Life's Daily Blessings

Kerry M. Olitzky

Description

Wake up to the divine abundance that is all around you!

This inspirational companion helps you recognize God’s gifts in the everyday world around you. For each day of the year, an inspiring quote from a Jewish source and a personal reflection on it help you focus on your spiritual life and all the things you have to be grateful for.

Using both the secular and Jewish calendar as a framework, this daily devotional helps you honor the special and holy events of the year as well as identify the sacred in the mundane moments of your life. It draws on the wisdom of Jewish sources and teachings, and ancient and contemporary spiritual thinkers, to gain perspective on the abundance that is all around you—in your achievements and challenges, relationships and personal time, joy and suffering, job and home. It will help you elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary every day of the year.

Sujets

• Inspirational
• Philosophie et théologie
• Kerry Olitzky
• Hebrew calendar
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 10 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235709
• Langue: English

Extrait

Life s Daily
Blessings
Inspiring Reflections on Gratitude and Joy for Every Day, Based on Jewish Wisdom
Life s Daily Blessings:
Inspiring Reflections on Gratitude and Joy for Every Day ,
Based on Jewish Wisdom
2009 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing
2009 by Kerry M. Olitzky
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or reprinted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please write or fax your request to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail].
Grateful acknowledgment is given for permission to reprint an excerpt from Between Godliness Immortality by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, 2006 Valley Beth Shalom; www.vbs.org
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Olitzky, Kerry M.
Life s daily blessings : inspiring reflections on gratitude and joy for every day, based on Jewish wisdom / Kerry M. Olitzky.-Quality paperback ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-396-5 (quality pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-58023-396-1 (quality pbk.)
1. Jewish devotional calendars. 2. Jewish meditations. 3. Spiritual life-Judaism. I. Title.
BM724.O45 2009 296.7 2-dc22
2009001701
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover Design: Melanie Robinson
Cover Art: Judy Sirota Rosenthal, from Sheheheanu lithograph;
www.sirotarosenthal.com ; [phone].
For People of All Faiths, All Backgrounds
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
For Rabbi Eliot Malomet- colleague, teacher, and friend.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
How to Use This Book
Introduction
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Glossary of Words and Ideas
Our Teachers: Authors of Quoted Texts
Sources of Quoted Texts
Blessings Index
Theme Index

