good soldiers, the underclasses are the pawns in the global games of Power Chess and Monopoly. 

The 99% are completely expendable. 

They are blind and will follow orders. 

The 1% likes them dumb and works hard to try and keep them that way!

Anything, if the rich can get richer and the powerful can get more power. 

The schnooks at the bottom looking up, with begging eyes, get the scraps thrown off the table and unto the floor where they fight for a morsel, while killing each other for it. 

The elite use the media, Hollywood, polls, and radicalism, so that they can sit up high and mighty and watch the rest of us with a wide smirk of disdain on their fat, arrogant faces, as we drink it all in. 

How long will the 99% be fooled and played?

Exploited and even thrown under the bus by the narcissist and greedy 1%. 

Where is the democracy in that?  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)