Dreams and Mazal - What do they really mean?

Dreams and Mazal - What do they really mean? - Rabbi Alon Anava

613 Mitzvot 
Neshamah
Boby

50 Simple Happiness

50 Simple Happiness

1. Read a book – Gaining more knowledge will make you better prepared to accomplish what you desire.
2. Volunteer – Helping others is a great way to boost how you feel about yourself.
3. Give someone a compliment – Brightening someone else’s day also brightens your own.
4. Dress well – Making yourself look great demonstrates to yourself how valuable you think you are.
5. Say please and thank you – Holding your behaviour to a higher standard makes you feel better about yourself.
6. Look for the best in others – When you see the best in others, the natural tendency is to start to see the best in yourself.
7. Keep a gratitude journal – Write down everything you are grateful for and refer to it any time you need a quick pick-me-up.
8. Eat well – What you consume affects your biochemistry. Eat well to make sure your body is happy.
9. Exercise – Physical exercise releases chemicals in your brain that give you a natural high.
10. Smile – Your physiology and your mental state form a positive feedback loop. Everyone knows that when you are happy, you smile but it’s also true that when you smile, you are happy.
11. Meditate – Clear your mind and melt into the perfection of this moment.
12. Get a massage – Relaxing your muscles will also help relax your mind.
13. Set goals – When you have a direction for your day-to-day experience, your life has more meaning.
14. Take action – Making progress towards something you care about is excellent way to feel a sense of accomplishment.
15. Call your best friend – Connecting with someone who cares about you and who you care about can quickly lift your mood.
16. Visualize success – When you visualize what you want as though you already have it, you get the feelings of already having it.
17. Focus on your successes - The quality of your life is the quality of your thoughts. By focusing on what you have done right, you will feel more upbeat and positive.
18. Learn from your failures – Transmute your mistakes into resources by learning from them.
19. Accept what you can’t change - By resisting what you can’t change, you waste valuable mental energy. By accepting it, you free up that energy for more constructive uses.
20. Start a conversation with a stranger – Human beings are social creatures. There is nothing quite like meeting someone new and making a new friend.
21. Sing – Although you might not like to do this public, everyone knows it’s something you love to do when you’re alone.
22. Reconnect with an old friend - Take some time out to contact a friend you’ve been meaning to connect with but just haven’t had the time.
23. Go for a walk – Take time to clear your head of any stresses and think about what is really important to you.
24. Spend time with friends and family – Nothing beats the feeling of love and connection when you are surrounded by the people you really care about.
25. Enjoy a great meal – Food is great because it involves all five of your senses. Take some time out to really saviour a wonderful meal.
26. Listen to some great music – Music has the power to stir your emotions. Find something you love to listen to and crank it up.

27. Journal – Have some alone time to really reconnect with yourself and get your thoughts on paper.
28. Rejoice in the successes of others – Celebrating the achievement of someone else is sometimes more fun than celebrating your own achievements.
29. Laugh - Make sure that each and every day, you find plenty of time to laugh.
30. Forgive yourself – We all have a tendency to be hard on ourselves and beat ourselves up. Instead of guilt, try forgiving yourself.
31. Get enthusiastic about something - Every day, make sure you do something that really gets you juiced.
32. Slow down - For a few moments, allow yourself to take a break from the hectic pace of life and just be.
33. Spend time in nature - Whether it’s a walk near a forest, or just smelling a flower, take time to connect with nature.
34. Pamper yourself - Go out of your way to do something great for yourself simply because you deserve it.
35. Be spontaneous - Allow yourself to do something on whim just because you feel like it.
36. Watch a sunset - There are few things more beautiful than watching a sunset.
37. Spend time with children - Hopefully their carefree attitude and zest for life will rub off on you.
38. Do something creative - Whether it’s drawing a painting or writing a short story, do something that enables you to express yourself.
39. Play a game - Spend some time just doing something that you enjoy.
40. Ask for help - Be willing to ask for another’s assistance and graciously receive it.
41. Daydream - Give yourself some time to just roam around in your imagination.
42. Give someone a hug - Physical contact just adds to the connection we feel with other people.
43. Breathe deeply - Deep breaths relax the body and quiet the mind.
44. Take a bath - Allow yourself some time to relax and let go in a warm bath.
45. Get into a happy environment – Your environment influences how you feel so make sure you are in one that supports you.
46. Do some gardening – Gardening is a great way to get back into nature as well as get some physical exercise.
47. Think of some pleasant memories – Reflect on some of the best times of your life and the good emotions will come flooding back.
48. Focus on the good in the world – At every moment, there are people falling in love, babies being born and individuals achieving their goals.
49. Complete an unfinished task – Do something you have been putting off for far too long.
50. Decide to be happy - In this moment, simply choose to be happy.

