JamShalom Daydreams

Who's In Charge Here?!

Why do bad things happen?  Why do we sometimes suffer?  Is there a meaning in life's difficulties?  Why does God let bad people hurt other people? These are questions that all of us ask at times. And these are questions that are very much highlighted in the contrasting stories of Moses and Pharaoh, and the fall of Egypt as Israel Rises. Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Va'Eira': "Who's In Charge Here?!"      (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to embrace the challenges that life presents us with, learning from those struggles that we have no choice in, and choosing wisely when the power to affect change is in our hands. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Remember Who You Are

We all go through hard times.  And sometimes we feel abandoned by God.  But the Truth is that in our world, everything that happens to us happens for a reason.  And ultimately everything is an act of Love from God, even when we don't understand it. I have a shu-ism that many of you have heard: "Every flower grows in dirt". Sometimes, the only way for us to discover our potential, and who we truly are, is to go through a trial of fire. Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Shemot': "Remember Who You Are".     (click “Listen Now”, below) May we all be blessed to learn from our hardships as well as our fortunate moments, and to be a burning bush -- able to endure the trials of life while never being consumed by them. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

To Live is to Love Yourself

This week we conclude the book of Bereshit, or 'Genisis', as this first book of the Torah is known in English.  Begun after the High Holidays, as we entered a new year of life, it is truly a book of beginnings, as the word 'Bereshit' means in English.  We learned from the stories of Adam and Even and Noah that this world is a gift, and that we have the ability to honor that gift or to bring confusion to it.  We learned from Avraham and Sarah how to find the light in the world.  We learned from Isaac and Rebekah how to celebrate that light, while still being a Spiritually whole and balanced person.  And we learned from Jacob and Leach and Rachel how to maintain faith in the darkness.  Judah taught us how to rise up out of the darkness and reclaim the light - no matter how far we have fallen.  And Joseph taught us how to carry a torch into the darkest places -- and that when we have faith in God there is no darkness, because each of us is a light of HaShem, illuminating the world around us. This week's Torah portion is called "Vayechi" - "And he lived...".  It is the concluding chapter of Bereshit, which is very much THE book of life.  It offers us the key, after all the lessons of the book of Bereshit, to living a meaningful and positive life. It challenges us to love ourselves.  As we are.  For what we are. For only once we do, will we begin to live, and shine our light to the fullest. And the whole world around you is waiting for your light to shine and light it up! Attached please find the shu-shine for the Torah portion of 'Vayechi': "To Live is to Love Yourself". May we all be blessed to love the man or woman in the mirror, and to light up everyone around us with the unique light of God that each of us is in the world. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Choices->Consequences->Experience->Wisdom

Every day, each of us makes a myriad of choices.  Some are positive and successful towards our goals; some are not.  Some we are aware of; some we make so passively and with such distraction, that we fail to connect our actions with the impact that they have upon us and upon others. There are people who blame everyone and everything else for their behavior: "He made me!", "She made me!", "I had no choice in the matter!", "It wasn't my fault!"   Sadly, these people become a victim of their own lives, for in failing to accept their power to choose, they intrinsically lose their power to change and improve their lives. On the positive side, there are people who 'own' the things they do and the choices they make, projecting a reliability and accountability that is actually palpable and reassuring to those who know such a person. The choice can be a word spoken, the level of our voice when we respond to someone, where we choose to live, a job, whom to marry, whether or not to attend a class, or simply what to order from a menu. But in all cases, whether we realize it or not, our choices have power.  Our choices create impact.  And our choices carry lessons by which we can master our lives, grow as individuals, and live more meaningfully than we ever imagined. Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'VaYigash': "Choices->Consequences->Experience->Wisdom"      (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed with the ability to recognize our choices in life, the humbleness to accept responsibility for those choices, and the enlightenment that comes from the natural lessons that our choices' results may teach us. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

One Candle at a Time

What do you do when everything seems lost?  How do we vanquish the darkness when it feels like it is closing in?  When we've go nothing left, where do we draw the strength from to start again?  When someone we love is so broken and down, how do we help him or her find the Faith to believe in a brighter tomorrow? Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Miketz': "One Candle at a Time"       (click “listen now”, below!) May we all be blessed to light our own candles of Chanukah, chasing away the darkness by lighting one candle at a time; finding the spark of hope and faith that is ALWAYS there, and kindling it until we discover that God is always with us. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

