In Awe of New Beginnings

This is the letter sent to our Temple Beth Or family to announce our new beginnings:

To our Temple Beth Or Family

This month, I am filled with yirah.  For those of you who do not take notes at every sermon or teaching, I’ll remind you about this word – the core of my rabbinic thesis.  Yirah is the experience of being awe-struck by those powerful moments in which we are reminded that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.

My current sense of yirah comes out of reflecting on the love that I have for my TBO family.  The amount of volunteerism and communal care that I see daily is inspiring.  The connections formed here, whether in our chavurah program or our 6th Grade family B’nei Mitzvah retreat, fill me up with warmth for our community and hope for the future of the Jewish people. Our worship and music move me, even when I am given the opportunity and responsibility of leading it.  Our youth are active and love to be here, learning with one another, finding a home away from home. The team of congregational leaders and staff that we have here is full of talented, dedicated, caring people who want only the best for the TBO community.  As an advisor to the membership committee, I feel that it is a “no-brainer” to extend an invitation to someone new to join our TBO family, because I genuinely feel perplexed at how someone would not want to be a part of such a great Jewish home.

 

For the past 5 years, I have been given the privilege and awe-filled responsibility of serving our incredible TBO community as a rabbi and an educator.  So it is with a heavy mix of emotions that I share with you that I have been offered the opportunity to lead Congregation Or Shalom in Vernon Hills, IL, outside of Chicago, as their next senior rabbi, starting in July.  While this is an incredible opportunity for me to employ the plethora of leadership skills that you have endowed in me through your trust, support, and openness, it also means that I will be moving away from Temple Beth Or.  Rabbi Dinner and Bryan Wiggins and the rest of the TBO leadership have stood by me, allowing Rachel and I to find the right next opportunity for us with the awareness that if that right fit was not there, we would be welcomed back to TBO with open arms.

Over these years, I have journeyed with so many of you through both trying and tragic times and also those incredibly uplifting moments of joy and wonder.  You have given me the awe-inspiring responsibility of bolstering our children’s Jewish education.  In close partnership with our religious school committee and our various principals, we have developed a strong sense of mission and vision for our religious school.  We have experimented together, we have learned together, we have laughed together, and we have cried together – these shared experiences have shaped us all, and I know that they will continue to shape the future of TBO.

My family has found a home here at Temple Beth Or.  Rachel and I have made countless friendships, and the TBO preschool community has lovingly embraced our daughters, Laila and Adaya, helping them to grow and develop their own sense of what it means to be a part of a community. We are excited for our next adventure, as we move to the greater Chicago area and get our girls adjusted to a real winter while further indoctrinating them as Cubs fans!   And yet, we are also incredibly sad to leave TBO and our TBO family.  

Which brings us back to yirah. TBO is so much bigger than any one person. My family and I cannot thank you enough for all the ways you have embraced us, supported us, and helped us find a home.  I am so proud of all we have done together, and I know that TBO is going to continue to be a warm source of community and love and learning and social action – a place where our Jewish values are not only discussed, but lived.  Rabbi Dinner’s wisdom, Zemer Lexie’s ruach (spirit), and Robert’s governance will continue to bolster TBO.  Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to serve you as a rabbi and for the embrace you have put around my family.  Rachel and I are filled with yirah because we now have come to realize, we may be leaving TBO, but we will always be a part of the TBO family, as you have become a part of ours. 

With love,

Ari, Rachel, Laila, and Adaya

Getting Ready for the New Year

This month, leading to the High Holy Days, is the time for reflection and preparation.  If we wish to be able to stand before our community, before ourselves, before God with a clean slate this Yom Kippur - with a truly free conscience and soul, ready to approach the next year of life with openness and alacrity - the work begins now.

How are you?

Usually, when we hear the words, "How are you?," we interpret a surface-level sense of the question and respond in kind.  "I'm fine."  "The kids are funny this week."  "We're pretty busy, but we're hangin' in there."  These are the answers that we usually muster to respond.

