One alert reader wrote in to point out the correlation between the earthquakes Israel received yesterday and this ridiculous tamei event that is occurring at the same time in Eretz HaKodesh.

To make matters worse, there is the usual absurdity of well-intended yet misguided Jews welcoming a performer who led the way in forging the social acceptance of brazenness, rampant pritzut, gender-morphing, and same-gender-attraction.

​In fact, remembering the performer's influence on the society of my youth (and this performer had a MASSIVE influence on American teens and pre-teens), I firmly believe she shares responsibility for the downward spiral of American society and mores today.

Yet she comes off as heroic because she ignores BDS and comes to shmutz up our Land despite their opposition.

This is when I am SO GRATEFUL for a Torah hashkafah and for all the frum Jews who give shiurim and write articles promoting the authentic Torah view.

Simply put: There are some people who make you just want to beg them to boycott you.

"PLEASE capitulate to BDS!" you want to cry out. "Don't have ANYTHING to do with us! PLEASE boycott us! PLEEEEESE!"

We know that this is a Land that vomits out her inhabitants when they get too far from their Torah roots.

We also know that Hashem brings earthquakes for certain sins.

But seeing as no one here is an Israeli government official, what can we do?

​So based on different shiurim I've heard & sources I've read, the following is good advice:

• Let Hashem hear your protest.

​You don't need to take to the streets. Just standing in your kitchen or waiting at the stoplight in your car, you can say:

"Hashem, I protest this tamei event in Your Precious Land! I totally oppose such tumah shmutzing up the beautiful Inherintance You have so generously bequeathed to us! You don't like it, so I don't like it either!"

(I don't mean you should frighten children or other drivers, but it's very beneficial to find the time to offer up your protest.)

This is especially good because while we need to give the benefit of the doubt (i.e., "They don't know this event is wrong and an awful chilul Hashem"), that never means that the forbidden is permitted or okay. We can say, "These people don't understand, but I do understand. And therefore, I protest on Your Behalf, Hashem. I'm on Your Side."

• Say Tehillim.

Any Tehillim. It always sweetens din. The 10 psalms comprising the Tikkun Haklali are wonderful because a tikkun fixes and rectifies things:
Tikkun Haklali in Hebrew

(For an English translation or an English transliteration, press the "abc" at the center-bottom or the "ת-A" at the bottom right.)

• Do teshuvah.

Ask yourself how you might have possibly contributed to this chilul Hashem. Do you need to strengthen yourself in tsniut? Shemirat einayim? Separating yourself from non-Jewish values, beliefs, or entertainment?

Any step you take toward cleansing out your own spiritual gunk is really, really powerful and good.

You can even take on a kabalah of not doing something beneath your Torah-infused dignity for the duration of this event.

Everything helps. Don't think that you or your actions are too small or insignificant to matter.

You matter.

• Learn more Torah.

This is one of the three pillars of the world, along with prayer and acts of loving-kindness.

And again, even a baby-step in this direction is huge.

Even one more word of Torah is significant.

​You and your Torah-learning matter.

• Tzedakah

Giving money to the poor or to causes that actually help people (i.e., not the local art museum) sweetens din and because one of the words for money is "damim," which means "blood" in plural form, giving tzedakah is like giving of your life - a wonderful atonement that doesn't harm you and benefits the other.
​

• Say Pitum Haketoret

Found in any Orthodox prayerbook, reciting the procedure of the Pitum Haketoret (The Incense Offering) is a wonderful segulah.

Back in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, this procedure carried out by the Cohen protected Yerushalayim from very bad things.

It was a primary counter-agent against spiritual tumah/contamination. It literally cleansed the environment, both physically and spiritually.

Nowadays, reciting this with as much kavanah as you can releases its original protection. 

It also has the power to improve marital harmony, health, and livelihood.

Ideally, it's recited at the beginning of Shacharit (Morning Prayer), at the end of Shacharit, and at the beginning of Mincha (Afternoon Prayer).

