HANDS THAT SPEAK

     I remember speaking at a Social Workers symposium.  The discussion centered around the many types of people that make up this world.

The question I posed was "What is a good criteria for insight into a person's character?"

     I then made a simple observation.  The best way to know a person is to look at their hands. Yes,their "Hands".

Think about it. Hands have so much power and strength.They can build massive buildings, they can heal a wound, they can brush away a tear. We write with them , and fight with them, eat with them and greet and hug others with them. I sense, therefore, that if we see how others perform with their hands we will gain greater insight as to their personality.

   I read recently that there are three main gestures that hands perform.

  First there is the "Hand Wringer". He/she is a person that in time of stress when clear thinking and decisive action is required stands in the corner wringing their hands and gives out a gushersrey "ohy vey". Such a person believes that hand wringing is going to solve his/her problem and in reality it never does.

 The second there  is the "Hand Folder".  When challenged  he/she sits with their hands folded doing nothing and waiting for others to act and then will decide if they are willing to make a decision on how they should act. Most of the time these "Hand Folders" do nothing and after all is said and done they complain "Why was it done this way? I recall someone sitting in a classroom  hands folded as if to say "O.K. teach me. Go ahead change me." Most of the time such a person is never motivated.

  Now we come to the third variety of hands .This is the person whom we can all emulate , he is the the "Hand Extender".  He/she is willing to extend themselves, to give him/her self for a cause, an ideal. I refer to such a person as the "Nachshon" of our society, willing to jump into the fray to bring about the Geulah for mankind. Such hands are always ready unselfishly, willing to be touched by human needs and can always be counted on to respond.

   The "Hand Extender" does not wait to be welcomed. They jump at the chance to be the first to say hello and the first to welcome others into their midst and into their lives. The "Hand Extender" is never judgmental, always acting with Lekaf Zechut to others. Such a person has an open heart.

   Here, my friends, is what life is all about.  Look at your hands and your neighbors hands for they tell the story of life.

  The question I pose and only you can answer, "What story are your hands telling?"

CARPE DIEM

     There is a legend about one of our sages who was about to travel from Eretz Yisrael to Rome. The night before he left, he had a dream in which he saw a beggar dressed in rags sitting at the gates of Rome and a voice in that dream said to him "Do you see that man? That is the Moshiach, dressed as a beggar."
The Rabbi woke up and could not get the dream out of his mind. He kept thinking about it. Finally, as he approached Rome at the end of his journey, there was a figure dressed in rags sitting exactly where he had been in his dream. The Rabbi approached him and said "Is it true that you are the Moshiach?"  And the man nodded. The Rabbi asked, “What are you doing here at the gates of Rome?" And the man answered, "Waiting". The Rabbi asked "Waiting in a world so full of misery and hatred and war, in a world in which the children of Israel  are scattered and oppressed? Moshiach, in the name of Hashem, what are you waiting for ?" And the Moshiach answered, "I've been waiting for you so I could ask you, in the name of G-D what were you waiting for?".
    I believe that one of the greatest sins of man is the act of procrastination .We all too often wait to act and when we finally do, to our dismay it is to late and sorrowfully the opportunity passes us by.
     Our motto in life needs to be ‘Carpe Diem’, ‘Seize the Moment’.

Remember ‘Today is a ‘gift ‘and that is why we call it the ‘present ’. This gift is the blessings of life that Hashem has graciously bestowed upon humanity on a daily basis. This gift of life is not to be taken for granted but always to be cherished.  We must stop waiting and start acting in whatever endeavor we are searching for, especially in our quest for spiritual enlightenment.
    Our Parsha, this week, speaks extensively regarding the building of the Mishkan/Mikdash and how everyone graciously donated to the building of these holy places. However, I sense that more than the physical building of the Mishkan/Mikdash, we need to make our own lives a Mikdash, as the Torah states, ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם,  wherein Hashem can dwell amongst us in every possible way. This indeed takes time and effort and can not be accomplished by our acts of procrastination but needs our immediate attention and actions.
     Whatever our agenda in life may be, we cannot let ourselves become tainted by a deprecating and barren skepticism and discouraged by the sadness of certain hours which may unfurl before us.

     Let us stand erect and walk into the future with strength and fortitude and use all the time that Hashem has granted us to bring life's Blessings into existence.
Remember well the Moshiach is waiting for us and the question is " Will we hear his call and will we respond?”

G-D'S WITNESS

The words of Isaiah ring out to me as I look upon our world today.

                                                    אם לא תאמינו כי לא תאמנו

"If you do not believe, you will not be established"

                                      אתם עדי נאום ה׳ ואני קל.        

 "When you are my witnesses then I am  G-D"

There is no doubt in my mind that humanity needs G-D, for we are G-D'S witnesses.

The more I gaze at the way the world is functioning , the more I realize that Hashem is searching for humanity and needs humanity to bring his world to fruition. We are indeed משותפים עם ה׳ , we are to form a "Devine -Human Partnership"

Hashem created Heaven and Earth in a state of beginning and it is up to us to carry it forward. This is truly an important concept in developing a meaningful personality, which is attained as long as we maintain a positive attitude of "Possiblities". 

As humans we possess an internal light and that may very well be the most important human endowment we receive at birth. It is a spark of Divinity kindled in each of us.

This internal light has been identified in many ways and I sense it is the soft whisper of Hashem in man.

This internal light confers upon man supreme value, which makes each one of us unique and special and thereby becoming the true witness of G-D.

 A favorite story of mine, is the story of an old man who walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with the youth, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish" countered the old man . "How can your effort make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," he said.

Our efforts can make a difference. There will be many starfish on the paths we will travel and how we treat them will make a difference in our growth. The best resolution we can make on a daily basis is to pay attention to the starfish we will see. If we can reach out to all who need to us, we will have made a difference to their lives and to ours.

Remember well "We are G-D'S witnesses" And we have the great responsibility to be the best witnesses we can be.

RIDE THE WAVES

I write this blog reflecting upon a question posed to me by one of our college students in his quest for answers to his spiritual question ,"What is the essence of life in Judaism?" In all honesty this is not a question that is easily answered , but let me share with you what I shared with this very inquisitive young man.

I was sitting on the boardwalk one day watching with great enjoyment the surfers in the ocean, it was a thing of beauty.  They were flowing with the tide.  As the waves moved to and fro they were using there surfboards to guide there motions through the movements of the waves to arrive safely and still standing on the board up to the shore.

I then realized that life is like the the waves. At times very fierce and seemingly hostile and to be able to ride these life storms waves, one has to gather all his spiritual, physical and mental strength to prevent  his falling off his surfboard of life.

I realize more and more that life is not always a straight path, for there are peaks and valleys and we must attend to the agenda of the hour and work with all of our G-D given energy to achieve a homeostasis to our being.

We need to flow with life's tide always searching for ways to overcome the pain, the aggravation, the loneliness and the rejection.

Getting on with life is  what heals our anxieties, and our loneliness and in doing so to gather our strength to validate ourselves and our existence. Our  spirit calls out to us to be regal and to move forward to live life with resolve, with creative energy, with joy, a joy which will dispel all the deep shadows of loneliness and problems.

The Rav, Rabbi Soloveitchik tz'l states a fundamental Jewish truth."The very essence of our Jewish  covenantal community is  being together with each other."

This is our answer to this young mans quest.

If we ride the waves of life together, we are more assured that we will reach the shores of success .