Unburied Treasure - Overcoming your natural language!

I just heard a most amazing shiur by Rabbi Michalowicz (the Rav of the Westmount Shul and Learning Centre of Thorn Hill, Toronto) on why it is soooo hard to keep Torah and Judaism. It blew my socks away!

You can find his classes here:http://www.westmountroutes.com/classreview.html

The class this post is based upon is Class 19 (Mother Languages of the Body and the Soul) on this page: http://www.westmountroutes.com/Mesilas%20Yesharim.html. It is based on the Mesilat Yesharim with the Bilvavi's commentary.

I highly recommend you listen to it!

To start, why is Judaism so hard? Why dont I need a Rebbe to teach me how to eat, sleep, and go to work. However I do need one to constantly remind me to learn Talmud, to control my anger, and to watch my diet?

Have you ever tried to learn a new language? I sure have! It's so hard to think, to feel, and to behave using the new language, things that come natural when you talk in your native language.

I vividly remember the frustration and pain of learning Hebrew (and I still cant understand how to listen to Israelis speaking!) I tried listening to tapes, to understand what the morah (ulpan teacher) was trying to say, but I couldnt get it! Nothing penetrated!

When I tried speaking in Hebrew to people, it was very hard to colour in my thoughts to the new language. After about 2-5 mins, the conversation reverted naturally back to English, or I forced it back to English, or else I tried to kill the conversation as quickly and politely as I could.

Well, it's the same with Judaism. Our Mama Loshen (Mother language) is the language of the Physical World. The Spiritual Language is a second language to us!

For example, Shabbat - Rabbi Michalowicz describes it so beautifully. We love the food, the sleeping, and the conversation. We go to a quick minyan close to home as possible, rush through the services (Im guilty!) and go home, run through Shalom Aleichem and Eishet Chayil, and then we eat and eat and eat! Oh yes, we talk about Obama, politics (so much fun) Paul the Octopus, the World Cup, and say/get familiar with the latest loshon hora tidbits about the Rabbi, how he is so extreme, and that the chazzan sings out of tune and is only up there to be the star.

Mama Loshen!

However deep within us is our Neshamah, our soul. What we forget is that this Neshamah has a mother language of it's own. It's mother language is to be kind, think about other people, to learn Torah, to daven with passion and intensity, to think before making a decision. You get the picture.

The mistake that we have been making for the past 2,000 years is that we are trying to keep Judaism by forcing our bodies to give up their mother language! To force them into shul and learn Torah, pray, diet, etc! Naturally a rebellion is staged with the victory of the body!

However all we really need to do is grab a good ol' shovel, and start digging. Enjoy the body, enjoy the food, try to learn Torah, try to be kind....keeping the status quo you have been living for now.....with one addition: Find some time in your day, get the spade and dig for the ultimate treasure.....your Neshamah.

Once you uncover your Neshamah, you suddenly become fluent in the Mama Loshen you knew all along, and all of a sudden, it's much much easier and fun to be in Shul than to be eating!

Im not there yet....however I plan to spend less time worrying and more time digging for the Neshamah!

When many Jews find the Neshamah they had within them all the time, then Moshiach will definitely come!

Hatzlachah!

A new beginning

Hello,

It's been 2 years since I added anything on this blog, so I hope to get things rolling again. In the meantime, I had a new baby girl and hope to add pictures of her to this blog, plus some movies as well.

I also apologize for all the blank pictures out there. I guess things change in 2 years and files get lost as time marches on.

Anyway, I pray that this time, I can fulfill the mitzvah of marbiz HaTorah as best as I can!

Cheers!

Ebay

Recently, I have just started to use ebay to get rid of all stuff I do not need.
You see I have all this stuff that is just taking up room in the flat, and it is too expensive and precious to just chuck into the landfill.

I realize that ebay is a perfect proof that 'one guy's trash is another guy's treasure'.

I also use this as a way to practice how to do business with integrity. It is so hard to resist glancing at the bidding right at the final crucial end of the bid to see if my Tony Robbins CD's have gone up in price.

Things that I thought were not very valuable turned out to be far more valuable than I thought!

Nevertheless, as beautiful a tool ebay is, it has major pitfalls. For starters, you have to say the truth and mention all the scratches, dings, and blemishes in the object you're trying to sell. This can come back to haunt you later if your ebay ratings plummet! More serious is that you fail the crucial test of 'Did you do your business deals with integrity?'

