Haiku of the Day

G-d is in the air.

The air is inside of G-d.

Breathe.  Breathe deeply.  Breathe.

Vayigash: In The Sound of A Thin Silence

By Rabbi Neil Fleischmann

In a famine, 10 brothers traverse a great distance for bread. After encountering Egypt's viceroy, who controls the food supply, everything spirals downward. Mishaps escalate into impending tragedy; they are arrested as spies, one brother is taken hostage, the youngest brother is accused of stealing, and that's just part of it. They wonder why this is happening as they ineffectively struggle to handle their situation.

When this powerful leader tells them who he is, "Ani Yosef" ("I am Joseph") their reality shifts, leaving them speechless. The Midrash Rabbah cryptically connects the brothers' reaction to Yosef's revelation with what each of us will experience when we meet our Maker (at age 120) saying, "Woe to us for the day of judgment, woe to us for the day of reproach." jj jjj
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Rabbi Bernard Weinberger in his work Shemen HaTov posits that the brothers were speechless for a powerful reason. They had never, even as children, recognized Yosef for who he really was. Long before his beard and position disguised his identity, Yosef was a mystery to his brothers. Unable to understand him, they reduced him to the one-dimensional. They decided he was a scoundrel, a threat, a daddy's boy, a potential murderer or worse, depending on the commentary. But who was Yosef?

The truth is that Yosef was a tzaddik. In fact, he was The Tzaddik. He is the paradigm of a tzaddik, our only ancestor that is always referenced with that title. The brothers didn't grasp Yosef's greatness for a long time. After the smoke cleared, after the years of anguish, in the moment of silence after Yosef revealed himself, they got it. This annoying younger brother of theirs was now the viceroy of Egypt and more so - he was clearly righteous and G-d fearing.

The Ohr HaChayim notes that twice in a row (Breishit 45:3 and 4) Yosef tells his siblings who he is. In the second instance he adds that he is "Yosef, the brother whom you sold to Egypt." The Ohr HaChayim suggests Yosef was telling them, "I am who I always was - your brother who loves you. Even when you were pushing me away, I was your brother who loved you. The Ohr HaChayim also points out that Yosef shared with them one of those secrets endemic to all families, a fact that only he and his siblings knew. Then, there in the silence, they heard.

The brothers broke through the only way of thinking to which they had attached their minds. Yosef's unveiling provided his brothers with an awareness of his wholeness of being. In the past they had only seen his outer layer, represented by his coat. They now experienced an awakening and saw the full tapestry of Yosef.

The brothers experienced the same kind of silence which followed the whirlwind of sound, action, and fire in which Eliyahu HaNavi could not find G-d. Finally, in the kol demamah dahkah - what Rabbi Jonathan Sachs translates as "the sound of a thin silence," Eliyahu hears G-d and understands. (Melachim I - 19:12)@@

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The Chafetz Chayim focuses on this paradigm shift that the brothers experienced, and says that it mirrors what will happen to each of us one day. When G-d reveals himself to us after we leave this physical world, we will view everything through a new perspective. This idea is in consonance with the illustration of the person who is presented with a gift of a gorgeous tapestry, or so he is told. But when he looks at the needlepoint picture he’s received he is confused because all he sees is loose ends and knots. The friend who gave him the gift tells him to turn it around. When he sees the breathtaking work of art on the other side, he realizes that he had been viewing the back, thus missing the beauty. The Torah tradition is that in this life we often only see part of the picture. This was the metaphorical message G-d presented Moshe with when he told him that he could view His back, but that in this life no man can see G-d head on.@@@@@@@@@

The Tribes of Israel traversed a variety of great distances. In a unique moment of silence, the brothers saw Yosef. One day we will reach an end of our journey and we will see G-d's glory. We will gain complete understanding in retrospect, in a silent moment, after the lively whirlwinds that seemed so real have passed.
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To the degree that it is possible now, may G-d bless us to find a quiet moment and in that silence experience the truth of G-d – “Ani Hashem.” Why wait?

