Seeing The Other Side Of The Story

Seeing things from the other person's point of view has a profound effect on our emotional health, since the totality of how we relate to others is dependent on this concept. When you master the ability to view others as they see themselves, you will gain the love of everyone.

Today, think of someone you find it difficult to get along with. See this person as he views himself and patiently talk to him from his perspective

Love Yehuda Lave

I returned August 15 to Jerusalem after a 16 day absence. I visited over 100 synagogues, graves and holy spots throughout Czech and Vienna, along with castles and tourist spots. My friend the Cabalist, says like the Bal Shem Tov, I was gathering up the holy sparks of Jewishness that has been trapped there and bringing the spiritual energy back to Jerusalem. I hope I have accomplished that goal, but I know for sure that I brought back lots of pictures. There are too many to share at one time so I am trying something new and sharing them day by day as experienced with a 16 day delay. I will repeat this introduction each day. I have been studying Jewish history and Israel in my time in Jerusalem, but the history of the Jewish people in modern times from 1492 to 1945 was in central Europe where the majority of the Jewish people lived. It is worth studying and knowing about and by sharing it with you my friends, I hope I am expanding your knowledge as well.

The Famous Czech Pernstejn Castle 080718

Better get your "a--" out of the way in a hurry

Love to Sail!!

Surf The Wave

Your feeling in one word.

Would you ride this ship when the sea is angry?

SHIPS IN STORM COMPILATION -MONSTER WAVES

Do not make for yourselves gods of gold and silver (Exodus 20:20).

While the plain meaning of this verse is an injunction against making idols, it has also been interpreted to mean, "Do not worship gold and silver."

Rabbi Schneur Zalman once approached a wealthy man, a known miser, for a donation to redeem someone from captivity. He was given one penny. Instead of throwing the penny in the miser's face, as others had done, Rabbi Schneur Zalman thanked the man politely and turned to leave. The man called him back, apologized, and gave him a slightly larger sum. Again, the rabbi blessed him, thanked him, and turned to leave, only to be called back. This scene repeated itself numerous times with progressively intense apologies and larger donations, until the man donated the entire sum needed.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman explained that when people had previously refused the one-cent donation, the miser, who had come to worship money as his god, took it as a personal insult and reacted as though his god had been disgraced. By thanking him for the penny, the rabbi set in motion an approach which allowed the miser to shed his defenses and respond with compassion.

This concept is important both in our relating to others as well as in developing attitudes of our own. Because money is so vital in our lives, we must remember that we, as well as other people, are at risk of deifying it. We must be both cautious to prevent ourselves from falling into this trap and also understand that others may have fallen into it.

Today I shall ...
...

be on the alert to avoid money from becoming unduly important in my life and think about how to relate to others who may have developed this mistaken attitude

15 Funniest Commercials of All Time

Enjoy this video which was brought to you by UkraineArsenal

JEWISH CATSKILL MEMORIES

Grossingers – in the town of Ferndale in Sullivan County

As most of you know, the Catskill Mountains are a mountainous region of southeastern New York State, mostly located in Delaware County. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the region became prominent for summer vacationers who could take the then-operative trains to the rustic forests and the cool mountain air of these legendary mountains.

Unfortunately for Jews – all of the towns in the Catskill towns were “restricted” to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants – meaning that Jews were generally unwelcome and were not allowed in public establishments such as hotels, restaurants, etc.  (This applied to other ethnic groups as well. That’s why the Irish, Italian, Ukrainian, and other “Catskills” are not actually in the Catskill Mountains.) The only exception to this rule was the town of Griffin Corners. That town was so appreciative of their German Jewish benefactors, the Fleishmann family – the Cincinnati makers of Fleischmann’s Yeast – that Griffin Corners was renamed “Fleischmanns.” (For lovers of “Molly Goldberg,” it was in Fleischmanns that Gertrude Berg and her father first joined together to create that character.) Here is a link about the history of Fleischmanns: <http://www.skenelib.org/dpq/hotel.php>

So, the Jews instead traveled to the Shawangunk Mountains (aka “the Gunks”) in Sullivan County, derisively known as the “Jewish Alps” or the “Jewish Catskills.” Sullivan County was often referred to as “Solomon County.”  Far more affectionately, the area became known as “The Borscht Belt.” Ironically, today – because the term became so popular – most people believe that the famous “Jewish Catskills” were actually in the Catskill Mountains. Ultimately, the once-derisive nickname ultimately became one that was well loved. From the 1920s through the 1970s, the “Jewish Catskills” were the place to summer if you were Jewish.

