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Begin the New Year by finding the best within yourself

We have spent the last few weeks looking deeply at all the things that hold us back from living the kind of lives we want. Sukkot is how we take those thoughts and turn them into sweetness and joy.

We will study a couple of beautiful passages from Rabbi Nachman of Braslov, who believed the happiness was the reality of life.

Everyone is invited.

This Sunday, 9/22 at 9:30 am, Adat Shalom

Living With the Past…Not In it

Rabbi Aaron Bergman for hamakOhm

Breathing and meditative techniques

-Breathe with your nose into the belly, push out with diaphragm. Hold for a few seconds. Concentration comes during the holding of breath. Breathe out slowly through the nose (first few breaths should be through the mouth). Repeat every few breaths. Allow any thought to arise. Greet the thought with curiosity, but not judgment. Where are these thoughts located? Your mind is your ally. What is it trying to teach you?

-Scan your body from your feet up to your head. What thoughts arise as reach a particular body part? Is there warmth, tightness, pleasure or pain, or a combination? Just notice and move on.

Ideas to Contemplate

Do not believe everything you think. Thoughts may be real, but not necessarily true

Myth (how and what a group chooses to remember), memory (how and what an individual chooses to remember), history (what really happened). Which do you live with the most?

Which side of your family are you from?

Forgiveness means giving up idea that past can be better.

Forgiving is not condoning.

Is the past more appealing than your present and more promising than your future? What is that thought based on?

How has your past changed over the years?

Nostalgia versus sentimentality. Sentimentality is an appreciation for the past. Nostalgia is the desire to recreate it. Which describes your approach?

What are you afraid of from your past that will recur? What are you afraid will not recur?

Your past in dreams and daydreams-what is it trying to teach you?

 

You are completely unlikely. Celebrate that.

Night Time Shema

Praised are You, Adonai, who blesses Your people with peace.

“I hereby forgive everyone and everything, Let no one suffer because of me.

Master of the universe, I hereby forgive anyone who angered or antagonized me whether through speech, deed, thought, or notion. May no one be punished because of me. May it be Your will, my God and the God of my ancestors, that I cause no more harm. May the expressions of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart find favor.”

How do you understand night? Does it always lead to day? How does that relate to Rosh HaShanah and the new year?

We are not going to meet this Sunday June 16th. It is Father’s day and I did not want to conflict with anyone’s celebrations, including my own.

hamakOhm will return in August.

Have a great summer.

All of us know people who never seem to be happy or satisfied with anything, and who make sure we know it. There are a few simple things we can do that could have a surprisingly positive impact on them, maybe even without their knowing.

If nothing else, we can learn to be around them in a better way.

We will study texts and techniques that will help us be less reactive in difficult situations, and more compassionate to those who create those challenges.

We will meet this Sunday morning, 6/2, at Adat Shalom at 9:30am. Everyone is invited. There is no charge.

Here are some of the texts we will look at. They are from Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Sages.

Hillel said: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah.

Shammai said: Make your study of the Torah a fixed habit. Say

little and do much, and receive all people with a cheerful face.

Shimon ben Gamliel said: All my days have I grown up among the

wise and I have not found anything better for a person than

silence. Studying Torah is not the most important thing rather

fulfilling it. Whoever multiplies words causes sin.

Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah said: Whoever takes upon himself

the yoke of Torah, from him will be taken away the yoke of

government and the yoke of worldly care; but whoever throws

off the yoke of Torah, upon him will be laid the yoke of

government and the yoke of worldly care.

Rabbi Jacob said: If a person walking by the way and is studying

and then interrupts that study and says: “How fine is this tree?”

or “How fine is this ploughed field?” Scripture regards that

person as in forfeit of life.

The world is a very scary place, but we do not have to live in fear. Jewish texts have a lot to offer us in facing the world with courage and optimism.

Everyone is welcome. Adat Shalom Synagogue, 5/17, 10 am.

Here is one of the texts we will look at. It is from the last chapter of the Talmudic Tractate of Blessings. Some of the texts will be comforting. Some will be challenging. They all will have something to say about confronting our deepest fears.

MISHNAH. IF ONE SEES A PLACE WHERE MIRACLES HAVE BEEN WROUGHT FOR ISRAEL, HE SHOULD SAY, BLESSED BE HE WHO WROUGHT MIRACLES FOR OUR ANCESTORS IN THIS PLACE.

ON SEEING A PLACE FROM WHICH IDOLATRY HAS BEEN EXTIRPATED, HE SHOULD SAY, BLESSED BE HE WHO EXTIRPATED IDOLATRY FROM OUR LAND.

[ON WITNESSING] SHOOTING STARS, EARTHQUAKES, THUNDERCLAPS, STORMS AND LIGHTNINGS ONE SHOULD SAY, BLESSED BE HE WHOSE STRENGTH AND MIGHT FILL THE WORLD. ON SEEING MOUNTAINS, HILLS, SEAS, RIVERS AND DESERTS HE SHOULD SAY, BLESSED BE HE WHO WROUGHT CREATION. R. JUDAH SAYS: IF ONE SEES THE GREAT SEA ONE SHOULD SAY, BLESSED BE HE WHO MADE THE GREAT SEA, [THAT IS] IF HE SEES IT AT [CONSIDERABLE] INTERVALS. FOR RAIN AND FOR GOOD TIDINGS ONE SAYS, BLESSED BE HE THAT IS GOOD AND BESTOWS GOOD.