VaYigash - Short Thought

In Breishit 45:28 Yaakov says, ""Rav, od Yoseif beni chai." The general explanation (Rashi and others) of this is that Ya'akov is saying that he is very (rav) happy that Yosef is alive. The Tosefet Brachah questions this and suggests something that he hesitantly and humbly suggests may fit better with the text. In 45:26 the brothers tell Yaakov that "Yosef is still alive and he is ruler over all of Egypt." Yaakov's response is that he doesn't need Yosef to be king of Egypt, as it is more than enough for him simply that Yosef is alive!

Scenes From A Day

I -

It's 6:26 A.M and I need to be out of the house in a few minutes. And yet. I wanted to write. I woke up thinking about children. My mother and father had/have two. Mom (OBM) used to tell one of her children that he wrote things in his blog that he shouldn't. I don't have children. I still hope and pray I will and I won't say more than that right here and now. Yesterday I spent some time with a dear childhood friend and his twenty year old son. The son made a comment about his own imperfections that struck me. Last night a friend of mine with a bunch of kids ranging from infant to 5, in a worn out mood, said that "people have kids because the species must continue, there is no logic to it." I don't agree and I don't think a rested her (if she could please G-d be blessed with some rest) agrees with her.

Besides everything

children are markers

something to hold

the years quickly fading

II -

1:44 PM. I am in the middle of a great chat with a student, a self-described "cynic/seeker.". He is a true intellectual and shared many profound thoughts and 2 wonderful quotes:


"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste." - Henry Ford


"There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it." - Dale Carnegie


III -

8:30 PM - I'm soaked to the bone, just walked through my door. It took an hour and a half to get from work to a class Chanukah party a few miles away from the school. (Does it make more sense for a teacher to speak of coming and going from work or school? If you say school does it sound like you are in school?) Need to dry off and breathe.

Torrential rains fall

Last Chanukah candles burn

Floor heater buzzes

IV -

11:21 PM - Still recouping from being a rider of the storm. Papers lie at the foot of the heater. I dried up, ironically, after fulfilling the need to shower. Time to go to sleep. So many things to get done. Sleeping can be an act of faith, "letting go and letting G-d."

Love others like you

(The rest is commentary)

And not like you too

FYI - Haku

Sometimes people ask
Sometimes their minds are elsewhere
Still, I share haiku

This Year's Memento From Quebec City

I Wrote This Poem Upon Waking At 7:15, Dec.25, 2011

We live for certain days, months, years

Enjoy our allotted words, laughs, tears

We can make ourselves look young

But when all is said and done

You're as old as you are

Even if you're a movie star

Haiku

I sit, try to think;

What is there to say in life

That is worth saying?

How Do You Spell Chanukah?

Here's a musical version by the LeeVees (featuring Adam Gardner of Guster), of this question.

Happy Chanukah!!!


LeeVees - How Do You Spell Channukkahh? from The LeeVees on Vimeo.

Haiku Post Proctoring Practice A.C.T.

Shuffles and sniffles
We each try to pass the test
We struggle and guess

Helping Others to Stand Back Up

Walking home from the bus terminal yesterday I was reading some of the Times. This front page story grabbed me.

Chanukah 5772: Thirty Six Points of Light

By Rabbi Neil Fleischmann

1. Underneath it all is the light of truth. Chanukah represents that hidden light. You look at the light of Chanukah and don’t immediately think miracle. But it’s there. Chanukah is about revealing the hidden light.

2. Over Chanukah we light a total of thirty-six lights (8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1=36). Thirty-six lights represent the hidden light of truth.

3. Adam was in Paradise, where he merited the ohr haganuz-- hidden light, for thirty-six hours (12 on Friday + 24 of Shabbos).

4. Adam lost his outer covering when he was expelled from Gad Eden. The finger and toe nails we have are the remnant of that original covering. We look at the light and reflect it off our fingertips on Motzai Shabbos-Saturday night, the time when that light was lost.

5. We light one more candle each night of Chanukah representing the fact that our life purpose is to ever increase holiness and light in this world.

6. At havdallah we look at our nails, first, with our hands outstretched and then with our fingers curled towards us. First we see them all stretched out, in different sizes. Then we bring them close, look close, and see them evenly. At first things seem out of sorts but everything is more evenly balanced when you look again.

