Rabbi Abrams Blog

Stopped by my uncles office yesterday. Had a good schmooze. Showed him the building presentation. It reminded him of Disney. So he told me a story. Walt Disney (who was a virulent anti-Semite) purchased 100 acres in the 1950’s to build Disneyland. He didn’t have the buying power. But he had a vision. So he reluctantly took on partners to make it happen. Got enough “no’s” in the process to make anyone depressed. But in 1955, he opened Disneyland. But from the get go, he wasn’t satisfied with it. His vision was much bigger. His next move was to purchase 42 square MILES in Florida to become Disney World. And Disney World opened its doors in 1971. But Walt Disney died before Disney World was finished. In an interview with his brother, a reporter remarked, “It’s so sad that your brother, Walt, never lived to see the finished product.” To which he replied, “You don’t understand. The reason why this was built is because Walt saw the finished product 20 years ago!” Vision is a big deal. I have

  I stopped by my uncles office yesterday. We had a good schmooze. I showed him the building presentation. It reminded him of Disney. So he told me a story. Walt Disney (who was a virulent anti-Semite) purchased 100 acres in the 1950’s to build Disneyland. He didn’t have the buying power. But he had a vision. So he reluctantly took on partners to make it happen. He got enough “no’s” in the process to make anyone depressed. But in 1955, he opened Disneyland. But from the get go, he wasn’t satisfied with it. His vision was much bigger. His next move was to purchase 42 square MILES in Florida to become Disney World. And Disney World opened its doors in 1971. But Walt Disney died before Disney World was finished. In an interview with his brother, a reporter remarked, “It’s so sad that your brother, Walt, never lived to see the finished product.” To which he replied, “You don’t understand. The reason why this was built is because Walt saw the finished product 20 years ago!” Vision is a big

This week, I received two emails asking about Purim. “Why didn’t I see a Purim event?” The reason has to do with the Jewish leap year. So this coming Tuesday is the “Small Purim”. Purim (the big one) is in a month. On March 19. Save the date. The Gregorian calendar’s leap year adds one day every four years. The Jewish calendar’s leap year adds an entire month 7 out of every 19 years! Sounds like classic Jewish complication? Yup. It’s actually quite fascinating. The reason is to keep the lunar month and solar year in sync. The cycle of the sun (four seasons and stuff) is 365 days. That’s why a year is 365 days. The moon’s cycle (from new, to full, back to nothing) is 29.5 days. Twelve months of 29.5 days is 354 days. Which is 11 days short of the “solar year”. So the Gregorian calendar has 365 days and seasons that are consistent. January is always cooler and August is always hotter (In the northern hemisphere. Southern hemisphere is reversed but still predictable). But the months have

  This coming Tuesday is the “Small Purim”. Purim (the big one) is in a month. The Gregorian calendar’s leap year adds one day every four years. The Jewish calendar’s leap year adds an entire month 7 out of every 19 years! Sounds like classic Jewish complication? Yup. It’s actually quite fascinating. The reason is to keep the lunar month and solar year in sync. The cycle of the sun (four seasons and stuff) is 365 days. That’s why a year is 365 days. The moon’s cycle (from new, to full, back to nothing) is 29.5 days. Twelve months of 29.5 days is 354 days. Which is 11 days short of the “solar year”. So the Gregorian calendar has 365 days and seasons that are consistent. January is always cooler and August is always hotter (In the northern hemisphere. Southern hemisphere is reversed but still predictable). But the months have nothing to do with the moon. The first of the month usually is not a new moon, and the middle of the month is not necessarily full. The Muslim calendar is the oppos

This past Wednesday was my first wrestling match. I didn’t actually wrestle. Matthew, a proud graduate of Hebrew School has been taking up wrestling in High School. He’s #16 in the state. I’m lucky that he’s my friend, cuz he’s a tough cookie. I found out that he was wrestling #2 in the state and could take the title for himself. I dropped everything and zoomed over to put on tefillin with him. “The nations of the world will see that the name of G-d is upon you, and they will fear you. These are the head tefillin”- Talmud. That’s what I told him. “May your opponent melt in front of you!” Later that evening, I figured he could use some moral support, so I took Moussia with me to the match. It was a packed house, and lots of energy in the room. It’s been almost 25 years since I’ve been to a sporting event, and my first wrestling match. I forgot how “crazy” it gets at these events. The Rebbe taught us to channel that “craziness” in to holiness. That’s why Natanya & I moved to Temecula

I recently had my first wrestling match. I didn’t actually wrestle. Matthew, a proud graduate of Hebrew School has been taking up wrestling in High School. He’s #16 in the state. I’m lucky that he’s my friend, cuz he’s a tough cookie. I found out that he was wrestling #2 in the state and could take the title for himself. I dropped everything and zoomed over to put on tefillin with him. “The nations of the world will see that the name of G-d is upon you, and they will fear you. These are the head tefillin”- Talmud. That’s what I told him. “May your opponent melt in front of you!” Later that evening, I figured he could use some moral support, so I took Moussia with me to the match. It was a packed house, and lots of energy in the room. It’s been almost 25 years since I’ve been to a sporting event, and my first wrestling match. I forgot how “crazy” it gets at these events. The Rebbe taught us to channel that “craziness” in to holiness. That’s why Natanya & I moved to Temecula (pretty

Do you exercise? Most of my exercise is walking. I usually walk around our long block a couple times a day. One round is our daily walk with the family after school, and I usually take a second or third round while I’m on the phone with people. A few weeks ago, I had hours and hours of phone calls. So I walked around the block. And beyond. I walked about twelve miles. That evening, I was sore. I learned that whenever you push yourself, you’ve gotta warm up. If you wanna grow, you have to warm up. And it’s not just exercise. Meetings, family life and every new growth experience requires a warm-up. Davening  (prayer) is a meeting. With G-d. And for prayer to be a growth experience, it requires a warm-up. Some people say, I’ll just jump into prayer and say the words. Of course, exercising without a warm-up is better than lying on the couch. Like prayer without a warm-up is better than not praying. But the warm-up allows your prayer to be a growing experience. Without soreness. The way I w