SHAKARIT PRAYER PETITION

Baruch Atah Adonai... chanting it, blinking my eyes to Your rhythm, feeling a strong meditative holy state all throughout my physical body and nerves, singing, imploring G-d to touch me with His love, as I touch the Torah as if it is my birthed baby, cradling it on my lap, carrying it under my arms everywhere, loving it, absorbing it into my soul, protected by its knowledge, it guiding me in all my affairs.

Hashkivenu Adonai! You helped me as I asked You to do. You have provided for me in my hours of need, You have made my life easier, You have risen me and sent me on a journey aloft of Earthly cares, I depend on You only, only Your love, for it is truer than any other love. Your love is not tainted, it is not adverse, it is not the love of a cursed one, it is the love I need, and the love that will send me up above the clouds, adrift of all thundering rain, softly setting me on a throne seated next to You, I seek You, Adonai, I want You, I will never forsake You.

 

GOATS AS TEACHERS

Being a goat. How can we act like a goat and be like one and why should we act like a goat and mentor ourselves after goats? What is so great about a goat, anyway?

A goat first and foremost is a kosher animal, a good animal approved as a Godly animal because it is kosher and was sacrificed in the temples as gifts to G-d. This automatically makes them "good" animals. Why a goat, though? What characteristics do goats have that we as humans should mimic from them?

Goats are firm, unwavering, brave, and stubborn animals that remain in one spot and it takes a lot of force to move them out of their stance, away from their chosen spot where they stand. They are non-moving, do not change their minds at a whim, keep firm in their beliefs, uphold their boundaries, guard their territory, cannot be swayed or tempted out of their chosen spots.

But they eat garbage, if garbage is in their environment, so we need to keep a goat in a clean place. Give a goat, as you also give yourself, a clean garbage-free place to stand, to maintain your beliefs without a falter, to uphold your Faith, like a goat, never moving, never changing, never faltering, always stable, sure-footed, grounded, like a goat.

Yes, we can learn from nature, nature is our greatest teacher, goats are our teachers, feel like a goat, be a goat.

TORAH AS A MANTRA

Changing your inner voice, what is it that you are saying to yourself? Your inner private running conversation can be a talk with G-d. Do you have a word to say, a word to yourself in your own private thoughts? Does something keep running through your head, words you do not choose, but just stuff that comes up as random thoughts? You have an ultimate power to choose what you think. To choose the words and thoughts that run through your head.

Time to control those random thoughts, to take charge of every passing thought that goes through your mind. To choose the words. To choose what language you want the words to be said in. To even put the words of your thoughts to music. To say a script, to be your own actor in your private solitary moments.

To choose only holy words, words of the Hebrew language, to go further and have blessings recited on the tip of your tongue for every moment, to take those random thoughts and to instead choose what you think, choose the words that are in your head, choose the language and then put it all to music. Singing tropes to your chosen words, purify your mind with these thoughts, this music, tap your foot to your song, feel it in your gut, in your inner most soulful moments, anytime you choose.

Take charge and use your moments and passing thoughts to think about something that can help you, words that do not control you, but you have control of them. Like a dream with an outcome that you have thought out ahead of time, a reasoned response that is already in your book, make it the book of The Torah.

Think Torah, breathe Torah, live in its stories, take its words to yourself as mantra. Step to its beauty and surround yourself with its issues. Try to correct the mistakes that are happening in your own life, as the Prophets tried to do in their lives, live up to a higher existence, transcend to a higher plane.

Change the world this way, change your world and the way you perceive it. If we all did this, we would have Paradise on Earth.

