In Honor of Zion Ben Hannah

Last night I went with Zion and his family for the yarzheit (sorry about the spelling!) of the man Zion was named after (his father's brother). So what I learned this morning, and everything I learn throughout today will be in his honor. Today was the first day I woke up early to read 2 special "start of the day" prayers... and let me just tell you how fantastic my day has been going. I caught the bus the second I got to the bus stop... the train came as soon as my feet touched the platform... I got to work 15 minutes early (it only took me 1 hour!!) which is a record!! So I encourage all of you to start by saying the Sh'ma every morning and every evening, and see how your life changes... just try it out! And if you already do that... well then let me know and I will figure out something else for you to do :).

I have a story about last night (at the yarzheit)... I have gone to many yarzheits at the same shul over the years with Zion's family, and I always thought (wrongly) that the Rabbi was a bit cold towards women... but I must say that I think I judged him way too fast. Last night, he came into the kitchen (where the women were preparing food for the blessings afterwards), and he spent a good amount of time asking everyone how they were. While he didn't talk to me specifically (he was talking to everyone else in Hebrew), he smiled at me, and that was enough to get the warm feeling that he cared. So I think I am often too quick to judge people, and this is really disturbing to me as I may judge people wrongly and become overly opinionated without a strong foundation in that opinion. So this is my word of caution: be careful not to jump to a conclusion about a person you truly have not yet given a chance.

...which leads nicely to a bit I learned this morning... from Mishnah 13 "If the spirit of one's fellows is pleased with him, the spirit of the Omnipresent is pleased with him." The interesting thing to me about this mishnah, is that it actually gives a way to "measure" how well you are doing... and I think this is very reassuring to humans (haha or at least to me!!). However, at first glance, there seems to be a contradiction. Nobody can please everyone all of the time... and there surely cannot exist a person with no enemies... or even if the word enemies is too strong, everybody has somebody who does not think the highest of him / her. So it is explained that the only thing that is significant (and "desirable") is to be pleasing in the eyes of non-sinners. So if you don't think too hard, this makes sense... Hashem only cares if we please non-sinners... so please the "good" guys, right? However, how does one distinguish sinners from non-sinners? Is a sinner someone who sins most of the time? If you said yes, then what is most of the time? Or if someone sins at all, do we consider him a sinner? And if this is the case, then isn't everyone a sinner, because everyone (as far as I know) sins at one point or another. So then it becomes difficult (at least in my eyes) to figure out who is important to please and who is "undesirable" to please? I suppose one method is to go with gut instinct... who do you think Hashem would want you to please... but from my previous false conclusions I made about a Rabbi, I think it is fair to say that judging someone is perhaps not the way to go (at least for me)... Opinions? Answers? More questions? I want to hear from all of you!!! I know you guys are reading this, so post something!!!!

In the beginning...

there was Diana and the E train... haha ok so that is not really how the story of creation goes, but that is how the story of why I am starting this blog goes. This morning I woke up on time... early even... and I sat up in bed and looked around and said this is good. Then I got dressed and put on my makeup... looked in the mirror... and again said this is good. Then I walk to the bus stop... huge smile across my face... saying good morning to everyone I pass (even the semi-crazy singing bum that wakes-up everybody in Forest Hills each morning)... I arrive at the bus stop a whole 8 minutes early. I look around and say yeeeah this is definitely good. Eight minutes pass... no bus... another 10 minutes pass... still no bus... finally after 21 minutes the bus comes... and I say hmmm things aren't so good now. I arrive at the E train at 8... hey I could still make it to work by 8.45 if things go well... so things aren't so bad, right?

