Don't Worry Be Happy

Today is the Rosh Hodesh (New Moon) and the start of the Jewish month of Adar.  Purim is around the corner, which means it's time to get happy!  Easier said than done.  I plan to do that with getting myself to the Nars counter at Saks this morning where they have a special event, makeup artists, blah blah blah.

My friend and teacher Sara Esther Crispe has some good ideas, too.  Probably better ideas than mine.   Sara Esther is an wonderful speaker and very easy to listen to (for someone like me, at least).  She offers up a great lecture on finding the good and finding the joy.

I can't embed the video, but click here, it is worth it.

In the meantime, I will listen to the classic Bobby McFerrin tune.

Boy, I forgot how much I love Bill Irwin and Robin Williams in that video.

Do little kids realize that Mr. Noodle is a comic genius?

That's right, the women are smarter

We have talked about Rosh Chodesh once so far on this blog.  What we didn't mention there was the reason for why women were given the holiday of the Jewish New Moon as a gift of their own.  The Jews were getting antsy and had the shpilkas.  Familiar story?  We are so anxious and nervous and chatty and just don't know how to wait and listen.  See Woody Allen for more on that.  Anyway, yeah so we just couldn't wait any more when Moses was up on Mount Sinai getting the holy words of the Torah from God.  Believe it or not, but the story goes that they decide to build an edifice of their own.  Forget you, God, essentially is what they were saying, and they built the Golden Calf.  All the gold they had was thrown in to the bubbling pot.  They danced and sang around their very own creation.  Better than waiting, right?

Umm...wait a second, throw in your precious jewelry?  To build an idol?  A God-like symbol?

No, no, said the women.  We will not part with our adornments!  What foolish women would do such a thing?  Not us Jewesses.  No way!  We keep our jewels, God or not.

So the women kept their gold and their mirrors.  They had patience.  They knew that God would eventually deliver.  Just take a deep breath and rely on your intuition.  And, indeed, Moses eventually appears with the written words.  The women are gifted the holiday of the New Moon.

Look! There she is. Just ask the Bernsteins.

It's not a bird and it's not a plane.  It's the moon, and she's right up there waiting for you to notice her.  Recently we met a very bright young 3rd year student at the Law School  (as if there's only one) who was wrongfully convinced that the ecocult which he'd ultimately like to establish will be based around solar energy.  "The sun's bright and full of energy," he extorted as we departed our conversation on the steps of a summer camp dining hall.  Au contrare, my friend, how mistaken you are.

Lunar power is where it's at.  And she's all woman.  Any thinking woman will tell you that just as the moon waxes and wanes (gets bigger and smaller for the lunar-jargon challenged among us), so too do women have their highs and lows.  Call it what you want:  soul sistas, girl power, or women's intuition...it's all the same deal.  The moon is cyclical. What goes around comes around.  Isn't that what life is all about?

Some tunes to recall at this point include Sir Elton John's"Circle of Life."  Even Disney is capable of words of wisdom.



We also recall  Harry Chapin's "All my Life's a Circle."


Finally let us always remember Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game" which, it is claimed in this YouTube's comments section, was written with Neil Young.  Don't doubt that one.



We have the moon to thank for those.

The moon may be smaller than the sun, but she's a lot smarter and got her head screwed on straight.  She ain't the one in the news on a seemingly daily basis.  With the current energy crisis, the words climate change, global warming and greenhouse gases are all connected to the sun and enough to drive any middle American batty.  Just the other day, the White House said no thanks to solar panels.  Uh oh, we're in big trouble.

If you are a girl or woman, stare at the moon for as long as you can every night.  Once we locate the moon, that's when we usually say, "look, there she is!"  For Jewish women, it is a way of participating in the celebration of Rosh Chodesh, the new month in the Jewish lunar-based calendar.  At this moment, the moon is waxing gibbous, getting fuller and fuller to that point next week when she's a glorious full moon and Jews the world over will rejoice during the harvest festival of Sukkot  (note to self:  check out sukkah city), also known as the "time of our happiness"  (remember our blog post referring to Joy at its end?   Same deal).

If you want to get all astrological and womyn and some say wiccan about it, you can even check out We'Moon.  How interesting that their publisher is called Mother Tongue Ink.

In Yiddish, mother tongue is rightfully referred to as  mamaloshen.  Now that's something to talk about.

Just ask Inigo Montoya.



Mandy Patinkin will belt it out in the mother tongue at Queensboro Community College on September 26th.   Maybe the Bernsteins want tickets?