Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Questions for the Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Beit Shemesh who are throwing eggs, rocks and spitting

  • Why would you move to a place called “House of Sun” if you expected people to be all covered up?
  • There are plenty of perfectly nice Ultra Orthodox Jews. Have you considered wearing a different color hat from black so that you can be identified? Since your issue is with women, perhaps pink would be a great color.
  • Isn’t Hebrew a sacred language? Then how is it appropriate for you to graffiti buildings?
  • What happens if a woman sits in the back of the bus and is checking out your neck? How is that ok?
  • Can’t you come up with another name to call the police than Nazis? It’s really distasteful.
  • Wouldn’t you rather eat those eggs?  Israeli breakfasts are so good!
  • Didn’t “sinat chinam” destroy Israel before? Are you also supplying Iran with nuclear weapons?
  • How do you know that your wives are behaving modestly if you are outside harassing people?
  • Don’t you have PR Consultants? Right now you are being compared to the Taliban. You need to work on your image.
  • Why if you wanted to fight so much didn’t you just join the IDF?
  • Aren’t you supposed to be studying?

    To learn more:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4167668,00.html

Friday, December 23, 2011

Guided Meditation

This is not a great time of year for people with depression and anxiety. You are commanded to be happy and joyful, and instead it becomes a mirror into the fact that you are not.

Although I'm pretty happy right now, my mind races. At times, it is comparable to a the track during the Indianapolis 500. There were days and nights during my 20s, where my mind could have fueled NASCAR as well.

Often this racing serves me well. I am a creative thinker and can complete tasks rapidly.

Sometimes though, I end up exhausted and depleted.

For much of my life, I have employed various interventions to cleanse the pallet that is my brain.  I have found that the most helpful "medicine" if I am an acute situation is guided meditation.

This not to be confused with meditation. I cannot do regular breathe in breathe out meditation because for some reason it causes my already burning thoughts to turn into a forest fire.

But guided meditation seems to work for me. Occasionally a negative thought or two will invade the meditation, and so I do my best to get rid of it or them. If they won't go away, I will just complete more guided meditations until they do.

And they do.

Below I am listing guided meditations that I have completed. Now the disclaimer: I have no training in this sort of thing. This is not in place of a psychologist or psychiatrist. This also just might not work for you. Also, if you feel suicidal or that you are going to harm yourself or someone else call 911.

As for the people leading the meditations, I have no clue as to whether they are excellent practitioners or total quacks. I cannot endorse them or their beliefs in any way. I can just endorse the particular guided meditation that has helped me break the negative cycle of ruminative thinking.

Tip: Don't watch the video, just listen. Be seated or lie down in a dark room or at least close your eyes. Be comfortable.






If there are guided meditations that you recommend, please include them in the comments section. 



Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Top 10 Reasons Matisyahu Shaved his Beard


10.  He wants to be in Old Spice commercials for the Super Bowl.

9. Waxing hurts.

8. He had a bet with Mitt Romney that the Bears would win on Sunday.

7.  He got sick of being called a Rabbi.

6.  He had put on weight and people thought he was Santa Claus.

5. He just found out that you don’t need a beard to be religious.

4. The hair care products didn’t last long enough to cover the gray.

3. It was itchy.

2. He saw himself on this new Bravo show and thought it was time to rethink how he observes Judaism: 

1.  It's easier to eat a jelly doughnut without having to worry about it getting in your beard. 

Best of luck to you Matisyahu. I like your music with or without facial hair. I especially liked when you sang with the PS22 Chorus. I hope wherever your spiritual journey takes you, it takes you to the recording studio.