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An Nepalese Inspiration from the Corona-Virus

Most of my “Mendel’s Messages” posts are original ideas but now and then there’s something out there really special and want to share that which others said or wrote. This is a piece I heard from my mother who follows Read the rest

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Two Student Reactions to Torah Teachings

It so happens that today for a Bar-Mitzvah anniversary Kiddush on Shabbat Parsha Terumah, we served a selection of (very good) herring. We don’t usually that here. And the Torah reading is about the construction of the Mishkan (biblical desert … Read the rest

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The Idea Behind the 2020 Shabbaton Tshirt

Eye charts work by varying sizes and distances, we can be either near-sighted or far-sighted, sometimes we’re not seeing all things, or all people, the way they ought to be seen. Corrective vision allow us to overcome biases, limitations, blind … Read the rest

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As Simple as 1,2,3…

The Torah mentions (in Parsha Yitro) that Torah was given at Mount Sinai in the third month of the Jews leaving Egypt. The text alone seems to be no more than chronological info, a data point. But the Talmud (in … Read the rest

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Heart-Shaped Love

At some point in middle school or whatever, you learn that the heart inside our bodies (the one you see on science charts) is not exactly (though somewhat similar) shaped like the love kind of heart.

But as the Baal … Read the rest

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Despite vs Because: Meatballs and Disability Inclusion

This thought has three parts: It begins with a story, goes into a little Chassidus philosophy and ends up talking about the meatballs and spaghetti we served at the Disability Awareness, Appreciation and Inclusion Shabbat, as part of an international … Read the rest

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Jimmy G vs. Mahomes in Superbowl LIV – and us

Superbowl LIV, the 2020 Superbowl played by the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the San Francisco 49ers, features two young quarterbacks with very different playing styles and strengths. This is not something I (Mendel) would have known on my own, but … Read the rest

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2020 Regards from Poland & Israel

At the first Shabbat dinner back of 2020, students who visited Poland and/or Israel over the 2019-2020 winter-break shared memories and highlights:

For me the greatest moment was when we lit a Menorah on the tracks leading into Birkenau, the … Read the rest

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Envision Shabbat 360 UAlbany 2020

The theme for Shabbat 360 at UAlbany this year is “Envision the Possibilities”, so we’re going to try to come up with a bunch of Envision-themed concepts and messages in this Spring 2020 week leading up to Shabbat 360 2020, Read the rest

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Tevet 20 & 21 – Two Family Yartzeits

It so happens that we have two family yartzeits (annivesaries of passing) on two back-to-back Tevet dates, and since our children don’t know much about these ancestors (their great-great-grandparents) thought it would be meaningful to share something about them, and … Read the rest

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