Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Not Pashut Turtles 2






now its getting alittle outa pashut hands




Did you know that he likes turtles? i bet he can guess your number like they can in the link below(for all you pashut bored people out there)

what happens when you take it to far for to long

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy (Arm/ Hand) Turkey day


"Daring thief steals television despite having no arms"- Not pashut (simple) times.




Please join Mike and the fat dog Sunday nights at 12 on http://wyur.org/

Monday, November 3, 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Pashut-BALL (bees too)








In this day and time we know that we don't live in "pashut times" , but in life we must strive Pashut. Pashut is our goal, and our life. So until them it still remains "not pashut times"


BTW hashem made bees so we can have honey iy'h in our land of Israel so here are some benefits of hashems honey,http://www.bees-online.com/HealthBenefitsOfHoney.htm

Monday, September 29, 2008

Shana Tova!

From everyone here at N.P.T, we wish all of our dedicated readers a happy and healthy sweet new year.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Not PETA times

First this...
http://www.vosizneias.com/20054/2008/09/05/postville-ia-peta-usda-should-install-video-cameras-at-agriprocessors-slaughterhouse/

But now this?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.
http://www.wptz.com/health/17539627/detail.html

Some people just have way to much time on their hands.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Marijuana Flavored Lollipops

PASHUT -POPS

http://www.kahsoon.com/2005/07/03/marijuana-flavored-lollipops/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfqoDxPTOng (high wittiness news)



http://www.movies.martialarm.com/videos/Martially_Humourous/Karate_on_weed_-_very_funny (karate weed kid)



and lastley review the sugya on POT hababikisnin or kislack- thats Jay kislack. (thanks shabtai)




(Pot haba- bikis'nin Gemera brachos 42a)

Monday, September 8, 2008

YE-SHE-VA

Just one more reason to come to the Drage...

"A Yeshiva University professor left two years ago as a man - and returned last week as a woman."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09082008/news/regionalnews/ye_she_va_128002.htm

Thanks to Rebbi for the link and for always keeping tabs on his Alma mater.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Not Pashut Times - Fall Semester '08

With the start of the new zman (or school year for you secular folk) , comes many not so pashut times. Starting anything new brings some bumps in the road, but this past week has been extra N.P. Coming back to college with all the accompanied stresses was especially rough after a very relaxing and much needed summer break. Here are just a few of the not pashut things that I have come across in the past week alone...

Not Pashut 1 - Moving
This past Sunday while everyone else in America was enjoying their Labor Day BBQ's, myself and 4 other of my roomates had the zechus of moving out of the crescent. We started at noon, cleaned and cleared everything from the 3 story house we called home last year, packed it into a uhaul and moved it all a few blocks away. By the time we moved it all back in to our new home, it was 3a.m. It was a crazy day, my hands burned for a few days after from all the moving and I'm still sore from it all.




Not Pashut 2 - Pritzus
Moon only brought to my attention what everybody knows - that the pritzus all over college campuses is nisht pashut. I hear that even in Y.U they have this problem. Apparently, many Stern girls come uptown because they have nothing better to do than to watch the Macs and get macked.









Not Pashut 3 - Textbooks


The cost of textbooks is insane. This textbook alone cost me $170! If I were to have bought all of my textbooks at the bookstore, I would be looking at a bill of over 500 beans. I don't understand how the average QC student affords it, or how these company's can get away with it, but I'll tell you one thing I do know - that the cost of textbooks definitely aint pashut.





Well it can only get better from here; the new apartment is almost all moved in, and is looking really nice and clean(thanks stoke), the winter is right around the bend and as the weather goes down the clothes get put on, and you can always get some money back from selling your textbooks online. I wish everyone a great Elul and a good new start to your zman and/or school year. If your feeling stressed or overwhelmed, feel free to share your recent N.P encounters right here. IT HELPS.

Good Shabbos!!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Shelo Asani Goi

I'm pretty sure I've seen this guy on moniot bet shemesh getting off at "narkis"...