7. There are 36 hidden tzadikim-righteous people in this world.

8. The month in which Chanukah begins, Kisleiv, can be punctuated to read kas/lamedvav – the hidden 36.

9. There is always a celebration of Rosh Chodesh during Chanukah. It is a time of light and renewal.

10. On Rosh Chodesh the first sliver of the light of the moon reappears, after it seemed to have disappeared forever into the darkness.

11. We humans are like the moon; we fade and come back.

12. The first mitzvah presented to the Jewish People as a whole was the new moon, which serves as a metaphor of our historical destiny – to wane and flourish.

13. We specifically light the menorah at night, representing the light coming out of the darkness.

14. If lit in the doorway, the menorah is placed on the left side, representing the weaker side of us and the light that still shines and emanates from our souls.

15. “There is a light in the darkness of everybody’s life.” (pop culture song of the seventies, yearbook quote of my dear, late, friend – Scott Gordon)

16. Chanukah was established “lehodot u’lehalel”-to thank and praise. We sing G-d’s praise for salvation, but also thank Him for the dark times, without which the happy ending wouldn’t have been possible.

17. Dovid HaMelech – King David wrote that we speak of G-d’s kindness in the morning, when we see it and his faith in the night, when He believes in us, and we in Him, despite the darkness.

18. The day is the redemption and the night is the exile, which - we believe – is an intrinsic part of the redemption.

19. Via one reading, Dovid HaMelech’s words, “lehagid baboker chasdechah, ve’emunatchah baleilot” means, “to speak of your kindness in the morning and your faith in the night.”

20. G-d has faith in us in the night, is with us in our pain. During a time of assimilation and lost he saw out light still flickering and fanned the flame of salvation.

21. In the beginning of time, Adam saw the days getting shorter and thought that this was the death that was his punishment for disobeying G-d and that the world was reverting to darkness.

22. When Adam saw the days begin to get longer he set up an eight day holiday celebrating the way that G-d made the world; before the diminishing light disappears, the remaining spark grows and the days are again filled with light.

23. Al HaNissim speaks of the war victory. The Gemora defines Chanukah by describing the miracle of the oil.

24. The Maharal explains that the people didn’t see the three year war as miraculous. The miracle of the oil clearly was miraculous and reflected back on all that came before it as miraculous as well.

25. Dovid HaMelech writes “Aromimchah Hashem ki delitani - I will praise you G-d for you have lifted me up.” The word “delitani means to make like a deli - bucket which is lowered into the well empty to disappear. So too with us; we’re thankful for the entire process.

26. Mashiach was born on Tisha B’Av.

27. History is divided into three sections. I. Creation II. Torah III. Redemption. The period of redemption begins with the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.

28. We live after the time of open miracles and prophecy. Yet, if we look we can see miracles every day.

29.  The point of the big miracles, like the exodus from Egypt, is to remind us that everyday is a miracle.

30. Pure oil was found for one day. It lasted for eight. One approach to why we celebrate all eight days is that the oil was divided into eight parts and miraculously lasted the full day on each of the eight days.

31. Rav Dovid Feinstein suggests that the oil lasted naturally for one day and then miraculously for seven more. We celebrate the first day as a reminder that the fact that oil burns at all is a miracle.

32. The only difference between nature and miracle is how often they happen.

33. Rabi Chanina ben Dosa’s daughter set out vinegar instead of oil for Shabbos candles. Rabi Chanina said, “He who said that oil will burn will say that vinegar should burn.” He mentioned G-d’s saying that oil should burn as a reminder that oil burning is a miracle.

34. The mitzvah of Chanukah relates to the miracle of the oil, not the military victory. The war we won was only a means to freedom to practice the faith of our fathers, rededicate the Temple, and re-light the menorah.

35. When the Macabees found oil for one day, they used it all for that day, leaving the future to G-d, and they merited a Divine miracle. They lived with faith, as we should strive to do, one day at a time.

36. G-d “separates between holy and profane, light and dark, Israel and the nations.” There can be light or darkness, but not a mixture of the two. One must prevail.

Akiva's Second Haiku

There's a golden haze

Bright on the flowing river

"Let it be,"says G-d

"This Isn't Jewish" "Um, Yes - it is."

