Rosh Hashanah is here which means Yom Kippur is just around the corner. As many of you don’t know yet, Yom Kippur is my favorite holiday. The essence of the holidays does not mean someone has to go to synagogue to hear a rabbi dictate prayers. Although it does help many people who need to pray in a community setting. The essence of the high holidays is to say prayers yourself and express your love for g-d. By knowing you are expressing prayer for g-d however you can do it, does not matter, all that matters is that you show g-d you are being the best you can be. As I always know, we need to give as much as we receive and g-d will reward us more. Some people think the only way to pray is in a community synagogue with a Rabbi dictating prayer, but this is not necessarily true. Prayers can be good and as well as how much they can be bad if you curse someone, expressing yourself to g-d is important whenever you feel you need it. There are different ways someone can express their love for g-d. When you express yourself to g-d, you should always do it in the most comfortable way you can think of doing it. Its okay to express your fears, weaknesses, and failures to g-d. It only makes you grow and become more successful. Every one fails before they succeed, it is the common ground of the learning process for success.

Although this world is changing very quickly as the internet world becomes faster and we see news feeds right away in a blink of an eye. Is this a better way of living? or Should we be waiting to receive news like we did 30, 40, 50, or even 100 years ago? We live in a world where every one has to feel connected to each other all the time. The more we feel connected and closer together, the more we all feel better, however, we also feel more pain from someone who hurts us. Is it really our right to have the internet nowadays? even cell/smart phones? People use their cell phones/smart phones even in cars because they need to feel connected to someone a lot more now. Technology is alluding us to what really matters with connections and that is waiting for someone to approach us to have a conversation after not talking for quite some time. Whatever happened to the pony express after receiving a message from someone we haven’t heard from in a long time. Now we can hear from any body from around the world in no time. Has technology given us more hope for a better tomorrow? I feel technology does give us hope because there are many positive things the technology we created helps us even though there are many negative attributes too. Bullying is one of the main things technology does to hurt us more because now people can do this through cyber space. I like what technology gives us, but people think they can start in with others without any remorse. Why are their bullies? Why do they have to use something so positive and try to make it negative. The internet is for everyone to enjoy and cherish, not to bash and rehash! Think about it…

For instance, I observe in the world how many wars are begun due to people fighting over what they think they deserve. Sometimes these wars are widespread and sometimes they can just be in a narrow field of view. At the end of the wars, people finally realize what life is all about and peace resides inside of us as g-d helps us to realize and appreciate why we are here. Money is an object for controversy because every one wants it to feel more powerful. Power lies within all of us and realistically money has nothing to do with power. Its important to give as much as you receive because you will always receive. Wars are troubling, but in time people grow. Hopefully we learn one day to accept everyone’s point of view whether we like it or not.

I hope this year in 5772 we all think about what we can do to live a better life where we can finally put our differences aside to acceptance of any human being.

More posts coming soon,

OUT, J