New Pharoahs, Timeless Fate

With Passover behind us we may have forgotten all about bad Pharoahs, plagues, miracles and wine. Sometimes as hard as we try to forget the evil Pharoah, the legacy of evil can haunt us forever.

The past few weeks have been filled with incredible stories, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Death of Osama Bin Laden, Israel's Independence Day and more. The news seems to be hitting us so fast that it's hard for us to digest what is really going on. We only have time for headlines on the web or Facebook messages, and before you know it - we are creating our own new RSS feed! With all this modern technology maybe we should forget what's in the past?

Why does what happened in the past even matter? Maybe we should let the past be the past? Leave your old life and the people you left behind alone! Right? WRONG!!! Many have a hard time realizing that how we approach the mistakes of the past often shapes our future.

Taking a scientific approach, we recall Sir Isaac Newton discovered that "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". And what about propulsion? Propulsion is the concept that in order to move something forward, something else needs to move back - Like a balloon that you blow up and release, the air in a balloon will push it forward. OK..Enough with the science lesson.

In life nothing just happens, it always happens for a reason. Weather you believe that Hashem (G-d) creates your life as a test of your endurance and strength or you believe the little old lady across the street put her evil eye on you - the fact remains, your life was meant for YOU! It was meant to teach you to face the challenges of the past and embrace the hopes of the future. The challenge is that if you put the past in the past without your lessons learned, you will soon be faced with the same issues all over again. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is an act of G-d!

All this Osama publicity reminded me of 9/11. Do you remember the story about a child refusing to go to school on 9/11 and making his daddy late for the train? That was the very train that would have gotten his daddy to work on time - this could have been the last day this boy saw his father - but it was NOT! How about during the tsunami in Thailand? Animals were running away from the water, miles away! If only people would have listened to nature! If only had there been more understanding of the past!

With so much in the present and future, our senses have been muted. Why have we become so deaf to the outcry of our children? When have their tears stopped having meaning to us as humans? If that is our action, what kind of reaction can we expect from new governments, from growing economies, from families just starting their life? How will they treat our environment? Our elderly? Our sick?

Listen, learn, love - open your soul.

Speaking of someone who lacked having a soul...Osama died on Holocaust Remembrance Day! A day that reminds us that the past often comes to haunt future generations of Jews who lost their identity as people because of fear, hate, prejudice! But was this not in the past? Shouldn't we just not talk about it - it was horrible! Don't you just want to go on with your happy life and forget this sad segment in our history? NEVER FORGET! Never let your children forget! Talk about it, write about it, cry about it, but never, never forget.

A teenager recently commented that the date of Osama's death is ironic. Some debate on whether we should rejoice at the loss of his life - we dare not judge, but someone who causes pregnant women to jump from a burning skyscraper on 9/11..., was this person ever human? Hitler was in the past, Osama is now part of the past, how many more lessons do we need to learn to know that sometimes even 10 years of remembering will mean nothing without the precautions to make sure these mistakes are not repeated. We now have stronger armies (armies of those that pray as well as armies of those that fight). We now have better education for our children. But have we learned our lessons from the past? Or did we just leave our children behind without any knowledge of the past?

With Israel turning 63, a baby among nations, we must use our strength as humans to make sure no race is ever targeted to be wiped out by anyone! Golda Meir might have been just a girl from Kiev, Ukraine but she opened a lifeline for those that had none. She was not afraid - she used the past as a way to make her enemies understand that everyone deserves to return to their home! To our home! With the economy tumbling all over the world and Jews becoming scapegoats for world problems, we should never let anyone use us as human shields! We must help one another unconditionally and share what we have with those less fortunate. This brings us to this weeks Torah portion.

