What kind of blogger/commentator are you?

We learned today in "self-improvement" class (snort) that the following is an inappropriate way of listening:

1: Voice your agreement or diasagreement with what the person is saying to you.
2: Connect what the speaker is saying to your own life and then give scenarios where you can relate to his experiences.
3: Give advice.

These are the proper ways of listening:
1: Body language (if person is present) - nod, keep eye contact, face speaker, etc.
2: Ask good, pertinent Qs to get the speak to think more about what his true feelings are about the matter, and to better understand him.
3: Summarize; repeat back to the person what he is trying to get across.

DOES THIS APPLY TO BLOGGERS/COMMENTATORS???
In what ways DOES it, and in what ways does it NOT?

Attention: G-d!

Future...scary?..nah. Why not? Cuz I'm chilled with it. It'll come. Some way or another. But it will. And it will be great. And if it's not? I'll make it great! Ya hear that? I WILL MAKE IT GREAT!

Again, I address the issue of "Is this Providence or a test?"
This is basically how it will play out.
(Man plans, G-d laughs?
How about G-d, You plan,
and just drop the gameplan
at the foot of my bed
so I'll have it
when I wake up from this.
Thanks.)

I have made a 'keli' in many different areas. I have made it possible for Him to make it happen wherever He deems fit.
I have applied to two colleges. One career oriented and one Jewish. I've been, thank the Good One Above, accepted to YU. I have my schedule all planned out. I can defer, should THE OPPORTUNITY work out.
I want to give. I can take a break from taking, learning, spoling myself, and just GIVE! I think I can do a great job being program director for an up-and-coming community somewhere. Can it please just pull through? I, and many others, I know, suffer from "the tether". We are to blame, as well, for shluchim want us and we want them, but we tend to all be just a little selfish and it doesn't benefit any of us. I wish it were easier, all around. I wish shluchim had it easier. And that youth who are interested in trying out shluchos should have an easy time at it, as well.

The letter I opened up to in the Rebbe's Igros - was very supportive of whatever I am doing. But what am I doing? OY.

Well, that's all for now. My apologies for not having shared what I have enjoyed learning for a while. I hope to get back into the swing of things - shortly. (Hear that, G-d?)

I want to hear some mutual frustration...

Today’s note-passing…

Here’s a typical scenario: Girl and guy decide to go their separate ways for seminary, shluchos, smicha, whatever – for the upcoming year… Now, what happens after that, once they are each ready to look for their basherts? What then?

Is it better to marry someone you had a physical relationship with (providing both parties want it), or start anew, when looking for a husband/wife?

Behind Those Clouded Eyes - plz edit &/or comment!

I wish I knew what makes your world bright,
What makes you laugh and grin?
I wish I knew how to appease you.
Your heart I crave to win.

Where are your thoughts when your gaze lingers?
What be your goals? Your dreams?
I suspect a past behind those clouded eyes.
All a secret, to me, it seems.

What makes you sad, so disappointed,
That you seek the darkness to cry in?
I’d do anything to alleviate the pain,
And exposing emotion’s no sin.

I’m longing and aching for you to just trust me,
To make our connection more true.
How much longer will my attempts be in vain?
Each failure breaking my heart anew.

How can you do it all on your own?
I await the day you let me in.
I long to appreciate, to understand,
This mystery-world you live in.

MEN ARE FROM VENUS

I’m frustrated!

I feel like we learn so much about the male’s yetzer hara/evil inclination causing him to sin – and all of that translates into “what the woman must do to prevent the male from sinning.”
It drives me mad.
I realize that there must be reasons in the spiritual realms reflecting the evil manifested down here in the lower worlds, but why must the JEWISH woman make themselves less attractive than the stereotypical female? SO he has desires and certain bad tendencies… but wouldn’t we rather our men look at US rather than at women outside of the faith?

And do our males learn what we are learning? I doubt there’d be nearly as much corruption in our systems if their mentors were just open with them!

I wonder…I really do…
I wonder whether they realize how aware WE are and how unaware they can be…

Comments?

Object of My Desire...