Jewish New Yorkers, who – like their other urban compatriots – were hungry for mountain air, good food, and the American way of leisure. They came to the mountains by the thousands, and by the 1950s, more than a million people inhabited the summer world of bungalow colonies, summer camps, and small hotels of Sullivan County. These institutions shaped American Jewish culture, enabling Jews to become more American while at the same time introducing the American public to immigrant Jewish culture.

Today, that world is gone and only the memories survive. Sociologists credit the transformation of the “Jewish Catskills” to “The three A’s.” These are: Air Conditioning: With the popularity of indoor air conditioning, people had less of a need to go to the mountains to get cool; Airplanes: With the ease and affordability of airplane travel, one could readily jaunt to Florida or the Caribbean or just about anywhere else; and the final letter “A” is Assimilation. After World War II, the United States Government (which historically defined Jews or “Israelites” as a separate ethnic group) and the American population at large became more accepting of Jews. (Sociologist Nell Painter, in her remarkable book “The History of White People” proffers that this was the era when Jews became more generally considered as “white.” That doesn’t mean that discrimination ceased; it just lessened.)

For those who are nostalgic for the days of the “Jewish Catskills,” here is a 4-part video series that offers a fond look back at the heyday of the Borscht Belt.  From the 1930s on, the Catskills were also an incubator of some of the best-known show business talent of the mid-twentieth century. At one time, hundreds of hotels, large and small, dotted Route 17; as of 2008, they numbered one or two. In the first of this four-part series, reporter Joel Siegel (1943-2007) discusses "activities" – the sports and often wacky organized games that kept vacationers busy. Produced in 1992 for WABC-TV.

One more “little tidbit” about the “Jewish Catskills” that you might enjoy:

The song, Bei Mir Bistu Shein, came from a Yiddish theatre production in Brooklyn and migrated to Grossinger’s in the Jewish Catskills. In 1937, Sammy Cahn heard a performance of Bei Mir Bistu Shein at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, sung in Yiddish by African-American performers Johnnie and George. (Jennie Grossinger claims to have taught the duo the song when they were working at Grossinger’s.) Sammy Cahn bought the rights to the song for $30, reworked the lyrics into Yiddish and English, and reintroduced the song with a then-unknown group of female singers, The Andrews Sisters. It became the Andrews Sisters’ first great hit, earning them a gold record – a first for female vocalists in American history.)

JEWISH CATSKILL MEMORIES
 
You  can click on each link separately or just wait until each is finished since they will be shown in order

               <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I1izk2NWFY&feature=related>

               <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGTckVtNL7U>

               <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7DKkdQ0s_U>

               <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUgHkLoPz48>
 

Kahane on the Parsha

Parshat Shoftim

WHEN YOU GO TO WA-R, GO TO W-AR!!!

"When you go to war against your enemy..." (Deuteronomy 20:1). Why does the Torah say "against your enemy" when obviously one goes to war against an enemy and not a friend? The Midrash answers: "Said the Almighty, 'Go against them as enemies! Just as they do not have mercy upon you, do not have mercy on them'" (Tanchuma, Shoftim 15).

That is Judaism. Do not be "better" than they, since in the end you will not be better but deader. And certainly do not be "better" than the Almighty who commanded you to be cruel and merciless against those who rise up against you and against G-d, "for whoever rises up against Israel is as one who rises up against Hashem" (Mechilta, Beshalach, HaShira 6:1).

The Sifri (Shoftim 192) adds: "You are not going to war against your brothers- neither Yehuda against Shimon nor Shimon against Yehuda who, if you fell into their hands, would have mercy on you...- but against your enemies, who would not have mercy on you."

And the Yalkut (Shoftim 20) says the following: "If you have mercy on them, they will go to war against you. It is similar to a shepherd who, while tending to his sheep in a forest, found a baby wolf. He had pity on it and nurtured it. His employer saw it and said, 'Kill it; do not have pity on it lest it be a danger to the sheep.' But he did not listen, and when the wolf grew, it would see a sheep and kill it and see a goat and eat it. Said the employer, 'Did I not tell you not to have pity on it?' So did Moses say: 'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be like thorns in your eyes...' (Numbers 33:55)."

The Jewish Press, 1990

See you tomorrow

Love Yehuda Lave