JamShalom Daydreams

The Person Inside the Walls

It is strange and sublime the way we close our eyes when we kiss someone.  And it is hard to explain why sometimes, when we are sitting surrounded by a beautiful natural vista, that we close our eyes in order to "feel" the beauty that is around us.  And in those moments, when we close our eyes, our Souls 'hear' something that can only be perceived when we let go of seeing the surface, and allow ourselves to connect to the inner-truth that truly binds us all. Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Tzav': "The Person Inside the Walls".          (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to learn to move past the surface of the immediate behaviors and the human shortcomings of those around us (and of ourselves), and to connect to the person inside; to hear each other's inner voice, as we each call out to each other from the loving essence of our hearts and souls. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Learning to Be Who You Are

Rules can be so annoying.  Do this.  Don't do that.  Step here. Say please.  Put the lid down when you're done.  Leave it up.  Rules. Rules Rules. Whatever happened to freedom, man?  Whatever happened to taking it easy, and just letting things flow as they come? But the thing is, that while just going with the flow works great for a vacation or a road-trip to nowhere-in-specific, it's not the stuff that relationships are built on.  In the end, we need guidelines.  We need a structure.  We need a context.  Because it is within a specific context that we can best discover who we are, and all that we have to offer. Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Vayeira': "Learning to Be Who You Are".     (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to embrace the demands and requirements of our relationships, discovering all that we have to offer, and bringing our best selves forward into a sustainable and deeply satisfying life. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Carving the Tablets Yourself

It seems a bit of a puzzle that God would give us a perfect world, only to see us make such a mess of things.  And it seems quite a puzzle that God would give us a first set of the Tablets of Testimony (the "Two Tablets"), only to see them shattered by Moses and then carved again. And it seems strange to our parents that we can't simply accept their instruction without trying and failing (and then hopefully succeeding!) for ourselves.  And it seems strange to us that sometimes we must repeat the same mistakes time and again until we finally get it right. But it is actually not that strange at all.  We are each here to grow.  We are each here to learn.  And the journey of life is not in being given "perfection", but rather in learning to understand what that word means to each and every one of us as individuals, and creating it for ourselves. Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portions of 'VaYakhel-Pikudei': "Carving the Tablets Yourself".       (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to understand the lessons of life that God is teaching us, to shape the best environment for ourselves, to refine ourselves within that space, and to take our place in bringing order to the communities and beautiful world we are a part of. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Filling the Holes in the World

Sometimes we wonder what God's plan is?  Why, after all, doesn't He simply just make everything work out fine right away?  Sure, some parts of life and our world make sense, and we can certainly see the Divine beauty in so many aspects of our lives.  But what about the parts that don't make sense?  What is that all about?  It would be so much easier if we could just understand what we are supposed to do to fill in those gaps in the world! Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Ki Tisah' and the holiday of Purim: "Filling the Holes in the World". May we all be blessed to recognize that the gaps we see are the gaps we are meant to fill, and that each of us is a perfectly fitting piece in the puzzle of life. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

What a Fine Looking Priest You Are

Have you ever been in the presence of royalty?  Have you ever met a mega rock-star?  Have you ever been around someone that just emanated "I'm the king or queen of the world, and you know it!!"?  And when you were, didn't you wish - if only just for a second - that you could be them? Wouldn't it be crazy if you discovered in that moment that he or she actually wished that they could be you? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Tetzaveh': "What a Fine Looking Priest You Are".      (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to be high priests for all those that we love, and to love all those that we meet. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Inside Outside - It's All the Same Thing

How would you like it if someone gave you a gift of beautiful gold, but when you scratched the surface you found out it was really made of wood?  How would you like it if someone told you how much he or she loved you, but then you noticed the person looking at his or her watch as they said the words? (kind of like a lot of us do at prayers!) It seems fairly self-evident that what we all seek most in life is authenticity -- that our relationships with others will be as real on the inside as they appear on the outside.  And that the responsibilities we have each day will somehow align with our deeper values, and give us a sense of meaning in terms of how we are living our lives and spending our time. But yet, we often feel as if we are living our lives in the shallow end of the pool, with only our legs getting warm while the rest of our body shivers in the wind. But what if the problem was not with our lives, but rather with how we are looking at things? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Terumah': "Inside Outside - It's All the Same Thing".       (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to see all the world as precious as gold, especially when gazing at the person in the mirror. This Shu-Shine is dedicated to my dear friend Stephen Neuwirth, who knows a golden Kiddush when he hears one, even if the Rabbi standing next to him has ear-plugs in his ears.  It is also dedicated to my lifelong friend Rachel Levitt Klein, who has always encouraged my spontaneous analogies. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Wow, Does God Believe in You

