Can’t you just hear Marilyn Monroe’s sultry voice (or for those too young to remember it, the Youtube version) singing those very words to President John F. Kennedy (!) on May 19th 1962. Because of the movie My Week with Marilyn and the new TV hit SMASH many of us may have Marilyn on the mind. But the more prosaic among us might recognize that birthday salutation as this week’s commemoration of the birthdays of one of our founding fathers, George Washington, and that other great President, Abraham Lincoln.
For most of us Presidents’ Day is just a Monday off, a day to go shopping and take advantage of the Presidents’ Day sales; its true purpose and meaning have been forgotten. But even if we wanted to, just how should one celebrate the Presidents’ birthdays?
How about how most of us celebrate birthdays: with presents! After all, everyone loves presents.
But how can we give presents to George and to Abe?
Maybe the Torah has an answer. It seems that Judaism’s Founding Father (that would be God) also likes presents. Read More »
Las Vegas has picked the New England Patriots as the 3-point favorites to win the Super Bowl. Their reasons include the Pats better season, a decade of winning, quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
Who do you pick to win?
Not an easy question, as the last matchup demonstrated, when the Giants won one of the biggest upsets in football history. Victory doesn’t always go to the favorite.
What does it take to win?
The Torah has some suggestions. Read More »
The Boise Idaho ABC affiliate ran a news story on December 26th about the ski resort Bogus Basin, which sits closed for lack of snow. In the story they quoted a veteran snowboard instructor pleading: “Weather gods, please, do us a favor, and help us out.”
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow: the skiers’ prayer for snow. With snow accumulations thin at most ski resorts this year, that refrain can be heard far and wide.
And it’s not just skiers despondent at the lack of snow: kids (including some very ‘big’ kids) want snow not just for the snow days off school (!) but for the fun of making snowmen, of snowball fights, and of lying in the snow and making snow angels.
But if praying for precipitation seems a bit far-fetched, you may surprised to learn that a few short months ago many Jews were issuing their own such prayers, appealing to God in their annual plea for rain. Read More »
Season Affect Disorder: a tired and depressed mood that some people regularly experience in the wintertime. The American Academy of Family physicians estimates that six of every 100 people in the US experience SAD, and that another 10%-20% may experience a milder form of it.
The symptoms tend to start around September and last until April, and are at their worst in the darkest months of winter; the problem seems to stem from a lack of bright light in the winter months. And even those of us who aren’t clinical sufferers of SAD can feel gloomy with the short days of winter, when we leave for work/school in the dark and then return home also in the dark.
But there’s good news to be had– the treatment for SAD, in most cases, is relatively straightforward: it involves allowing bright light to reach the eyes for between a 1/4 and 3/4 of an hour daily.
Light is the antidote.
So maybe it’s no coincidence that the rabbis of old decreed that in the darkest days of winter, Hanukkah should be a holiday of light. Read More »
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is generally acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. But the origin of our Thanksgiving Day was likely in 1623; after a drought had destroyed their crops, the colonists prayed and fasted for relief. When the rains came and they heard the news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way, they held a day of thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. Still, it took until on October 3, 1863 after Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey’s Lady’s Book, had crusaded for 36 years to governors, senators and presidents, for President Lincoln (after the Union victory at Gettysburg) to proclaim it a national holiday to be observed on the fourth Thursday in November.
In his Thanksgiving Proclamation Lincoln adjured the country to remember its blessings:
“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.”
Lincoln’s message is the essential one of Thanksgiving: not to take our bounties for granted, as we so often do. Of course that’s easier said than done.
Or maybe not. Read More »
Teshuvah (te-shoov-ah), Hebrew: 1. Return 2. To turn 3. To turn around 4. Renewed, born again 5. Repentance 6. Commitment to change 7. A response or an answer
Teshuvah Take 10: “We can rebuild him…we have the technology”….
Remember that opening sequence to the TV series the $6 million man? In it Lee Majors played Steve Austin, a former astronaut who, in a serious plane crash was severely injured and then “rebuilt” with “bionic” implants that enhanced his strength, speed and vision. After being rebuilt he used his enhanced abilities to work for a secret government office (“OSI”) as a secret agent battling the bad guys.
