JamShalom Daydreams

Parsha BeHa'alotcha - Between Clouds and Clarity

Dear Friends,

Sending everyone wishes for the most beautiful Shabbat!  

Also sending an open invitation to send me your spiritual/life/faith/personal/relationship/God/religion/search-for-meaning questions for possible topics of future shu-shines!

It's hard the way we feel out of place sometimes.  We try to walk with God.  We try to live good lives.  We seek to be good people doing good things.  But yet sometimes we simply feel out of place, like we are not where we are supposed to be -- where we planned to be.  Suddenly we find ourselves filled with frustration and distress, and we want to shout at the world, and everyone around us:  "Can't you see I'm not happy!?  Isn't it obvious why things aren't right for me?!"

What do we do at such times?

Attached please find a Shu-Shine Rewind from 2011 for the Torah portion of 'BeHa'alotcha' - "Between Clouds and Clarity"

May we each be blessed to learn to pause when the clouds set in, and to trust that clarity is a gift of patience that comes to those who can let go when life moves out of his or her hands, trusting the Great Bus Driver in the Sky when He sees fit to take the wheel from us.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Parsha of Naso: "The Power of Prayer"

Dear Friends,

Sending everyone wishes for the most beautiful Shabbat and meaningful counting of the Omer!  

A special thanks to Lee Fogel for the questions that contributed to this weeks shu-shine :)

Also sending an open invitation to send me your spiritual/life/faith/personal/relationship/God/religion/search-for-meaning questions for possible topics of future shu-shines!

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Naso': "The Power of Prayer"

Note that there is a short 'postscript' after the end of the shu-shine, answering a practical question regarding 'how to pray' that was not addressed in the main discussion.

May we all be blessed to be active participants in our world, paying attention to the places that need light and love, and shining our hearts and prayers in those directions.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Becoming God's Partner

Dear Friends,

Sending everyone wishes for the most beautiful Shabbat and meaningful counting of the Omer!  

Also sending an open invitation to send me your spiritual/life/faith/personal/relationship/God/religion/search-for-meaning questions for possible topics of future shu-shines!

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat Bamidbar and the Sefirat HaOmer time-period: "Becoming God's Partner"

May we all be blessed to reach a harmony of kindness and strength, and to become well-balanced reflections of God's light in the world.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Shabbat HaGadol and Pesach: "Waking the Child Inside"

In and out.  In and out.  This is what Pesach is all about.

Nope, not a Dr. Seuss rhyme.  Actually the deepest thing in the world.

Pesach is all about the food we eat, the wine we drink, and making 'Seder' - an order – out of it all.

And it is about talking.  About sharing.  About telling over the story of our collective lives.

And it is about getting our children to ask questions.

"In" - the food and wine that we put into our mouths.

"Out" - the wisdom, sharing and questions that come out of our mouths.

In and out.

So who is the child that we are trying to provoke out of his or her boredom, into a state of wonder and asking questions?  Who is the child we are trying to free from the heavy-set clay of life, so that he or she might dream and ponder again?  Who is the child we are trying to wake up?

Maybe it is you and me.  Because after all, even if a person is alone for the Seder (and hopefully none of us are!), that person is still required to celebrate the Pesach Seder meal.  Why?

Because we are each just grown-up children, but we have gotten too used to playing grown-up and taking ourselves Very Seriously.  We have walled ourselves into static molds that fit a routine, and have forgotten that life it not meant to be a routine, but rather a Spiritual Journey.

Some of us are "Wise Children", too smart to have questions.

Some of us are "Wicked Children", too cool to have questions.

Some of us are "Simple Children", not wanting any waves in our lives.

And some of us are "The Child that does not Know How To Ask Questions", who might be on the highest level of all.  Because it is the child that feels the burning questions inside – questions that he or she does not know how to put into words, or the child that feels questions burning inside that he or she is afraid there is no audience for — it is THAT child who is at the precipice!  It is THAT child who is already in touch with his or her inner-voice, but simply needs a doorway opened through which he or she can step.  And so, as the sages instruct in the Hagadah – the guide-book of the Pesach Seder – we open the gates for that child!