If you're not saying it at all, try saying it once in the morning. 

If you're already saying it once or twice a day, then for this duration, try saying it 2 or 3 times a day.

If you are already saying it 3 times a day (and if you're a minyan man, then you probably already are), then try adding extra kavanah to it.

For more information (and there is a lot more to know about this), please read:
http://www.jewishmag.co.il/11mag/mystic/mystic.htm

And here you can see a list of the Kli Yakar's symbolism for various aspects & vessels of the Ketoret ceremony (at the beginning of the post):
Parshat Titzaveh

​There are other things I'm forgetting, but this is what I've remembered for now.

May Hashem have mercy on us all & may we all return to Him with teshuvah from love.

In Tishrei/October of 2018, the Ginsburg family of Beitar Ilit, Eretz Yisrael, lost their youngest daughter and son in a shocking fire, which seems to have been sparked by a night-light falling on a bed, which immediately ignited the bed in a large, fierce blaze.

Their 3 oldest daughters made it out, but were blocked from their siblings by the blaze (although they did call out to them immediately upon seeing the fire, even before they'd left their own beds, but the little ones never woke up).

Within a minute, the room was impossible to enter.

Within 10 minutes, it was impossible to even enter the hall leading to the bedroom, even for fire fighters.

As far as anyone knows, Tzvi z"l & Efrat z"l never woke up.

Their mother took comfort in the fact that their last words were the Bedtime Shema.

Anyway, this hasn't seemed to have spread to the English-language media yet, but the Ginsburgs just had triplets this morning (Wednesday, 10 Iyar): 2 girls & a boy.
http://www.bhol.co.il/news/998549

(UPDATE: This wonderful news is now in English HERE.)​

Mazal tov!

(Although there seems to be some question whether it's boy-girl twins or boy-girl-girl triplets. But either way, it's a big bracha.)

And while nothing can replace the irreplaceable children lost in the fire, it is certainly a big nechamah and chessed from Hashem for the Ginsburgs to receive these multiples.

May they have much nachas from all their children and raise them to Torah, chuppah, and maasim tovim.

May we know no more tzarot in Am Yisrael.

This German grandfather spent the Shoah years murdering Jews in cold blood. Babies, children, men, women, elderly…he hunted them down and slaughtered them while proudly wearing the skull-and-crossbones insignia. The Death Head members ran & staffed the death camps & committed other massacres, like the La Paradis massacre in 1940 France. 

Just looking at him in his uniform, you knew exactly who and what he was, and what he did.
 
And this was his day job, so to speak.
 
Think about that for a moment. Think about what an unbelievably heartless & evil person he must have been (and still was--let's be honest).
 
Completely remorseless and unfathomably evil, he felt good about doing such an “important” job for Nazi Germany.

Yet out of all those years of murdering innocents, he unexpectedly pitied 3 Jewish boys in hiding and spared their lives for reasons even he himself could not understand or explain.
 
And it’s impossible to explain it away by explaining that the Jewish boys’ situation was simply the most pitiable he’d seen.

That can’t be.

​He rounded up for slaughter other Jewish children in similar (if not more pitiable) situations.
 
Did those 3 boys have zechut avot (merits from illustrious ancestors)? Did Hashem have big plans for them or the offspring they would later have? Was someone davening for them? Was it all of these or was it something else entirely?
 
We can’t know.
 
But one thing we do know from exhortations and mussar all through Tanach & Chazal is that Hashem can do ANYTHING He wants.

And Hashem can turn the heart of whomever He wants.
 
And beyond human comprehension, Hashem can even turn the heart of an unfathomably evil blood-thirsty Death Head Jew-hunter—if Hashem wills it.

To me, THAT is the big lesson of the above story.

How can it be that such an evil person, a true Amalekite, someone so consumed with the annihilation of Jews that he continuously & personally perpetrated horrors on innocent people--how can such a person suddenly be "touched" by the "plight" of 3 Jewish boys?