Monday, August 25, 2008

not pashut parade

Apparently running for the mayoralty of Jerusalem on a haredi "horse," Arkadi Gaydamak on Monday expressed his fury over the "gay pride" parade held in Jerusalem and said that "as mayor, I will never let" such an event take place.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219572119653&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


pretty ironic considering his name...

Sunday, July 27, 2008

beer here, beer everwhere

a House of beer (nebuch)



Man spent $1,000 a week on beer



http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSSYD22265820080715



And for those goyim who do not know how to rate beer click this, "http://www.ratebeer.com/"



Whats with the obbsesion with beer?

It is what they live for.



and in this day and age we all can see how not PASHUT the times are. The world contains bahayMOs and all those creations. so the next time you say or hear beer here, realize what we do NOT live for.

-dont forget to uplift your beer (no pun intended)
Let me tell you what a great way to lead by example!

Monday, June 30, 2008

This PASHUT PARSHA

This was from Aish haTorah, i think its amazing chizuk. SO have a pashut week and a tasty fabulous and phenomenal shab!


Moses' Mistake Torah Portion: Chukatby Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt
The story of Moses striking the rock is only a short seven verses of the Torah. And yet it is one of the most well-known stories of all. (Try it yourself: Write a story in seven sentences that will be remembered by much of the world three and a half millennia hence. You've got to be impressed.)
Getting back to the point, however, what exactly is the nature of Moses' mistake? Does he get angry, does he lose his head for a moment, does he get impatient?
We need not conjecture. The Torah spells it out for us in simple Hebrew: Moses, the lawgiver, the one who brought the Ten Plagues to Egypt, the one who split the Sea of Reeds and produced manna from Heaven, "did not have enough faith in God" (Numbers 20:12).
Now whatever "Moses not have enough faith in God" may mean (and it requires some serious explanation), one thing is clear - this is no little mistake. It's serious stuff. For the Torah to say this about Moses, and for God to 'punish' him by prohibiting his entry into the land of Israel, he must have done something pretty bad.
King Solomon tells us in Proverbs (24:16), "A righteous man falls seven times and rises. An evil man falls but once." Every one of us, even Moses, transgresses. Every one of us makes mistakes. Often big mistakes. But the issue is not whether you make mistakes, it's how you deal with the mistakes you make.
Steal once and you are not a thief. You are a good person who has stolen. Steal a number of times and you are still not a thief. You are a good person who steals. Identify with the act of stealing; see yourself as a thief - only then do you become a thief. A righteous man might steal, but he will try to change who he is. He may steal again and try to stop himself again. He may steal many times and "rise," as Solomon says. He only becomes the evil man when he stays down; when he says that he cannot rise; when he gives up on ever being good and stops trying. By so doing, he creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Moses made a major mistake. In fact, he made a few major mistakes. And yet, he is considered the greatest man in Jewish history: the lawgiver, the teacher of all of Israel, the man who spoke to God "face to face."
God does not demand, or even request, perfection. He merely asks that we strive toward that goal. There are many stumbling blocks along the way. And we are bound to stumble, and stumble again. But it's crucial that we see them as setbacks, not defining moments.
We all make mistakes. It's part of being human. But don't identify with those mistakes. Don't see yourself as being incapable of moving past what you have done. If you are a good person who makes mistakes, you will always rise again no matter how low you fall. If, however, you see yourself as a "bad" person - i.e. since you are "a thief," you might as well steal. In that case, you'll stay down when you fall. And that's the biggest mistake of all.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

(NP)Tefillin Barbie

Click on the link for all your tefillin barbie needs...
http://jwa.org/teach/golearn/jan08/
"In 2006, Jen Taylor Friedman—one of the first soferot (female ritual scribes) in a male-dominated profession—gave Barbie a new look: she created a version of the famous doll sporting modest clothing, a tallit (prayer shawl) and her own miniature pair of tefillin (phylacteries). tefillin Barbie—whose picture swept through the blogosphere—provokes reactions that range from disgust to shock to amusement to great admiration."

props to Elisha for the pics and links

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Sohn - A Young Jew

check out this guys name...
someone has been hitting the Reishit gym

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awv7CN1uQ4o

yes, I do google and youtube my name when I am bored, don't you?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

RBS - Mini America?