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN

It's about everything that goes up must come down. Riding up and down on Jacob's Ladder, going up above to feel G-d's love and saturating my spirit with His goodness, having it engulf my soul and heart, carrying this goodness and righteousness back down with me, to Earth, to offer it as a gift to my loved ones in my actions, my deeds and my words. Getting this blast of lightness, this good feeling, this joy, to share it with those at the bottom of the ladder, in need of what is at the top. A ladder that slides up and down, gravity pulling all soaring heights back to Earth, to bring what is in the Heavens down to Earth so people here can experience this Paradise on Earth, being souls given bodies to perform mitzvoth actions, actions to improve their conditions, and the conditions of others, to donate to charity, to show kindness, compassion, and understanding to the bereaved, to celebrate a couple's wedding, to take the time to petition G-d in prayer and to chant t'filah, to come in union and in the flow within the direction of all things, to add to the total, to be the one to give the most, to keep within what was found on the top rung of the ladder, to always have some to share as the moon always emits light, even if it is only a sliver, a new moon, enough light to share with everyone, reflecting on all things good.

MITZVOTH TO CONNECT WITH GOD THE ALMIGHTY

What is mitzvoth? Getting up off a chair and doing it, performing a sacred duty, doing what Torah wants you to do, there are mitzvoth responsibilities and not, what are the rules, what should I do, what is a mitzvah? Blowing a shofar is a mitzvah. Chanting Torah is a mitzvah, there are things to do and not to do. There are general rules and operating principles. We have 14 general rules. It is a mitzvah to listen to a Rabbi. How are we able to find out what G-d wants us to do. There are 613 mitzvoth that are possible to perform. G-d created the world and He created human beings in order to perform the 613 mitzvoth. This is our mission, this is our purpose in life as G-d created us to do. We have abilities: to see, to hear, to reason, we need to use our skills, to use our 248 limbs to do these mitzvoth. When we do a mitzvah we have brought holiness into this world. There are daily mitzvoth, annual mitzvoth, there are mitzvoth we can do all the time. This is the way to get up Jacob's Ladder, to do actions to glorify G-d. Put on tefillin, wear a tallit, when there is something we should not do, don't do it.

The mitzvah of blowing a shofar, a ram's horn, slick and shiny, firm in our grip and tight on our lips, a trumpet of nature, a call of the wild, curving and turning, spitting out a breath to ease out a strong sound, polishing it afterwards, covering it in a velvet casing. A beautiful bright blue velvet casing, soft to the touch, gentle and smooth, caressing it and carrying it, blown on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a delight to the ears, a real mitzvah.

Wearing Tefillin, a mitzvah. Thick firm tough leather straps, polished shiny on one side, cut into straight straps firmly with one stroke of a knife, no jaggedness, dark brownish-black straps, dark leather  boxes, holiness inside the box, script written of the Shema, centeredness, focused-ness, purposefulness, a leather box on your upper arm and on your forehead. Transmitters like electronic phones from Earth to the Heavens, to communicate with G-d.

Wearing Tallit, a mitzvah. Buying the perfect tallit or handcrafting it, finding the right colors: all white or white with blue stripes, swinging it over your shoulders from the right to the left, over the head, leaving it on your head for a moment to say the tallit blessing, covering your face and having privacy, kissing its neckline, just between you and G-d, safe and secure in this tent, and then swung over the neck and gently laid in place on your upper body. A tallit, a garment of gloriousness, a garment  of prayer, a vestment of the Priests'. Tzitzit on its ends, dangling, dripping like honey from the cloth, the knots all counted and in place.

Mitzvoth are sacred actions to connect with G-d the Almighty.

 

WHAT IS JACOB'S LADDER?

What is Jacob's Ladder? It is the connection between Paradise (or Heaven) and Earth. It is evidence that miracles appear on Earth and that angels visit us on Earth from Heaven as messengers from G-d to speak to us in the name of G-d as they did with Jacob. This connection is made through prayer and t'filah, to have an intimate relationship connecting with G-d who is above.

To do on Earth as it is done in Paradise, the Ladder brought a connection of the joys of Paradise to Earth, the connection was made possible by praying and by working an honest hard living as Jacob did for Laban, then having the material means to be married (as Jacob was to Laban's daughters Rachel and Leah). This is a ticket to eternal life, you will reach Paradise when you die just like Jacob did when he retired from his work with Laban and he then reached The Holy Land.