"If you are in search of spirituality, you have it.  

If you believe you already have it, you have lost it." 

- Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

Do Unto Others, page 162

Judaism As A First Language, By Moshe Koppel

I recommend reading this article.

5:10 A.M.

I hear footsteps over my head

As I awaken to the darkness

5:10 A.M, my clock declares

And I begin listing my day:

Papers to grade, lessons to plan

No time to be poetry man

I lie in bed twenty minutes more

Then sit at the edge and write these words

I think I need to focus more on action

I complete this poem with satisfaction

Soon The Ten Hour Bus Ride

I am writing from a foreign country. I am not sure why I write here or what it is that I should write. Blogger is not allowing me to edit this post, it seems to be stuck in html. As I type, Michele Bachmann is being interviewed on a Sunday morning show. I have never seen or heard her before, she comes across as awkward. She pauses long before answering questions and there seems to be continuous miscommunication between her and the interviewer.

We arrived in Quebec City on Thursday night and went bowling shortly thereafter. There was a limited number of lanes so staff sat it out. I asked a colleague to give me a topic and that I'd write a poem on whatever word he offered. His word was "mirrors." I will include the poem below.

As always, I wish everyone reading this well (and everyone not reading it too). Soon the ten hour bus ride will begin. Last night on the bus I did a full stand up show. Today I think the focus will be elsewhere. I expect a good amount of resting all around. For myself I hope to get some work done. Also I plan to keep plowing along in Holy Beggars, a well written, personal, touching tale.

Kemayim Panim El Panim

How often must you look at me?
What is it you expect to see?
I cannot take you very far
From whoever it is that you are

There is only G-d and only you
There is only so much I can do
Beauty is vain and charm is a lie
Desires can never be satisfied

Even as I sit affixed to your wall
There is nothing real about me at all
Beware: I present the reverse of what’s true
The image I display is not you

Shabbat Shalom

I'm in Quebec City, Quebec on a school trip. So much to say but few words and tight time block me. I pray for Shabbos to be meaningful. I'm worn from the trip. And yet. I hope to speak about being honest, spiritual and real, and hope it takes. And I hope to keep the drush way on the side.

Tired, excited

Belonging, responsible

Friday on Freezefest

Are You My Esrog?

A few minutes ago a colleague stopped me and another rabbi and shared an opinion of The Aruch HaShulchan. The approach is that we don't say a blessing thanking G-d for commanding us to do an action regarding mitzvot that are person to person because these are intuitive. This teacher's question was that this seemed "to fly in the face" with an idea that he has accepted as lore in the name of Rabbi Soloveichik. That approach is that even though certain mitzvot make sense to us we do them not because of our own logic, but because G-d said so.

The two of us that were asked the question had our interest piqued and had a lot to say about it. The colleague who asked the question needed to copy sheets, finish his lesson and run to class. Speaking of running to class, it's time for my next one. If you're interested in responses to my friend's question, let me know.

Hindu Kush, New York

In an intermission from sleep

I count Marco Polo sheep

Find my way to this screen

See what wisdom I may glean

While it's dark and I'm alone

A situation not unknown

Why is it that I'm awake?

It's an emergency brake.

Wake up! My soul calls to me

My American angelica tree

Sleeplessness is my burning bush

My moment of Hindu Kush

I don't need to eat or drink

Thoughts bleed like indelible ink

I worry about wounded friends

Ponder the goodness we intend

Hope for the welfare of us all

Pray this isn't the last call

Akiva's Haiku

They say a haiku

Has to be a certain length

But I don't care much

I'll do my own thing

Early Moring Haiku

Youthful hall chatter

Sitting, cramming, confiding

The school day begins

Parent -Teacher Poem

After 4 hours, I've seen parents of 43 kids.

But I can only write between meeting, so now it's four hours, and ten minutes and 45 kids.

Can I admit that I love this day? Maybe here. Maybe not to colleagues.

Do you ever wonder what's most important in life?

Every time I make someone feel good about their child/their self I am grateful.

Five hours, ten minutes, fifty two meetings.

Great news: For a Sunday I'm unusually up: I like the structure.

