To Be Zealous

I wrote this blog earlier, however I would like to repost it for Parshat Pinchas


To Be Zealous

Here's some insights on Zealousness that Hashem blessed me with.

OK, how do I know if I am a true Zealot, a Pinchas in training...or am I a fake, a self-righteous angry man?

Well, it depends who you are zealous for.

If I am thinking of my own honour, my own self-aggrandizement, then I am fighting for ME ME ME. My mind will be
muddled and confused, and trillions of angry thoughts will fly in my mind.
If that's the case, stay home, do not dare to lift even a speck of dust against the police, you will be creating a
massive Chillul Hashem.

However, if that same sin was performed on your own turf, say a bunch of hooligans destroyed your prized roses, you
would NOT be angry at all. Rather you would feel massive sadness, and you would cry Niagara Falls, seeing
how the noble human being could crash to such lowness and sub-bestial disgrace! However your mind would be clear and
tranquil. Then you can start qualifying as a Pinchas in Training!

Now if those hooligans start grafitti-painting the Kotel R"L, and you were not 'honour sensitive', however you feel
burning wrath, not for your sake, but for G-d's sake, then you are a true zealot. Pinchas HaTzaddik will be proud of you!

By the way, for the record I, Robert A. Solomon would fail this test!

You would then be doing a great Kiddush Hashem as you fight for His Honour and Glory. People will tell by your calm, noble deportment that you are genuine, and not a
self centered ball of anger and flame. However please try to keep within the law as you can!

Now how can you tell?

My humble guess is how you are behaving.

Imagine a big ugly drunk fighting. He is slashing, punching, and kicking in all directions. He is clumsy and scattering
his brute strength all over the place like an incandescent light bulb.

Now imagine a Martial Arts Grandmaster like the Aluf Abir or The Tae Kwon Do Grandmaster. He will be focused and clear-minded
like a laser beam. His energy is strong, and his passion is strong, but it is focused and concentrated!

Pinchas was such a grandmaster. Pinchas was FURIOUS no doubt, but it wasnt his own honour! It was HASHEM'S HONOUR!
So despite his blazing fury over Hashem's honour he still managed to have the clearness of mind to:

1. Ask his Rebbe (Moshe Rabeinu) for the halacha. An angry person for his own honour will not do this
2. Calmly walk through Shevet Shimon's territory avoiding the security guards
3. Aim the spear at the right spot!
4. Dispatch the bodies in a proper way, and then walk away and leave the spotlight.

So if you are angry, and yet be able to think with clarity and logical purpose, then get on the plane.
However if you are just 'pissed off', you are better off davening to Hashem, speaking to Hashem the way
Rebbe Nachman taught us to do, and to keep learning Torah!

I AM ENGAGED!

Here is the lady I have been praying for all these years:



I know I have been amiss for a while, because I have been focusing lots of time on shidduch hunting and car buying, but now

With The Help Of Hashem YitBarach, I AM ENGAGED to my Jewish Russian Queen

The Beautiful Yelena Kaz of Baltimore.

Now I am working hard to get married IY"H. In the meantime, I have some pictures and an engagement ring movie to show you. If you cant play the movie, that's because YouTube is processing the movie right now.



Here's my bride and I mugging for the camera. Sorry guys, I am not very photogenic like my kallah is ;)

You need engines and flaps to fly a jet plane brother!

Hello people,

Why is it so important to do personal prayer? Why do I have to take about 15-60 mins of my precious time and go into a field or park and speak to Hashem? Do I not do this during Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv (Arvit) in a minyan? Also people are going to see me as ridiculous?

Well Rebbe Lazer Brody gives excellent answers in his CD's and blog. However I can give you a parable. Suppose you have a big jumbo jet, you need the big Rolls Royce or Pratt and Whitney engines to get that big beast airborne. However without flaps you aint gonna get anywhere brother!

The Anshei Knesset HaGedola (Men of the Great Assembly) created the traditional prayer service at the start of the 2nd Temple period. There are no prayers more potent and powerful than those. They are the engine, the fuel to get us airborne and flying.

However I need a direction, I need to know my goals, what I really want in life, and how to ask Hashem what I specifically need. Plus there are things on my mind I need to vent out. INstead of hurting other people, and transgressing laws of loshon hora, hurtful words, and the like --- say the same stuff to Hashem instead. Personal prayer is the flaps, the rudder, and ailerons that direct the aeroplane to it's correct destination.