In this week's torah portion we are told to leave the corners of your harvest for the poor, so they can have something to eat. We are told to leave it for them, not to give it to them directly (since that may cause embarrassment). Personally, I don't have a harvest to pick - I don't even like gardening! So how does this apply to modern times? Giving something to someone anonymously is the best way to give. Why? You are just the middleman between G-d and the receiver. If every action has an equal and opposite reaction, if you give - you shall receive. This may not mean you will get a million bucks, but you might live a more fulfilling and happier life.

The past is never really in the past, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the future. Never forget the past and shape YOUR future by teaching your children kindness and assure them that no Hitler, Osama or the creep next door can ever hurt them because YOU are strong and brave enough to protect them with your life and at the same time soft hearted enough to give them a blessing before they go to sleep. Most importantly, hold yourself accountable for those words!

Dedication: This is dedicated to everyone that has been troubled by the haunting memories of the past. Know that it is not your fault that modern day Pharoahs uprooted your life. At the end every Pharoah has the same fortune - Not because you took revenge, but because Hashem (G-d) saw your struggle. Every person has a holy war going on inside between good and evil. May the good always win!  Don't cry over spilled wine, refill your cup of life to the rim and know that if you can only afford to fill it half way it's always half full and never half empty. Amen.

Boundaries, Closures and Hope

How far are you willing to reach to be there for someone? In this weeks torah portion Batya saves Moses and makes a difference in the lives of future generations. She reaches out when it seems impossible by overcoming her seemingly unreachable physical boundaries and finds the strength to save a child, a child that will open the door to who we are.

As humans we often have a hard time defining our physical, emotional and spiritual boundaries. Some people have to face physical and health issues that they need to overcome. On occasion, we are surrounded by toxic people that we can not stop from poisoning our spirit and we need to stop them at any cost. However, we can only live in this physical world  - without the ability of  reaching out to someone that has fulfilled their purpose here, overcame their boundaries and moved on. We want to be able to touch that person, to have that final conversation, to tell them that the line between our world and theirs is very thin - but in reality, we can not do it verbally. Spiritually, however, we are eternally connected to those we love - something that we should remind ourselves on a daily basis.

This week, someone very special lost their life (may you rest in peace J.) in the most shocking, unfair way. Finding the strength to cope with this loss may be a lifelong journey for the rest of her family and friends. But as the Torah teaches us, we have to find the strength to deal with emotions and challenges that seem impossible. Just like Batya was able to stretch her arms and rescue Moses, we must stretch out our arms to those that are grieving and those that can not comprehend why life's challenges are so abrupt, cruel and unfair. The strength is within us, although the blinding pain is everlasting.

Today, so many people are in need of being emotionally and spiritually stronger that we must all help one another stand firmly on the ground. The post-traumatic effect of cruelty, pain, grief, abuse, death are everlasting (right Fr.?) - but we must find it within ourselves to get back up on our feet and be strong for those that are in this world. Just like Moses became the leader for our people, we all have to live a great life. Our lives are just grains of sand in time and we have to be there for one another unconditionally in order to survive.

After dealing with our grief and being able to set boundaries between the unfairness in life and the hope that it must go on, we live day by day and learn that eventually sorrow will be replaced by smiles again, the cold will be replaced by warmth and death will be replaced by the legacy and footprints of those that are gone.

In Hebrew the word "soger" means to close. This week I learned about the word "close" both in the literal sense and in the spiritual sense (thanks M.). When one door in life closes we look for another way to let light shine into our life, regardless of how dark and hopeless it may seem. And as long as we can overcome our hardships and  boundaries, be strong and leave a legacy behind we can live forever in the hearts of those we left behind.

G-d wants to keep good people for himself also (right F.?), and we will never understand why they have to be taken from us in such a cruel way - after all we are only human.

Dedication: This is dedicated to a beautiful, kind, wonderful young lady who was taken abruptly to the next world without any warning, leaving behind family and friends who love her eternally. There are no words, no explanation. We are all reachingg out to you spiritually and hope that you are at peace. Know we love you unconditionally. May you rest in peace dear. Amen.