Author Archives: Neil Harris

The commuter’s dream come true

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I recently switched jobs and my former 18 minute (each way) is now a drive of, no less, than 40 minutes each way daily.  It’s taken some getting use to, but I happen to enjoy listening to shiurim and also music (90% Jewish music and 10% non-Jewish).

Just last week, on RavMosheWeinberger.com, they reduced the price of shiurim credit to 99 cepts per credit and also started offering 50 downloads per month for only $6.99.  That’s right, you can download 50 shiurim a month for the low price of about 14 cents a shiur.  You can even roll-over unused credit to the next month.  This is incredible and for me, means I can actually learn more Torah from Rav Weinberger and also catch up on a bunch of shiurim series that I’ve been hold off on purchasing.

I even figured out that if I drive on the non-toll roads about 10 days out of the month, I will have actually saved the same money as I’m spending on the the monthly download fees.  Of course, this means that it will take a little longer to get to work those days, but that’s more time to listen to shiurim!!

Please spread the word about this great offer and go check out RavMosheWeinberger.com.

Shout-out to Mordechai HaYehudi

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I was recently visiting a friend whose mother was sitting shiva and we were talking about the fact that we didn’t have each other’s cell numbers in our phones. Now, our family has been to him for Shabbos lunch and we have davened together every Shabbos Kodesh for the past six years. So, the question comes up why didn’t I have his cell number? Because, we daven together ever Shabbos Kodesh, so why would I need to call him. I do have his email address and we’re friends on Facebook, so if I needed to I could get ahold of him. However, despite the term “social”, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are really not so social.

Being social means that when you see a guy in shul and don’t know his name, you find it out and say, “Hi”. Being social doesn’t mean (and I admit, I am a shtickel guilty of this) that because we have 223 friends in common that we should become friends or linked into a professional network.
On Purim I got up to daven at 5:30am with my son, heard megillah at 6 and then worked 4 hours, so I could rush home. I gathered my kids and our shaloch manos and drove around two different neighborhoods double parking and finding creative parking spots to be social. My kids went up to people that they don’t exactly know and gave out our very creative (thanks to my wife) parcels. We gave to friends, teachers, acquaintances, and some classmates of our uber-kinderlach. Since giving is the precuror to love, as taught by Rav Dessler zt’l, I have to give a shout-out to Mordechai HaYehudi for having the chachmah to creat a real social network for Klal Yisrael.

Goldfish and good times

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Photo from here
Growing up as a “traditional” Jew, Purim was always fun. Mostly because of the potential to win a goldfish and see how long they would live. My congregation’s Purim carnival was not only fun (even when I had to help run it as an NCSYer), but brought our members out of the sanctuary and the social hall and down into the basement. Aside from throwing ping pong balls into cups filled with goldfish, we played musical chairs, the fishing for a prize game, and if you had enough tickets you could put someone in “jail”. There were other games too, but these come to mind. The whole “Shaloch Manos” thing was pretty much confined to Sunday and Hebrew School.  It, for sure, wasn’t on our family’s radar.  All in all, it was a fun holiday when I was growing up.  Good time…good times.
I wax nostalgic and remember being surrounded by the people my family was close with as we celebrated what I understood as a victory for the Jews.  The feeling of being part of a community was overpowering.  Looking back now, it was a feeling of achdus.  Maybe because we were a massive minority in Wichita, KS, but we had such pride (especially on Purim) about being Jewish.    
I think about this now, as an adult, because the value of having fun in Judaism is something that I that I feel is important.  The mitzvos ha yom all involve connecting with others and giving, but we have to make it fun. It’s often easy to focus on our costumes, d’vrai Torah, and rushing around assemble and then deliver Shaloch Manos.  I know that sometimes I’m running around so much that I forget the simcha shel mitzvah and the simchas ha chaim.  Those are two things are worth giving over to others on Purim.
 

An inspiring evening

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Art found here

Monday evening I attended an informal dinner meeting hosted by Chai Lifeline to hear about a proposal for bike riders from Chicago to join in the amazing BIKE4CHAI 150 mile ride in NJ that ends at Camp Simcha. It’s an interesting idea that I’m really considering, since this year’s Bike the Drive event is on Shavuos.

That night I met two very inspiring people.  The first person was also attending our meeting.  He’s a 75 year old businessman who has joined the ALYN ride six years in a row.  ALYN’s ride is an intense 5 day ride in Eretz Yisrael along some serious routes. His biking chevrusa (and gemara chevrusa) also was at the meeting and related that this 75 year old man doesn’t get off his bike to walk up any of the inclines on the ALYN ride…amazing!  To be 75 years old and have that much koach is something to admire.

After our meeting, a man at the next table in the restaurant came over and asked the Chai Lifeline representatives, Rabbi Sruli Fried (director of Chai Lifeline NJ) and Rabbi Shlomo Crandall (director of Chai Lifeline Midwest) about their program.  As introductions were being made, it turns out that this fellow (a medical doctor visiting Chicago for a meeting) is, in fact, the founder of www.dafyomi.org.  He started the website in the mid 1990’s and doesn’t solicit donations or have advertisements on the site to help offset the maintenace costs.  He is one of the most l’shaim shamayim people I’ve ever met.

Oh Nuts! Purim giveaway contest

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Oh Nuts!

I say this every year, but I really do love Oh Nuts!  We always go to their  store on Central Ave when we’re in Long Island.  Their candy collections are amazing.  I’m offering my readers an opportunity to win a $30 gift certificate to Oh Nuts!

There are 3, yes three, ways to enter.

1. You can go to the Oh Nuts Purim Basket Gift page. Then, choose their favorite Purim Gift and leave a comment on my this post with the name and url of the gift yout love the most.  You must include your email address.

I’ll pick a random winner and Oh Nuts! will send you a  $30 gift certificate.  The winner will be picked Sunday night, March 4th at 10:00pm CST.

2. You can go to the oh nuts facebook page  become a fan and post on the wall the url and name of their favorite  Purim Gift Basket . They should also write “I am here via Modern Uberdox”.

Oh Nuts! will pick a winner.

3. You need to follow @ohnuts and should Tweet

“Win a Purim Basket from http://bit.ly/aWXLzp Follow @ohnuts and RT to Enter Daily”

Oh Nuts! will pick a winner.

Hatzlacha!

Sunday’s mussar morsel

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Photo of R E Lopian from here
Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian zt’l:
The verse says, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell within them” (Shemos/Exodus 25:8), upon which our rabbis comment that since it does not state “within it”, but “within them”, it means within the heart of every single Israelite.  Thus the heart is the site wherein dwells the sacred divine presence, i.e., one must feel Godliness in the heart; the source of faith is the heart, i.e., one must feel faith in one’s heart. (From the sefer Lev Eliyahu)

Maybe the most imporant video/audio link posted this year

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Last Monday, February 13th, the Rebbetzin’s Husband posted about an interesting panel discussion that Toronto’s YU Torah MiTzion Beit Midrash Zichron ran in conjuction with the Aish Thornhill Community Shul.  The program, titled, “On, of, and after the Derech”.  The event featured Dr. Rabbi Nosson Westreich, Rabbi Avram Rothman, and was moderated by Rabbi Morechai Torczyner.
The video can be seen here and the audio and is available here.