In conclusion, you need the jet engines of Jewish Tradition and the community, and you need goals and personal prayer to steer you in the correct direction that Hashem wants you to go.

Dont worry America. Israel is behind you!

From Arutz 7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=120700)
Israeli Security Firm to Outfit Surveillance at D.C. Airport
11:47 Feb 01, '07 / 13 Shevat 5767
by Ezra HaLevi

An Israeli security company based in Ra’anana has been chosen to outfit Washington D.C.’s airport with digital surveillance systems, Israel21c reports.



NICE Systems was selected by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to supply the company’s NiceVision Digital Video Surveillance Solution as part of a Closed Circuit TV core systems upgrade at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

"Because NICE has been providing security surveillance systems for airports around the world for years, they allow us to meet these challenges and provide our client with the best suited digital video technologies available," said Gunvir Baveja, President and CEO of eVigilant, system integrators for Reagan National Airport.

The planned security upgrade will involve the decommissioning and removal of existing video servers and recording systems currently maintained in the airport operations computer room and its replacement with NICE’s high-resolution digital video recorders.

The NiceVision Digital Video Surveillance Solution is capable of sustaining numerous cameras while providing the infrastructure and integration potential to support video content applications. This means threats can be identified and tracked as images are analyzed in real-time.

There is a G-d

I found this incredible video on Reb. Lazer Brody's site. This is an amazing boy who recorded this song between chemotherapy sessions. This song was also recorded before his Bar Mitzvah. May Hashem send him a complete refuah shleimah!
The video can also be found here

Work -- WHY?

Work

After talking about ridiculously expensive automobiles yesterday, let's get back to the theme of this blog: What are we doing here?

Uh and by the way, while we're here, why do we have to work.

Here's an answer given by Yanki Tauber of Chabad.org
Article appears at http://www.chabad.org/magazine/article.asp?AID=466991

Why must everything be so difficult? Couldn't G-d have designed our lives so that we wouldn't need to encounter disappointments, challenges and toil every step of the way?

This must be one of the oldest questions ever asked. The answer--that an "easy" life would also be a meaningless life--is probably just as old. And so is the parable told to illustrate the point:

A wealthy nobleman was once touring his estate and came upon a peasant pitching hay. The nobleman was fascinated by the sight: flowing motions of the peasant's arms and shoulders and the graceful sweep of the pitchfork through the air. He so greatly enjoyed the spectacle that he struck a deal with the peasant: he would give him a gold coin every day if the peasant agreed to come to the mansion and display his hay-pitching technique in the nobleman's drawing room.

The next day, the peasant arrived at the mansion, hardly concealing his glee at his new line of "work." After swinging his empty pitchfork for an hour, he collected his gold coin--many times his usual reward for a week of backbreaking labor. But by the following day, his enthusiasm had somewhat waned. Before the week was out, he announced that he was quitting his commission.

"I don't understand," puzzled the nobleman. "Why would you rather swing heavy loads outdoors in the winter cold and the summer heat, when you can perform an effortless task in the comfort of my home and earn many times your usual wages?"

"But master," said the man, "I'm not doing anything..."

The new $8 million Maybach Exelero

This nice sports car can be yours for only eight million dollars.
Hmm, just enough to keep a yeshiva going for 100 years!
Hmm, just enough to raise an army to get Ollie out of office!
Hmm, well I do like that nice premium leather interior with the matching crash helmets.

Hmm, that's gonna take a huge chunk of Olam Habah from me, so I'll settle for a Bugatti Veyron at about $1.3 million, what a deal!

Meanwhile I will keep driving my 1993 Mazda MX-6 happily. It's got 180,000 miles on it, and still going like a tiger. No it wont even eat the dust of these 2 mentioned cars, however one thing Im sure. When I am in the Beltway, or on Rockville Pike and surrounded by traffic, I am confident that we will be traveling at the same speed together. SLOW!

Ladies and gentlemen, these cars are gorgeous, however put your money where it really matters - helping people and increasing your Olam Haba! Just think how much it will cost to insure my Exelero. One ding could cost you the price of a new Lexus.