Pesach is a time to stop feeding ourselves bullshit.  It is a time to stop eating falsely inflated food – the food of exaggeration, insecurity, self-flatery, and ego.  It is a time to thoughtfully drink some wine, in a Spiritual setting, so that the secrets can come out.  The secrets of wonder.  The secrets of being on a lifelong Spiritual Journey.  The secrets of Questions.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat HaGadol and Pesach: "Waking the Child Inside"

May we all be blessed to stop being too wise, stop being too cool, to get simple, to feel the questions swirling inside, and to ask our questions of life; to awaken to the journey of the child we each are.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Phish Quote: "I was taught a month ago to bide my time and take it slow.  Then I learned just yesterday to rush and never waste the day.  Now I'm convinced the whole day long that all I learn is always wrong.  And things are true that I forget… but no one taught that to me yet…"

Shabbat 'Tazria': "A Secret Prayer"

The world was once so much more obviously magical.  There was a time when, if you spoke bad things about another person, blemishes would appear in your own skin.  And if your home was filled with hatred towards others, the walls of the house would start to develop weird discolorations.

When this would happen, you would need to seek out a Spiritual Master, a Holy Priest.  Through enlightened vision, his eyes would decode the stains on your body or walls, and if they were indeed caused by your secret humiliation of others behind their backs, you would need to undergo your own process of becoming exposed, stripped down to your essential self, and ultimate renewal – all in a very public way.  Because nothing is really hidden in this world.

One can only imagine, how, in such a revealed magical world, people's ethics would quickly evolve up to tremendously high levels of Spiritual accountability and sensitivity to other people around them.

Today, the world is just as magical.  But we have to work harder to tune into the magic.  It is only there if we look for it, if we invite it in, if we seek it in our lives.

And one of the greatest places to discover the keys to that magic, is hidden in the multi-layered meaning of the Jewish Prayer Book, and the songs and meditations we speak out in conversation before God every day.

But one has to look for it.  One has to want it.  One has to believe it.

And then you will see it.  All around you.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat 'Tazria': "A Secret Prayer"

May we all be blessed to connect to the words of prayer in deep and personal ways every day, and to discover through that lens the magic of the life we lead, and the magical world we live in.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Phish Quote: "Silent in the morning, suspended in the trees.  Lunch time comes you've found your voice, It brings me to my knees.  The volume just increases, the resounding echoes grow.  Till once again I bask in morning stillness, I love so…"

Shabbat 'Shmini': "Ex Nihilo – The Image of You"

This weeks Torah portion describes the imminent appearance of God that will take place before the nation of Israel upon the dedication of the Tabernacle – the Mishkan.  But one has to wonder: What will God appear as?  How will God look?  What image will the God that does not fit into any fixed image take on?

As human beings, we don't create new things.  We reshape the physical material of our world into new combined materials and products.  We don't make something out of nothing.  We make our somethings out of other things.

But what is new in the world are our ideas.  Our visions.  Our dreams.  Our expressions of self.  Yet if we keep these things inside, as some people do out of shyness or insecurity, then these ideas, visions and dreams never really become part of our world.  But if we put them out there – by drawing them, speaking them, shaping them, building them – then we have created new images in the world.  Because that object or picture or painting or poem or expression of love was not in the world before we shared it.  The material was.  But our new image of that material was not.

The sound-waves have changed through our spoken voice.  The ink has taken on meaning through the poetic words we have written.  Inspiration has been communicated through our use of paint.  Lives have been saved through the medical device we have assembled.

Like a stamp embossed within paper, our expressions of self create new impressions, new images within the world.  Ex Nihilo.

How would you define the image of any one human being?  How would you confine the infinite power of his or her Spirit into a limited collection of words?  It is impossible to do.  For we are all created "In the Image of God", and we are each a small reflection of an Image that can only be experienced through sharing and expression, but is beyond any tangible definition.

We meet God through the wondrous world of nature around us.  We meet God when we hold a child in our arms.  We meet God in the power of a loving embrace when we need it most.  We meet God in a True Moment of personal prayer.

God appears to us.  His image reflects in our heart, and in our own infinite and expressive Spirit.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat 'Shmini': "Ex Nihilo – The Image of You"

May we all be blessed to find God's image wherever we look, and to cast our own image in beautiful ways upon the world as we touch it.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Phish Quote: "I can't describe the feeling when I'm in my bed asleep and then I wake up with a vision blurred… So I'm awake, though in my mind the image that so unrefined is calling to me from the deep…"

Shabbat 'Zachor' and Purim: "3 Questions, -1"

Where do you see HaShem in your life?  What is the meaning of Faith and Religion?

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat 'Zachor' and Purim: "3 Questions, -1"

May we all be blessed to find meaning in Faith and Religion, and to find HaShem in every moment of life.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Shabbat 'Vayikra': "Letting Go of Fear"

This weeks shu-shine is a continuation of last weeks discussion.  It explores the harmful nature of fear, and how to move beyond fear.

It is not based upon this week's Torah portion.  It is based upon my studies and reflections over this past week, and more broadly, over the past many years.

Stephen Covey teaches that we each have a Circle of Concern – the things we care about in the world and in life.  And within that Circle of Concern lies our Circle of Influence – those things we can actually affect and change.  There are many things, Covey explains, which although we are very concerned about them, we do not have influence over.

Fear, by its very definition, regards those things which are within our Circle of Concern, but NOT within our Circle of Influence.  Fear relates to our wish to see certain results take place in our lives, yet recognizing that we cannot control those results with the level of certainty we desire, and worrying that things will go in a "bad" direction.

Fear, by its very definition, is fruitless.  It consumes vast emotional space within our hearts and minds.  It consumes that space at the expense of our being more emotionally available to the people and priorities that we care about.  And it distracts us to a level that often causes collateral damage.

To free oneself from fear, is to reclaim the lightness of one's Spirit.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat 'Vayikra': "Letting Go of Fear"

May we all be blessed to identify those things which we fear the most in life, and toss the keys to those things to HaShem and not worry about them anymore.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Shabbat Pikudei: Let Go, Trust HaShem

This weeks shu-shine is a continuation of last weeks discussion.  However, it reaches beyond pain, and discovers inspiration.  It reaches beyond questions and answers, and discovers the Source where-within there is only resolution.

Once again, it is not based upon this week's Torah portion.  It is based upon my studies and reflections over this past week, and more broadly, over the past many years.

Deep within each of us, there is an inner-voice that knows things that the mind can only mildly describe.  It knows love.  It knows feelings.  It knows inspiration.  It knows joy.

Words can only take us so far.  True inner-peace can only be found when we move beyond words, and freefall according to that which we always knew, but perhaps were trained to forget.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat 'Pikudei': "Let Go, Trust HaShem"

May we all be blessed to hear our innervoice, rise up to the Niggun – the melody – that lives above all words, and to know the things that words cannot describe.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Shabbat Vayakel: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

This weeks shu-shine is a little different.  It is very intense.  It deals with painful and serious topics.  It deals with human suffering, lives cut short, sadness, and pain.  It explores questions of justice and seeming injustice in the way God runs the world.

It is not based upon this week's Torah portion.  It is based upon my studies and reflections over this past week, and more broadly, over the past many years.

We have all faced moments of pain and doubt in our lives which we feared would overwhelm us.  We have all seen human suffering which we can make no sense out of.

The perspectives I provide will probably leave many people unsatisfied.  Ultimately, it would take many, many hours to do full justice to the topic of human suffering and Divine compassion.  And it would require one-on-one conversations, because coming to terms with such a profound topic is ultimately a very personal journey.

But the thoughts and insights that came to me this week are too important to keep to myself.  They belong to whomever they may benefit.

I hope these insights are helpful to some of the Healing SuperSouls out there.  You know who you are.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for Shabbat 'Vayakel': "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?"

May we all be blessed to maintain our Faith in times of hardship, and to answer life's painful moments with unflinching and healing Grace.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

P.S.  I am available to anyone who needs to speak further regarding this important topic.  Please don't be shy to reach out…