1,000 Mitzvahs {Review}

I received a review copy of 1000 Mitzvahs: How Small Acts of Kindness Can Heal, Inspire, and Change Your Life by Linda Cohen.

When Linda's father died, she took a "spiritual sabbatical"...what a great term. During that time, she embarked on a project to honor her father's memory - performing 1000 mitzvot...acts of kindness.

Note to purists: in the introduction, she explains that she deliberately chose to use the Americanized plural mitzvahs instead of mitzvot, and to loosely view the concept of mitzvot as "good deeds" instead of only "commandments."

The book is a restructuring of the blog that Linda kept throughout her project. The mitzvot (I can't write mitzvahs, sorry) are numbered out of order, but instead grouped by subject or type of project. I like that the various mitzvot that Linda lists are written as short vignettes, rather than merely prescriptions for action. Many of the concepts are things like "Mitzvah 943: Thank Someone for the Work They Do" - simple, and don't require a lot of work or materials to accomplish.

"Encourage Your Children's Initiative" to "Hold the Umbrella" - it's quite a stretch, perhaps, to consider these all mitzvot. But it doesn't lessen the power of the idea - living intentionally and mindfully can help assuage grief, pain, and loss. Ultimately, stepping outside our own bubble and helping others in small and large ways really does give us a sense of perspective and healing.

Check out the website: www.1000mitzvahs.org
and the Facebook page: facebook.com/1000-mitzvahs

Full disclosure: I received a copy of the book from the publisher but no compensation in any other way. Anyone else want to send me free books?

Craft for Welcoming Guests

One of the biggest mitzvot of the Passover Seder is to welcome in guests.

Let all who are hungry come and eat.

I found this adorable project from Just for the Mitzvah, and we made them in my Shabbat class this past week. In case you can't quite tell, it's a coat hanger.

What a lovely way to help your kids welcome guests into their home.
How do you teach your kids about hospitality?

A Shabbat Mitzvah

What a wonderful Shabbat mitzvah...



Leave your grocery bag filled with food for your mail carrier tomorrow. I know that local food pantries are terribly in need this year. A simple and wonderful way to make a difference.

Shabbat Shalom!

Growing My Own...Tuesday Torah

It's amazing how people are impressed by something that you can grow on your own...

This was me, on Sunday morning (okay, the picture was taken Saturday night):

Thanks to some good genes, I have a lot of hair. And it's curly. And I like it...which is something of a change from high school and even college, when I hated it.

But, I digress.

Since I've arrived in Chicago, I have had 2 haircuts (the pulpit) of our synagogue. Each time, I did it with a group of kids and adults who were also donating 10 inches of their hair to Locks of Love.

This time, it was a little different, since we're out of our building.

There was still a group of kids and adults who were doing it with me. But it felt different, somehow, to be standing on the stage of Highland Park High School's auditorium, where we've been holding our Sunday School.

And yet, at that moment of the cut, the whole room felt holy to me.

(btw, my kippah says "ima" for you non-Hebrew readers out there)

Each time I say it's going to be my last haircut of that magnitude. But then I start to grow it...and it just feels so right. After all, how many of us can grow our own mitzvot? It seems almost a shame not to do it.

That's my Torah this week.
What's yours? (Leave your link in the comments)

P.S. Check out my newest crush.