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. In the Torah, God wants the Israelites to build “a sanctuary that I might dwell among you.” So God actually commands that the Israelites bring presents: gifts of gold, silver, precious stones and more. Okay, maybe they weren’t exactly birthday presents. But the Torah tells us that the Israelites brought so many gifts that God commanded them to stop already with the gifts!

You know that old expression it’s better to give than to receive—well it seems that what God/Judaism are saying is that the quid pro quo for receiving at all is that first you have to give: to experience God’s presence, the Israelites must first bring presents. And the Hebrew word used for gifts in that commandment (trumah) comes from a root meaning ‘to elevate.’ Not only are gifts necessary, they elevate us.

Our founding fathers made for us a sanctuary. They created a country in which we are able to live with freedom and opportunity. So what should be our birthday present for them this year? How about a present inspired by President JFK himself: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

Give to your community. Give time, give money, bring your talents, bring your gifts. And at the very least, get out and vote!

Happy Birthdays Mr. Presidents, indeed.

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. They can be found in its own Giant vs. Patriot matchup, in the story of Goliath and David.

The story begins with David, a shepherd and the youngest of 8 brothers who, at his father’s request, comes to bring food to his three brothers who are serving in Israelite army. Upon arriving at the camp David sees Goliath, the champion of the enemy Philistine forces, nine feet tall, bedecked in armor, the iron head of his spear alone weighing 15 pounds. Quite a fearsome picture, don’t you think?

Upon hearing Goliath’s challenge to the Israelite army to choose one man to fight him in a ‘winner take all’ match, David tells Saul, the Israelite king: “Let no man’s courage fail him. Your servant will go and fight that Philistine.”

Courage. It takes courage to win.

Saul attempts to give David his own fighting gear, helmet, breastplate and sword with which to go out and meet the adversary girded for battle; but David declines saying, “I cannot walk in these for I am not used to them.” Instead, David picks a few small stones, and sling in hand goes to meet Goliath. David, the shepherd, goes to meet Goliath as a simple shepherd.

Play your own game. It takes knowing yourself, to win. It takes not letting others tell you what you ‘should’ do, what you ‘should’ wear, or how you ‘should’ act.

When Goliath sees David coming toward him he scorns him and says: “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” David retorts: “I will kill you…”

Confidence. It takes confidence to win, even–and especially–in the face of trash talk.

As Goliath advances, David takes out a single stone and slings it—hitting Goliath squarely in the forehead. Goliath falls, face down on to the ground. So the Torah tells us: “Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone.”

Tactics. It takes a strategic and thoughtful approach to win.

David may have felled his Goliath, but we all have our own: those things and those people we have to confront, sometimes even within ourselves. Courage. Confidence. Thoughtfulness. And most importantly, authenticity. That is the Torah’s prescription for success.

Who knows, maybe it could even work for the Giants….

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.

Tefilat Geshem, the Prayer for Rain. It is sung once a year on the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, in the fall immediately after the conclusion of the Jewish fall harvest holiday of Sukkot (sometimes dubbed the ‘Jewish Thanksgiving’). There is a prologue to this prayer which beseeches:

Form clouds and precipitate them,
making them rain water to crown the valley with green.
May rain not be withheld from us because of our unpaid debts.

Translation for ‘our unpaid debts:’ our sins. In fact the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible warns that if we go astray, God will punish us by ‘closing the heavens so that there will be no rain.’

Now before you guffaw at the concept of lack of precipitation as a consequence of our ‘sins,’ how about this headline from National Geographic News in 2007: “Humans have caused global precipitation patterns to change substantially over the past century, new research says.” This article, and subsequent studies, point to human emissions of greenhouse gases (coal and oil burning) as a decisive culprit in the changing precipitation patterns. For the sin of burning too much oil….

There’s no harm in praying for snow or for rain, because hey, we can always use all the help we can get. But praying isn’t enough. It’s also in our hands. The Bible tells us that God placed Adam, the first person created, in the garden of Eden in order to ‘till and to tend it.’ The planet is our garden to tend. Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow.

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.

The ‘official’ version of why we light candles on Hanukkah comes to us from the rabbis of the Talmud. There the rabbis tell the tale of a miracle, the miracle of the oil that was needed for the rededication (rededication in Hebrew being ‘Hanukkah’) of the Holy Temple desecrated by the enemy. The Jews had found only one day’s worth of the special oil needed to light the Menorah, a lamp that was meant to burn perpetually; yet somehow that single cruse of oil lasted 8 days (the exact amount of time needed for a new supply to be found).

Therefore the rabbis proclaimed that we should light lights for 8 nights. And so we do.