Where could that astounding blip of "sympathy" possibly come from?

It's important to identify Jew-hatred for 2 reasons:

1. To avoid going overboard in self-blame and self-hatred.
2. Jew-hatred is ALWAYS a wake-up call from Hashem.

If Jew-hatred is on the rise for any reason it hides behind, it means that we Jews are supposed to take stock of ourselves and see what non-Jewish attitudes and values we've adopted in place of the beautiful & holy Jewish attitudes & values.

Looking at the whole picture, it really seems like the spotlight on Orthodox Jews for a measles outbreak has more to do with attacking Orthodox Jews rather than a real concern about measles.

​And this post addresses the reasons why that's the likely motivation...

​WITHOUT getting into a vaccine debate, I want to address SPECIFICALLY the attitude toward Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, with regard to the recent outbreak of measles in New York.
 
Currently, Orthodox Jewish cases of measles have been in the media, both Jewish and not, along with the usual accompanying hysteria and consternation.
 
Traditionally, measles has appeared as a normal childhood disease (like chicken pox).
 
Yes, it can be very uncomfortable.
 
Yes, it can even be deadly.
 
Yes, a measles outbreak must be taken seriously.
 
But if you speak with people old enough to have actually suffered through a bout of measles before the vaccine, it sounds a lot like chicken pox bouts of my childhood: Some kids got it bad, some average, some just suffered a runny nose and slight fever with a dot or two.
 
Yes, both chicken pox and measles can turn deadly.
 
So can the flu.
 
So can the common cold. (One stat said that 4500 people die of rhinovirus, the most common strain of the common cold, each year in the US, but I could not find a source for that.)
 
For every 1000 infected with measles, 1-2 die. The last confirmed measles death in the USA was in 2015, and before that, in 2003.
 
And it’s entirely possible that the current common strain of measles is more virulent than that of 60 years ago.
 
But measles is NOT, say, in the realm of polio, smallpox, tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV, or malaria.
 
It just isn’t.

​And yet, you have headlines about it in both the non-Jewish and Jewish media.
 
The frum media has wholeheartedly embraced the “Vaccinate against measles, you dangerous loons!” side.
 
Cries of “Chilul Hashem!” rise up from all frum sides.
 
Fellow frum Jews want to dox the 1 or 2 rabbis who aren’t pro-vaccination.
 
At least one yeshivah has been closed down because of measles and a new discrimination against Orthodox Jews has developed based on the measles issue—such as a New York bus driver refusing to allow an Orthodox passenger on board, screaming something about measles at the hapless Jew.
 
I’d say the frum community has firmly hopped on board (maybe even overboard) the pro-vaccine side of the whole measles issue.
 
The frum community has gone overboard in taking responsibility.
 
This is so typical because the frum community is the most self-critical community in the world.
 
Yes, we have our deluded self-righteous narcissists. But in general, we are always ready to rip ourselves apart, self-castigating ourselves even for things we personally have NOT done and would NEVER do—simply because another Jew (or 10) who looks frum has done it.

​When people take responsibility for their problems, there is no need to pursue and harass them about it. They are willing to take care of it themselves, even without all sorts of harassment.
 
Yet if you point out that all this response to measles in the frum community smacks of Jew-hatred, you will be charged by fellow frummies who accuse you have burying your head in the sand, not taking responsibility, passing the buck, and one of the worst accusations in frum society today: IGNORING THE REAL PROBLEM.
 
Whew! Pretty heavy stuff.

​But I’ll tell you why it indeed smacks of Jew-hatred and why the widespread acceptability of blaring about Orthodox Jews with measles (even if it’s true) is not a good sign.
 
Here is the golden rule of thumb:
If it’s only a problem when JEWS do it—and other groups get a free pass when doing the exact same thing or WORSE—then Jew-hatred is at its root.
 
So let’s look at other groups.

​First of all, as of September 2018, the vast majority of measles in the US came from Venezuela. (Not Orthodox Jews, but Venezuela.)

