Sunday, September 27, 2009

Mi K'Amcha Yisroel!



Yom Kippur is a day of fast. Having driving forbidden in Israel during this holiday, the people replace the cars and take over the highways. This video is captured from a building's viewpoint on a main social area in Tel Aviv, and covers 32 hours just before it starts and all the way to the end


I don't know if they have YouTube in heaven..but if they do..I'm sure the Barditchiver Rebbe Zt'L is playing this before the Kisei Hakavod...


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Thursday, September 24, 2009

lost



In the alphabetic confessional Viduy that we say...
these days...and all days..
the final two...Ta'inu..we have gone astray...
and Tit'anu..is a source of much contention..
what exactly does it mean?
heres my 2 cents..if I may..

It says...In the path in which a person wants to go...he is led there...
in other words...Hashem...not only let's us choose
whatever path we want to travel on..
he even helps us attain our goals..
no matter how bad they are..

...there was a time..when people chose..
paths..and ideologies....divergent from our own...

but today...today?
we are so lost...
so far from a semblance of a path
and so we say..Ta'Inu...we have strayed
we are so lost...
we aren't on any path....
and the Posuk says...if you see someone's animal..astray..
If you see it wandering off the path....you must return it...
again...and again..and again..even a hundred times..
so we beseech our Father and say...don't lead us further..
down this path..because...there's no path here..
we're lost...

and that could be what Tit'anu means...it's 2 times the word To'eh תעתענו
in other words...we've been lost and lost..again and again...
and yet...you always find us..
somehow..

Gmar Chasima Tova



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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Judgement Day



The day dawns fresh and new. Men with their little children hurrying down the avenues and alleyways to shuls and synagogues. Hashem renews and resets the universe every year on this day. Everyone has a chance for a new beginning. The proverbial clean slate.
If you think about it seems strange that a day like this should be Judgement Day.

Wouldn't it make more sense for Judgement Day to be at the end of the old year? To seal the old year with Judgement and then to start anew?

Here we see the mercy of God...
Hashem waits to judge us on the old until he sees what are we going to do with a new beginning.
Like a child who did terribly on his finals and his teacher says..ok heres a new test let's see how hard you work
.
So..that's why Rosh Hashana is Judgement Day.
A fresh and clean slate...nothing holding us back. Nothing tying us to past actions... He makes it easy to want to be good and correct the misdeeds of the old and in that spirit he allows the present to color the past and merit a good year.

Let's all strive to better...and look forward to a sweet, healthy and prosperous year.



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Friday, September 11, 2009

9/11 again






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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

small steps



I'm sorry Mr Armstrong..
but I fail to see...
40 year on
how your small dusty step
for man..has been
a giant leap...
for anyone..

Instead I drive around
on this crisp..
...september morning
......slowly...and see
on every corner..
......little children..
some in uniform..
nervous..quivering
....lower lip..of moms..
as huge yellow steps pull up..
and their little tiny feet..
....take..the first small steps..
that are the true
giant leaps
...for mankind


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Thursday, September 03, 2009

8 pints




the rain falls...
drop
... by

.... drop..
JOltInG me...with cold
tiny stabs...at first...
ssslowly..cold to cool..
rivulets..down my skin
absorbed into pores..
becoming blood...
My blood....(I think)
......8 pints of life
2 bottles of coca cola
keep this machine running...
this machine that is me..
And as it seeps out
of the stab wound..(how?)
I see you watching..
hoRRified...gripping yourself
as if..trying to somehow..
hold your own blood in place...
Your own 2 liter bottle..
Its the last thing I see..
Before 4 pints...
flow out of me..
..just like crazy that!
taking my soul..
soul...that is suddenly
......trapped in that
oh so nauseatingly sweet
Bottle of Coca Cola*





*Coca Cola is a trade mark of the Coca Cola company




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