Sundry Sunday Morning Musings

Facebook has a program of the words you used most often in your status updates:

My Top Words of 2010

1:G-d - used 26 times
2:Dont - used 23 times
3:Shabbos - used 21 times
4:Something - used 19 times
5:Someone - used 17 times
6:Feel - used 15 times
7:Facebook - used 14 times
8:Night - used 13 times
9:Friend - used 12 times
10:Never - used 12 times


A savvy, dear colleague/friend of mine says to never combine two things when you need to talk to someone about something important. Address one important issue at a time, don't meet or write about one and then throw in the other "by the way." Makes sense to me.


Since he/she taught me that I've noticed how often we humans do that. I try not to say I'm calling to say hello and also to ask a question when I'm only calling about the question - and you and I know it. Is that the same as the original point. I think it may be different but very similar.


"I loved every song I heard as a kid" - Johnny Cash


This just came through me:

life's about tachlis

in one form or another.

life is short

The following is transcribed from a piece on Vayechi by Rav Moshe Feinstein. It's in Darash Moshe, published by Artscroll/Mesorah. I promise.

"I shall be gathered to my people." - Breishit 49:29

It is unclear to whom Jacob was referring with the word "people." He could not have meant the

Jewish people, since he himself was the first of them to die, and had he meant Abraham and Isaac he would have said, "I am about to be gathered to my fathers."


To understand what Jacob meant, I wish to suggest that even though a particular group may not be considered a distinct people in our world, in the world of truth a "people" is defined by the strength of its belief in Hashem and by the quantity and quality of merits accumulated through efforts in this world. Surely the tzadikim who had made themselves known in the world until that time, including Adam, Seth, Methuselah, Shem, Eber, and, of course, Abraham and Isaac, would constitute such a group.


This is what Jacob meant:"I shall be gathered to my people" - to the righteous ones who have a place together in the world of truth because they believed in Hashem, and therefore i wish to be buried with my fathers, Abraham and Isaac.