To say the least, this video annoyed me. It is definitely not pashut.


http://www.yiddele.com/showvideo.aspx?id=1009

If you want to live in mini America, why don't you just stay in AMERICA!?
The reasons this video gives to move to Israel are; people speak English, they sell tacos and other American foods, and you don't have to beg relatives to bring you stuff back from America, because you have it all there! I thought the reason to make aliyah is to get away from America...

Monday, June 16, 2008

A TRIBUTE TO: כבני צאן









Young Sheeps- No Not Related Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamb



And their cousins





Sohn U bakar,


Kivnay Sohn,

Poteach et Yadecha umasbiya chol chai raSOHN,


Rav Menachim Mendel ShneerSOHN,


It's SOHNing Outside,

Its raining its SOHNing the old man is shtayging,

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Pasut PINE-SOL




In these days with all the bacteria in our houses, we need something so pashut yet powerful so g-d created ,





Did you know that it has 5 times the cleaning power than the leading number 2 brand.






Thats why this world has become not pashut with 2 headed turtles and everything like that

Thursday, May 22, 2008

G-heights



Yes that's right! It's not pashut that a fellow Jew wants to give away what many Jewish people died for. And I'm not talking about the shwarma place near YU because that's a different Golan. I'm talking about the one in the Holiest land ever. If i recall correctly while i was visiting the Golan last year it was a BIG NES that we even won the war and were able to control the Golan. As much as i want to say how dare a Jew give away something that it rightfully ours, all i can say is that if there is one thing we can learn is that Rav Shimon bar Yochai, who hid in a cave for 14 years to escape the "not pashut" roman persecution. When he was finally able to come out, one of the first lessons he taught was that we should always try to see the good in what people do even when at first it's not apparent.

Hence, even though i know we see nothing apparently good in the slightest bit about even negotiating the Golan. I know hash-m has got our back! Do you know why? Because hash-m does it big! pashut Big

O and btw the new Polish (really Chinese) bicycle (i heard Reishit's getting one for the new gym) Now that's not what we call Pashut bicycle or unicycle

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Caption Contest

Got this idea from another site...

What Not Pashut Caption would you put on this picture of George Bush and Mahmoud Abbas in Egypt?

Friday, May 16, 2008

A reason to be happy- even during sefirah


Why Israel is the world's happiest country
By Spengler

Envy surrounds no country on Earth like the state of Israel, and with good reason: by objective measures, Israel is the happiest nation on Earth at the 60th anniversary of its founding. It is one of the wealthiest, freest and best-educated; and it enjoys a higher life expectancy than Germany or the Netherlands. But most remarkable is that Israelis appear to love life and hate death more than any other nation. If history is made not by rational design but by the demands of the human heart, as I argued last week , the light heart of the Israelis in face of continuous danger is a singularity worthy of a closer look.

Can it be a coincidence that this most ancient of nations [1], and the only nation persuaded that it was summoned into history for God's service, consists of individuals who appear to love life more than any other people? As a simple index of life-preference, I plot the fertility rate versus the suicide rate of 35 industrial countries, that is, the proportion of people who choose to create new life against the proportion who choose to destroy their own. Israel stands alone, positioned in the upper-left-hand-quadrant, or life-loving, portion of the chart [2]. Those who believe in Israel's divine election might see a special grace reflected in its love of life.

In a world given over to morbidity, the state of Israel still teaches the world love of life, not in the trivial sense of joie de vivre, but rather as a solemn celebration of life. In another location, I argued, "It's easy for the Jews to talk about delighting in life. They are quite sure that they are eternal, while other peoples tremble at the prospect impending extinction. It is not their individual lives that the Jews find so pleasant, but rather the notion of a covenantal life that proceeds uninterrupted through the generations." Still, it is remarkable to observe by what wide a margin the Israelis win the global happiness sweepstakes.