Yes, You Can

Have you ever faced a moment when it was hard to face the person in the mirror?  Have you ever tossed and turned at night, wishing you could somehow change the painful reality you suddenly have found yourself in?  Have you ever opened a newspaper, or looked out at the world, and wondered how in Heaven's name everything will be OK? Is there a way to make sense out of these moments?  What is the right way to respond, when circumstances take the problems beyond the scope of our limited individual human influence? Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'VaYishlach': "Yes, You Can" May we all be blessed to seek out and demand the blessings in all of life's experiences, knowing with Perfect Faith that the world has a Conductor and that every note of life has its reason for being played. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma

Sometimes the hardest part of life is simply making sense of it.  Why did my day go like that?  Why did such an unfortunate thing happen to someone so kind?  Why is there so much conflict in the world?  When will there finally be peace? Sometimes it's hard to face our humanity.  Why can't I always get things perfect?  Why do I sometimes hurt someone that I love?  Why do I sometimes hurt myself? The amazing thing is that nearly everyone in the world wishes for things to get better and better; and nearly everyone in the world wonders what he or she can do about it.  Can one person's private actions really make a difference?  Do we every really know the power of the kind things that we do? Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'VaYetzei': "My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma".             (click “Listen Now”, below!) May we all be blessed to cast loving stones into the pool of life, and spread rings of meaning to all those in the wake of those choices. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu

You Gotta Have Some Fun

Dear Friends, Parties sure are great... If only I didn't have to have that low-down feeling the next morning. Man, last night I got so smashed... Ugh, my head is killing me now, and I can't even look at food! That girl/guy is so hot... How come I never feel good after I indulge my impulses? I just made the biggest business deal of my life -- that guy never knew what hit him... So why does my victory feel so hollow? How do I get that amazing feeling of experiencing the best that life has to offer, without ending up feeling like I sold a bit of my heart or Soul in the process? Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Toldot': "You Gotta Have Some Fun" May we all be blessed to learn to enjoy life to the maximum, with the understanding that the maximum pleasure is the level of pleasure that doesn't let me down when it is over.  And may we be blessed to see the good in all people and the world around us, even when it is not so obvious to everyone else.

Hearing Kol Ishah (Hearing a Woman's Voice)

It's amazing the way things just sometimes click.  Don't you love when that happens?  When everything just seems 'in synch'.  You can feel it in your bones.  You're going to catch that taxi the second you put your hand up.  Everyone is going to smile at you today.  Even when you get something wrong, it will somehow turn out even better than you planned.

Man, I love days like that.

If only I could figure out how to get days like that to happen all the time...

Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Chayei Sarah': "Hearing Kol Ishah (Hearing a Woman's Voice)"

May we all be blessed to listen to the call of 'alignment' in our lives; to know that such alignment is possible, and to hear the voice of HaShem through the beautiful channels it speaks from -- thereby living in step with the very rhythm of life.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Learning to Let Go

Sometimes it's tough to let go.  After all, we've gotta protect what's ours.  I mean, in this ever-contracting world of economies and cultures, we each need to guard our property and our space and our rights and our respect and our...  well, that gets a little exhausting after a while, doesn't it?

But still, it's hard to let go of some ground when you are in a fight with a friend or loved one.  It's hard to let go of our sense of how important we wish to think that we are.  It's hard to let go of the illusion of being in control of all the variables in our lives.  But the wonderful thing is, when we let go, we suddenly find that things get better.  That we don't need to protect ourselves.  That things go better when we give.  That really, we are never "in control" but rather are passengers along a learning-ride that the Master-Pilot is taking us on.

Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'VaYeirah': "Learning to Let Go"

(click "Listen Now", below)

May we all be blessed to let go of ourselves, our ego, our need to be right, our need to feel 'holier than...', and our need to be in control, and to find the peace that comes from entrusting the reigns of life to the Ultimate Driver, and from 'giving' rather than 'protecting'.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu