Jan
When All That’s Left is Love
If you need to weep
Cry for someone
Walking the street beside you.
You can love me most by letting
Hands touch hands, and
Souls touch souls.
You can love me most by
Sharing your Simchas (goodness) and
Multiplying your Mitzvot (acts of kindness).
You can love me most by
Letting me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.
And when you say
Kaddish for me
Remember what our
Torah teaches,
Love doesn’t die
People do.
So when all that’s left of me is love
Give me away.
Melissa Fox-Austin
About the author | Melissa is a Designer based in Sanford, Florida, and is the Graphic design and owner of Cherished Prints. Born and raised in Orlando, Florida, went to Rollins College (Go Tars!), and now living in Sanford. Wife to high school sweetie and mother to brilliant son (Xander), two cats (Sophie and Remy) and 1 betta (Bobby). Current life goal is to make the perfect latte and travel more. In addition to owning and operating Cherished Prints, she is a freelance graphic designer for the food and beverage industry and has worked with several clients from all over the world.
At the Beginning of a New Decade
Rabbi Allen S. Maller
Before there was matter and energy,
before there was space and time,
there was only the one God.
The Infinite One was unlimited.
All was in harmony.
All was perfect in the realm of unchanging being.
But there was no growth,
no evolution,
no challenge
and no choice.
Worst of all: there were no relationships.
The realm of becoming did not exist.
So the Infinite One decided to become a creator.
In order to do so the Infinite One-the Ayn Sof
underwent Tsimtsum-self limitation,
contracting into an infinitely small singularity.
Then it was possible to create space/time
and matter/energy.
Then it was possible to create
the laws of nature,
both invariable and variable.
Then it was possible to create
feeling and thinking creatures.
Then it was possible to create
self conscious and religious creatures.
Then God was no longer alone.
But since creation must be finite,
limited by the laws of nature and free will,
creation was imperfectly flawed.
Filled with the uncertainty: trials and temptations.
Challenge and change meant that harmony
was replaced with competition and conflict.
Free will meant that errors, egos and evils
replaced perfection.
Limits were imposed on knowledge and life.
It would be the duties of all the creatures in the universe
created in the image of God
to mend the fractures, tears
and cracks in the universe and restore its unity.
In this process both the Divine One,
and the creatures
created in the Divine image,
would grow together.
So that when the Messiah arrives
with congratulations from the Divine One
for having done our part to
create peace and harmony on our planet,
as other creatures have already done on their planets.
Then it will be, as it was before the beginning,
and God’s name will be One.
May we be the people and this be the decade,
when this universal healing, free will harmony-Shalom,
starts to become that beginning.
Allen S. Maller is an ordained Reform Rabbi who retired in 2006 after 39 years as the Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, California. His web site is: http://www.rabbimaller.com. He blogs on the Times of Israel. Rabbi Maller has published 400+ articles in some two dozen different Christian, Jewish, and Muslim magazines and web sites. He is the author of two recent books: “Judaism and Islam as Synergistic Monotheisms’ and “Which Religion Is Right For You? A 21st Century Kuzari”.