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Menachem Bluming Muses: Real Faith – How to Guide
Let’s do a simple exercise. Think about the blessing you need right now. Acknowledge the obvious fact that G-d, being all powerful, can solve your problems and fulfil your needs with the click of a finger. One phone call, one ‘chance’ meeting, one turn of events can change everything. You ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Date Night
What is the big deal if I make a quick call on Shabbat? It isn’t such hard work to dial the number and talk. Will the day of rest be totally disturbed by my 30 second call?? Here’s a thought… You are out for a romantic dinner, just the two ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Why Hebrew?
Torah teaches that Hebrew is the original language. The world was created with the Holy Tongue. When G-d said “Let there be light,” He said it in Hebrew: “Yehi Ohr”. Adam was given his name because he was made from the ground (Adama), and Eve (Chava) because she was the ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Just Today
Have you ever tried snapping out of a bad habit only to find yourself falling right back into it? I don’t think you should quit your bad habit entirely. That seems too much, and apparently hasn’t worked for you in the past. I suggest you quit just for one day. ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Sweet Forbidden Fruit
This is one of the biggest secrets of life. Good doesn’t always taste good. But not-good often looks and tastes good. It has to be this way. Imagine it was the other way around. If good always felt good, and bad just felt bad, who would do bad? Our challenge ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Judaism’s Teaching on Reincarnation
I remember at school a friend failed his end of year exams and had to repeat a grade. He stayed back for a year and was no longer in our class, but rather the class below. We all moved on but he was held back. Some think reincarnation is like ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Why Can’t a Kohen Marry a Convert?!
A convert can marry a Jewish king. A convert can marry a prophet. A convert can even marry a rabbi. So there must be some reason for a Kohen not being allowed to marry a Kohen. Here is Kabalistic thought: When the Torah forbids a marriage, it is never because ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses, Why Pray in 2023?!
Question: My Dad drags me to synagogue and insists that I stay with him for 20 minutes. The prayers mean nothing to me, so why should I comply? Here’s a thought, I challenge you to try this. When it’s time for the prayers, sit with your prayer book open and ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Does Prayer Work?
Many see prayer as a wish list. It’s as if G-d is some supernal vending machine, and prayers are the currency you drop into the slot to get what you want. If that were the case, this vending machine needs repair. But that’s not what prayer is. Prayer is a ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Why Is Becoming Jewishly Observant So Difficult?
There is a story told by the great chassidic teachers, and it goes like this. There was once a simple villager who won the lottery. In the olden days, this meant literally winning a pot of gold. So with excitement and anticipation, he set out on foot for a three ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Your Continuity
A fish out of water does not die immediately. In fact, a fish out of water seems quite lively. It flips and flops and dances around, seemingly more active than it was before. An ignorant observer may think that the fish is better off on dry land, free from the ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Do Jews Believe in Luck?
Mazel tov! If Jews believe in Divine Providence (fate), why do we always use the word mazel which means luck? Isn’t that a contradiction of belief? Actually, mazel is usually mistranslated as luck. The correct meaning of mazel is “a drip from above”. Which is probably why people just translate ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: How Your Spouse Can Help You
The choice of words the Torah employs to describe the role of the spouse — “a helper against him” — seems contradictory. If a wife is supposed to serve as a helper to her husband, she is obviously not poised “against him?” Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains that the ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Your Hakhel
In the days of the Holy Temple the entire nation would gather to hear the Jewish king read from the Torah on Sukkot after the Sabbatical shmitah year. It was exactly at this time. Each mitzvah has continuous application even those that we no longer keep in their original form. ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Sin’s Value
The Torah uses numerology, a method of connecting concepts via numbers. Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value. The first letter, Aleph, has the value of one. The second letter, Beit, is two, and so on. When the letters of two words have the same value, it indicates an inner ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Remind Me To Live
Do you know the song that is sung over and over again over Rosh Hashanah: “Zachreinu Lichaim Melech Chafetz Bachayim…” Remember us G-d for life, we pray over the High Holidays. The basic meaning of it is a prayer to G-d for life in this coming year, undoubtedly a critical ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Are You Old?
Old age is not so easy to define. For a professional football player, forty is already over the hill. On the other hand, there are budding authors in their eighties publishing their first book. So who is old? We do need a clear answer. There is a mitzvah to “rise ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: How’s Business?
If a business focuses only on cash flow, it can easily fail. The cash flow may be fine and yet the business falling off a cliff, G-d forbid. We are in the final Jewish month of the year. This month is called the month of accounting. In Judaism cash flow ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: Shocked by Today’s Jew Hatred?
Are you shocked by the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the world? When Jew-hatred comes from backward extremists and street mobs, it isn’t so surprising. But when university educated, well-read westerners, who know history and have access to the facts, are able to demonize Israel and the Jewish people, something is ...
Read More → Menachem Bluming Muses: To Bris or Not to Bris..
As a parent, you need to make many decisions that will impact your child’s future. Deciding whether to make a Bris is one of them. Here are the things you need to know before deciding what to do: – A surgical circumcision is not a Bris. Apart from the missing ...
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