​Because of a measles epidemic there (4605 cases, 62 deaths), the CDC issued a Level 3 Travel Alert, discouraging Americans from going to Venezuela.
 
In 2014, Ohio experienced an outbreak of 383 cases of measles, the majority appearing among the unvaccinated Amish.
 
In 2014, Minnesota experienced a measles outbreak (78 cases) that originated among unvaccinated Somalis.
 
Did these cases make headlines? Did you hear about these at all?

Did you know that one is far more likely to catch measles from someone recently from Venezuela than from an Orthodox Jew?
 
No, of course not. It’s only when (over 120) Orthodox Jews have measles that measles is a widely publicized problem.
 
And did you see any Venezuelans or American tourists from Venezuela self-flagellating about their part in spreading measles? What about the Somalis? The Amish?

Neither did I.

​Nobody feels bad about these things as a group—except the noble Orthodox Jew.

​While the initial development of AIDS is murky, the spread of this disease came about through debauched behavior, particularly on the part of men involved with their own gender.
 
And it continues to be a problem in that community and communities in the Third World in which debauched behavior between men and women is rampant.
 
Unlike measles, HIV/AIDS is 100% fatal and has no cure.
 
Furthermore, unless a person is tested, one can flit gaily through life for 10 years, infecting others, before symptoms appear.
 
And there are other populations with very high rates of it.
 
For example:

• 53% of Eastern & Southern Africans have HIV.
• 16% of Western & Central Africans have HIV.
• 14% of Asians and Pacific Islanders have HIV.
• 10% of LA males involved with other males is HIV-positive (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 17, 2001).
• 1%-4%, depending which country in Central & South American, the Caribbeans.
• 0.3% of North Americans have HIV.

 
Now, legal immigrants are screened for such things, so we don’t need to worry about them.
 
However, illegal immigrants are not.

​And in fact, a free clinic in California has said that 100% of their female patients tested positive and most are immigrants (legal? illegal?) from Central America.
 
Should we not allow, say, LA men attracted to their own gender into our schools and universities?

And why aren't clubs catering to toeva shut down if schools with measles are shut down?
 
And before you say, “Well, it’s not an airborne disease, so it’s okay,” there have been rare cases of HIV being contracted through being kissed or bitten by an HIV-positive person.
 
Regardless, you’d think that with an INCURABLE 100% FATAL and common disease, people might be more cautious and also forgiven for discriminating against populations in which HIV is common, but I would like to see the popular response to any southern Californian university or public place that would deny entry to a toeva male or a Latina woman based on their much higher likelihood of carrying an incurable 100% fatal disease.

(Actually, I wouldn't like to see the popular response. They'd be screaming about discrimination.)
 
And would newspapers blare such headlines?
 
And finally, I’d like to see toeva publications and representatives lambaste themselves (just like Orthodox Jews are) for this crisis and very real health hazard.
 
I would like to see toeva men and southern Californian Central Americans ban each other from parties, simchas, and other get-togethers (just like some Orthodox Jews do) in which this disease might be spread further.

Let them admit only those who’ve been tested and tested negative for this incurable 100% fatal disease.
 
(And if you think that because it’s not airborne, then it can’t be spread at group functions—especially those where there is likely to be drinking, etc.—then you aren’t aware of what can go on at these functions.)
 
If frummies can do all that for measles, then why can’t these groups do it for an incurable 100% fatal disease?

And why can't these groups do all the above for the following disease, which IS airborne...

​So...what do you think of tuberculosis?
 
The US has one of the lowest rates of TB in the world.

​In contrast, Mexico has 10 times the rate and much of Africa and other countries have 100-150 times the rate.
 
Again, legal immigrants are tested for TB. We don't need to worry about them.
 
Illegal immigrants are not tested.
 
In California, 84% of TB patients are foreign-born.
 