The first train comes... its an F... bad luck... I think hmmm well at least the next train will be an E... WRRRONG... another F train... then the guy on the loud speaker announces.. crrrch (horrible static sound on the intercom) there is a problem with Manhattan bound trains crrrrrrch.... there will be no V trains, and all F, E, and R trains are running local crrrrrrch... oh and coincidentally this means that it will take an hour just to get out of Queens (haha ok so fine he didn't say that, but he should have!!!)... Grrrrreat so finally the E train comes and since there hadn't been one in a while everyone and their mother, brother, and half-cousin on their dad's second step wife's side was on it. So I squeeeeze in. We move for about 2 minutes and then stop... crrrrrrrrch sorry there is serious congestion due to the fact that every train in Queens is running local so there will be insane delays crrrrrrch... so this goes on... moving for a minute or two, and stopping and waiting.... moving... stopping... waiting... ok you get the drift.

So what I haven't mentioned yet was that on my way out this morning, I saw my set of Pirkei Avos sitting on the table and grabbed one to read on the train / bus. So at least this whole time I am not standing idle and starring up the nose of the super tall man standing so close to me that I could feel his breathe on the top of my head. But none-the-less I can't help but be a bit distracted and I stop reading every now and then and think about how my perfect day has gone to pieces so rapidly. Then some man enters the train car and starts preaching about Jesus... now I have absolutely no problem with him believing what he wants... but why- at 8 am on a train that is fully crowded and keeps stopping due to congestion at places where you can't even get off the train and switch cars- why must he try to inflict his opinion on everyone... "embrace Jesus and you won't die in your sleep tonight" he screamed... and some other passenger screamed back "I didn't embrace him last night, and I didn't die, so please shut the h*ll up"... everyone on the train started laughing hysterically... all the while I am still trying to read Pirkei Avos. Then I get to the following passage:

"Rambam cites the Talmud (Berachos 6a), which differentiates between the two cases: Of course, a person who studies alone merits the Divine Presence, but the Torah of two people is recorded in G-d's book of remembrance, while the Torah of one person is not. Maharsha (ibid.) explains: When two people investigate a Torah topic together, the intellectual give-and-take will generally result in a correct halachic application. Hence, their efforts are recorded in a book of remembrance for posterity.

While it is proper to study the words of Torah aloud (see Eruvin 54a), individual learners often do not do so. Hence, unlike the earlier stich of the mishnah, which discusses two who sit with audible words of Torah between them, one person is characterized merely as being occupied with Torah (Tosafos Yom Tov)." (139).

and something clicks... now I already had heard similar things from Zion (one of my best friends of all times, who I am eternally grateful to for sharing with me loads of his Jewish knowledge... I am sure I will mention him often so I just wanted to clarify that he is a close friend and not a true rabbi... and for that matter I am not a rabbi so everything written here is MY interpretations and opinions unless otherwise stated... so seek serious advice from a rabbi... ok now that the disclaimer is out of the way we can get on with the story)... but for some reason it took me reading this passage and maybe all of the frustration of the circumstances to figure this out.

I have decided that starting this week, I will learn a minimum of once a week with Zion (hehe thank you Zion for agreeing to this :D) but in addition I decided that it would be a fantastic place to learn in a community setting if a blog was setup. So here is the deal... I will (try) to read something (for now it will be Pirkei Avos) in the morning... and pick something inspirational or something that irks me or just something I want to explore further... I will write about it on this blog... and then I hope to get some good conversations / debates / questions going from all of you!!! So it will be almost like learning together... but in an internet environment... hehe now I KNOW all of you spend hours each day just surfing the net... so if all of you just spent 15 minutes reading the daily post and giving your 2 cents worth, this could be a super fun idea. So lets give it a try!!! Send the link to people who you think would like to partake in this new fun adventure!!!

Soooo just in case any of you were wondering... I did get to work eventually (at 9.30 ... an entire hour later than I am supposed to... ) but you know what? I am sitting here in my cubicle, looking around, and I still am saying this is good. Our lesson for the day: everything happens for a reason (a very Jewish concept). Perhaps if it was not for all of the delays, I would not have read that passage, and I would not have come up with this fantastic idea!! So as Monty Python says, "Always look on the bright side of life" hehe.