About Jewish Lights
Copyright
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
L ike so many other books whose motivation arose in the mind of Stuart M. Matlins, publisher of Jewish Lights, this book owes its birth to the same source. I ve written or cowritten several other books in this category, such as 100 Blessings: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Affirmations, Exercises for Personal Growth and Renewal Reflecting Seasons of the Jewish Year ; Sacred Intentions: Daily Inspiration to Strengthen the Spirit , Based on Jewish Wisdom; and Restful Reflections: Nighttime Inspiration to Calm the Soul , Based on Jewish Wisdom . Following their success, Stuart invited me to put into words what I teach and what we both believe: we are able to look at the world around us and see how it is filled with opportunities for blessing. The book is thus designed to help others to do the same.
This book would not have been possible without the staff support at Jewish Lights Publishing. In particular I want to mention Emily Wichland, vice president of Editorial and Production, who has many times worked her magic with my words; Melanie Robinson, who designed the book cover; and Kate Treworgy, who is so helpful in getting the message of the book out to people so that they can hear it.
I also want to thank my friend Elliot Danto for reading each word with a critical eye from the perspective of an everyday Jewish believer who yearns for the spiritual connection within the context of the organized Jewish community. He asked me many important questions about my understanding of the texts that I chose for inclusion in this volume.
I also thank Rabbi David Levy for allowing me to use some of the material he gathered for his meaning of life project.
I must acknowledge staff and board colleagues at the Jewish Outreach Institute who provide me with support and encouragement, especially our president Alan Kane, who took up the reins during a difficult transition in the life of the organization and helped to guide it forward.
Finally, I thank my family, who nurtures me with blessings each day: Sheryl, Avi and Sarah, Jesse and Andrea. It is because of them that every word I write has meaning. I feel blessed every day because of them.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
T his book is designed to be used as a lens for daily life. It follows the daily Gregorian calendar, because that is the primary calendar that most of us use to navigate our lives. But it is interwoven with the Jewish calendar and various events that mark the North American cultural calendar, as well. For those who regularly use the fixed blessings of Jewish religious life, you may find this book a helpful companion. Alternatively, it can be used on its own. Many of the entries are tied to the themes that emerge from the calendar. Sometimes dates that have become part of the fabric of North American society are noted. At other times, attention is given to the general season. Since Jewish calendar dates are generally not tied to the secular calendar, I have included them in the month or season in which they occur.
You may want to read an entry from the volume to start your day. Or you may find it a helpful way to reflect on the day s events at its end. As an alternative, you may want to consider taking a few moments out of your day-sometime in the middle-to read a selection as a means of helping you find an anchor in an otherwise chaotic world. Leave it near your bed. Put it in your briefcase or purse. Or keep it on your desk. You should feel comfortable reading it anywhere.
Don t worry about adhering specifically to the daily format. Read a section a day, or two. Look for an entry that reflects your feelings or need for a particular day. Flip through the pages. Read and reread entries that speak to you, whenever they speak to you.
Since this book is not written as an evolving narrative, it is not a book that you read quickly and then put aside. Rather, take time to read each entry slowly. Savor each word, especially the texts that begin each selection. You may find that some of them will serve you as a kavvanah (sacred mantra) for the day. Whatever approach you take to this book, let the blessings of the day buoy you and help you to shape your relationship with the holy and the sacred.
At the back of this small volume you will find additional resources, including a glossary of words and ideas, brief biographies of authors whose texts are quoted, and a glossary of sources for the quoted texts used throughout. It is my hope that these helpful tools will make understanding the material in the book more meaningful and accessible.
INTRODUCTION
B lessings abound in Judaism. Most of them are fixed pieces of liturgy that help to establish a relationship between the individual and the Divine by referencing a particular ritual or activity. So we say a blessing over wine or bread or Shabbat candles and dozens of other activities, all activities that are part of daily life or help to elevate secular days and make them sacred.
Judaism also contains in it the notion of blessing that is a result of our simply being in the world and appreciating the many blessings that God has given us. This is the blessing of the everyday. The notion of radical amazement, a phrase coined by twentieth-century theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to describe the ongoing experience of the sacred in the world, is the pivot on which this entire book is based. While some people spend their lives searching for the mountaintop experience on a regular basis, I believe that the experience of Sinai can be found in the everyday blessing of the world that surrounds us.
Jewish tradition suggests that we try to say one hundred blessings each day. We are provided with guidance as to how, when, and sometimes where these blessings are to be said. This book provides a lens through which we can see everything in our world as blessed and be motivated to say a blessing as a result, whether it is for one activity or for one hundred.
JANUARY
The Blessing of Beauty
J ANUARY 1
I always want eyes to see the beauty of the world, and to praise this wondrous beauty that is without exception, and to praise the One who did it, so beautifully, fully, to praise fully, so full of beauty. *
N ATAN Z ACH
T he Israeli poet s powerful words continue: I shall not cease from praising. Indeed to praise, I shall not cease to praise. And when I fall, I shall yet rise, if only for a moment, lest they say, He fell but he rose again for a moment to praise with final eyes. For that which is to praise, I shall not cease. What better way to begin the year and to begin this volume. It reflects a recommended posture for living-to look at the world around us in radical amazement, a phrase coined by twentieth-century theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to describe how the individual should look at the world that surrounds us. This posture encourages us to praise the Source of all, recognizing that just to possess the ability to gaze upon such beauty, and being given the privilege to do so, is to live a life of blessing. So we begin the year, as we begin each day, awestruck with appreciation and gratitude.
Sometimes it is not so easy to gain such a perspective on the world around us. Daily living can be difficult. And events do happen that darken our personal world, as well as the larger world in which we live. But that is what is so transformative about such an approach. Even amidst the sadness that constantly threatens to color things, our lives are filled with so much to appreciate. And when we forget, all we have to do is look outside and we will see so much to persuade us. Breathe deeply and say, Thank you. It is a blessing to be alive.
God as the Source of All Thing