The Jacob's Ladder represents our reward, which is Paradise on Earth, which is the ability to feel the joys of success after being gainfully employed, saving and investing our money, and passing our wealth down as an inheritance to our children.

Whose money was it? Was Jacob's money that he earned from his father-in-law Laban, Laban's money or Jacob's money? Laban had the righteous attitude that "what is mine is yours and what is yours is yours." Even though Laban tried to swindle and cheat Jacob, he paid him his earnings and they made a pact that Jacob would keep Laban's daughters as his wives and keep the money he earned as Laban's employee. "What is mine is yours."

Laban was a righteous employer and also a good father, although he sold off his daughters to be wives of Jacob's in exchange for Jacob's labor. This was recognized as a transgression against the rights of women and now the Torah has a commandment against this marrying of sisters and against taking more than one wife, and this became Jewish Law.

The Jacob's Ladder is about climbing to the top of a ladder of righteousness, working hard for a living, climbing rung by rung, being promoted in a business from worker to supervisor, and supporting a wife and children, and also being an employee of a family business. If we are in a family business as was Jacob, one needs to respect your employer as a business superior and, if he is your father-in-law as was Jacob's, respect him in his role as the father of your wife and grandfather of your children as well as being your boss. We must give our employer this respect and work hard for him, even though he as a mortal is imperfect as was Laban imperfect as he wanted to cheat Jacob.

We must focus and pray to G-d for this ability to be a good employee and to work hard in our life even if we are working for someone who is like Laban. We give tzeddakah before davening and these are our earnings from our job, and we pray to continue our careers to continue giving our money to charity and to support ourselves and our children. This is all inspired by the angels, inspired by prayer. We become one with G-d and bond with G-d, and then come down the ladder into the world of action, a world on Earth.

Climb the ladder of success, the Jacob's Ladder, and then you like Jacob will reach The Holy Land and be greeted by angels when you die. Grow old, retire and then enjoy the rewards of your employment that will be the inheritance of your many children and grandchildren.

 

THE PEACEFUL MOMENTS OF THE SILENCE OF THE LETTER SHIN

One dog barks, and then they all bark, each dog blindly following the barking of the other dogs, and not being sure even why they are barking, they bark for no reason except to follow the other dogs and do not know why.

The true leader of the pack does not bark just because the other dogs bark. Silence is golden. If you have silence all around you, you have peace. Silence is peace. Others whisper gossip and slander, but for you the blessing is that it is all silence, and the impurity of their words do not enter into your sphere. Silence gives you a chance to think your own original thoughts without the influx of someone else's words interfering with your own words and thought patterns.

Playing your own music in a crowd of strangers, walking to the beat of your own drum. Thinking thoughts that belong to you, and you alone, not hearing confusion others create, but instead hearing the wisdom of your own words, the thoughts of your own head, blocking out unwelcome thoughts, not hearing the private conversations of others, keeping to your own rhythm even though their songs are sung, it is only your own song that you can hear and those you choose are singing your song with you. Silence is not emptiness, it is the void that exists that welcomes you to quietly fill it or to accept its none-ness.

Silence and not responding, not responding as a method to stopping a confrontation, the battle is never fought, the warriors lose their fight because no one wins, therefore there are no warriors, only peacemakers, no one fought, no one battled, no one challenged another. The battle stopped before it started. No opinions were disrespected because no opinions were voiced. Silence became the key to keeping the peace, and after the peaceful silence we are able to then lay our heads down and dream in sleep, a dream in silence becomes the sound we hear at night, and dreaming is a soundless sound.

Silence is golden, silver, and bronze--nothing else is as peaceful. Ssssssssshhhhhhhhh...the sound of the "shin" Hebrew letter representing the Shekinah form of God is the sound of silence, the soft whispering sound of peace.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

How to function when one is in physical pain? Got a headache, a blister on your heel, a hangnail or a sliver in your finger, a paper cut on your hand? Any pain at all?