Fear and love are called, “the secret things known to G-d,” because people cannot tell/know the varying degrees of ‘yirat Hashem/love of G-d’ harbored in the hearts of others.
On the other hand, Torah and mitzvot/good deeds ARE revealed to us – because they are found in all Jews equally, for we all have the same Torah and one law – as for as actual performance is concerned. Jews all perform mitzvot in the same manner – for example: both the greatest and the smallest Jew put on the same tefillin.
So it is just love and fear that vary according to the knowledge of G-d in our minds and in our hearts.

The Zohar says, “My soul, I desire You at night.”

Shouldn’t it say, “My soul desires you,” or “I desire you?” Therefore, the Zohar explains that “my soul” refers to G-d, the Soul of all beings.

In effect, the Jew says to G-d, “You are my Soul, therefore I desire you,” or, “Since you, G-d, are my true soul and life, therefore I do desire You.” That is to say, “I long and yearn for You like a man who craves the life of his soul, and when he is weak and exhausted he longs and yearns for his soul to revive in him.

Truly, the pleasure of living is the greatest pleasure of all, and a man will forgo all manner of pleasure in order to stay alive.

Unfortunately, we, today, do not feel this pleasure of simply being alive because “a constant pleasure is not felt to be pleasurable.” However, when one is weak and tired, and his life-force is not as manifest as it should be, then he feels the desire to live and senses the pleasure of simply being alive.

That is why it says, “At night.” For, likewise when a person goes to sleep, at which time his life-force is in a state of concealment (a sixtieth of death), he longs and yearns for his soul to be restored to him when he awakens from his slumber.

So, where do you find YOURSELF on this ever-deepening, concealing evening?

“Sieze the Day” thoughts…

In truth, the author of the original poem of Carpe Diem (Latin for ‘sieze the day’) wrote it in the following tone: Realize that life is short and when an object of desire should present itself, take advantage of your possibly last moments here on earth... How morbid!

Now, from a Jewish perspective, we also strive to “sieze the day,” the hour, the moment, to do goodness. Yet, as opposed to performing on a whim that oh, this might be my last moment before death (cvs), we know that the Messiah can come any second, and that what we do in this moment can either hasten His arrival, or (cvs) lengthen our exile.

The Jewish “Carpe Diem” is a derivative of a different source, but has the same underlying objective...

Now is here. The present is what matters. What your evil-self convinced you to do 5 minutes ago has no relevance to what good you wish to do right now.

Being fearful of death…Now that is just pointless (and cowardly?) because it doesn’t do anything. Rather, excite in the imminent redemption, dependant on your actions at this very moment.

I used to think that ‘seizing the day’ meant that I had to take advantage of anything & everything that came my way. How immature. How naïve. If I’d known how much power I had!
We have so much power to choose every single second of our lives. G-d presents us with choices. We just have to pray that we choose the proper direction, and that G-d’s knowledge of our actions, which actually give them their existence, are holy to the core.

I pray that all of my decisions and choices, as well as all of yours, whether seemingly insignificant or life-altering, are in accordance with what G-d has in store for us. In their purest form.

Sieze the day – It’s up to us.

Go Ahead, Dream.

I had a dream.

A pretty insignificant, silly one, but the analysis I made of it brought me to a tough reality: I am so hung-up on physicality. The dream was simple – a burning house (mama ball of fire rolling…), where once I’d gotten everyone out safely, I ran back in, in order to retrieve things I felt couldn’t be left behind. Though only a dream, it hit me.
How pathetic!

If only we realized what truly matters in life. If only we recognized the pettiness of our mundane thoughts, words, and our attention to physicality are. The Rebbe gave us clear direction. What does G-d want? Not for us to merely give attention to all the physicality He created, rather for us to look for the essential purpose encompassing everything physical.

Why was it all created? Everything serves a purpose, just the same as each of His human beings do. If we really thought about that and really kept that awareness in the forefront of our minds, we would perform so differently.

It is all about intention – kavanah. Choices, decisions, are the most difficult. You want to do what’s best for you, but what really is the best for you? The present is what is important, but know that everything you are doing, has a lasting effect in the long-run.

After all, the world was created for us and Torah (1st passuk – rashi – bais raishis nivra haolam), so it is up to us, essentially, to reconcile the two in order that G-d should dwell down here permanently.

And so, I bless us all with consistent, ever-lasting, unfaltering strength and proper judgment – next yr, this summer, now, this second, and forever.