On Freedom

Posted on April 5, 2012 by admin

Tomorrow night Jews around the world will gather at tables with family and friends to tell our sacred story of the exodus from Egypt. This story reminds us that we must appreciate our freedoms and that we must seek to end slavery of all kinds because although we are free now, we hold close to our hearts the idea that we were once slaves in Egypt.

The story of the Exodus tells us that the Jews were freed from slavery under Pharaoh but once the Jews made it across the sea and into the desert, they were not a people without a ruler. Rather, they were under new management. They got a new set of rules: the 10 commandments, and many more. Even Pharaoh knew that he was not sending the Jews off into the wilderness without a leader, but rather to be ruled by a different kind of ruler. “He [Pharaoh] summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said ‘Up, depart from among my pepole, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship the Lord as you said!’” (Exodus 12:31)

The Israelites were freed from a taskmaster only to be given 613 commandments by God at Mount Sinai. Is that truly freedom? My answer is “yes.” That is freedom. And I think it has a lesson that we can apply in all areas of our lives.

Freedom does not mean a freedom from responsibility. Freedom does not mean that we get to sit around and do nothing. Freedom means we get to be our own taskmaster. We get to give ourselves orders and work towards being the people that we want to be. I felt like a slave to myself when I got out of bed at 5:15 this morning to go to my spin class at the gym. I felt like a slave when I was outlining a chapter on Jews in Rome in the 2nd and 3rd centuries at 1am. But Passover reminds me that while I may feel like a slave, I am free because I am working my hardest towards things that I choose to do. I am lucky to be chasing down the goal of a half ironman and I am lucky to be pursuing the title of “Rabbi.” When I accomplish these goals, that feeling will be a greater taste of freedom than I could ever get by hanging out on a beach somewhere.

So what will be your taste of freedom? What will be your moment of accomplishment? Our story tells us that God called Moses and called the Israelites out of slavery into freedom. Whatever God means to you, what is that God calling you to do? You might need to be your own taskmaster in order to get there. But it will be worth it.

Nothing sums up my point better than this poem below by William Earnest Henley. I first discovered this while watching the movie Invictus with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. It’s a great one. Have a wonderful Passover if you are celebrating and a wonderful Easter if you are celebrating. May we enjoy our freedom to pursue what we want to pursue!

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

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We Are Back!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by admin

It has been a while since my last post and honestly it all happened without any conscious decision not to post. I simply didn’t have the time one week. And one week led to two. And two led to three, And three led to four and five.

I could say that I have some good excuses as to why I haven’t blogged. I have a full plate of courses at school. I’m training for my first Ironman 70.3 race in June and I have plenty to do to prepare for all of my jobs.

But excuses are like butts – we all have them and they stink. I’m just happy that I found the time to type this up and share this with you. Perhaps what happened to me sounds familiar to you. Perhaps you haven’t been to the gym in two days, a week, a month, a year. Everyone has reasons. Some reasons are great, others aren’t so great, but if you want to do something and you haven’t for a while, go ahead and do it. Maybe today won’t be that day for you. Maybe it won’t be tomorrow. But it might just be the next day.

Interestingly there have been many Biblical charatcters from many religions who made great “comebacks” after some time off. The list includes Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and most recently, some pretty awesome guys who took a trip to vegas. As for me and Rabbi In Training, we are back!!

We\'re the three best friends that anyone\'s ever had

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Tim Tebow and The Many Names of God

Posted on December 22, 2011 by admin

Today I saw clips of Tim Tebow on ESPN from his game against the Chicago Bears. As I was watching they showed him singing about God and praying – actions which have made him quite famous these days. Tim Tebow definitely wears his religion on his sleeve and so at this crossroads of sports and religion that is Tim Tebow, I figured I should weigh in.