Trick to keeping a positive attitude when one is in pain, is this possible? There are people who wake up with physical pain everyday, and have to force a smile and relate to people who have no pain and just aren't in a person's realm who are suffering pain. We simply cannot expect a person who is in pain to always be thinking positively, it is not a reality, it is something we can expect that s/he will be miserable and unable to relate in the same way to another person as one can if one is not in any pain at all.

How to determine what to say to a person who is in constant pain? Should we bring up their pain in conversation, or simply ignore it so that person does not center and focus on the pain. What can we offer to a person who is in constant pain? A gift will not take the pain away, we can pray but there might still be constant pain after prayers.

The best way to know what to do for a person who is in constant physical pain is to empathize, use the opportunity of trying to understand someone's pain by actualizing it when you too are in pain in someday someway. Feel it. Feel the pain and feel it in depth. If you get a momentary headache or other body ache, see how it makes you feel. Feel how it can bring down your mood, and cause you to feel bad even when there is nothing else to cause a bad feeling, just your constant pain.

Be patient with the person who is experiencing the pain, give them slack, give them the benefit of the doubt, forgive them easier and more often, you may have to forgive them every time you talk to them. They may slip up in their words and not always say the appropriate words, because pain drives them and they could be argumentative because pain controls them and they are really fighting their pain but it comes out as if it is a fight between them and you.

Be as nice to these people as you  possibly can. Realize how awful it must be to be in constant pain, and show these people loving-kindness and compassion. Think for these people when they cannot think for themselves, give them a helping hand.

This is what true love is all about, loving someone even though their physical pain drives them to withhold love for you in return. Love someone who cannot love you back. Give them all you can give them without expecting a reward or any kindness in return. Do not love them in exchange for anything back, because pain can take away the ability to return a kindness. Give and give and do not tire of giving. This is what "unconditional love" is all about. Those people be they in pain or not who receive unconditional love are the most blessed people in the world.

If you find yourself in the position of being able to give unconditional love, you may someday be lucky enough to receive it, but if not, the act of giving it should be a reward in itself.

THE GREATEST OF LOVE IN A SONG OF SONGS

Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, take me away to your precious meadows of colorful springtime flowers, a grassy free area of love in its deepest moments, take me away to love in its purest form, the love between G-d and wo/man. The love between Israel and Israelite, the love between two sisters, a family love, the love of siblings, the love between a mother and child. A love so deep and needy it hurts to feel it in its fullest at its best, but the hurt goes away as love is shared, and the love becomes a binding rope like a string of sweet licorice, keeping two who are in love together always.

A love so deep that no ocean is deeper. A love that binds with the stickiness of honey and tastes just as good. Like a bee drawn to a flower, this love is eternal and never ends, there is never a last chapter, it goes on and on like each wave repetitively beating against a sandy shore, like music to the ears of one whose silence is deafening, like silence to the ears of one who constantly hears noise.

The love of the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon is enough to unite one to G-d in His fullest, within His greatest power, a fear and awe of G-d, as His love is so incredibly deep, as deep as His songs, as deep as this springtime song, but sung just before the first snowfall of winter.

A Song of Songs sung just for you.

 

LIFE AFTER DEATH

Reincarnation, reincarnated. A soul passed down into the body of a human, a kosher animal, a non-kosher animal, a plant, a chance to have life after death, no reasons to cry for the loss of a loved one, because you never lose him. He is never lost, he never dies, he is reborn again and again to rectify the transgressions he is guilty of, to make it all better, to do things right this time around, to have a second, a third... chance.

The World To Come? It is this world, the world we now live in, "To Come" means the world we will be in, in the future, the world our reincarnated souls will inhabit, a world we are given as another chance to make things right. Guilty of transgressions? Apologies not enough? G-d gives us the opportunity through a reincarnated soul, to do the right thing when it comes up again.