Humanity: (call me crazy, but I believe it's) crucial for humans to maintain.

Insecurity is a sometimes synonym for yetzer harah.

Just belonging can be enough to make you happy.

Knowing why you do what you is important: For what reason am I, is anyone, a teacher?

Let me tell you that grades given by teachers should not be the most important thing in life.

Much good can come out of cliche'd words said with original care,like, "How are you?"

"Nice" lost its meaning about forty years ago; we need to use "kind," "brave," genuine," and other specific adjectives as often as we can.

Other teachers, after six hours, just want to go home. I'm happy to be here.

People are people.

Questioning: I'm your biggest fan, but lately I question if we spend too much time together.

Right now it's 8:30 P.M, I'm home. The meetings that ended four hours ago still linger.

Seconds ago a kind student from the past called to suggest a kind woman for me to date.

Those "painted ponies..." - darn you Joni.

Unsure about so many things.

Viewpoint is key.

When?

X-ray vision is dangerous, in part because it is inaccurate.

Yesterday, today hovered, and now it's done, yet still hovering.

Zigzagging through the maze of life as best we can; we are humans.

Vayishlach: Gid Hanasheh In Light of Yaakov Avinu's Proclivity Toward Togetherness

The general approach - presented in Sforno, Ramban, Rashbam - to the prohibition of gid hanesheh is that it is a way to recall the miraculous way in which Yaakov was saved by G-d and emerged victorious in his wrestling match with the angel of Eisav (the mysterious man he meets in a rare moment of solitude). You would expect that this happy event would be remembered through a celebratory meal of Thanksgiving rather than with a punitive prohibition against eating. The Chizkuni says that what we are commemorating here is the sad fact that Yaakov was alone, separated from his eleven children. The lesson is that we should recall that a Jew should never be left alone.

A pivotal word regarding Yaakov is the word ach - brother. When he encounters some roughians by a well, he addresses them as achai – my brothers. Later, he repeatedly refers to Eisav as achi. At the end of the parsha we’re told that he views his sons as echav. Then they sit for a meal and included in the gathered achim are the soldiers of Eisav who had been sent to kill him. The root word comprised of the letters aleph and chet means to bind. The halachah is that at some point after tearing his garment a mourner is permitted to be me’acheh, to mend his garment, to bind it together.

Yaakov had a strong inclination and ability toward connecting with people. In life we should always strive to make others our ach. The root for the word acher - other – is ach. The root for the word Echad – one – is also ach. We do the best we can to relate to others, sometimes we remain more separate, sometimes more attached, but try we must.

The gid hanasheh commemorates the sad fact that Yaakov was not seen by his sons as an ach, and at that moment they erred by leaving him alone. Apparently they had not internalized their father’s model of striving for achdut. Perhaps Shimon and Levi do teshuvah in this area when they defend Dinah and this is why they are referred to as achei Dinah.(It seems that they take the idea to an extreme that causes Yaakov to disagree with their extreme actions in the name of achdut. This will not be explored further in this presentation, although it is deserving of consideration.)

(This is an adapdation of a talk given by Rav Dovid Miller.)