Many people are turned off by Tebow’s public display of religion but it doesn’t bother me. People have asked me if I think his prayers work. My answer is “yes.” Do I think that God is in Heaven drinking a beer every Sunday in a Broncos jersey making sure Tebow succeeds? No, I don’t think so. But that doesn’t mean that Tebow’s prayers don’t work. As I watched Tebow singing and praying on the sidelines of the field, I noticed his arms and his posture. He looked calm and relaxed and his arms were loose. Tim Tebow looked ready to play.

The Hebrew Bible and the Talmud use many names to refer to God – too many to list here. But just to name a few, God is referred to as “El” “YHWH” “Elohim” “Shaddai” “Rock of Israel (Tzur Yisrael)” and much more. So what does this have to do with Tebow? Just as God has many names, so does readiness. Each week before their games, hundreds of the best athletes in the world suit up and “get ready” to play football in the NFL. Each one of them does it differently. Some pray, some listen to music, some meditate, some have supersticious rituals, and I’m sure, just like the names of God in the Bible, there are too many pre-game superstitions to name them all. Tebow exhibits quite publicly one of these ways to get ready to play.

While I’ve never had a cup of coffee with Tim Tebow, I am willing to bet that our theologies are almost nothing alike. But I applaud Tim Tebow for what he is doing. He uses his religion as a way to prepare him to play ball and I’d imagine his religion inspires him to live a healthy lifestyle. It certainly is not the only way to get ready on gameday but as Tebow is showing his critics, it is certainly a very effective way.

What’s your pre-game ritual? Do you have something that inspires you in your life as much as Tim Tebow’s religion seems to inspire him? Regardless of whether your inspiration is religious or not, I hope you have something to inspire you to stay healthy and exercise.

To inspiration in all forms!

-The Rabbi In Training

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Fame… All Part of the Territory :)

Posted on December 9, 2011 by admin

Very excited to post this video of me teaching about lighting the Chanukah candles. It was quite an honor to be asked to do this. I hope you enjoy watching and this will definitely be a great memory for me when I look back at this one day!

RitualWell How To Light The Chanukah Candles

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Unexpected Rewards

Posted on November 30, 2011 by admin

In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob flees his home and goes to stay with uncle Laban. When he arrives, he meets Laban’s daughters, Rachel and Leah. Jacob falls in love with Rachel and Jacob agrees to work for Laban for seven years in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage at the end of his labor. After the seven years of hard work, Laban tricks Jacob. Instead of giving away Rachel, Laban gives Leah, his older daughter, to Jacob. Jacob is understandably upset. He worked seven long years to be with one woman, and after all that work, he gets another woman instead.

While I can understand why Jacob was angry, I also want to point out that Laban could have simply not given Jacob anything. Laban could have told Jacob that he had to work another seven years before Laban gave him a penny. It is with this in mind that I want to tie this story to fitness.

Most people come to the doors of the gym for one thing – weight loss. It is a noble goal. It is a goal that many people in our country should strive towards. But weight loss takes time and the process can often be frustrating. Instead of focusing on that one goal, try using the unexpected rewards of exercise as motivation. Perhaps you will discover how great it feels after you finish a challenging workout. Maybe you will find a new gym buddy. Maybe you will feel strong or confident enough to do something you had not done in a long time. If you keep at it in the gym, the weight will come off eventually. But in the meantime, don’t neglect all those unexpected rewards.

Jacob had his eye on Rachel, but Leah wasn’t so bad. So keep your eyes on your weight loss goals, but don’t forget to stay open to all the other benefits of exercise!

Wishing you many expected, and unexpected, rewards of exercise!

-The Rabbi In Training

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Thoughts On Officiating My First Wedding

Posted on November 21, 2011 by admin

First and foremost, I want to thank my friends Stacy and Keith for asking me to officiate at their wedding this past Saturday night. It was such an honor to be there and even more of an honor to be such a big part of their special day. I could go on forever about how wonderful the affair was and how much officiating meant to me, but I’ll leave that for another time.