FOR EVIL TIDINGS ONE SAYS, BLESSED BE THE TRUE JUDGE.

ONE WHO HAS BUILT A NEW HOUSE OR BOUGHT NEW VESSELS SAYS, BLESSED BE HE WHO HAS KEPT US ALIVE AND PRESERVED US AND BROUGHT US TO THIS SEASON.

OVER EVIL A BLESSING IS SAID SIMILAR TO THAT OVER GOOD AND OVER GOOD A BLESSING IS SAID SIMILAR TO THAT OVER EVIL, BUT TO CRY OVER THE PAST IS TO UTTER A VAIN PRAYER. IF A MAN’S WIFE IS PREGNANT AND HE SAYS, [GOD] GRANT THAT MY WIFE BEAR A MALE CHILD, THIS A VAIN PRAYER. IF HE IS COMING HOME FROM A JOURNEY AND HE HEARS CRIES OF DISTRESS IN THE TOWN AND SAYS, [GOD] GRANT THAT THIS IS NOT IN MY HOUSE, THIS IS A VAIN PRAYER.

ONE WHO [IN THE COURSE OF A JOURNEY] GOES THROUGH A CAPITAL CITY SHOULD SAY TWO PRAYERS, ONE ON ENTERING AND ONE ON LEAVING. BEN AZZAI SAYS, FOUR, TWO ON ENTERING AND TWO ON LEAVING- HE GIVES THANKS FOR PAST MERCIES AND SUPPLICATES FOR THE FUTURE.

IT IS INCUMBENT ON A MAN TO BLESS [GOD] FOR THE EVIL IN THE SAME WAY AS FOR THE GOOD, AS IT SAYS, AND THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THY HEART ETC. ‘WITH ALL THY HEART, MEANS WITH THY TWO IMPULSES, THE EVIL IMPULSE AS WELL AS THE GOOD IMPULSE; ‘WITH ALL THY SOUL’ MEANS, EVEN THOUGH HE TAKES THY SOUL [LIFE]; ‘WITH ALL THY MIGHT’ MEANS, WITH ALL THY MONEY. ANOTHER EXPLANATION OF ‘WITH ALL THY MIGHT [ME’ODEKA]’ IS, WHATEVER TREATMENT HE METES OUT TO THEE.

ONE SHOULD AVOID SHOWING DISRESPECT TO THE EASTERN GATE BECAUSE IT IS IN A DIRECT LINE WITH THE HOLY OF HOLIES. A MAN SHOULD NOT ENTER THE TEMPLE MOUNT WITH HIS STAFF OR WITH HIS SHOES ON OR WITH HIS WALLET OR WITH HIS FEET DUST-STAINED; NOR SHOULD HE MAKE IT A SHORT CUT [KAPPANDARIA], AND SPITTING [ON IT IS FORBIDDEN] A FORTIORI.

AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE BENEDICTIONS SAID IN THE TEMPLE THEY USED AT FIRST TO SAY SIMPLY, ‘FOR EVER’. WHEN THE SADDUCEES PERVERTED THEIR WAYS AND ASSERTED THAT THERE WAS ONLY ONE WORLD, IT WAS ORDAINED THAT THE RESPONSE SHOULD BE, FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING. IT WAS ALSO LAID DOWN THAT GREETING SHOULD BE GIVEN IN [GOD’S] NAME, IN THE SAME WAY AS IT SAYS, AND BEHOLD BOAZ CAME FROM BETHLEHEM AND SAID UNTO THE REAPERS, THE LORD BE WITH YOU; AND THEY ANSWERED HIM, THE LORD BLESS THEE; AND IT ALSO SAYS, THE LORD IS WITH THEE, THOU MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR; AND IT ALSO SAYS, AND DESPISE NOT THY MOTHER WHEN SHE IS OLD; AND IT ALSO SAYS, IT IS TIME TO WORK FOR THE LORD; THEY HAVE MADE VOID THY LAW.

R. NATHAN SAYS: [THIS MEANS] THEY HAVE MADE VOID THY LAW BECAUSE IT IS TIME TO WORK FOR THE LORD.

Keeping your emotional balance during simple times is easy. When was your last simple time? If your life is in perfect order you can stop reading. For the rest of us, I am offering a session on how to use the imagery of the tree of life to find ways to face all the storms and winds in our lives with wisdom and skill.

This is a continuation of our discussion, but you did not have to attend part one to get something out of this session.

This Sunday morning, April 28th at 10am at Adat Shalom. Everyone is welcome. Feel free to bring anyone you think could use some rebalancing.

Keeping your emotional balance during simple times is easy. When was your last simple time? If your life is in perfect order you can stop reading. For the rest of us, I am offering a session on how to use the imagery of the tree of life to find ways to face all the storms and winds in our lives with wisdom and skill.

This Sunday morning, April 14th at 10am at Adat Shalom. Everyone is welcome. Feel free to bring anyone you think could use some rebalancing.