"Nowhere to look but inside, where we all respond to Pressure."

Some of the frequently asked questions about this enterprise: Where do you find the time to write? I know so many people who started blogging and don't keep it up: how do you do it? Do you post every day? Do you have ads? Why not? Did you save it all on hard drive? Why do you blog? Why is it chronologically backwards (I'd read it if not for that!)?Are you going to make it into a book? I tried a blog, but I couldn't stick to it - how do you? f

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Earlier today I spoke with a friend of mine who I think highly of and whom I wish thought more of himself. "Rabbi Norman Lamm has invited me to have coffee with him and I never followed through because I didn't feel worthy." Sigh. '

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This friend of mine just told me that he doesn't like some Jewish blogs where it feels like the writer(s) are trying to be more Catholic than the Pope (so to speak). Once upon a time Jews were Jews, it was a birthright, organic, unlabeled, divine. Who gets that?
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I recently visited with a friend of mine who is a sincere Jew. He didn't always practice and when I first met him I was confused. He was dating a frum friend of mine and I thought he was a rebellious FFB guy. He was actually going the other way. He later become gabai of an Aguddah shul (his wife doesn't cover her hair - is that some kind of Guinness record?).
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Yesterday I bumped into an old friend who used to go by his English name, wear a kippa srugah, and work for a M.O. kiruv organization. He approached me and re-introduced himself to me with his Hebrew name. He now works for a yeshivish organization and sports a Borsalino. He seemed to want to talk to me, was very curious about what I do and and and.

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I was on my way to buy a phone recharger (the wire snapped) when I saw a neighbor and he told me he might have one. He didn't in the end. But he very much wanted to save me from having to walk. What's wrong with walking? p

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A student was just given the book The Secret as a gift and lent it to me. It's about positive thinking and the law of attraction. Interesting.
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My dear old friends and post Shabbos hosts continue to impress me. Their 8 year old daughter introduced me to Hue Knew? It's a fun game and yet every time a child plays it he or she is working on reading and thinking skills. I found this game challenging. It is based on the Stroop Effect, which posits that it's easier to identify the color that a name of a color is written in when matches the name of the color (when the word purple is written in purple) than when the word says one color but is actually a different color (when the word purple is written in green).
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In this past week's Jewish Week, the Rabbi of the Young Israel of the West Side, Rabbi David Cohen, cites Welcome To Holland. He ties it in with the question of why the Torah says to take Trumah for G-d, rather than saying to give Trumah to G-d. He suggests that sometimes in life you have an opportunity, but you don't see it that way. It may be giving and it may be receiving, but whatever it is, it feels like a burden. We often need to step outside the situation and look in to realize that our life experiences are gifts we need to open and appreciate. p

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In this past week's Jewish Press Rabbi David Hertzberg tells a story about the third Gerer Rebbe. Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter's son in law underwent surgery and the doctor botched it. The doctor explained that he was nervous because he knew it was the Rebbe's son in law and that led him to make mistakes. The doctor told the Rebbe that was reminded of a story about Napoleon's wife giving birth. None of the midwives in Paris wanted to deliver that baby. They were afraid of messing up. The solution was to use an ignorant village midwife who didn't recognize Napoleon's wife and was therefore not nervous.
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The Gerer Rebbe (as quoted in Rabbi Yaakov Yehuda Grodnitz' Kol Yaakov, on page 164) used this life experience to help him unravel a perplexing explanation of the medrash. The Torah states (Shmot 25:40) that G-d told Moshe to make the menorah in the image of what he was shown from G-d. Rashi says that Hashem made a model of the menorah in fire because Moshe had trouble imagining the menorah on his own. The medrash says that even after he saw G-d's blueprint Moshe still couldn't make the menorah. At that point G-d told Moshe to ask Betzalel to build the menorah. Betzalel did it immediately with no problem.
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The Rebbe had always wondered why Moshe couldn't construct the menorah but Betzalel could. After his incident with his son in law (who was fine) and the doctor the Rebbe had an epiphany. Moshe understood the holiness of the menorah in such a keen manner that he was afraid of making it imperfectly. Betzalel, who didn't fathom the full depth of the menorah's sanctity was less nervous about the ramifications of how he made it. Thus, Betzalel was able to relax and just get the job done. [

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I find the Rebbe's observation to be clever. I also appreciate any thoughts about stress that I can get. A student once asked his Ner Yisrael mashgiach, Rav Dovid Kroenglass to recommend a job that had no stress. Rabbi Kronglass said, "I highly recommend that you become a goldfish," his point being that pressure is part of the human experience. And yet, feeling the stress of the subtext of every life choice is a bit much. On the other hand being oblivious to the ramifications of our actions is not the way to go either. May G-d bless us with the wisdom to find the right balance of pressure in our lives.