Falling Up - VaYishlach

By Rabbi Neil Fleischmann

Yaakov Avinu seems to always have people around him, a life filled with family, with one stark exception. In anticipation of re-meeting Eisav he prepares for battle, for a typical, physical war. Yaakov divides his camp strategically and advises them on how to deal with Eisav. He helps the fifteen members of his nuclear family cross the stream of Yabbok. Then, suddenly, briefly – though it probably feels like forever - Ya'akov finds himself unusually alone. “Vayivater Ya’akov levado – and Ya’akov was left alone (Breishit 32:25).” Then he is confronted by an unexpected enemy of a unworldly sort. There is no explicit documentation of his preparation for his spiritual battle. Ya'akov's life up until this moment was his preparation. There was no cramming for this exam.
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Rabbi Yosef Blau sees this story as reflective of all of our lives. The major battles are spiritual and our sole preparation for the fights that count is the way we live the episodes of our lives up to the moment when we are tested. These conflicts are amorphous. When they arrive is unannounced and unknown. The physical challenges that we think we must prepare for, often never come. When the unexpected confrontations occur the people who usually travel with and support us can suddenly be absent from our surroundings . We can fight dark forces and win, but like Ya'akov we may come out limping. We can survive and thrive and, like Yaakov, in the end gain a new identity, sanctified through our spiritual victories. It is to our advantage to view these hurdles in a positive light.
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Shlomo HaMelech wrote "Sheva Yipol Tzaddik Vekam" - "A tzaddik falls seven times, and rises" (Mishlei 24:16). We all fall. A tzaddik moves on even with his many falls. Rav Yitzchak Hutner explains that rather than being a tzaddik despite falling down, a tzaddik is a tzaddik because of the times he falls and rises. In a letter to a student experiencing hard times, Rav Hutner developed the idea that achieving greatness is a process of overcoming and moving on. He explained that while we imagine righteous people being born righteous, it is more likely that they struggled to become great.
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"Ma'ayan nirpas u'makor mashchat: tzaddik mat lifnei rasha"-"A righteous man falling down before the wicked: like a muddled fountain, a polluted spring" (Mishlei 28:26). Rabeinu Bachai cites this pasuk as ancillary to "Sheva Yipol Tzadik Vekam". A tzadik stumbles through encounters with reshaim. Just as a sullied spring re-invigorates and returns to its previous purity, a tzaddik collapses into the hands of a rasha but soon regains his glory. Rabeinu Bachai offers these lines from Mishlei as an introduction to Parshat VaYishlach. Yaakov was temporarily humbled before Eisav; he showered his brother with gifts and addressed him as master. In the end, Ya'akov departed unscathed from his encounter with Eisav. The Sfat Emet notes that Ya'akov bowed before Eisav seven times (Breishit 33:3), an allusion to "Sheva Yipol Tzaddik Vekam". Using Rav Hutner's sense of the pasuk this can be understood to mean that Ya'akov not only fell and rose before Eisav, but his falling was part of the rising. This can be applied to the seemingly myriad rough times Ya'akov went through.
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The physical altercation with Eisav which never happens takes the form instead of a spiritual fight. The wrestling match which precedes Yaakov’s meeting with Eisav tells us what it, along all of Yaakov’s other hardships, was really all about. In Ya'akov's lifetime as in seasonal cycles, fall foreshadowed spring. In the lives of individual Jewish people as in the life of the Jewish People as a whole, we fall to rise again. The road to geula is galus, as our private exiles are paths to personal redemption. May we soon merit seeing redemption for ourselves, our families, Klal Yisrael, and the world.

Shabbat Shalom!

Truth Haiku

More than attention

Positive words do something

Truly ease tension

Trying Haiku

Trying does exist

Yoda was wrong about this

Trying is trying

A Haiku Response For Ira

One pencil writing

Makes a mysterious case

For eternity

A How Are You Haiku

In one of my classes - by their request - I put a Haiku of the Day up on the board daily before class starts. Today I was out sick. We have a test tomorrow. This email haiku is sweet and kind:

How are you feeling?

I missed your haiku today.

Is the test still on?

Haiku: For Kishke, Whenever I May Find Him

Our souls pine for G-d

In the hunger is feeding

Inside hearts beating

An Early Afternoon Poem/Prayer

Judgement, judgement everywhere,

if not in words then with a stare.

Judging others is a way to hide

from being aware of our truth inside.

Rules, laws, and customs galore,

but what is there purpose, what are they for?

The Torah was given to purify man,

so much we know of G-d's master plan.

It belittles us when we make religion small,

like just another text or telephone call.

G-d please bless us to be real and to grow,

to navigate our soul's through life's turbulent flow.

A Quick, Short Post

Yesterday: 6 classes, 3 Torah Guidance sessions, improv club after school, visit to friend in hospital. Today: A test, review for a test, and and and. Later a visit to a doctor I had a good experience with last year.

"Happiness is not a happening" - Rav Noach Weinberg


I'm on page 56 of Aharon Applefeld's For Every Sin (Al Kol Pesha). I've been reading it for a while. Every word counts, so it goes slow, though it's riveting. It's kind of like a play because there's a lot of dialogue. And it reminds me a bit of The Little Prince because it's a surreal story of a man walking and meeting many characters along his way.