Nations go extinct, I have argued in the past, because the individuals who comprise these nations choose collectively to die out. Once freedom replaces the fixed habits of traditional society, people who do not like their own lives do not trouble to have children. Not the sword of conquerors, but the indigestible sourdough of everyday life threatens the life of the nations, now dying out at a rate without precedent in recorded history.

Israel is surrounded by neighbors willing to kill themselves in order to destroy it. "As much as you love life, we love death," Muslim clerics teach; the same formula is found in a Palestinian textbook for second graders. Apart from the fact that the Arabs are among the least free, least educated, and (apart from the oil states) poorest peoples in the world, they also are the unhappiest, even in their wealthiest kingdoms.

The contrast of Israeli happiness and Arab despondency is what makes peace an elusive goal in the region. It cannot be attributed to material conditions of life. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia ranks 171st on an international quality of life index, below Rwanda. Israel is tied with Singapore on this index, although it should be observed that Israel ranks a runaway first on my life-preference index, whereas Singapore comes in dead last.

Even less can we blame unhappiness on experience, for no nation has suffered more than the Jews in living memory, nor has a better excuse to be miserable. Arabs did not invent suicide attacks, but they have produced a population pool willing to die in order to inflict damage greater than any in history. One cannot help but conclude that Muslim clerics do not exaggerate when they express contempt for life.

Israel's love of life, moreover, is more than an ethnic characteristic. Those who know Jewish life through the eccentric lens of Jewish-American novelists such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, or the films of Woody Allen, imagine the Jews to be an angst-ridden race of neurotics. Secular Jews in America are no more fertile than their Gentile peers, and by all indications quite as miserable.

For one thing, Israelis are far more religious than American Jews. Two-thirds of Israelis believe in God, although only a quarter observe their religion strictly. Even Israelis averse to religion evince a different kind of secularism than we find in the secular West. They speak the language of the Bible and undergo 12 years of Bible studies in state elementary and secondary schools.

Faith in God's enduring love for a people that believes it was summoned for his purposes out of a slave rabble must be part of the explanation. The most religious Israelis make the most babies. Ultra-Orthodox families produce nine children on average. That should be no surprise, for people of faith are more fertile than secular people, as I showed in a statistical comparison across countries.

Traditional and modern societies have radically different population profiles, for traditional women have little choice but to spend their lives pregnant in traditional society. In the modern world, where fertility reflects choice rather than compulsion, the choice to raise children expresses love of life. The high birthrate in Arab countries still bound by tradition does not stand comparison to Israeli fertility, by far the highest in the modern world.

The faith of Israelis is unique. Jews sailed to Palestine as an act of faith, to build a state against enormous odds and in the face of hostile encirclement, joking, "You don't have to be crazy to be a Zionist, but it helps." In 1903 Theodor Herzl, the Zionist movement's secular founder, secured British support for a Jewish state in Uganda, but his movement shouted him down, for nothing short of the return to Zion of Biblical prophecy would requite it. In place of a modern language the Jewish settlers revived Hebrew, a liturgical language only since the 4th century BC, in a feat of linguistic volition without precedent. It may be that faith burns brighter in Israel because Israel was founded by a leap of faith.

Two old Jewish jokes illustrate the Israeli frame of mind.

Two elderly Jewish ladies are sitting on a park bench in St Petersburg, Florida. "Mrs Levy," asks the first, "what do you hear from your son Isaac in Detroit?" "It's just awful," Mrs Levy replies. "His wife died a year ago and left him with two little girls. Now he's lost his job as an accountant with an auto-parts company, and his health insurance will lapse in a few weeks. With the real estate market the way it is, he can't even sell his house. And the baby has come down with leukemia and needs expensive treatment. He's beside himself, and doesn't know what to do. But does he write a beautiful Hebrew letter - it's a pleasure to read."

There are layers to this joke, but the relevant one here is that bad news is softened if written in the language of the Bible, which to Jews always conveys hope.