Instead I want to share what I learned from the experience. Stacy and Keith decided to do a havdallah ceremony before signing the ketubah and standing under the huppah. I’ve been a part of more havdallah ceremonies in my life than I can remember. And so I was not nervous at all but when I began to open my mouth it suddenly hit me how real this moment was. My two friends were really getting married and I was really the one responsible for doing this ceremony! But after that stark realization, the second part of my thought disappeared. True, I was responsible for doing the ceremony, but the important part of the thought was “my friends were really getting married.” The ceremony was going to be great because THEY are great. What mattered that night was how wonderful they were together. This was going to go well even if a robot was performing the ceremony because at that moment it wasn’t about me doing a good job. It was about me highlighting them in the best way that I could during this amazing time in their lives.

My ability to focus on them helped me stay calm for the rest of the ceremonies that we did and as a result I had the time of my life performing the ceremony. The lesson I walked away with is that thinking of others is a really important thing to do not only because it is the right thing, but because it can also help us do our jobs better.

After thinking about this, I realized that this skill comes in handy often. On the baseball field I’m always saying something positive to my teammates. Partially because I want to send positive thoughts their way but also because the more I send good thoughts their way, the less I have to think about what I’m doing. I spend less time worrying about my task and that allows me to play the game the way I play it best – confident and relaxed.

So here are my thoughts after officiating the Popkin – Zang wedding:

1) It was a huge honor to do it and I am so happy for you guys. Mazal Tov!!

2) I learned that focusing on them helped me focus less on my nerves.

3) I was reminded of the benefits of putting others at the forefront of our minds. If you think of ways to help others it will definitely help you as well.

Congrats to the newlyweds!

-The Rabbi In Training

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Commanding Happiness

Posted on October 14, 2011 by admin

“And thou shalt be altogether joyful.” Deuteronomy 16:15

As you can see above, in Deuteronomy God commands the people to be happy during the holiday of Sukkot. Can we be happy simply because it is asked of us? I think the answer is no. We have too much going on in our lives to be able to turn on an emotion as if it were hooked to a light switch. Anything from a catastrophic event to a mean comment from a stranger can put us in a bad mood. It is impossible to be happy on command. However, we can lay the groundwork of happiness. What is the groundwork of happiness? Hard work.

Don’t those models on TV and on magazine covers look happy? Of course they do. They usually have six pack abs or an hourglass figure. But few people realize how much hard work and sacrifice is put in to get to that point where they are smiling. Instead of demanding that you should all be happy during the next few days, I want to challenge you to lay the groundwork of happiness. Do something difficult this week that can lead to your happiness down the road. Here are five great exercises to lay the groundwork towards physical happiness.

1. Planks: Take 30 seconds get into a pushup position with your hands and elbows on the ground. Hold your body in a straight line like a plank of wood. Don’t let those hips sag towards the ground. It won’t be a happy 30 seconds but you’ll be happy that you are doing all you can to avoid back pain and prevent injury as well as create a stronger core.

2: Squats: Find a chair. Sit down. Stand up. Repeat 10 times. Do 3 sets of those 10 This may seem boring now but you’ll be happy when you are 75 and your legs are strong enough to get you up and out of your chair with ease.

3: 30 minutes of cardio: Keep your heart rate up for 30 minutes straight. Pick your poison – Running, basketball, elliptical, tennis, etc. It may be an uncomfortable 30 minutes but you’ll definitely be happy when your doctor says your heart sounds and looks good and strong.

4: Wall Angels: Stand with your back up against the wall. Make sure your hips are touching the wall and your feet are close to the wall. Put your elbows and the back of your hands up against the wall as if you were under arrest. Slide your hands up and down the wall 10 times. Uncomfortable? It may be now. But you know what’s more uncomfortable? Walking down the street without the ability to look straight ahead because you are hunched over.

