Friday, January 30, 2015
Another Boat ~
“Sometimes people leave us because staying becomes an impossibility. Because the world just gets too small. Or, sometimes, because there is just one boat, and too many hands. ...Because maybe, life can be a bit bigger than it exists today. And because, somewhere else, there may be another boat.”
Thursday, January 29, 2015
A Little Garden
Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently,
Lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen,
And lest they depart from your hearts all the days of your life;
Make them known to your children and your children's children.
--Deuteronomy 4:9
A little garden,
Fragrant and full of roses.
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.
A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.
--Franta Bass
Lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen,
And lest they depart from your hearts all the days of your life;
Make them known to your children and your children's children.
--Deuteronomy 4:9
A little garden,
Fragrant and full of roses.
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.
A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.
--Franta Bass
Miracle Of Life
I face the pain of my child
It is more than a mother’s heart can endure
The awe is great
The power of birth is enveloping all space
Focused on the channel of life
I see it all
Life has begun within a moment
My breath stops and is replaced by tears of joy and amazement
Child of my child
You are here
Your mother rests from her long toil
Her eyes longing to finally see you
Your father looks on with pride and never-ending love
As he gently kisses his Toby
I have been blessed yet again
rise and witness the miracle of life .
Deep Within our Hearts
We trust that He is good, and that all He does is good.
Yet we pray. Because to us things don’t look so good. After all, His goodness is so distant from us. Beyond our understanding. Far beyond.
If so, shouldn’t we simply continue to trust? To surrender to a higher understanding?
Yet He asks us to pray. To complain and to kvetch. And He listens. And He answers our prayers.
Because this is what He most desires from us: that we make room for Him in our lives. Meaning: in all that matters to us as flesh and blood human beings. And that begins when we share with Him those things that touch us most deeply. Deep within our hearts.
You shall Love The Lord your God ~
You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your resources. Let these matters that I command you today be upon your heart. Teach them thoroughly to your children and speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise. Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be tefillin between your eyes. And write them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Music
Music
When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother’s piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold
And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying
Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country
I’ve never understood
Why this is so
But there’s an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow
For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest
And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country
We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams
And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows
Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother’s piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold
And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying
Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country
I’ve never understood
Why this is so
But there’s an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow
For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest
And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country
We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams
And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows
Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.
I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS
In times of severe testing people often do not need further teaching, but rather "endurance," or what the New Testament calls hupomone (ὑπομονή), a word that means "remaining [μένω] under [ὑπο]" the Divine Presence while being tested. Suffering people do not need moral platitudes from others, but only the will to believe, the resolution to stay constant, and to ability breathe out simple prayers for help to the LORD: "God have mercy..." "Help me, O God..." "I need Thee, O Lord..." When we receive grace to faithfully suffer, we hear the Spirit whispering back to us: "Be not afraid..." "Live in me..." "Walk in the light..." "I am with you always..." "You are loved..."
Monday, January 19, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
Live For ~
Lives are for living I live for you
Dreams are for dreaming I dream for you
Hearts are for beating mine beats for you
Angels are for keeping. Can I keep you?
Dreams are for dreaming I dream for you
Hearts are for beating mine beats for you
Angels are for keeping. Can I keep you?
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Jerusalem ~
The grace of your prophets O Jerusalem is unforgettable and by the deeds of your righteous are glorified. Evil, lies and injustice were cut out of you. Your children will rejoice in you and those who love you will follow you. O Zion, so many hoped for your salvation and continually mourned for you. Your hope will never be lost O Zion and you will never be forgotten. Justice will save you while evil will hurt; every person is judged by his behavior and according to his deeds will be rewarded. Your enemies all around, O Zion, were cut off and those who hate you will be scattered. The fragrance of your goodness, O Zion, is pleasant, it blesses all the earth. Forever O Jerusalem you are a blessing, with all of my heart I bless you.
My Jewish People , Israel
My Jewish People, Israel - I am your proud son!
I'm made of tortured flesh of yours and of your ancient blood
Since Torah given was to us under the Sinai's sun
Your enemies tried burying us into historic mud
Egyptian pharaohs kept my kin in slavery by chains
The straws did turn slow into bricks by Jewish sweat and pain
Just longer look at giant plates of mighty pyramids
You'll see that Jewish blood and tears through their seams they bleed
My people's cry and songs of pray - they to the Lord have gone
Being far away from our Land - in bonds of Babylon
And kindly G_d has heard our plea and granted our return
To our country, our temples, to our ways we yearn
But spared by Alexander the Great not long we lived alone
Our love for Freedom, our brave revolts caused angry hate of Rome
Enraged by courage of the Jews they sent their legions
They plowed our sacred Temple, the streets, where we were born
The Romans scattered Jews across their vast empire land
In hope that in by doing so the tale of Jews will end
For thousands years after that the Jews didn't have their homes
Ukraine's Cossacks killed my kin in savageous Pogroms
In Spain our haters burned the Jews in Inquisition flames
The Germans tried to wipe us all, as an entire race,
By gassing millions of the Jews in extermination camps
Where for five years they brought us, packed in the cattle trains
Gas chambers witnessed Jewish deaths in scare and despair
The Nazis made the pretty bags from skin, and wigs from Jewish hair
Five years chimneys fumed with Jewish ash into the shameless air
And World in silence watched all that with no help to dare
Yet we survived it all in all, the people of the G_d
Oh Israel - you're back with us, protected by the Lord
And sacred Wailing Wall in freed Jerusalem
Will always be with us, forever and for good, Shma Israel! Amen!
I'm made of tortured flesh of yours and of your ancient blood
Since Torah given was to us under the Sinai's sun
Your enemies tried burying us into historic mud
Egyptian pharaohs kept my kin in slavery by chains
The straws did turn slow into bricks by Jewish sweat and pain
Just longer look at giant plates of mighty pyramids
You'll see that Jewish blood and tears through their seams they bleed
My people's cry and songs of pray - they to the Lord have gone
Being far away from our Land - in bonds of Babylon
And kindly G_d has heard our plea and granted our return
To our country, our temples, to our ways we yearn
But spared by Alexander the Great not long we lived alone
Our love for Freedom, our brave revolts caused angry hate of Rome
Enraged by courage of the Jews they sent their legions
They plowed our sacred Temple, the streets, where we were born
The Romans scattered Jews across their vast empire land
In hope that in by doing so the tale of Jews will end
For thousands years after that the Jews didn't have their homes
Ukraine's Cossacks killed my kin in savageous Pogroms
In Spain our haters burned the Jews in Inquisition flames
The Germans tried to wipe us all, as an entire race,
By gassing millions of the Jews in extermination camps
Where for five years they brought us, packed in the cattle trains
Gas chambers witnessed Jewish deaths in scare and despair
The Nazis made the pretty bags from skin, and wigs from Jewish hair
Five years chimneys fumed with Jewish ash into the shameless air
And World in silence watched all that with no help to dare
Yet we survived it all in all, the people of the G_d
Oh Israel - you're back with us, protected by the Lord
And sacred Wailing Wall in freed Jerusalem
Will always be with us, forever and for good, Shma Israel! Amen!
They Came Home ~
“To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place to towards which you pray, the state of Israel is your home." -- PM Netanyahu
They came Home to stay ~
Sunday, January 11, 2015
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