The second joke involves the American businessman who emigrated to Israel shortly after its founding. On his arrival, he orders a telephone, and waits for weeks without a response. At length he applies in person to the telephone company, and is shown into the office of an official who explains that there is a two-year waiting list, and no way to jump the queue. "Do you mean there is no hope?," the American asks. "It is forbidden for a Jew to say there is no hope!," thunders the official. "No chance, maybe." Hope transcends probability.

If faith makes the Israelis happy, then why are the Arabs, whose observance of Islam seems so much stricter, so miserable? Islam offers its adherents not love - for Allah does not reveal Himself in love after the fashion of YHWH - but rather success. "The Islamic world cannot endure without confidence in victory, that to 'come to prayer' is the same thing as to 'come to success'. Humiliation - the perception that the ummah cannot reward those who submit to it - is beyond its capacity to endure," I argued in another location. Islam, or "submission", does not understand faith - trust in a loving God even when His actions appear incomprehensible - in the manner of Jews and Christians. Because the whim of Allah controls every event from the orbit of each electron to the outcome of battles, Muslims know only success or failure at each moment in time.

The military, economic and cultural failures of Islamic societies are intolerable in Muslim eyes; Jewish success is an abomination, for in the view of Muslims it is the due of the faithful, to be coveted and seized from the usurpers at the first opportunity. It is not to much of a stretch to assert that Israel's love of live, its happiness in faith, is precisely the characteristic that makes a regional peace impossible to achieve. The usurpation of the happiness that Muslims believe is due to them is sufficient cause to kill one's self in order to take happiness away from the Jewish enemy. If Israel's opponents fail to ruin Israel's happiness, there is at least a spark of hope that they may decide to choose happiness for themselves.

Why are none of the Christian nations as happy as Israel? Few of the European nations can be termed "Christian" at all. Poland, the last European country with a high rate of attendance at Mass (at about 45%), nonetheless shows a fertility rate of only 1.27, one of Europe's lowest, and a suicide rate of 16 per 100,000. Europe's faith always wavered between adherence to Christianity as a universal religion and ethnic idolatry under a Christian veneer. European nationalism nudged Christianity to the margin during the 19th century, and the disastrous world wars of the past century left Europeans with confidence neither in Christianity nor in their own nationhood.

Only in pockets of the American population does one find birth rates comparable to Israel's, for example among evangelical Christians. There is no direct way to compare the happiness of American Christians and Israelis, but the tumultuous and Protean character of American religion is not as congenial to personal satisfaction. My suspicion is that Israel's happiness is entirely unique.

It is fashionable these days to speculate about the end of Israel, and Israel's strategic position presents scant cause for optimism, as I contended recently. Israel's future depends on the Israelis. During 2,000 years of exile, Jews remained Jews despite forceful and often violent efforts to make them into Christians or Muslims. One has to suppose that they did not abandon Judaism because they liked being Jewish. With utmost sincerity, the Jews prayed thrice daily, "It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to acclaim the greatness of the One who forms all creation, for God did not make us like the nations of other lands, and did not make us the same as other families of the Earth. God did not place us in the same situations as others, and our destiny is not the same as anyone else's."

If the Israelis are the happiest country on Earth, as the numbers indicate, it seems possible that they will do what is required to keep their country, despite the odds against them. I do not know whether they will succeed. If Israel fails, however, the rest of the world will lose a unique gauge of the human capacity for happiness as well as faith. I cannot conceive of a sadder event.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Mazal Tov!

It is currently being reported by reishit.org that our chef, Daniel Barg, is engaged. Mazal Tov!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Real Big - NES


Homer Simpson saying its not pashut times!


This story is lechavod Yom Haatzmaut, reported via Rav Lazer Brody. Its such a Nes that its not "pashut" - Enjoy! Chag sameach.



P.S lets not forget about Rabbi Akiva's talmidim. because they did it real- big.