5. Drink water: How many glasses of water did you have today? 64 ounces is the recommended amount. You may not be happy making that extra trip to the bathroom but you’ll be happy when you have more energy later in the day instead of feeling fatigued and thirsty.

HAPPY training!

-The Rabbi In Training

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This Yom Kippur, Learn From Pro Athletes.

Posted on October 7, 2011 by admin

Yom Kippur is a day of reflection, and as its name suggests, it is a day of atonement. Yet somehow the thing that sticks out in most people’s minds when it comes to Yom Kippur is fasting. Rabbinic law demands that all Jews who are able should abstain from any food or water from sunset to the next sunset on Yom Kippur. I think that this practice can be meaningful, but it does not always turn out that way. I have found in previous years that at the end of Yom Kippur people wind up asking, “How was your fast?” Or “Did you make it to the end?” Instead of questions like “was your day meaningful?” Or “have you made any changes for the upcoming year?”

How can we understand fasting in a way that makes it a meaningful practice? My suggestion is to watch the baseball playoffs, or turn on football this Sunday. There is an important lesson to learn from pro athletes and I think it is very relevant to Yom Kippur.

In most cases, pro athletes were the best players around their towns when they were kids. In most cases, while they undoubtedly worked hard as kids but it probably was not that hard for them to succeed in their youth leagues and high schools. But as they climbed the ladder towards the top, something most likely happened. Their talent was still there, but their talent was no longer a factor. By the time they reached the pros, everyone at that level was equally talented. Every athlete has that moment when they can no longer get by on talent alone. The guys you see on ESPN all have the talent. But the ones that succeed are the ones that are able to reflect and adjust even after their talent is matched by other talented players.

I imagine that experiencing that moment when you can’t get by on talent is a little like fasting on Yom Kippur. There you are, trying to accomplish something, but something that you are used to having is stripped away. In the case of the pros, they can’t use their talent to succeed. On Yom Kippur, Jews can’t use something that we are used to using every day – food.

On Yom Kippur, we lack food. But during the rest of the year we lack other things. Sometimes we lack energy, or patience, or time. It is during these moments that it is easy for us to do or say things we might regret. If we can train ourselves to move past what we lack, and focus on our goals, hopefully we will be less likely to do things we regret.

The athletes we watch on television successfully adjusted when they found themselves in a sea of talent. My hope for us in this new Jewish year is that we can successfully adjust when we are lacking something we need. I hope we can find time for ourselves when we are lacking time. I hope we can make the effort to help others when we are lacking the energy, and I hope we can offer kind words even when we are lacking the patience.

Even on this day when we lack food, I hope we take a lesson from our sports heroes and achieve success even when we don’t have what we usually take for granted. May you have a meaningful day full of meaningful adjustments!

-The Rabbi In Training

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When is Your Jewish New Year?

Posted on September 28, 2011 by admin

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month between the two evenings is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the lord…” (Leviticus 23:5)

Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year.” Naturally we celebrate this holiday on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei - the first month of the Jewish calendar – or is it?

Whether or not you plan on celebrating Passover this year, you probably know that Passover is not 14 days away. Passover is in a totally different month no matter what calendar you follow. So how could it be that Passover, Rosh Hashannah, and Yom Kippur are all celebrated in the first month of the year?

The answer is simple. There are many “new years” in Judaism and thus, many “first months.” As you saw above, the Israelites are told in the Biblical narrative that the month of Nissan is the first month of the year. The body of texts considered sacred by Jews also specify separate new years for trees and crops.

Having the above information on my mind during Rosh Hashanah enriches my holiday experience in two ways. First, it makes Rosh Hashanah more interesting. If our customs had been practiced the same exact way since the very beginning, I think things would have been a little stale by now. And if you think of Rosh Hashanah as something that has always been done the same way, it may feel a little stale by now. But knowing that the first of the year was once during Passover indicates that Rosh Hashanah has a mysterious past and that our ancestors were not afraid to shake things up. It means that there is more to this Rosh Hashanah thing than what we learned in Hebrew school. It means that a choice was made by a group of Jews at some point in history to arrange for this holiday to be THE holiday that Jews revere as the Jewish New Year. The fact that Rosh Hashanah has not always been observed in the same way empowers us to add our ideas into the ever changing rich tradition that is already thousands of years old.