Essence of Adar II

FOUND IN: Rosh Chodesh Adar: Feb.- March, Purim

Article

This "Essence" is taken from the Sourcebook for Leaders, written by Rabbi Rachel Gartner and Barbara Berley Melits, for Rosh Hodesh: It's a Girl Thing! This experiential program was created by Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women's and Gender Studies to strengthen the Jewish identity and self-esteem of adolescent girls through monthly celebrations of the New Moon festival. The program is now available through Moving Traditions.

Fast Facts

Adar II is the thirteenth month of the Jewish calendar. Seven of the nineteen years in the cycle of the Jewish calendar are leap years. In those years we add an extra Adar before the regular Adar. We call this extra month Adar I, and the regular Adar becomes Adar II.

Adar II comes at the same time as the secular months March/April. "It's early in the spring. The brown trees of winter have put on gleaming costumes of bright green .... People act a little crazy – shedding heavy clothes while there is still a chill in the air, laughing a little wildly when there is no reason ...."1 We've gotten giddy; we've caught spring fever.

Because Purim falls in Adar II, Adar II is the happiest, most joyous month of the Hebrew calendar. Its motto is Mi-shenikhnas adar marbim be-simcha or "When Adar arrives, joy increases." Tradition teaches that Adar is so full of joy that it is as if Adar were pregnant with happiness. Indeed, some years we need two Adars to contain all the joy of Adar.

The mazal (constellation) for Adar II is Pisces, dagim (fish). Jews have been compared to fish swimming in an ocean ofTorah. In Adar II, we splash happily in one of the most joyous stories of the Bible, the story of Purim.

Features

Purim

Purim is celebrated on the 14th of Adar, marking the day the Jews celebrated their victory over Haman and his cohorts. Because the Jews of the walled city of Shushan fought against their enemies for an extra day, they observed Purim on the 15th of Adar. The rabbis decreed that all cities that were walled at the time of Joshua should observe Purim on the 15th as well. This rule is applied only to Jerusalem where "Shushan Purim" is observed on the 15th to this day.

The story of Purim is told in Megillat Esther. Megillat Esther (The Book of Esther) is one of two books of the Bible to bear a woman's name. (The other is Ruth.) The Hebrew Bible is often referred to by Jews as the Tanach, after the initial letters of its three parts: Torah (Instruction), Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). Megillat Esther is found inKetuvim.

Purim is one of the few Jewish holidays celebrating the talents, courage, and dedication of a woman. The story begins when Queen Vashti is banished for refusing to entertain the king's guests, and Esther is chosen in a beauty contest to be the new queen. Haman, the evil courtier, gets promoted to grand vizier but Mordechai, Esther's uncle, refuses to bow down to him.

Haman decides to take revenge on Mordechai and on all the Jews. He convinces the foolish King Ahashverosh (Ahasuerus) to call for the massacre of all the Jews throughout the kingdom. Purim means "lots" because Haman picked lots to decide precisely when to kill the Jews. Mordechai and Esther devise a plan to foil Haman's evil plot. Esther courageously approaches the king and invites him to a series of parties in Haman's honor. At the third party Esther wines and dines the king, reveals that she is Jewish, and pleads for the life of her people. Haman is hanged, and the Jews are saved.

Fabulous Females

Queen Vashti and Queen Esther show tremendous bravery in the Purim story. We will honor them both in Adar II.

Dina. Beginning in the second century CE, the twelve calendar months were associated with the twelve tribes of Israel. Adar I is an additional, 13th month which some traditions associate with Dina, Leah's only daughter, and the youngest of Leah's children.

Dina's story is complicated, and we know little about it. One day she goes out to meet the women of the local Hivite town and ends up entangled with one of the men of the place. Some traditions say that Dina chose freely to spend time with this man; the Torah implies that he imposed himself on her by force. Unfortunately, the Torah does not record Dina's own thoughts and feelings on the matter, and so we are left to speculate.

Dina's story reminds us to be careful and to make good choices in potentially dangerous situations. At the same time, it is very important to understand that when someone is the victim of a crime when he or she was simply going about freely, the victim is innocent. When we or someone we care about are hurt, there can be a tendency to wish that the victim had done something differently so she would not have come in harm's way. But we must remember that the one harmed is not in any way at fault.

Foods

Hamantaschen are the best-known traditional food for Purim. These triangular cookies, filled with poppy seeds, fruit, cheese, or prune jam, are said to represent the three-cornered hat or three-cornered pocket of the villain Haman. In Israel, hamantaschen are called oznei Haman, Haman's ears.

Some Sephardic Jews have a custom of wrapping hard-boiled eggs in pastry dough in the shape of an animal or a Purim character. These folares are baked, displayed, and later eaten as a Purim treat.

Bean dishes, such as humous, are also eaten to remind us that, according to legend, Esther ate a vegetarian diet while in the court, in order to avoid eating non-kosher food.*

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1. Arthur Waskow, Seasons of Our Joy (New York: Bantam Books, 1982), p. 115.

 

*This and additional Purim foodways information is found in Teaching Jewish Holidays: History, Values, and Activities, by Robert Goodman (Denver, CO: A.R.E. Publications, 1997).