But today, I am going to expand upon the question: How is your soul?  How are you doing in the deepest chambers of your heart?  What is it that you desperately want but are unafraid to even try to achieve?  What burning desires for change are you burying under a pile of routine, habit, and perceived comfort?

This is the time for each of us to ask these questions ofourselves. Yes, these are not easy, simple reflections, but that is the key to this time of year.  It's time to do some work.  I know most of us are already overworked and overstressed, but this is the time for us to do some  

work on ourselves.

If you're like me, you are probably reading this on a mobile device, scanning it for the most part, to get a quick glimpse of what the email says before filing in the never-ending pile of "I'll get to its."  So, I'm going to make it a bit easier to find a way to do this work.  

1) Copy the following list of questions: 

- What is one thing I regret from the last year?  What can I do this week to begin addressing it?

- What is one thing I wish to keep from this past year?

- Who is one person from whom I need to ask forgiveness?  (Now go to my calendar and put in a time to contact him/her) 

- What is one thing I need to forgive in myself?

- When can I do another check-in next week?

2) Open your calendar for the week and find a time to paste this text into an appointment slot.  Set an alarm reminder! (Even just leaving 15 minutes can do a world of good!)

3) Open up a document on your device, paste the text into it, and even try keeping a running record of your answers

4) Upon successfully navigating your first "appointment," go ahead and schedule the next one!

With a little practice at this, what may start as a surface-level, "How are you?,"  might just develop into revealing some of the answers to the deeper questions posed earlier in this Blast.  Take the time this Elul to do the work, so that you can make this High Holy Day season the best one you've ever had.  Looking forward to celebrating the New Year with you!

- Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

Day 11: Shabbat

Today is the day of rest, Shabbat.

I'm not going to make a long Omer entry.  Rather, make it a Shabbat!

Shabbat Omer Day 11 Journal: Take a break from writing and be with family.

Shabbat Omer Day 11 Actions:

•  Do something restful and renewing with family and loved ones
• Read a bit of this week's Torah portion, Kedoshim.  It has many core teachings, including the one that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor."  

Shabbat Shalom!

Ha-yom echad Asar yom, shehem sh'vuah echad v'arba'ah yamim la-omer
Today is the 11th day, which is one week and four days of the Omer

Omer Day 10: Israel

This week we are learning, and the topic for today is Israel.  There are so many misconceptions, partial understandings, uninformed opinions and biases that get strewn about in the public sphere about this tiny spec of land along the Mediterranean Sea.

I love Israel - I think it is an incredible country, one filled with contradictions and surprises.  It is a land filled with diverse people and ideas, floating as an island of democracy amidst a sea of . . . non-democracy.  And as a Jewish person, this Jewish state steeped in our Jewish historical roots, carries a great significance - not only as a place where any Jewish person can go to escape persecution, but also as a place where being Jewish feels natural and easy.  It is the fulfillment of a dream and a yearning that was thousands of years old, and we are fortunate enough to witness and experience it in our lifetimes.  There is so much more cultural cooperation, even across the lines of Jew and Muslim; Palestinian and Israeli than we hear about in our local news. But you wouldn't know it without searching deeper.

I may not agree with all of the Israeli government's stances and responses, just as I do not always agree with the actions my local or national government here in America.  And I see many ways in which Israel could improve.   I hope and pray for a time of peace and a time where all who live in the areas that Israel now controls can live in freedom and security, when those in the region can grow up with guitars in their hands and never need to learn how to hold guns. I also pray for a day where my smicha (ordination) as a Reform rabbi is seen in Israel as officially competent to lead a community as it represents here in America.

It is from this place of love that I want us to know more about how we can significantly help to improve Israel in the year to come.  Every few years, there is an election of the World Zionist Congress.  This is a body made up to represent all of the diaspora Jewry as a counsel to the Israeli government.  In the last election, the Reform movement's representative, Artzeinu (lit: our land), became one of the most influential groups, obtaining more seats than any other group, and building a coalition that helped to pressure the Israeli government not to give in to more restrictive conversion laws from the ultra-religious groups in Israel.  This coming year, register to vote, and do so for Artzeinu - (And note: if you are in Hadassah, there is no conflict, as Hadassah's seats are guaranteed so that its members can vote for any other group they'd like).  I'd write more, but this website has all the info you could need.  

Hayom asarah yamim, she-hem sh'vuah echad u'shlosha yamim la-omer

Today is the tenth Day of the Omer

Day 10 Omer Journal: List questions you have about Israel that you'd like to explore

Day 10 Omer Action: Follow some Israeli news sources to get caught up with what is going on, on the ground in Israel.  If you have questions, send them to me!

Here are some sites I recommend for understanding aspects of Israel:

www.arza.org - the Reform movement's Israel advocacy group.

haaretz.com - my go-to Israeli newspaper that is in English

jpost.com - Jerusalem Post online - one of the most known Israeli periodicals

ynetnews.com - Online version of Yedioth Ahronoth, another widely distributed Israeli newspaper.  

I would recommend reading not just one of these sources, but read across them in order to get a deeper understanding of what the story really might be. 

Omer Day 9: Learning

I hope the low-hanging fruits of yesterday tasted good!  I know mine have motivated me to keep going.  In fact, tonight, I have a plan to keep working at my organizing that I had started!

But before we get too carried away, we still have some planning to do.  Now that we have identified what areas we might want to focus on, what our strengths, weaknesses, resources, hopes and dreams may be, I'm recommending that we take some time to learn.  Study, research, gain new insight - when we gain acquire new perspectives, we can't help but see the world and ourselves differently.  We change when we learn.

Today's learning is aligned with the Rabbis Organizing Rabbis (ROR) group that I've been working with.  I'm going to do some learning on the topic of Immigration Reform and I invite you to do so, as well.  Here is a blog post by Rabbi Samuel Gordon, who has been a part of the Chicago group of organizers who have had some incredibly powerful (both in an emotional way and in an effectiveness-way) experiences.

I've been reading through these sights in order to further educate myself on the issues involved in immigration reform so that I can become a better advocate.  Though we are at a standstill in congress (what else is new?) it really does seem as though this is not such a partisan issue - everyone sees the need for a better set of laws, it's just a matter of what the laws are and who is brave enough to stick their neck out and stand for something, as opposed to just waiting to see what one's voter base will tolerate.  I'll list the sights below (though I highly recommend if you look at just one, go to the Reform movement's Religious Action Center, where the Jewish basis for Immigration Reform is nicely stated).

The reason our ROR group has been putting out the "I Stand with Ruth" campaign is to bring back to the collective consciousness our struggle for a better system of immigration laws.  We recently heard from a group of organizers in Chicago the story of a meeting between a local organizing group who is seeking immigration reform and a conservative congressman who came to office by affiliating with the Tea Party movement.  They brought to his attention the story of an individual who was going to be deported after being pulled over for a broken tail light.  That "crime" led the police to discover his status as a person who had come here illegally.  The problem was that his child (or children - unsure about this detail), who is/are US citizens, would be here in the US without a parent.  This congressperson stepped into write a letter to the judge advocating that the individual in question NOT be deported, so that his family could stay together.  He said it went against his Christian values to separate children from their parents. Yet, he said he felt he could not commit to larger reforms to address such problems for fear that he would be challenged by that same Tea Party group that helped him get into office in a future primary.

Regardless of how one might feel about immigration reform as a whole, a story like this one exposes the challenges our current system brings to our society.  Enforcing the law could lead to a slew of children growing up in the foster care system in America or at the very least, growing up without being able to see one of their parents - not because the parent cares little for their children, but ultimately because they care that much for their children.  This is one of many reasons to continue pushing for a system to be changed.

Ha-Yom tishah yamim she-hem sh'vuah achad ushnai yamim la-omer

Today is Day 9 of the Omer, which is one week and two days of the Omer

DAY 9 JOURNAL: What have I learned today that can help me continue to improve myself?

DAY 9 ACTION: Spend some time researching a topic that can be helpful in the quest for self-improvement, helping us to our goals.




My Journaling:

So, my learning today was geared towards immigration reform.

• I learned of the following great site from the National Immigration Forum - it taught me that there may be some more local groups here in NC that I might be able to partner with in taking action locally.  

• These are the kinds of heart-breaking stories caused by the current system - they do not have to continue to emerge!

• I found a great resource for those who might have questions about immigration status and application. 

• I learned that House Speaker John Boehner may not be so opposed to immigration reform, afterall. . .

• Immigration success stories like this one are getting harder and harder to find, as many of the most talented who are even studying here in the US cannot get the proper paperwork to continue advancing our homegrown companies and technological advances. 

Omer Day 8: Tasting Some Low Hanging Fruit

Welcome to the second week of our Omer Counting!

Now that we've accounted our inventory in various aspects of our lives, this week will be dedicated to planning.  But before we really plot things out in order to put things into action, it is important that we also taste a little low-hanging fruit.  Shavuot is still quite a while away, and we can wear ourselves out with all the reflection and planning phases so that we have no energy or motivation left to implement our strategies. We MUST avoid this at all costs!!

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "Low-Hanging Fruit," it refers to an easily accomplished goal. There must be something on one of the lists that we've made that we could probably rectify pretty quickly and easily, and therefore "taste" the reward of accomplishing something without making a monumental effort. Go back and scan your journals, find a task that is low effort/high reward . . . if you only have high-effort items, then pick a piece of that idea and go for it.  If I have the goal of cleaning off my piles on my desk, which might take too much effort to do well, then maybe today I clear off one pile.  And if you haven't kept up with it, no problem, brainstorm an easily achievable goal that can be done today and feel really good about having checked it off your imaginary list.

This is one of the reasons we cling to ritual in Judaism. If we are constantly striving for lofty ideals - the kind of personal growth that takes an entire lifetime, we might all become jaded and disparaged over time.  We might give up the pursuit.  So, along the way, we focus in on easily achievable rituals that provide us with structure for our journeys, re-focus our long-term goals, and push us back towards becoming the person each of us hopes to become (and at the same time bring us in contact with one another, lift our spirits with liveliness and food, and help us break the monotony of time that can lead us to states of atrophy).  This Omer period, for instance, is one of those ritualistic invitations.  The low-hanging fruit is just the recitation of the omer blessing, and the pause in doing so.  The fuel we get from its sustenance, though, can help us reach for bigger and better pursuits in ourselves.

Here's to filling us up as we continue to reach higher and higher!

Day 8 Omer Action: Pick a low-hanging fruit and cross it off your to do list!

Day 8 Omer Journaling: Describe how your low-hanging fruit is part of a bigger goal you have for yourself.

OMER DAY 7: Resources

For our final day of accounting and taking stock of what we have, we turn our thoughts to what is around us that can help move us forward in our journeys.  By now, we are all probably bursting at the seams to start taking some action . . . and if you've already done so, good for you!

We'll get to action together soon enough, but before we do, it is important for us to realize that we do not live in isolation.  We do not have to work alone, nor are we meant to.  We may delude ourselves into thinking that we have been the ones who are solely responsible for all accomplishments and achievements we have ever experienced - but there is always someone or some resource that helps us along the way (or a few someones).

Yesterday, the Boston Marathon was run in a beautiful and stirring way.  Marathon running: the most solo of solo acts.  How many people did it take to make the event happen?  And I'm not just referring to the security personnel.  Droves of volunteers, organizers, city planners, people in the city who willingly give up access to parts of their hometowns, health care providers, good-hearted people cheering on the runners . . . they make the task of running 26.2 miles more elevated and worthwhile than the experience of running one's own marathon route at home.  They help the participants go further than they might have expected of themselves, they make sure the runners have water/safety-from-cars (especially in Boston - if you have ever driven there, you know what I mean!)/a route so that they can accomplish the feat.  Not that I'm trying to take anything away from the inspiring runners - but they all had resources they could turn to in helping them get to their desired outcomes.  

Each one of us is surrounded by potential resources who can help us in whatever improvements we hope to see.  Whether they are people to support us, people to criticize us (lovingly, of course), books to read, classes to take, educational television shows to watch, Torah; there is always help we can find. . . we do not have to go it alone.  The question of utilizing resources becomes sometimes the uncomfortable reality that if we are going to let someone help us, it means we have to admit, there is something in us in need of changing. We often have to allow someone else into our personal process and insecurities, to make ourselves vulnerable.  Doing so can be scary and off-putting.  Yet, it is essential to real change - if we are going to turn weaknesses into strengths, fight fate and determine our destiny, bring our hopes/dreams to reality, well, we may need to bruise our egos a bit.  Don't journey alone - it just isn't nearly as fulfilling.

DAY 7 JOURNAL: List the resources around you that could be helpful to finding change in an area of weakness that you have identified or in a dream/hope you wish to make come true.  For this list, do not only put down the resources you know you might use, go ahead and list the resources that are available to you - this way, if one approach is not working down-the-line, this list will still exist with ideas of places you might turn to kickstart the process.  For example, if your goal is to drop 5 pounds, list Weight Watchers and a personal trainer and a nutritionist, even if you do not have any intention of going one of those routes.  

DAY 7 ACTION: Contact one of these resources (or purchase/borrow/peruse) and see if it will be a good help for your journey.

Ha-Yom Shivah Yamim, she-hem Sh'vua echad la-Omer

Today is the 7th Day, which is one week, of the Omer

MY JOURNAL:

So, I know that I mentioned in this post that we have to bruise the ego a bit and show our incompetence, somewhat publicly.  I am still working up to doing so for myself.  A blog may be too public of an arena for all the work I am doing on myself, and so it might not work for all of my personal journaling.  I'll have to keep a separate log for certain ideas, but here, I'm going to at least list the resources I have that can help me accomplish the dream of being a more consistent blog-writer - throughout the Omer and beyond

• Calendar and Advance Plan
• Other Omer counting books and resources
• Notes from Organizational Development class
• Engineering brain
• Supportive wife who encourages me to do this kind of thing
• Feedback from people who are reading the blog
• A desire to help others
• A desire to continually improve myself 
• So that I can be better at helping others
• So I can live more meaningfully and happily
• Internet
• Mentors
• Multiple technological input devices (already blogged from a mobile device!)
• An acceptance that it will not be perfect
• Typing gloves (I don't have them, but I think I would look really cool in them and they would make me excited during the moments when I love motivation)
• Eating regularly (Took on an extra, unscheduled meeting today when I was supposed to have had lunch.  Hungry blogger = shortcuts and incomplete )
• Humor
• News stories
• Literature -- I HAVE to blog about Brothers Karamazov for one of these posts!
• Rabbis Organizing Rabbis and the I Stand with Ruth Campaign
• Voice-to-word recognition software . . . the novelty (it's still a novelty for me) will make me want to blog.
• Patience

  

OMER DAY 6: Weaknesses

So far, we've been a bit happy-go-lucky in our Omer assessment, but it is time for us to get down to

business.  No one is perfect.  We each have our flaws. Sometimes our flaws are minor and insignificant. Other times, our challenges turn into our strengths, even when they don't feel particularly perfect to us; and there are certainly the times when our flaws get in our way and impact us quite negatively.

Rabbi Lucy Dinner, with whom I have the privilege to work and to learn, shared with me a lovely excerpt from a book by Rabbi Karyn Kedar who was quoting a person I did not know until coming across this text, Marion Woodman (How's that for a convoluted introduction to a text? Hey, it's the rabbinic way - downright Talmudic, even!).  Ms. Woodman expounded on some of the life lessons she had gained from some of her times of weakness - in this case physical weakness, as she was coping with cancer.

"What I learned is the difference between fate and destiny.  

We are all fated to die. Destiny is recognizing the radiance 

of the soul that even when faced with human impossibility, loves all of life.

Fate is the death we owe to nature.

Destiny is the life we owe to soul."

- Marion Woodman. Bone:Dying into Life. 

New York: Viking, 2000.  p. xvi

(Quoted in Our Dance with God. Karyn Kedar. 

Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2004 

-- emphasis my own)

On many levels this quote is helpful for our Omer reflection, today.  Ms. Woodman turned a weakness of hers into a strength, by allowing herself to find a new, more important perspective than she was motivated to have found in her years before facing a stark reality.  She offers us the beautiful paradigm of a difference between fate and destiny - one I took to heart through the lens of identifying our weaknesses.  

Those parts of our character we find to be flawed, they are a part of our fate.  For example, I will never be the most organized thinker or the most rememberful person (I know it's not a word, but it should be! I love it!).  That is my fate.  But it does not have to get in the way of who I can become.  I do not have to allow that fate to dictate my own limitations, but I can only do so by admitting the weakness and seeking ways to work around, through, and in spite of the challenge.  My brain is not wired for routines - to those who are structure-oriented, making it to day 6 of a daily blog seems to be no big deal, but for a person of my character, man is this tough!  I love it, I look forward to it, but I still worry about my ability to keep up with it, because of the ways I think.  I have put ticklers in my calendar to remind myself to write and post and facebook-share.  And it is all a part of a learning process for me.  But these are all ways I am trying to shape a destiny that is different from my fate.  It's a much more inspiring way, I think, of saying, "In our weaknesses, we find opportunities."  Which is probably what I would have said to some extent, had I not been exposed to the above quote.  Instead, the big idea of today is that it is time for us to accept our own fate in order to be able to shape our own destiny.

So, with that bit of personal anecdote meant to reveal a bigger idea (hopefully it worked?), we are ready for today's reflection:

OMER REFLECTION DAY 6: List your weaknesses/challenges/things that get in your way of getting where you want to be that are a part of your current fate.  

• KEY RULES TO THIS PROCESS: 
• Do not be overly harsh on yourself - be as factual as possible, and use calm, non-pejorative language.
• Do not nitpick (Don't go to your list of strengths and find flaws in those areas)
• Do be totally honest - part of why we live with flaws others see in us but we cannot see in ourselves is because humans are good at being delusional. . .  don't let that be one of your flaws.  If it is, list it so we can work on it!
• Do not walk away from the list totally despondent or overwhelmed. . . if this is how you're feeling, time to stop the list for now, and revisit your list of strengths.  Call a friend.  Take out your list of happy places from earlier. 

OMER ACTION DAY 6: 

• Pick one or two from the list you've created to work on for the next couple of weeks (on our workshop reflection days - you'll see what I mean when we get there).
• Share your chosen "weaknesses" with a loved one or confidant or an omer-journaling buddy, so you can have someone to hold you accountable and cheer you on in your ongoing attempts to change your destiny

Ha-yom shisha la-omer

Today is Day 6 of the Omer

My Reflection:

Oy, it feels like too many to list . . .

• Time management
• Things take me a long time to accomplish
• Wanting to do everything and having trouble saying "no."
• Following-up on well-intended ideas
• Actually hoping the Heat win the NBA Championship (I did grow up there, folks!)
• Never enough time for study
• Not changing gears quickly enough at times when interrupted from something I am focusing upon
• Writing out the thoughts that seem to come so much more fluidly when I speak them
• A self-perspective that notices my flaws shining out and my strengths to remain muted
• An ego that I try and try and try to keep in check - when I ignore its needs and its ability to take over, it becomes a weakness.
• Letting others become my source of confidence too often
• Organizational structure
• Putting too much detail into stories
• Not Slowing down
• Putting others ahead of myself too constantly - leaves me with not enough to keep giving
• I never learned how to switch hit!  I think I could have been a great lefty bunt-for-a-base-hit guy!

