I hope you have unlimited phone minutes 🙂
Wonder Words is a Free Jewish Stories Hotline for Children. They Tell All Kinds of Jewish Stories that not only entertain but teach a child to act properly and respectfully. Kids Can Win Prizes, Bookmark stories, hear interviews, and relive stories that teach the beautiful values of the Torah and Judaism. Just Good Wholesome Jewish Fun. Kids love it. 718-305-6960 or 212-444-1119 or 845-738-1066
Want to experience a delicious Shabbat meal in your neighborhood or if you expect to be in a particular town and need accommodations
– here is a site that a person can find a family that will host you for a Shabbat meal.
Don’t be shy. 🙂
Shabbat is a Day for a Person to Spend Quality time with his family. It helps you to develop a more meaningful relationship with children. And You Also receive a great Reward in this world and the next world.
If You Want to Make a Shabbat at your own house and want to know how to observe Shabbat:
Order a Shabbat Care Package in Our Freebies & Judaica Section
Free Shabbat Care Package to Jewish People of All Backgrounds
Shabbat Shalom!
The Holy Tana – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai’s Hilloula (Yartzeit) is this Saturday Night, April 27th and Sunday, Apr 28 (Iyar 18).
R. Shimon Bar Yohai is credited with writing the Zohar – the book of Kabbala (Jewish Mysticism). He hid away from the Roman Government for 12 Years in a Cave in Meron with his Son, Elazar. There they studied Torah day and night. They were nourished by a spring of Fresh Water and a Carob tree that grew nearby. For Shabbat, the tree would grow figs instead of carobs, that they would pick before Shabbat to eat on Shabbat.
He reached such a high level of being, due to his study of the Torah, that he told People to celebrate his death – for he accomplished his potential in life.
Thus we, and Hundreds of thousands celebrate the Hilloula Celebration of Lag BaOmer (the 33rd Day of the Omer) by lighting candles in his memory, learning his Torah and visiting his tomb in Meron, Israel. In Israel, children collect scraps of wood to make a large pyre in order to burn on the day of his Hilloula.
Light a candle in his memory on Lag Ba’Omer and say a prayer to Hash-m that in his merit you will be answered.
My uncle was on a domestic flight to JFK Airport. Apparently there was traffic at JFK and it was taking time before they could land. The pilot announced that they had to make an emergency landing in LaGuardia Airport because they were running low on fuel. They landed in LaGuardia and asked the passengers to debark. They would continue their route to JFK afterwards.
My uncle called the Rental car company to change his reservation for a car from Kennedy Airport to LaGuardia Airport. It was Friday getting closer to a Shabbat candle lighting time. If the pilot would have waited until they received rights to land at Kennedy it might have been already Shabbat. When they ran low on fuel and made an emergency landing, it gave my uncle an opportunity to debark the plane and drive home before Shabbat. He arrived just in time.
He left. All the others else stayed. Finally the plane took off from LaGuardia and arrived at Kennedy after nine o’clock – about 2 hours after Shabbat entered. Afterwards they delivered his luggage to him at his home.
The fact that the plane was running low on fuel allowed him to get off the plane without having to desecrate the Shabbat. It seems that Hash-m arranged things to just so that my uncle would not desecrate the Shabbat.
Some people would see this as a coincidence. But we as Jews, know that Hash-m guides the world for individuals and the world at large for the good. We too can see Divine Providence in our daily lives – when we allow ourselves to see.
There is an excellent book that talks about Divine Providence of Hash-m in history. There are two such books by the same author – Yaakov Astor – one about the “Hidden Hand” in the Holocaust and one about His “Hand” in general history. It is appropriately called “the Hidden Hand”. This book is excellent because it not only gives detailed accounts of historical events but also provides reasons why the events occurred and shows the “Hand” of Hash-m guiding the world from a Torah perspective. If you want to purchase the book(s) here are links:
Some Events that the “20th Century Edition” covers are:
The Miracle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Britain
Day of Infamy
The Miracle at Midway
The Longest Day
Of Statues, Liberty & Freedom
The Crash and the Great Depression
How Watergate saved lives
When the Berlin wall came crashing down
The Wrights and the Lights of Chanukah
A Titanic Lesson
The Challenge of the Challenger
Hiroshima
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Gulf War
The Hidden Hand – Uncovering Divine Providence in Events in 20th Century
Hidden-Uncovering Divine Providence in Events in 20th Century / Kindle edition
Two special events / 14th of Iyar
Pesach Sheni / Second Passover – for those that were impeded from bringing an offering on Passover – they had a second chance on Pesach Sheni (see the Torah gives a second chance 🙂 ) To commemorate this some people eat Matza.
And it is the Hilloula Celebration and Yartzeit of the Holy Tana Rabbi Meir Baal Haness. Light a candle in his memory and say a prayer to Hash-m that in his merit you will be answered.
Self-help books are one category of best sellers close to cookbooks.
The Torah – the guide for life – helps a person live a better life.
Recently, the Gallup organization took a poll called the Well-being survey. They asked over 700,000 people in the US to find out what makes a person satisfied. They found that Torah Observant Jews have more happiness & satisfaction with life & Well-being than any other group in America. (Gallup Poll)
A possible reason? Judaism is all about self-improvement. It helps a person attain their potential in life and become their true selves.
How?
A Person’s True Self is their Soul. Pleasing it, you becomes yourself & thus attain Happiness – by Meaning & Purpose found by doing Mitzvot & learning Torah. Thus you reach your potential & attain a place in Heaven.
See our website section for sites on Judaism & Better Living. They are among the Best Judaism Websites. One such site is Simple to Remember. Rabbi Akiva Tatz has a series called Journey to the Self that are enjoyable listening for the English speaker.