Death, not death, souls flying into the air and living again, seeds falling off flowers and assuming a soul that is passing on by, life! The plant now has a soul and is an "I" an entity with a personality, as is another human baby, a soul being breathed in, as the baby takes its first breath outside of the womb. Souls flying everywhere, the possibility of life is everywhere, we are all given a second, third, fourth chance to live, given a brand new body, and a new life, each time we die. No one dies a death without life. Death is not the absence of life, it is the state we must go through to get to a new life, a passage. Life after death? Of course.

 

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ATE NON-KOSHER FOODS

What to do is you are a Jew, a kosher food eating Jew, but just inadvertently digested some pork!!! Yikes! Screaming and jumping up and down or causing yourself to vomit may temporarily take away some of the pain, but there is a sure-fire antidote for consuming this spiritually poisonous food that can turn lemons into lemonade. What can we do?

First of all--chant aloud "Hashkivenu Adonai!" which means Help Us G-d!!! Then proceed to turn the lemons into lemonade--become a more committed religious Jew than you were before this pork eating happening.

Daven the worship services for the day, the Shakarit prayers, the Mincha, and the Ma'ariv everyday. If you do not have access to a Cantor or lay-lead services, then use audios online, or simply chant the Hebrew to yourself by yourself. Use the Hebrew language chanting every moment of your day to get in touch with the Hebrew language is getting in touch with G-d, pray to Him, recite blessings for everything you do, be thankful to G-d for everything, do mitzvoth in your actions.

Confirm in your mind that you will commit to a better job in your eating to follow Jewish Dietary Laws. If you are slacking anywhere in your diet, confirm instead to follow the rules more surely. Watch everything you put in your mouth, keep milk away from meats, eat as kosher as you can. Be alert and inspect all your foods, look for the hechsher on the packaging, eat more fresh fruits and veggies.

Go out and do an act of lovingkindness toward someone in need. Give to charity or do teshuvah in some other way. Contact a strongly Jewish friend and solidify your relationship with them even more than it has been in the past.

Take deep breaths, breathe in Adonai, see Him as the color blue, and be breathing in an imaginary blue color with every breath you take. Breathe out the non-kosher foods impurities after you take in the color blue, and do it by breathing out the evil as the color red. Breathe in blue and out red. Clear your system with this steady flow of pure air, stream it into your lungs and it will eventually get to your digestive tract, clearing away all the poisons of the non-kosher foods you ate.

Be determined not to allow these non-kosher foods to decrease your commitment to G-d, but instead use them to increase your faith. Yes, Hashkivenu Adonai! It is You who can help me. Help me to stay more completely kosher in the future and may this blessing also go towards any Jewish family or/and friends.  

WAITING FOR A SIGN FROM HASHEM

Waiting for G-d, waiting to see HASHEM, waiting and waiting and waiting. Everything I do is in waiting for that magic moment, not sure what is going to happen in that moment, but what I do with my life is wait for that incredible moment, a moment like no other, to happen. It is all about "What happened??!!" Is there a moment coming soon when it will happen, what is "it"? What will happen we do not know, but we wait for it. We spend our lives waiting for "it" to happen.

Shuffling feet back and forth, grimacing, crossing our legs from one side to another, tapping fingers on a keyboard or just on a desk, folding our hands in our lap, doing things while we are waiting. Looking around at the sights, even if they are the same sights we see everyday, looking for changes, looking to see something out of the ordinary. Waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen. Happen. A sign from the Heavens that G-d is in your presence. Is this something that can "happen"? Is this what we are waiting for? Does fireworks on the 4th of July Independence Day become a "happening"? What will happen next? What will bring us joy? What will we see, feel, hear, smell, or learn? Creating a happening on our own, because we did not experience a happening.

Wow! I felt it! A happening! An occurrence! I was waiting patiently, spent my whole life in waiting and it finally happened! I became aware. I became aware that I am spending my life in waiting and that became the occurrence, this realization that we wait, and wait, and wait--and the waiting itself is the result. It is all about what we do with ourselves when and while we are waiting.