Alright. . . there's room to work from here!!  Sweet - I love a challenge!

OMER DAY 5: Strengths

Yesterday, we cataloged our hopes and dreams... At least some of them. As we continue this week of accounting, we turn to some character analysis to help us figure out how we can move a little closer to those aspirations.

Each one of us has strong characteristics that can help us move towards our goals. (We each have weaknesses that get in our ways, too, but that's for tomorrow's omer counting). Talents, gifts, perspectives, luck, good people who surround us; no matter what form they take, it is important for us to take note of those opportunities within ourselves that can lead us towards more fulfillment and meaning.

The key, however, is to maintain humility while recognizing our strengths. This is not about making ourselves ego-maniacs and deluding ourselves into thinking we're perfect. That would be a recipe for inaction, for if there is nothing to change, why try?  Also, when we say, "I am good at x, which makes me better than Ploni" (that's ancient rabbinic for 'John Doe'), we turn a strength into a weakness by devaluing another, while also setting ourselves up to devalue ourselves in other comparisons. Let us avoid comparisons altogether, today, and just take note of the arsenal of told we do have at our disposal for helping make the world around us better.

And a Happy Easter to those friends who celebrate this holiday!


Omer Journal Question: List your strengths.

Omer Actions:

• Pick a strength and perform some kind of act of loving-kindness using that characteristic.
• Share with a loved one a strength you see and appreciate in them

Ha-yom chamishchamishah yamim la-omer

Today is day 5 of the Omer

My journaling:

• Wit
• Being able to put myself in other's shoes and see multiple perspectives
• Compassion and sympathy/empathy
• Knowledge of and comfort with the fact that I am not in control
• Loving family, friends, and community
• A spouse who is a friend, confidant, resource, and way-more-talented educator than I am (d'oh, I was supposed to avoid comparisons)
• Wide-range of educational experiences and interests
• Intellectual Curiosity
• A love of challenges
• Engineering-brain
• A job Career occupation lifestyle that suits me well and offers me a platform to share ideas and learn from others
• A love for humanity, as well as my fellow Jews
• Connections worldwide because I am part of a particular group of people (Chicago Cubs fans)

OMER DAY 4: Hope

Shabbat Shalom!! Day four of the omer falls on Shabbat. Shabbat is a day on which we remove ourselves from the everyday details that often seem to shape our lives and dictate our behaviors and choices. Instead, we take a step back to dream of the world as it could be, to invite ourselves to spend a day on an Island in time, as Rabbi Heschel described.

Therefore, Day 4 of our (ac)counting involves reaching into our hearts and taking stock of the hopes we hold for ourselves, for our loved ones, for the world. Hertzl, one of the leading figures in establishing the modern state of Israel, taught, "If you will it, it is no dream." Well, if you don't allow yourself to dream, it is impossible to find the will to make any changes for the better. Dream with me?

Day 4 Journal Activity: List some of your own, personal hopes and dreams. We sometimes think we know our hopes/dreams, but it always helps to put them down on paper (or word document) so as to concretize a bit of the vague wishes we hold in our hearts.

Day 4 Activity: Share one of your hopes/dreams with someone else you love, and ask them to share with you something they are hoping for. (Key to this activity's success: make sure your wish is not a veiled request for that person to take some action of their own. I.e. "I've been dreaming of a clean corner of our bedroom on your side of the bed...hint...hint...)
(Please forgive any odd typos, grammar, or formatting... Publishing for the first time from a tablet)

Ha-yom yom r'vi-i LA omer

Today is the fourth day of the omer.

My journal entry:

• A Cubs World Series victory (or appearance)
• Helping my daughters grow with confidence, knowledge, courage, silliness, and love
• Saying something original that has never before been said
• Making someone else's life better for having known me
• Making my life better for having known each person with whom I interact
• Seeing Australia
• Recording my Bauby's incredible stories
• Playing my trumpet in front of the congregation
• Feeling more in control of my calendar