TB is a real concern because it is potentially fatal and highly contagious as an airborne disease. One person with active TB will infect 10-15 others over the course of a year. Furthermore, a recent strain of TB resists all the standard anti-TB drugs. And another strain is impossible to cure at any cost, making certain strains of TB incurable.
 
This is obviously much more serious than measles, yet the groups infected with TB (especially the most dangerous strains) are not being highlighted in any way.

We do not see bus drivers refusing to stop for members of these groups or any other form of group discrimination based on this very real and dangerous disease-risk.

​And any discrimination against such groups because of disease is severely castigated in Western society.
 
(This is despite the fact that such strains of TB are almost exclusively found among specific groups from specific regions, something which is not true about Orthodox Jews & measles.)

​Other infectious diseases, like dengue from Asia and chagas from Central & South America, were unknown in the United States until recently.
 
Dengue is spread by mosquitoes and there is no medication for it, although as of 2016, the FDA approved a vaccine for it.
 
(Actually, information regarding dengue is contradictory. Some say dengue isn’t so bad and people recover after a few days with a lifelong immunity to it, while others say it’s pretty bad and that re-infection IS possible, with a serious increase in complications and fatalities from a 2nd-time infection. So there you go.)
 
Chagas is still not recognized by most US doctors (meaning, even if someone has it, the doctor won’t think to check for it & therefore cannot treat it) and it entered the American blood supply because blood banks did not think to check for it until 2006 (because it was unknown in the US).

​Leprosy used to be extremely rare in the US (900 cases between 1962-2002), but now it has doubled.

Leprosy passes from mouth/nose droplets and is curable.

But it takes anywhere from a few weeks to many years for symptoms to appear and the vast majority of cases are found in people from India and anywhere south of the US.

The rate of leprosy has doubled and increased in the US. And while considered curable, the strain has been mutating.
 
Furthermore, due to their unfamiliarity with leprosy, many American doctors aren’t quick to diagnose it. This means that 25% of lepers end up with disfigurement and disabilities impossible to remedy even after the disease is finally diagnosed and cured.
 
Finally, until 1997, the only Americans with leprosy were those who’d been infected while abroad.

​But in 1997, the first diagnosis appeared in a man who’d never left the US.

​This made leprosy endemic to the US for the first time.

This is all clearly as bad as or even worse than measles among Orthodox Jews.
 
Yet are any of these groups self-flagellating because of it?
Are there headlines about it?
Are people discriminating against them because of it?
 
As is well known, it is considered racist to even mention the bare fact that infectious diseases have been brought into America by certain groups—unless, apparently, the group is Jewish.

This is true even when the only source for a disease is from this particular group (which is not true for Orthodox Jews & measles).
 
So to sum-up:

• Orthodox Jews are not the prime carriers or sport the largest outbreaks of measles or other infectious diseases in the US, but they are the only group being spotlighted.

 

• No other group is displaying nearly the same level of shame, concern, or responsibility for their group’s tendency toward a particular outbreak.

 

• No other group is facing discrimination (including among its own members) for its infectious diseases—including those suffering fatal incurable diseases.

 
Yes, I feel measles should be taken seriously. But I think ALL infectious diseases should be taken seriously—especially untreatable & easily transferable diseases.

Here is a sampling of some of the links to the information in this post:
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?2097-Cases-of-leprosy-on-the-rise-in-U-S
https://sma.org/illegal-immigration-and-the-threat-of-infectious-disease/
http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_diseases.html
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2018/08/29/immigrants-and-disease-n2513341
https://www.amfar.org/worldwide-aids-stats/
https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/international-travelers-bring-measles-usa
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/downloads/measlesdataandstatsslideset.pdf
 
These are not even all the sources. As you can see, I chose a variety of sources. Not all sources share the same politics and attitudes regarding the issues mentioned in the post.

Please note:
I do NOT want the comments section to turn into a vaccine debate. The subject of the post is discrimination (and our need to embrace our authentic Torah Judaism more fully), not vaccine effectiveness or lack thereof. Thank you.

Let's start giving our neshamahs, our God, and our Torah more love.