Finally, when all is said and done, the stark fact that our stipends are decreed on Rosh Hashannah hold true even with ebay. That means that all our money, whether it comes from the job paycheck, ebay, multi level marketing (NOT RECOMMENDED), rental property, stocks and other financial instruments - ALL THAT is determined on Rosh Hashanah!

So it's exciting to see how the bids turned out, YET we have to remember that Hashem decreed that money for us anyway, and if we wont get it on ebay, then we'll get it in a birthday present, a tax break, or a holiday bonus - or finding the same amount of money on the street (and there's no return address or clues to return the money to)

Chag sameach!

Im back with a new movie!

wowzers! It's been since Chanukah since I last entered the blogosphere!
Shame on me! Well I need to get back into business - well Pesach is coming and I have a real nice 3 minute clip I got from Aish.com on Pesach. Enjoy it, it's only 3 minutes and well worth the time to view.

Hope to see you soon!
Cheers!
Robert

To make Aliyah or not

As an orthodox Jew in America living in the End of Days, I keep thinking that we need to get out of this country as fast as possible and make it to Israel.

I am all for it.

I want to do it.

I think it's the only place for a Jew to live.

Jews here are caught in the 'hey buddy, dont get bent out of shape' culture where the hemlines get shorter, and 'slumming it' is a cool thing to do. We forget so rapidly that there is a schedule, a cosmic timetable to history. Just as a caterpillar has x amount of time to be a caterpillar before it suddenly enters a cocoon and then emerges as a beautiful butterfly.

For 5768 years, humanity has been in the caterpillar stage, and we have become like the Big Green Caterpillar, so big and fat, especially gorging all those pizzas, lollipops, and burgers in the good olde US of A. However whether we like it or not, we will eventually enter the cocoon and have to break out of our old caterpillar shell (hmm change ourselves, do teshuvah, etc) or else the governments will force us to do so, G-d forbid.

And the end, humanity will enter the beautiful butterfly stage, with Moshiach, speedily in our days.

Israel is a mess, however Israel is the only place to be if you want to be really close to Hashem.
Israel is a proving ground. I failed after 3 years, however it is for the best.

The Melitzer Rebbe, shlita, understands clearly why we cant simply drop the job, get on the plane and move to Israel.

First shalom bayit (peace in the home).
Even though Hashem wants us to make aliyah, nevertheless I think He would rather us happily married in the Diaspora rather than marital discord in the Holy Land! If the spouse is not ready to go up, then you are not yet ready. End of story.

Also, we have to think about $$$. Once you do get the job, you will probably have to learn to live on much less, deal with a much smaller house/apartment, and trash a huge percent of your paycheck to a now defunct government.

Nevertheless, I want to move. Im ready to leave my Honda Odyssey and move on. However I am not ready to leave my lucrative job right now, and more importantly, my wife is not ready to move yet.

So there you have it. Yes, Hashem wants me to end up in Israel. However right now, he wants me here in the United States.

We'll ramble on more about this subject. I congratulate and envy the brave people who have made the jump, and pray that their aliyah will bring the Redemption now speedily in our days, amen!

OK, time for Robert to take the mickey out of himself today.
Why?
Coz I feel like it, that's why!

Here are some things that I like that are going to make people either shout or point fingers at me.

Here we go:

1. I love Richard Wagner's music! Yes, Im a frum Jew who loves Hashem, and Yahadut. However I just enjoy that powerful Germanic sound!























courtesy of cbc.ca

2. I love driving aggressively. However I am working on this one! It's not easy to break an addiction (see article below)














courtesy of motorcycle.com

3. I am a Mummy's boy.

4. I am a big Neil Diamond fan.

5. I am discovering the appeal for love songs, especially since Im married to a wonderful Jewish queen!

6. I want to buy a pink and grey Brompton folding bicycle because, I just LOVE that pink colour!




















Courtesy of southdownsbikes.com

7. I am a big softie who loves to think he is a Labrador puppy.
























Courtesy of susanalabradors.com

8. I have terrible table manners and eat my food way too fast!
























Courtesy of TimesRecordNews Wichita Falls Online

9. I consult my rabbi so many times, the Rebbitzen starts to worry her husband is not spending enough time with her ;)

10. I always ask my wife permission for anything.

11. I cant cook anything that cannot be cooked in a microwave.


















Courtesy of iomfire.com

8TH DAY CHANUKA!

OK, it's the 8th day, the number 8 being the supernatural number, above nature, transendential.
No post today, Im just gonna give you some light to end Chanuka on a strong positive note!

Cheers!