Who among us doesn’t want to be bionic? Who doesn’t want to be better, stronger, faster?
For Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (the great 20th Century American Orthodox rabbi, often called ‘the Rav’) that is the essence of teshuvah (okay, not exactly the bionic part). Read More »
Teshuvah (te-shoov-ah), Hebrew: 1. Return 2. To turn 3. To turn around 4. Renewed, born again 5. Repentance 6. Commitment to change 7. A response or an answer
Teshuvah Take 9: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
In the summer of 2010, researchers at Sheffield and Warwick universities purportedly solved this scientific and philosophical mystery. They found that a protein, which speeds up the development of the hard shell and is necessary for the formation of the egg, is found only in a chicken’s ovaries. Therefore the chicken must have come first.
Of course most of the time when people ask this question, sometimes called the ‘causality dilemma,’ they aren’t really looking for a scientific response. Most of the time what they really mean to ask is, what is the necessary precondition for some thing or some action.
The ancient rabbis had some interesting notions about chicken/egg type situations, and for the ancient rabbis teshuvah was like the chicken. Read More »
Teshuvah (te-shoov-ah), Hebrew: 1. Return 2. To turn 3. To turn around 4. Renewed, born again 5. Repentance 6. Commitment to change 7. A response or an answer
Teshuvah Take 8: ” The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”– Lao-tzu
It seems that an ancient mystical Chinese philosopher, and the father of Taoism, has some great words of wisdom when it comes to doing teshuvah. Especially since for some of us, a thousand mile journey on foot would be a walk in the park compared to the prospect of doing teshuvah.
Clinical social worker F. Diane Barth, in her blog post this past July on psychologytoday.com, agrees with this wisdom. In talking about barriers to change, even when the change is something we want, she says, “We look at the goal, at the end result, and we see how much work it will take to get there, and we feel overwhelmed by what we will have to do. We cannot imagine how we will ever manage it.”
Her solution? Take the first step. And have some faith, “that if you take the first step, the second one will become accessible. And then the third, and the fourth, and so on.”
The Jewish tradition offers similar advice. Read More »
Teshuvah (te-shoov-ah), Hebrew: 1. Return 2. To turn 3. To turn around 4. Renewed, born again 5. Repentance 6. Commitment to change 7. A response or an answer
Teshuvah Take 7: Groundhog Day
Remember the movie? In it Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocentric Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, finds himself reliving the same day, over and over and over again. Every time Phil wakes up it’s still February 2nd ; he seems destined to be stuck in the same day for the rest of eternity. He decides to take advantage of the situation with no fear of long-term consequences: he learns secrets from the town’s residents, seduces women, steals money, drives recklessly, and gets thrown in jail.
Eventually, however, Phil Conners begins to re-examine his life and priorities; and as the same day repeats, Phil is able to befriend others, to help the townspeople, and even to save lives. In other words, Conners does teshuvah. He accomplishes what the Rambam calls complete teshuvah. Read More »
Teshuvah (te-shoov-ah), Hebrew: 1. Return 2. To turn 3. To turn around 4. Renewed, born again 5. Repentance 6. Commitment to change 7. A response or an answer
Teshuvah Take 6: “They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘no no no’”
There’s an old joke: how many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: one—but the light bulb has to really want to change.
Why is it so hard to stop the behaviors that are bad for us?
A study done in 2004 by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that avoidable behaviors like cigarette use, poor diet, and lack of exercise were the underlying cause of half of the deaths in the United States in the year 2000. In that year, 435,000 deaths were caused by tobacco, 400,000 deaths were the result of inactivity and bad eating, and 85,000 were due to alcohol consumption.
Here’s some of the reasons we don’t change: we are focused on the pleasures of present rather than paying attention to the future consequences; we rationalize by saying ‘other people are doing it and it hasn’t hurt them so why should it hurt me;’ we are in denial. But mostly we don’t change because it’s hard to do so; it takes a lot of energy; it takes a lot of commitment.
We don’t change, even though the consequences of not changing can be dire. Read More »
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