Starting from before Pesach, we've been losing precious Jews (in addition to frightening incidents survived by other precious Jews).

I'm even hesitant to start naming each one for fear of forgetting one.

One very big heartbreak is the loss of the Kaliver Rebbe, Rav Menachem Mendel Taub ztz'l.

While I never had the privilege of meeting him, I was always impressed by his simchas chaim, along with the sweetness & temimus emanating from his face.

In fact, his simchas chaim, sweetness, and temimus make no sense in the face of what he suffering during the Shoah: In addition to the "standard" horrors, the Kaliver Rebbe suffered in the Auschwitz "clinic" of inhuman human experimentation. 

As a result of this sadistic treatment, the Rebbe was never able to re-grow his beard. He never had children either.

May all his deeds, the Torah-true Jews he influenced and the Torah institutions he founded and nurtured, and the sefarim he composed be considered as "offspring" for him.

His success as a Rebbe on American soil is also amazing.

All he accomplished — both the exterior accomplishments of re-building Yiddishkeit in a foreign land & the inner accomplishments of his personal tzidkus — can only be the result from his profoundly pure middah of emunah.

You can read an English-language interview with him here:
The Kaliver Rebbe: "Each day is its own Yom Hashoah."

Please note the crystalline Torah hashkafah in his answers.

For example, his firm "Yes!" on whether it is important for young people today to remember and learn about the Holocaust is based on the Torah directive to remember what Amalek has done to the Jewish people AND as a way to unify the Jewish Nation, which prevents war.

His advice for preventing another Shoah & protecting the Jewish people in general can be summarized as follows:

• Solid emunah in Hashem
• Loving our fellow Jews
• Serving Hashem with joy
• Keeping Shabbat scrupulously
• Saying "Shema Yisrael"

Incredible advice from a Jew who endured unimaginable torments...all because he was a Jew.

May we please merit Rebbe Menachem Mendel ben Yehudah Yechiel as a melitz yosher for us all.

A while back, a friend of mine mentioned that if a nisayon isn’t painful, then it’s not really a nisayon.

And if we shut down or run away so as not to feel the pain, then it doesn't move us forward.
 
And she’s right.

(Actually, she said she got the idea from hearing classes on Rav Chaim Volozhin's book, Nefesh HaChaim.)
 
And so, how many times is physical or emotional pain a wake-up call?
 
Yes, we should strive to be happy & content with our lot at all times, knowing that Hashem is Personally involved in our lives and soul-rectifications until the finest detail.
 
But the only way to really never feel pain is to disassociate.

And that’s not what Hashem wants.
 
We’ve all met people for whom life is one big blur. They never fully engage. Even when their life starts falling apart, they merely struggle to disengage further, even taking sedatives if necessary.
 
In Tova Mordechai’s book, To Play with Fire, she describes her parents’ bizarre reaction to the funeral of their oldest daughter, Esther, after she’d died young from a ravaging disease. Their non-Jewish evangelical father put his arm around Tova and commented, “It was nice, wasn’t it?”

Oh, yes! The funeral of your beloved daughter was so "nice"!

Understandably, Tova found such callous behavior profoundly hurtful and infuriating.
 
Her Jewish mother, who’d long ago gone over to the side of the evangelicals, remarked that for them — meaning Tova, the Jews who’d loved Esther, and Esther's widowed husband and orphaned child — it was a tragedy, but “for us”— meaning, the Yoshke-worshipers — it was a victory.
 
Being a fully-committed Jew by that time, Tova allowed herself to grieve for her sister, which is the most natural and healthiest response to such a loss.
 
How disturbing that the parents were such Moonies that they could not even allow themselves to feel pain at the untimely loss of their own child — let alone compassion for the young son (their grandchild) who would grow up with no mother.
 
So pain doesn’t mean we should kick into Moonie-mode. That’s not emuna.
 
It means we need to dig around to see what needs rectifying, fixing, fine-tuning.
 