I think, that while I am waiting, I will love myself, all the people around me and in my life, and that I will love, appreciate, and thank G-d for everything: my surroundings, my environment, and my ability to continue to wait, and to be patient while I wait.

Ease at last. I am in love with waiting and waiting loves me. True bliss.

 

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

Erasing family conflicts and family adversity with love stories from the Torah, keeping goodness everywhere and living life as a celebration of the righteousness of G-d and how He is present in all places. When the stones are flying and the lightening hits to destroy, HASHEM can be found in the glistening shininess of a single raindrop that falls on your lips to moisten your mouth and ease your thirst. Yes, HASHEM is everywhere, in every raindrop, in every child's face as it is because of Him that we have reincarnation and no one ever really dies, but lives on in the bodies of the newborn.

We have life everywhere, and death cannot exist as a state to cripple us, we miss our dead ancestors but can see them in every good thing, as goodness abounds everywhere if we look for it, and goodness comes upon us even when we are not looking. Goodness is that violin screaming out of a video on YouTube that we hear, it is the crunching sound of colorful autumn leaves under our shoes, it is the sock that covers our foot so we are not barefoot and cold.

Goodness is being thankful for one friend, for someone who listens to us when we grieve, someone who bows with us to G-d, someone who feels our pains but does not let them destroy world peace, someone who sings a Hebrew song with you, someone who davens for your health and welfare, someone who knows G-d as deeply as you do, and feels all the pains you feel, but survives with you so together you both can see a new day and rejoice in it.

"Love Your Neighbor." It is that easy.

 

DEATH AND REINCARNATION

Crying, sobbing, hysterically shaking, because my Mother's death is near. Get a grip they say, remember her for the good times, do not cry, do not mourn, she will be in Heaven, she will live on in your memory, she is dying but kicking every foot, leg and arm to stay alive, to not let the Messenger Angel of Death seize her and drag her under to the netherworld, to Sheol.

The remedy? Dance sing, make merry, drink it up, sing, hum, all things good, but how can I do this when she gets older and older and closer to death!? I am getting older and older and closer to death too. My mother is a senior and I am a senior too. Keep chanting "Shalom," and resting as she writhes in pain but denies it. Feeling all her pains everyday, as she wants to discontinue our relationship, because she soon will be dead and I will not have her then. Can I get close to someone who will soon be dead?? Is it sticking oneself out on a limb, a tree branch limb that soon will break?? Making one's best friend out of a person who will die and never be on Earth again in a form for me to know. She will be here though through reincarnation, whether this is a belief of hers or not, it is my belief.

To be in solace to know that my mother will be reincarnated into the body of a new born babe. Aaaahh... now I can relax. I can truly dance now, to get to know her, to be her best friend, because she will never die, her soul will go on and on, and the world will never lose her. I will never lose her. Every face of a child whose eyes I look into, could be hers.

 

HAVA NAGILA IN YOUR HEART

My advice for this afternoon? Keep the lively dance of Hava Nagila always in your step: hum it, sing it, remember dancing in a string carrying a Torah scroll round and round, remember the joyousness of the Jewish holiday Simchot Torah all year round.

Remember the Israeli flags flowing, blowing gently in the wild winds, in a mirror-like reflection of the bright bluishness of the deep sapphire living oceans and the pure whiteness of the fluffy candy-like clouds overhead.

Yes, sing Hava Nagila, whisper it, whistle it, hum it, chant it. Swirl round and round, keep in step with other dancers, tossing off hardships upwards towards the Heavens to be resolved by G-d, raise red kosher wine glasses to a loud shout of L'Chaim! forever making merry to the holy State of Israel--the one and only--THE Promised Land.

Have a merriness in your heart, keep worrisome thoughts at bay, let nothing phase you. It is all about the rejoicing of Shalom Aleichem, a singsong in your heart and thought of joy in your mind. Living in song and walking always to a beat according to a melody on your lips vibrating and shaking away all cares like with a lulav on Sukkot.

My dearest song Hava Nagila!--O' how I love you!