Women in the Torah are treated differently than men. They don’t have fixed prayers three times a day (only once). They are exempt from positive Torah commandments that are caused by time (like putting on Tephillin, shaking the Lulav, sitting in the Succah, etc.)
Why?
Here is a joke that will answer the question.
There was once a doctor that prescribed aspirin for any ailment a person had. Arthritis – aspirin. Cold – aspirin. Chicken pox – aspirin. A patient asked him – why he does this. He replied “I treat everybody equally – I don’t discriminate!”
Men and women are different, thus they have different laws. Some laws apply to everybody. But other laws take into account differences in people. Like – there are laws specifically for an Israel, a Levi and a Cohen. Laws for Men and for Women. Laws for Jews and Gentiles (the 7 Noahide Commandments).
Rabbi Akiva Tatz explains in his audio lectures – Journey to the Self – Inspiration and Disappointment” that there are two phases in every experience – One beginning phase of initial high spiritual light and then a second lasting light. It expresses itself at times as two stages where initially a person is given a gift and then the effort stage, where he must make an effort.
It is like a father teaching a young child to walk first he holds the hand of the child and then lets go to allow the child to walk on his own.
Some examples:
– When a person meets his spouse for the first time he is enthralled. After marriage he has to work on himself to make the marriage work.
– When a person does Teshuva (returns to observance of the Torah) it is exhilarating and beautiful. After this phase he must work to become closer to the Creator.
– A person is taught the whole Torah in the womb of the mother then he is struck under above the lip by an angel (thus the indentation) and made to forget it. Then afterwards he must make an effort to learn it.
Thus there are two phases. The initial phase and the second. Men are similar to the first light – women are similar to the second light. A man has laws to keep him in sync with time – like the commandments mentioned above. A woman has a natural clock and are more in-tune with time.
A woman who gives birth to a male child is impure for 7 days. For a female child she is impure for 14 days. Why? because a female has a higher potential for purity than men – thus when she gives birth to a female there is greater potential for impurity. For example if you stretch out a rubber band far in one direction it will snap to the other direction far. If you don’t stretch it it will not snap so far.
Why does a woman have a higher potential of purity? I heard once from a lecture of R. Shimshon Pincus is that a woman is like a “creator.” She is able to “create” children. Thus she is very precious in the eyes of Hash-m. This is one reason why a woman has laws of Tzniut (Modesty). Something that is precious is hidden. Like a bank account – people hide how much they have in their bank account. We put gold and jewelry in a safe. Thus a Bat Yisrael (Daughter of Israel) has laws of Tzniut, because of their preciousness to Hash-m, they are enjoined to wear modest clothing.*
Sarah Immeinu (our Matriarch) had a higher level of prophesy than her husband Avraham.
* For a free Card or Booklet on Jewish Modesty see our Jewish Freebies section
(A Hebrew site on Modesty: כתר מלכות – למען הקדושה והצניעות בהכוונת גדולי ישראל)
The Talmud in Baba Metzia 107b cites that Morning Bread (Pat Shaharit / פת שחרית) nullifies 83 illnesses and has 13 attributes for the daily wellbeing of a person.
There are 83 illnesses that depend upon the gall and [eating] Bread in the morning with salt and [drinking] a container of water – nullifies them.
Here is a link to the page in the Talmud that speaks of it and tells you the 13 attributes of morning bread:
Thirteen Attributes of Morning Bread
I believe in another place in the Talmud it mentions eating dates for good health as well. (see Ketuvot 10b)
It is also a Mitzvah written in shulchan aruch :שולחן ערוך אורח חיים – חלק ב’ סימן קנה ב
Sorry – to those who thought cereal and milk was the Jewish Breakfast of Champions. 🙂
* Apparently 28 to 56 grams of whole wheat bread should be consumed within 4 – 9 minutes any time during the meal and should be eaten before midday.
*(bile comes from the liver. It is stored in the gallbladder until the food being digested (at this point called chyme) enters the first part of the small intestine)
Before Going to Sleep it is a Mitzvah to Recite the Shema Yisrael (found in Siddurim / Jewish prayer books … and also on our site) and one or three adjoining paragraphs. Some people sing it to their children like a Jewish Lullaby. It prevents bad dreams and is good for protection from harm and much more.
Some also say “Hamalach HaGoel …” (“The Angel that redeems me from all bad should bless the children…”) the verse from Genesis / Bereishit (48:16) that speaks about the Angels that protected our Forefather Yaakov which is also good for protection from harm.
There are many nice melodies for the recital of Shema, Torah Tziva (the first Torah verse to teach one’s children -“The Torah was commanded to us by Moshe / Moses, it is a heritage of the people of Yaakov / Jacob.” ( Deut. / Devarim 33:4) – and Hamalach. Accompany these with Jewish Stories and your children will enjoy a more pleasant bedtime.
It only takes 5 to 10 minutes and is a wonderful way to say goodnight and develop a more meaningful relationship with children.
There still time to say the Blessing / Bracha on the trees now, in the Jewish month of Iyar, according to Rav Ovadia Yosef. The proper time for this blessing, that is said once a year, is in Nissan, the month that Passover falls. But according to some Rabbis one can even say it this month, to not miss out on this beautiful blessing.
How:
Find one (a) or two (s) fruit trees blossoming with flowers that have not sprouted fruit yet.
Stand in front of them and say blessing.
Here is a link for the blessing and to find the fruit trees
At times a person gets disenchanted with life because they lose appreciation for daily kindness from above. Thus the Torah enjoins us to say the proper blessing on things we may take for granted, like on food, aromas, Mitzvas, the moon (once a month), on trees (once a year) and on the sun (once every 28 years).