Something’s missing. What is it?
 
Maybe it’s as simple — and as sometimes excruciating — as saying, “Gam zeh l’tovah—This too is for the best.”
 
That's because some pain is a tikkun and an atonement beyond any understanding or anything we can do.
 
But many other times, it’s a nudge to get us going up to the next level in our spiritual development.
 
We don’t need to pretend the pain is not there.
 
At some point, we need to face it head-on.

And when we deal with it, we need to know that we're not dealing with it alone. Not really.

​Hashem is right there with us.

Experiencing an insult, embarrassment, or criticism is always some kind of atonement.

And that's a good thing (even though it really burns).

But it's also often a hint for your own behavior.

And while it's very good to remain silent in the face of critics and slave-drivers, and accept your kaparah with good grace, it's even better to use the offensive behavior as a springboard for your own self-improvement.

For example, many people have someone in their life whom they can never please.

It could be a family member, a neighbor, a boss, a co-worker...and no matter how much you contort yourself into a pretzel to cater to their desires, your efforts are never good enough.

And yes, that feeling of never, ever being good enough no matter how hard you try (and especially if you do actually try) is soul-destroying.

At the same time, it's good to take a step back into Hashem's Great Love for you and in that warm, secure place of His Love, examine your own behavior for bursts of criticism, insults, and other stumbling blocks...and also maybe an atom of truth packed deep inside the other's complaints, mockery, or demands. 

It's important to note that you aren't necessarily looking for behavior as appalling and hurtful as what you might be experiencing or accused of.

​Many times, Hashem supercharges the hint/atonement just so you don't miss it.

So you might be looking at very occasional behavior on your part or a very small or side way in which you are kind of doing what you are accused of.

Or you might be looking at very quiet critical comments you've made or barbs you've said in jest.

You might be looking at behavior you only act out with one person. (For example, sometimes we fall into less-than-ideal patterns within long-term relationships, especially those formed when we were younger and more self-absorbed.) 

​But what if you just don't see it?

Let's say that you are one of these people who is always very careful with your speech.

And you're very careful with how you treat others in general.

You are a naturally sensitive and thoughtful person who has worked hard at being even more sensitive and thoughtful toward others.

In fact, you rarely even feel the urge to take someone to task. You don't offer constructively intended criticism disguised as "loving advice" and you honestly don't understand the desire to shoot barbs or hurtful "jokes" at others. 

Or, let's say that you are the least lazy person you've ever heard of, yet the other person keeps insisting you ARE lazy. (Maybe it's a spiritual indolence rather than a physical or behavioral indolence?)

Or, let's say that you did discover some ugly warts of tactlessness or hostility -- but you went to work on them and behave much better now.

Yet your nemesis (or series of nemeses) just isn't letting up on you.

So what gives? (This is what I asked myself as I rolled some paint on a wall in a futile attempt to cover up some toddler art...yes, it was a housepainting hitbodedut & self-accounting!)

Anyway...what about one's attitude toward Hashem?

This can be a struggle because maybe things are truly wrong and harsh in your life.

But do you thank Hashem enough for the things that do go right?

Do you tell Hashem how Great He is and how much You love Him, even if you don't always show it?

Or is it that no matter how much Hashem does for you, it's never, ever good enough?

And yes, of course there are always things we need and Hashem grants us losses and disadvantages in life specifically so that we will ASK HIM to remedy these and grant our requests.

So we can request the fulfillment of our desires AND also profoundly appreciate Hashem.

Notre Dame is a place you hear of all your life, giving it an aura of familiarity.

But in my case, I didn't have anything but the vaguest idea about it.

So when it burned, I wondered what it all meant (in addition to wondering what sparked the blaze).

Then I learned it's a repository of items holding profound significance for Yoshke-worshipers. 

"Crown of thorns" possibly worn by their founder, eh? That's pretty symbolic. (Firemen saved the thorns and other meaningful relics, but still. These objects no longer have a "home" or a place of honor. Very symbolic.)