Ever wonder why when we light the Hanukkah candles we sing two blessings over them? It’s because the rabbis of the Talmud declared that in lighting the Hanukkah candles two ‘mitzvot,’ two obligations are fulfilled. The first ‘mitzvah’ is simply to light the candles for yourself. The second ‘mitzvah’ is to put the lit candles into a doorway or a window, in order to share the light, and as the ancient sages said, to ‘publish the miracle’ of Hanukkah.

We light the candles to remind us that it’s possible for the good guys to beat the bad. We light the candles to remind us that miracles can happen. We light the candles to remind us that even when things are really really dark, we can bring light.

Vanquish the dark. Ignite hope. Light some Hanukkah candles.

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.

Appreciating our blessings is about mindfulness. Appreciating our blessings is about blessings.

Which is why Judaism teaches that we should say 100 blessings, 100 barakhot, a day. That’s basically a blessing for everything you could possibly imagine, including the ability to go to the bathroom (no kidding). When the first words out of your mouth upon waking every day are a thank you for the ability to wake up, and when before something goes in your mouth a blessing for it comes out first, and when part of the price tag for a new article of clothing is the blessing that comes along with the first time you put it on, well, it’s pretty hard not to feel pretty darn….blessed.

So for Jews, every day can be, and should be, thanksgiving day.

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 20^th Century American Orthodox rabbi, often called ‘the Rav’) that is the essence of teshuvah (okay, not exactly the bionic part). For the Rav, teshuvah is not about atonement; rather, for him teshuvah is about rebuilding a new us. It is an act of creation—of self-creation. In Rav Soloveitchik’s words, teshuvah “is the creation of a new “I,” possessor of a new consciousness, a new heart and spirit, different desires, longings, goals.”

Maybe you’ve always wanted to travel? Maybe you always dreamed of a new career but were too afraid to try? Maybe the next great American novel is buried in you, fighting to emerge. Maybe you’ve always wanted to paint, to sing, to play badminton. Now is the time for teshuvah. Now is the time to give voice to those desires, those longings, those passions buried for too long.

We can rebuild ourselves. We have the technology—each and every one of us.  This is the time for us to strengthen and go boldly forth into the world to fight the bad guys: those within us, those nay saying voices that are holding us back, and those that oppress others and impede their ability to live in the pursuit of their desires.

During this season of teshuvah, may we find forgiveness where we need it and forgive those who need it from us. May we find the strength to turn away from that which harms us, and to turn to that which nurtures. May we discover the love and support of those who know us for our most authentic selves, and allow them to help us in the difficult work of change. May we find the stamina to stick with it. And may we all be blessed with the rewards of a new heart, a new spirit, and many, many, many happy endings.

This Mamash Minute is posted in partnership with 10Q, which offers a new way to reflect this High Holiday season. Look for a Mamash Minute a day for the 10 days from September 28-October 7, 2011 as part of 10Q, 10Days, 10Minutes, 10Takes on Teshuvah on this Mamash website, on Mamash’s facebook page, and on 10Q’s facebook page. More about 10Q can be found on their website at http://www.doyou10Q.com

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. According to them, teshuvah preceded the creation of the whole world.

Now, how could that possibly be? In their minds especially, how could anything come before the creation of the world, except, maybe, for God?

The wisdom of the rabbis allowed them to see that the world would be completely untenable, unsustainable, and impossible without teshuvah. They realized that people, though created in the image of God, are flawed, are mortal. That we are doomed to make mistakes, to hurt others, to hurt ourselves. With no corrective we simply could not survive; without teshuvah we would have no hope. Just like the egg needs that special protein for its formation, so do we require teshuvah for ours.

The Hassidic tradition, a spiritual and somewhat mystical branch of Orthodox Judaism founded in the 18^th century, also links the event of creation with teshuvah. It believes that the essence of teshuvah is to strive to return; to return to that moment of creation, our pristine state in ‘the garden.’ It believes that teshuvah is about rediscovering the Divine spark with which we were each created and which can still illuminate us. It’s about discovering our true selves, our genuine “I,” and making that infinite Godly potential the dominant influence in our lives.

The Hassidic masters would echo the words of Joni Mitchell: “We are stardust, We are golden, And we’ve got to get ourselves, Back to the garden.”

As for where the chicken came from, well, that remains one of life’s great mysteries.

This Mamash Minute is posted in partnership with 10Q, which offers a new way to reflect this High Holiday season. Look for a Mamash Minute a day for the 10 days from September 28-October 7, 2011 as part of 10Q, 10Days, 10Minutes, 10Takes on Teshuvah on this Mamash website, on Mamash’s facebook page, and on 10Q’s facebook page. More about 10Q can be found on their website at http://www.doyou10Q.com

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. There is a midrash, a piece of rabbinic literature written around the 6^th century CE–1,000 years after Lao-tzu wrote—that teaches:  Rabbi Yesa said, ‘The Holy One, Blessed be He said to Israel, “My sons, Open the door of Repentance as the ‘eye of a needle,’ and I will open it for you so that wagons and carriages can pass through.”’