Still More Haiku

If you have a soul

You have reason to rejoice

That is happiness

Haiku Again

Always hurt, they hurt

Watch out for the insecure

Dangerously off

Haiku

Moments come and go

and yet there is only now

There is only now

Good Vuch World

I am on. In the middle of my take on being scholar in residence. I'm in my host rabbi's home. He's on his iPad. I'm on the PC. His rebbetzin is shuttling some of their kids. He'll be off to parent teacher learning in a few minutes.

I am grateful to G-d that I was invited to be scholar in residence at The Etz Chaim congregation. I spoke for about an hour about Humor in Judaism ("A Laughing Matter?") at the oneg last night. Today's drasha was "Five Ways to Ruin A Joke (and other reflections of a rabbi/comedian)." And the Shalosh Seudos shmooze was "Happiness: A Serious Topic For A Talk."

In a short while I will be performing two sets of stand up. Before and after the routines there will be sales of my book and signing, along with the same for three other authors. I need to go and plan out the routines. Thank G-d for time before shows. The week was so hectic that I didn't have much breathing space. I'm glad to have an opportunity now to prepare in a somewhat chilled way.

The following is an edit of thoughts I composed on Thursday but didn't post till now.

The student who'd lost her wallet on Wednesday morning found it later in the day. It was in a pocket of her knapsack that she never uses but used this once. It could happen to anyone. And this type of thing does happen to everyone. I very much appreciated that she came back to me to let me know that she found it, such a thoughtful thing to do.

With my va'ad class yesterday (if you're curious what a va'ad class is all you have to do is ask) we were discussing losing things. One student had a story about how she doesn't usually wear rings but her mother got her this beautiful ring and she wore it (and it happened to have been expensive) and one day she couldn't find it. She was so worried that her mother would be mad at her that she told everyone in her family not to tell her mother she'd lost it. It turned out that her mother had it, mom had seen it and picked it up and didn't think it was a big deal and just said, "Oh, here's your ring." This reminded me of the time a couple of years ago that one of my colleagues misplaced her diamond wedding ring and was understandably anxious. She'd put it down when she washed and then it wasn't there. I helped her look all around, and tried to help her stay calm. In the end, a couple of hours later, someone gave it to her after explaining that he saw it and picked it up for safekeeping. This reminded another student of the time that her mom wrapped her ring in a napkin and then it got thrown out and her dad relentlessly searched through all the garbage and found it. May we all be blessed to stay calm in the wake of the frustrations connected to losing and finding or not finding that is endemic to life.

Vayeitzei and The Theme of Stones - Part II

Rabbi Dovid Miller also points out the theme of evehn - stone - in Vayeitzei and it continuing into Vayishlach when Yaakov made the matzeivah from an evehn and it is mentioned again in his brachah for Yosef. The word evehn appears for the first time in the Torah in connection with Yaakov and it comes in "with a fury."

Avraham's focus was on influencing people - chesed. Yitzchak was about depth, as represented by his digging of wells. This theme recurs for him. This represents inner directed correction - gevurah. The stone is the basic building block of the world. Yaakov was about tikkun olam. TheMedrash Rabbah says that because Yaakov was called evehn Yisrael we merited getting the Torah, written on an evehn. He's about Torah. Kedosheinu Kedosh Yaakov. He's about elevating the world.

Perhaps Yitzchak wanted to give the physical brachot to Eisav because Yaakov was spiritually inclined. What Rivkah got was that Yaakov was about elevating the physical into the spiritual and holy.

This explains his dream. The ladder, via Nefesh haChayim, points out, represents man's soul which connects two worlds. Man also elevates the world; that's the concept of evehn Yisrael. Thus Yaakov was able to keep the Torah under Lavan, as that was his specialty, elevating even the most physical.

Rabbi Israel Miller said that G-d told Yaakov to leave Charan when he started having physically oriented dreams about sheep.

Mesilat Yesharim says that once a person rules over himself then he can elevate the world. This is Yaakov, as represented by the stones of Yaakov and the way they united to be used for holy service.