Notre Dame is also a church.

Even more symbolically, one journalist insisted that rebuilding Notre Dame is essential to the survival of the Catholic Church. This implies that the destruction of Notre Dame threatens the Catholic Church in some way.

Hmm...

And even more symbolically, this fiery destruction occurred during what they call "Holy Week." I didn't know what this was, but I discovered that it's one of the most important times of the year for Yoshke-worshipers, as it commemorates his death and his (ahem!) "resurrection."

By the way, I also discovered that many cultures around the world celebrate "Holy Week" in a disturbing manner: 

Parades of self-flagellation on bare backs until blood is drawn, a gorily graphic (yet painless) re-enactment of Yoshke's torture and execution in Trafalgar Square in London, a LITERAL re-enactment of the torture allegedly suffered by Yoshke in Mexico (the star is chosen for his high moral fiber & strong physical stamina to endure the very real suffering), and so on around the world.

Photos show that parading adults in Spain dress up in the KKK-esque robes and tall pointy hat-masks of the Inquisition.

How loving, gentle, and compassionate it all sounds! [sarc]  

Anyway...such an old, traditional, and classic symbol going up in flames during such a profoundly significant week?

It definitely means something.

And it's also important to note that halacha advises burning heretical material.

(Please see the answer to How to Dispose of a "Jews for J." Prayerbook.)

An inspiring & insightful reader wrote in to note that many gratitude lists focus on the material goodness of our lives.

And what about the non-material riches Hashem bequeathed us?

She makes an excellent point. (Thank you, inspiring & insightful reader!)

So without further ado, here is a list of 25 non-material gifts (whether they feel like gifts or not because everything Hashem does is for the best, whether it feels that way or not) from our Loving Creator:

Note: You can also find an English translation of a popular tefillah of gratitude at:
A Prayer of Thanks to the Creator of the World

And if you're suffering a lot, there's this:
What to Say To God in the Toughest Times

As many people know, there was a mass prayer gathering in Chevron (Hebron) on Tuesday night, starting at 10 PM.

I decided to participate from home via the livestream (which ended up not working for me, but no big surprise there because that has been the story between me and hi-tech for years now).

But for this reason or another, I only ended up being able sit down for virtual participation at around 11 PM.

The authentic Jewish approach is intend all the good things l'katchilah (from the outset), but b'dieved? Better late than never. Seriously.

So I started out saying Tikkun Haklali with kavanah, but there were loud boisterous offspring around and my kavanah ended up zonked.

Oh, well.

What was interesting was that my youngest (age 4) had a deep barking cough that got pretty bad at night the past couple of nights, and he'd been coughing a lot...until I was a perek or two into Tikkun Haklali (with the intention to join my recitation of Tikkun Haklali to the general one being said at the mass prayer gathering).

His coughing stopped at that point and didn't return that night.

Huh, I said thoughtfully.

His cough didn't return until the next afternoon and then it went away again and tonight, he has been sleeping peacefully -- no coughing.

It's also worth noting that this child has had a tendency for coughing since he was born. When he starts coughing, it can just go on for weeks and nothing -- not herbs, oils, vaporizers, cough syrup, nothing -- can ease the coughing.

(The only thing that ever worked was saying once a day for several days in a row Tehillim 119 according to his full name, using the method described in this post. )

But now the terrible night coughing just stopped -- and stopped at the moment described above.

Anyway, just wanted to share that.

I don't believe in coincidences.

And you don't need to be perfect in order to awaken Heavenly Compassion.

​You just have to try.

(Plus, it helps if you join your own imperfect prayer to the sincere prayer of thousands of dedicated Jews praying in a profoundly holy place.)

UPDATE: My son's cough returned, but not as bad as before, yet just the fact that there was a break in the coughing is amazing, giving his usual tendency. Anyway, I'll go back to saying Tehillim 119 according to the letters of his name again. I guess part of what his soul needs is to have Tehillim said according to his name.

​It's all good.