But how do we find the strength to open the door even as little as the eye of a needle? To take that first step?

F. Diane Barth provides some practical advice as well:

• Try to decide if the first task you’ve set for yourself is really is just one step, or can it be broken down further? Sometimes what we think is a single step is really several combined. Break it apart.
• Once you have broken down the first step as much as you can, do one thing on the list. It may be the easiest, or you may decide to take on the hardest thing first. Either way, do what you can. One step will often lead to another.
• Try to understand your anxieties.
• Get support. Ask friends, family, even your children! … Help often comes from surprising places – including, perhaps, your youngest child, or even your parents!
• And be prepared: one step leads to another, but maybe not the one you expected.

What’s the first step, the ‘eye of the needle’ for you? Maybe it’s writing down a single thing you want to work on changing, or a single person you want to ask for forgiveness.  Commit it to paper. Then see what comes next. Maybe that single act will elucidate the fears that are holding you back. Or maybe it will illuminate the possibilities of the road ahead.

As Jordin Sparks reminds us:

When you can’t wait any longer

But there’s no end in sight

It’s the faith that makes you stronger

The only way we get there is one step at a time…

One Step At A Time….

This Mamash Minute is posted in partnership with 10Q, which offers a new way to reflect this High Holiday season. Look for a Mamash Minute a day for the 10 days from September 28-October 7, 2011 as part of 10Q, 10Days, 10Minutes, 10Takes on Teshuvah on this Mamash website, on Mamash’s facebook page, and on 10Q’s facebook page. More about 10Q can be found on their website at http://www.doyou10Q.com

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 2^nd ; 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.

For the Rambam, complete teshuvah is the third step in his 3-step program. Step 1 is verbal confession to another person. Step 2 is stopping the bad behavior. As for step 3, the Rambam asks: who has reached complete teshuvah? He answers: A person who confronts the same situation in which he sinned, has the potential to commit the sin again, and nevertheless abstains.

Phil’s transformation began with his confession to Rita (Andie MacDowell), the producer overseeing his broadcast. Bolstered by Rita’s support Phil transforms himself, and when faced with the same day again becomes a hero instead of a misanthrope.

1…2…3, then happily ever after. If only real life were more like the movies.

Actually, it is. It may not be February 2^nd, but most of us really do wake up to the same day, every day. We are confronted with the same people and the same situations that challenge us; the same vices and the same bad habits. It’s like the old line that goes: “it’s easy to quit smoking… I do it all the time.”

Like Phil, every day when we wake up we have a decision to make: do we want to be a hero or a misanthrope? Do we want to stay stuck where we are, or do we want to try the 1…2…3 plan and go for the happy ending?

This Mamash Minute is posted in partnership with 10Q, which offers a new way to reflect this High Holiday season. Look for a Mamash Minute a day for the 10 days from September 28-October 7, 2011 as part of 10Q, 10Days, 10Minutes, 10Takes on Teshuvah on this Mamash website, on Mamash’s facebook page, and on 10Q’s facebook page. More about 10Q can be found on their website at http://www.doyou10Q.com

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.

Thankfully, for most of us the behaviors we strive to change aren’t necessarily life- threatening. But moral decay can be just as deadly. Look at Bernie Madoff. Once he started down the wrong path he got so caught up he couldn’t stop; he couldn’t change.

Maimonides, aka the Rambam, has a 3-step program for change. Yesterday’s Mamash Minute talked about his first step: acknowledging out loud what behavior we need to change. Hard as that may be, his second step, is harder: stopping the bad behavior. For the Rambam, teshuvah is about abandoning the error of our ways, and resolving in our heart never to do it again.

There’s great psychological wisdom in Rambam’s two steps; perhaps they are linked. Maybe the reason we need to confess to someone is because that confession acts as an invitation for that person to help us in the hard work of change. Perhaps in that confession we can find the love, acceptance and support we need to actually effect teshuvah.

The biblical book of Ecclesiastes says that, “two are better than one.” The ‘midrash,’ a 1,500 year old book of rabbinic interpretation on the Book of Ecclesiastes teaches that that line means that ‘if one person falls, then the other will lift them up.’ When it comes to teshuvah, we can all use a hand.

This Mamash Minute is posted in partnership with 10Q, which offers a new way to reflect this High Holiday season. Look for a Mamash Minute a day for the 10 days from September 28-October 7, 2011 as part of 10Q, 10Days, 10Minutes, 10Takes on Teshuvah on this Mamash website, on Mamash’s facebook page, and on 10Q’s facebook page. More about 10Q can be found on their website at http://www.doyou10Q.com