HOME & FAMILY

It had been a long day. Malka Weiss, nee Braun, sat on the bus on her way home. As she gazed out the window, her mind played over the conversation she'd had earlier in the day with her best friend Tzippora.

Preferred Messages
by Risa Rotman

Hello. You have reached the Rotman family. If you know your extension number, please press now.

More Postcards from the Palace
by Bayla Gimmel

I once shared a short collection of personal examples of the amazing Divine Providence that we fortunate one living in Eretz Yisrael and particularly in Yerushalayim are privileged to see first hand. I entitled the article "Postcards from the Palace." I would like to add some more hashgachah protis gems.

LIFE JOURNEYS: LESSONS FROM THE HEART
Distraction
by Sara Gutfreund

"I want to choose the moments of my day instead of allowing them to choose me."

Memorable Choices
by Rifca Goldberg, Tzefas

How is it that some memories are so powerful, so real, that they enter my dreams and daydreams and induce the feeling that I am actually experiencing them once again? So real. So `now.'

Rosality
Reflections on Life from a Different Perspective
From an e-mail newsletter by a favorite YATED contributor, Rosally Saltsman

What's in a Name? A few people have commented on the name Rosality. Well to give credit where it's due, it was my late ex-husband's invention. He said most people live in reality - - I live in Rosality. I took it as a compliment.

Are you Mesmerized by Hypnosis
by A. Ross

Hypnosis is a state in which consciousness and will are suspended, but other functions are not impaired. The subject is then extremely susceptible to suggestion and will carry out orders at once, or long after being awakened. In the late eighteenth century, an Austrian physician, Mesmer, claimed that he could reduce people to trance state, and subordinate their will-power to his.

KEEP SMILING
Inspirational pieces by the author of inspiration books
Avrohom Tzvi Schwartz

MOVING ON

You need help. You have a problem, and you need to know what to do — you need to know the next step. You need advice that is good, advice you can follow with confidence — that you may do what you need to do, and then move one. Think then, for a moment.

POETS' CORNER

Twins, anyone?

I Have To Get Some Sleep
by Bayla Gimmel

Six-ten on the clock. It's still night; can't be morning!
I can't even fathom a new day is borning.
I'll reach for the washing cup and its bowl
And thank the Almighty for restoring my soul.

I'll wake everyone and start cooking the oats,
Round up the backpacks, the shoes and the notes.
Wash all the dishes and scrub every pan.

Tuesday's work's finished — but Wednesday's half gone.
The days fly right by me and I feel put upon.
"My button fell off. Can you sew it on please?"
"Just hand me my thimble; I'll do it with ease."

Brrring. "It's your sister with wonderful news.
A big Mazel Tov! I'm sure you'll enthuse.
My daughter's a kallah; we're having a vort.
Your baking's so special. Please make us a torte."

I'll pay all the bills and make all my calls.
Administer kisses each time baby falls.
Now back to the kitchen to whip up a meal
Bread, soup and omelettes, not a big deal.

Bags under my eyes are firmly entrenched.
I nod off at the table before I have benched.
No rest for the weary
My eyes are so bleary

I have to get some sleep!!!

Earthquakes are the result of two single tears shed by Hashem (Berochos 59a). The Tsunami was caused by an underwater earthquake.

The Tear

by Tzipporah Zien

When the doleful heart is rent
By stabbing pain too strong to bear
And every drop of strength is spent,
I ask you, "Who will mend the tear?"

How acts of shamelessness abound
And bid the passersby to stare
The great majority looks around
And widens that tremendous tear.

Ancient Egypt was depraved,
Its population truly rotted
Despite embalming in their graves
And what their Pharoahs may have plotted.

Yosef Hatzaddik was prone
To shun all tempting, lurid sights
Tending Egypt's royal throne
All through day and into night.

From his behavior we can learn
To be eternally aware
That shielding eyes is our concern
In suturing that gaping tear.

So when the heart is truly rent
And thoughts of sin cause us to fear
Our heart must rally all its strength
To spill that searing, painful tear.

Earlier we saw, regretting
All those sights which so abound
Aiding and perforce abetting
Evil antics all around.

Let's decide to quite ignore them!
Follow Yosef's righteous lead
On the other hand, deplore them!
They would spoil our precious seed.

Better yet, we should consider
That Hashem will bless each year
If you take your well worn siddur
Shedding one repentant tear.

How You love Your wayward creatures,
Waiting weeks and months and years
Till they offer better features
In paying off their past arrears.

So, if true drops of soul-felt pain
Are shed by faithful Jews down there
Let them envelop, hide the shame
Of those who flaunt their lack of fear!

Honest tears will surely temper
That Tribunal up on high
Heaven's court indeed remembers
Every loving, painful sigh.

The masses pull out all the stops
Ignoring heavenly decrees
Inviting Hashem's tears to drop
And rend the roiling, angry seas.

Just as this conflagation's source
Lies far beyond pereived creation
We Jews can influence that force
To benefit the congregation.

Our measured conduct must convey
Revealed Divine Will here on earth
When holy Jews cry out for delay
Hashem might overlook the dearth.

Perhaps rogue waves at sea abound
Whose source and end would have been tidal
But righteous, Jewish tears were found
To stem their awesome death recital.

So when the `cultured' world's affront
Brings taunts and rudeness, bribes and jeers
Transform that strength which would confront
Feel pain and shed contrition's tears.

Thus, though they're shed in privacy
Of Jewish home and kosher hearth
They'll stem the public lunacy
And strengthen upright, modest hearts.

[To be read once for the message, a second time for artistry, a third time — for the overall impact]