We'd all love to be close to God.  At least, we'd all love to be able to connect to some kind of a more "Meaningful Something" in our lives.  OK, maybe "God" is the wrong 'word' for some people -- but most of us, deep in our Souls, are so desperately thirsty for a deeper thread in our lives. The problem, of course, is that we don't want to turn our lives upside-down to get to that deeper part of ourselves and of this life.  We don't want to have to 'freak out' and jump off the Spiritual deep end, and pretty much give up our free will in order to live some kind of script that some kind of 'officer' of God is standing by and ready to dictate to us. So what do we do?  Where do we begin? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Mishpatim': "Wow, Does God Believe in You".        (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to let go of the sense of 'have-to' in our relationship with God, and discover that it is all based on 'want-to' -- the 'want-to' that grows from a place of trust and commitment, and which is never based upon expectations or fear. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Hurry Up and Let Go

Did you hear the phone ringing?  Man, I better answer that!  Did you get to all your emails?  Uh-oh, there are at least 20 that I still need to answer -- guess I'll be home late for dinner again.  Will you be able to make it to your best friend's birthday party?  Nah, to much to do to get ahead in my career right now... But yet it seems that the more time we spend pursuing all those things that are supposed to give us the tools of happiness, the farther happiness seems to run away from us. What if the secret was to let go of doing it all?  What is the secret was not to keep trying to be Superman or Superwoman?  What if the real secret was to let go of doing it all, and instead, learning to simply "be" -- to simply "be" in the moment? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Yitro': "Hurry Up and Let Go".   (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to stop holding on to life, and to discover that this roller-coaster called life is actually perfectly engineered;  that the moment we let go of the bars and put our hands up in the air, we will discover that the ride of life is ours to be enjoyed. This week's shu-shine is dedicated to my dearest friend Oliver Stanton, who reminded me that I needed to let go of getting every last idea into every shu-shine -- and that returning to the original, shorter format would make it possible for many people to listen to many more of them. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Peace Among the Whirlwinds

We all wish our lives were peaceful.  We all wish that every day could be calm and centered, allowing us to enjoy every moment without worry or stress.  But then reality sets in -- all the pressures, the apparent problems, the needs and disappointments, the demands and have-to's -- they lay claim to our heads and frazzle our hearts. Even when we are in the midst of moments of joy, whether with friends or family, at a celebration or a get-together -- we still feel the nag of life's pressures.  So how do we claim a moment of peace?  Even more so, how to we transform our lives into a steady experience of peace and well-centered harmony? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Beshalach': "Peace Among the Whirlwinds".     (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to learn the art of being peaceful, even as life serves us her challenges; and may we be blessed to embrace our conversation with God, both at the times that we like what He is saying to us, and at the times when He is pushing us to reach higher than we ever did before. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Carrying the Banner of Righteousness

We live in confusing times.  One only has to read the paper every day to see stories of evil leaders brutalizing the citizens of their land.  One only has to be marginally tapped into politics to wonder in bewilderment at how it has come to be, that the voices of moral nations and ethical countries has become seemingly impotent in the screaming wind of more arrogant and evil leaders around the globe.  We sometimes wonder if goodness can prevail.  We sometimes doubt, even for a brief moment, if True Peace can ever come to the world. And we wonder of our own choices, within a day-to-day struggle to succeed and provide for ourselves and those we love; do we find the strength to do what's right?  Or do we God forbid succumb to the temptation to take less ethical 'shortcuts', mistakenly believing that we might somehow need to 'steal the blessings' for ourselves before some less deserving person gets them in our stead? Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Va'Eira': "Carrying the Banner of Righteousness". May we all be blessed to be the beautiful people that we are, carrying with perfect Faith the banner of righteousness, noble choices, and acts of lovingkindness in the Godly world we live in. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu