JamShalom Daydreams

The Sustainable High - Parshat Shoftim

This shu-shine is dedicated to my dear friend David Montag – thanks for the question last week!!

And everyone else, please send me your spiritual/life/faith/personal/relationship/God/religion/search-for-meaning questions for possible topics of future shu-shines!

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The greatest high in life is not the most intense one, but rather the highest high that we can 'own' and sustain indefinitely.

This high informs everything else about our lives, from moments of joy, to moments of sadness, to love, to business, to careers to fulfillment — EVERYTHING.  So it cannot be overstated how important it is to master this high.

But life can be confusing, overwhelming and intense.  And all this 'noise' makes it hard to tune in to our own inner-self, and to discover the high that is ours and to begin to master carrying that note on a daily level.

Still, learning this lesson and working to this level is essential.  A life lived out of tune with our own inner note of joy, is a lesser life.  

Attached please find a Shu-Shine on the subject of "The Sustainable High", connected with the Torah portion of 'Shoftim'.

May we all be blessed to live on the highest levels we are capable of, and to know those levels with ever-greater clarity and mastership.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Parshat Re'eh - "Catching the Ball where it's Falling"

There is Joy all around us.  But so many people don't see it!  How can that be?

Well, if I close my eyes, of course I won't see a sunset.  And if I am looking to the left of the sky at night, I might not see the shooting star on the right-most horizon.

Sometimes, the biggest trick to finding the Joy in life is not in finding something that is not there, but in simply changing the way we look at things.  So often, it is a matter of perspective.

God always wants to send us all the blessing in the world, but if the blessing is coming to the infield, and I am standing in the outfield, well then…

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Re'eh' - "Catching the Ball where it's Falling"

May we each be blessed to tune into the moments of life with a balance that allows us to experience the Joy in every moment.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Parsha V'Etchanan - It is Only With the Heart that One Can See Rightly

Sending everyone wishes for the most beautiful Shabbat!  

Attached is a Shu-Shine Rewind for  the Torah Portion of V'Etchanan, from the 2011 archive.

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Antoine de Saint-Exupery, french reconnaissance fighter and author, once said in his book "The Little Prince" that "It is only with the Heart that we can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye".  And Albert Einstein taught us that "Not everything that can be proven is important; and not everything important can be proven."

The arguments of logic and reason can bring us to the shores of wisdom, but the deepest forms of knowledge are only to be found through experience.  Many times we feel that if only we could be given even one proof of God's presence or His interest and wishes from us, well, then we would be ready to jump in and commit to a more Spiritual life in a heartbeat!

But the proofs would only take us to the shore.  And while arriving at the point of change and growth is extremely important, it is jumping into the pool -- freefalling into the unknown -- letting go --  that is where the ultimate discovery of a meaningful life waits for us.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'V'Etchanan' - "It is Only With the Heart that One Can See Rightly"

May we each be blessed to open our hearts to HaShem, and to recognize how His Heart has always been devoted to us.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Devarim / Tisha B'Av - It's Time to Cross the River!

This is a Shu-Shine Rewind for Devarim and Tisha B'Av, from the 2012 archive.

Connected with this, please watch this amazing video, called "The Children are Ready".  It made me cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bw-lJlyuqA

You can read the background on this video here:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169683#.Udp-bD7bqa4

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Each of us has so much potential.  But as we sometimes struggle and sometimes seek comfort in life, we might forget that we are in this world for a reason.  Life is not random.  There is meaning in our choices, both as individuals, and also as individuals who make up great and important nations of the world.

We might sometimes feel that life is made up of random events.  After all, sometimes your up -- sometimes your down!  Isn't that just the 'way things go'?

But what if even during those ups and downs God was right there with you?  And not just right there 'with you', but actually scouting two steps ahead, making sure that even in your toughest moments, and even in your spaciest moments, that you still had the potential to reach all of your goals!  Wouldn't that make you really, really, really want to achieve those goals??

So why is it that sometimes we choke at the moment of truth?  What is it that holds us back and makes us feel embarrassed, rather than being as beautiful as each and every one of us really is??

Maybe it is time we all lifted up the veils of shyness that we are hiding behind, and let the world see all that we have been dreaming of sharing!

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Devarim' and the Holiday of Tisha B'Av - "It's Time to Cross the River!"

May we each be blessed to realize the potential of each and every moment, and to have the courage to be all that we are at the times that life invites us to shine.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Parshat 'Matot-Masai' - "The Peace and Love Tour"

This shu-shine is dedicated to everyone out there who brings good vibes and love and respect-for-others out into the world.  With a special shout-out to my wife, Yael, who gives me the the energy and centeredness to shine my own light.  And major shout-out to all those at PHISHalom SPAC!  WELCOME!!  This one's for you…

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There are so many people in the world.  And everyone has a story.  

We meet people in a moment within the story of their lives.  We judge them for their behavior in that moment.  And we forget that the story is so much deeper.

It is so easy to disagree with other people.  It is so easy to think everyone else is an idiot, and that I am always right.  But it is so much deeper to get to know people; to believe in people; to look beyond the surface and find the inside places where we all connect.

It's true – I don't need to love every person in the world.  But I shouldn't ever be in a place where I hate anyone, or think that any person has a need to hate someone else.

More than anything else in the world right now, the world needs people who can become bridges.  Everyone wants to connect.  No-one wants to be alone.  And there is too much loneliness.  And sometimes, sometimes — it's hard to say – but sometimes the loneliest person might be living right next to me in my home.  Or it might even be me.

The best thing about being parched with thirst, is the readiness to drink with real enthusiasm.  The best thing about how thirsty the world is for real connections and real kindness and real friendship, is that everyone's gates are open for someone to reach out to them.

Don't be afraid to be a bridge.  Don't be afraid to smile at a stranger.  Don't be afraid to wish someone a good day, and actually stop for a moment and look them in the eye as you say it.

Look deeper at the people you meet.  Look deeper at your spouse, your best friend, your brother and your sister.  Look deeper at the person next to you.  Maybe they are not having their best moment just now.  But life is so much deeper than that.

Can you be the bridge that creates the connection?

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Matot-Masai' - "The Peace and Love Tour"

May we each be blessed to see the beauty in all those around us, and to find the gift of creating connections and healing the breaks that keep people apart.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Parshat Pinchas - When Words Become Flames

Religion is not a check-list.  Too many people today 'do their tasks' in terms of religious observance – they go to prayer services, do some studying, keep their home observances.  And they check them off their daily to-do list so that they can have peace-of-mind that they are getting into Heaven.  Great.

But that is not religion.  That is dogma.  And maybe it isn't even that.  Maybe it is just a bunch of empty habits.

We are not Spiritual Monkeys.  God does not need us to do things on an empty form level, with some silly notion that the motions themselves will please God and earn us our ticket past the Pearly Gates.  No, God is a bit deeper than that.  And so are the Mitzvot – the Spiritual principles and observances of the Torah.

A real religious action should create, well, a "religious experience".  In other words, it should get you high!  It should create a feeling, and a powerful one at that.

But even deeper, when all those observances combine, they should create a fluid energy, kind of like when a crush on someone turns into love.  Real Spirituality begins when the relationship jumps off the pages of written guidance, moves beyond individual moments of connection, and transforms into a fluid experience of chemistry, energy, and a flowing intuitive relationship.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Pinchas' - "When Words Become Flames"

May we each be blessed to feel the True connection in each Mitzvah, and ultimately reach the place where they all combine into a genuine Spirituality that fills each moment of our lives.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

Parshat Balak - Silent in the Morning

This week features a shu-shine rewind, inspired by the coming into the world of PHISHalom last year at Jones Beach in New York.  PHISHalom is a modern-day Avraham Avinu style hospitality tent, open at all four sides, and standing at the crossroads of this moment and the next, welcoming in every thirsty young soul searching for some genuine friendship and some good vibes right  from HaShem.

This year we are launching PHISHalom West, and fifteen our Chèvre will be bringing the light of good-vibes Judaism on the road for nearly two weeks.  We will be making hundreds of new-found friends as we pitch our PHISHalom Tent at various music festivals on the West Coast, criss-crossing in an RV over Washington state, Nevada, Oregon, and Los Angeles.  If you'd like to support this amazing project, please drop me a line, or simply make a donation at http://www.in-reach.com/donate .  And to meet our chèvre, just take a look at this short video, and then imagine all of us going on the road to share that joy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52SQrAn2XYU

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The world is so full of beauty.  Overwhelming, gentle, subtle, colorful, understated beauty.  It is in the sound of the wind in the trees, which varies from season to season -- from the young green leaves of spring to the dry leaves of fall.  It is in the songs of the birds at dawn, and once again at dusk.  It is in the powerful calling voice of the ocean waves, as they crash in again and again upon the shore.  It is in a friend's laughter.  It is in a loved-one's smile.  It is in our tears.  It is in the color of our eyes.

Our Torah celebrates seven shepherds - seven leaders who were veritable 'Dr. Doolittles', walking and talking with their animals on such a profound level that God was willing to trust these individuals to also hear the songs of His nation’s heart.  Because anyone who can hear the song of nature can also hear the song of another person's Soul.

Our Torah celebrates Shabbat, a day when even our animals and fields are to be given rest, because they are part of the conversation, too.  And it is a day when we are invited to quiet our lives and to open our hearts and ears, and to hear the perfect song of the world around us.

This week, I was blessed once again to meet many old friends and to make many new ones at our tent on Phish-lot  --  all of us coming together around our shared joy of being able to stop and hear the song of life.  This shu-shine is dedicated to everyone who stopped by the PHISHalom tent -- I can't wait to see y'all again -- hopefully at our home in Israel!!

Attached please find a Shu-Shine for the Torah portion of 'Balak' - "Silent in the Morning"

May we each be blessed to keep our hearts open to the song of life around us, to let it carry us, and to sing along with it in our own unique and beautiful harmony.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

She - The Song of Shabbat

In a Woman's Smile

In our Holy Torah we are told that a man must cleave to his wife and become one with her.  No such imperative is placed upon a woman.  Why is this?

This is because it is natural and intuitive to a woman, when she loves a man, to give herself over entirely to the man that she loves.  Such a level is not intuitive to a man; indeed, he must strive every day to achieve such devotion, and even so will have a very hard time attaining and practicing such a high level of love.

One of the results of this 'giving over' is that a loving woman will often see herself only through the eyes of the man whom she loves.  If he loves her as he should, then all is well.  But all too often this is not the case, and as a result of a man's negativity and insensitivity, a woman will see herself through lesser eyes than where she actually resides.  This causes great damage to the self-esteem of the woman, an in fact also causes great damage to the world as a whole.

For a woman is the very highest of creations, and the light and harmony of the world is directly tied to her state of joy and radiance.  Woe to us that her sense of self is so deeply tied to the perspective of a shallow man, who can only aspire with intense effort to honor the light of the woman in his life.

This responsibility, to honor, love and respect the woman in a man's life, is a Trust of the highest order for each and every man who has merited the love of a woman.

But should a man fail to understand and fulfill this lofty duty, it is imperative that each and every woman know to herself how naturally beautiful and Spiritually perfect she is.  And that the light and harmony of the world we live in is directly tied to the brightness of her smile.

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Attached please find a Shu-Shine on the Torah portion of Chukat - "She – The Song of Shabbat"

May we each be blessed to tune in to the harmony of the feminine song of life, and thereby put our productive energies into the highest purposes we are capable of.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

The Owner of Your Destiny

Some of us are blessed to love our lives as they are.  And this, of course, is wonderful.  Some of us yearn for something more.  And this, of course, is natural.  But some of us are stuck in dark places, feeling like things are not as they are meant to be.  And this is a hard place to be.  But this place, the place of unhappiness, can be more than just a hard place; it can become quicksand.

Struggle in life is normal.  It is an essential component of growth and personal development.  Indeed, any person who never faces any struggle is a person who is not really living at all.  But struggle can become something far more serious if we lose touch with the most important personal anchor: That our lives belong to ourselves.

We can never, ever succumb to blaming other people for our own unhappiness.  For if we do this, we enter an emotional prison to which "someone else" holds the only key.

Think about this: If I have power over my own happiness, I have the keys to improve things when they go in a direction I don't like.  But if I convince myself that someone else is the gatekeeper of my happiness (translate: to blame for my unhappiness), well then I have allowed myself to become that person's emotional prisoner.

We each have the power, at each and every moment, to turn our lives in the direction of our deepest dreams and joy!  We just have to reach the place wherein we know, without any doubt, that this power lies within us.  Yes, it may take time — even years — to realize our deepest dreams and yearning.  But that journey starts right now, in this moment.  It starts with the choice to realize that our lives and our futures belong to ourselves.  Always.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine on the Torah portion of Korach - "The Owner of Your Destiny"

May we each be blessed to honor the space of the moment before us, and to own our individual choices on the pathway to our own dreams and aspirations.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu

What is a Chévre?

It is a little too easy sometimes to take for granted all the beautiful connections we have in our lives.  Connection with nature.  Connection with community.  Connection with friends.  Connection with family.

Connection with HaShem (God).

How is it that we take these connections for granted??  Well — a person might argue that while for a while he or she thought there was a connection with someone or something, maybe there wasn't a connection to begin with!  Another person might argue that a once-strong connection has been broken.  But anyone who makes such arguments is really only saying one thing:  "I have lost my sense of connection to something or someone that I am inherently connected to."

True connections never, ever break.  Sometimes, something just gets in the way.  And even more often, sometimes we just get distracted by life and turn our attention away from our deepest connections — even forgetting them entirely, God forbid.

But these connections are life itself.  They are the very notes of our souls.  They are the chords of the universe by which our innermost being vibrates.  And to lose sight of them is to lose our own selves — to truly get lost in life.

But the most amazing secret is, that because these connections to people and certain aspects of life are so intrinsic to our Souls, all we have to do is turn our attention back to them, and they are there waiting for us to nurture.  Because True Connections in life can never be broken.  They can only be drifted away from.

They are always there to return to.

Attached please find a Shu-Shine on the Torah portion of Shelach - "What is a Chévre ?"

May we each be blessed to pay special note of those people and aspects of life we most connect to, and to make those connections the priority of our lives and our daily choices.

With Love and a Smile,

~Shu