The second thing I take away from the information above is that it is never too soon to start over. Dates like January first and Rosh Hashanah inspire us to think about how we can start over and improve ourselves. But we should look to Jewish history to learn that we don’t need to sit around and wait for a new year in order to make a change. We can make a “new year” of our own. Religion is great at marking time and making it sacred but don’t feel like you have to wait on religion to tell you when that new beginning must take place!

To stay consistent with the message of this blog, I will suggest that you mark a day soon as the first day you become a consistent visitor of the gym. Or perhaps pick Rosh Hashannah as the day you start becoming an avid walker or jogger. Whatever you do, and whenever you start remember it is never too soon or too late. You can create your own new year.

Since Rosh Hashanah begins tonight, why not start today? But if you just aren’t feeling it, take a lesson from Jewish history and start anew whenever you are ready to do it.

To the first of many new years in this new year!

Shannah Tovah

-The Rabbi In Training

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Lessons Learned From the Piano Man

Posted on September 9, 2011 by admin

When the cruise entertainment director began singing Billy Joel’s Piano Man at the sing along session on our honeymoon cruise, I became very puzzled. I asked myself, why was everyone still smiling and singing along? Piano Man is a beautiful song. It is a touching song. But think about the words! It’s a depressing song! It’s about a bunch of people sitting at the local bar realizing they are stuck in their lives.

“And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessman slowly gets stoned
Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it’s better than drinkin’ alone.”

Listening to this song made me think of two things that I’d like to share with you. First, it’s scary how little people listen to what is being said. I think this applies to everything from the radio to prayer services. Here is a perfect example for my Jewish readers. Do you know what you are saying when you say the Aleinu prayer at the end of services? The traditional version of this prayer is actually pretty controversial. (Hint: Don’t rely on prayer book translations that may conveniently avoid controversy. Find a Hebrew speaker to give you a more literal translation of the prayer.) My point is that you should know what it is you are saying when you pray. What you say is important, and it is important that you think about what it is your are saying, regardless of the setting.

My other thought is this: It is amazing how a wonderful tune, or the fame of a song, has the power to override the sadness of the words. Billy Joel’s Piano Man, or Don McLean’s American Pie discuss some really heavy topics. Yet they manage to convey a sense of joy to the listener. Their approach is truly genius. No one wants to listen to sad, depressing stuff on a road trip. So how do you share your sad, depressing feelings with the world? Put it into a catchy song! Not only will people listen, but they’ll sing along too.

You know what else can be depressing? The thought of going to the gym. So take a lesson from Billy Joel and Don McLean and disguise your gym routine in a fun costume. Here are 5 tips for making the gym more tolerable.

1. Make a brand new ipod mix. Treat yourself to some new itunes songs that you’ve heard on the radio and bring it to the gym. Don’t let yourself listen to it anywhere else.

2. Set a date with your favorite TV show. Love The Office? Law and Order? SpongeBob? Watch it from the treadmill or the elliptical at the gym instead of watching from the couch.

3. Bring a friend. Disguise the world of discomfort at the gym with some socializing.

4. Exercise for time instead of reps. No more counting! Set a timer for 30 seconds for each set instead of sounding like The Count from Sesame Street. 1 pushup, 2 pushups, 3 pushups! Ah Ah Ah!!!!!

5. Play a sport. Are you really dreading the gym? Don’t go! Go play pickup soccer or basketball. Or use the racquetball or tennis court.

Exercise CAN be fun! You just have to find the way to make it fun.

-The Rabbi and Training

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