Tuesday, April 29, 2008


What do Goyim live for? We know that this world is not what we call "pashut" when goyim are looking for flying pigs and offering 10,000 smackroos for finding it! One word "Nebuch"
If anyone has any ideas for behar or would like to me write anything let me know. Below i placed a link for what goyim live for - Enjoy

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

pashut

After sorting through thousands of video entries, we at The Not Pashut Times are proud to announce that דניאל יהושע רוחני from Chaifa, Israel is the winner of the 5768 "Most Not Pashut Song of the Year Award," with his new hit single "Ze lo Pashut." Check out the Israeli pop charts where his song is quickly rising to the top!

Congrats.

And we would also like to thank Brian Koegel who's "Not Pashut Pump Up Song" came in a very close second. There is always next year Brian.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Sorry But your Flight Has Been Delayed - Due to a Chillul Hashem

Man Davening Shemona Esray On Airplane Removed From Aircraft

CBS2 reports that a passenger who left his seat to Daven in the back of a plane before it took off, ignoring flight attendants’ orders to return, was removed by an airport security guard.

The report states: “The Orthodox Jewish man, who wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat, stood near the lavatories and began saying his prayers while the United Airlines jet was being boarded minutes before takeoff at JFK Airport on Wednesday night, fellow passenger Ori Brafman said.

When flight attendants urged the man, who was carrying a religious book, to take his seat, he ignored them, Brafman said. Two friends, who were seated, tried to tell the attendants that the man couldn’t stop until his prayers were over in about 2 minutes, he said.

“He doesn’t respond to them, but his friends explain that once you start praying you can’t stop,” said Brafman, who was seated three rows away.

When the man finally stopped praying, he explained that he couldn’t interrupt his religious ritual and wasn’t trying to be rude. But the attendants summoned a guard to remove him, said Brafman, a writer who had been visiting New York to talk to publishers.

The plane, Flight 9 to San Francisco, took off without the man.

A spokeswoman for United Airlines confirmed the man was taken off the plane and put on another flight Thursday morning.

Urbanksi said flights cannot depart if all passengers are not in their seats, which risks a delay, and it is important that passengers listen to the instructions of the flight crew.

-----------------------------------------

When I saw this article I was greatly disturbed. With everything else going on in the world, is this really what the Jews need? For a story like this getting out to news circuits all over the country? Why wouldn't any average American not automatically equate this story with all the other story's we hear about a crazy person getting kicked off a plane or even a terrorist threat on a plane c''v. I don't understand why this yid had to get up and go to the back of the plane to daven RIGHT BEFORE TAKEOFF!? Was he too good to daven in his seat like most all rabanim hold is totally permissible? If he was so pious, he would have found an earlier minyan to daven with or scheduled his flight for a more convenient time. I know we have to be dam lechav zchut-- maybe his flight got delayed and the sun was setting, or maybe he was supposed to daven with a minyan at home, but his house was too crazy for him to leave. But in these N.P.T, why make this chillul hashem? Of course the article will point out that you are an "Orthodox Jewish man, who wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat." If he wore a goatee, a baseball cap, and a north face would they have mentioned that too? Everyone has to be aware that these are not pashut times! - when us Jews are in public, we are constantly being watched!



Monday, April 14, 2008

Parshat Tazria & Parshat Metzora

Parshas Tazria begins, "If a woman conceives(Tazria) and gives birth..." After the first eight passukim of Parshat Tazria discuss laws dealing with childbirth, the rest of the parsha and subsequent parsha deal with all the different types of laws regarding tzara'as. This begs the question; what is the connection between the name of the parsha, Parshat Tazria, and the affliction of tzara'as?

The Rebbi answers this question in his Likutei Sichos, quoting a fundamental principle in Jewish Philosophy. This is that the punishments administered by the Torah are not intented to harm a person, but rather, the punishment is for that persons own benefit. Suffering through punishment cleanses the soul, allowing it to come close to God once again. In the case of the Metzora, it is clear that the punishment is actually for his own benefit. For by being declared ritually impure, requiring total isolation, he will have time to think about his sins, reflect on his past behavior, and amend his behavior, because there is simply no one to speak with him. He will surely think twice the next time he thinks of speaking lashon hara.

It is now clear that in the case of the tzara'as sufferer, the Torah's "punishment" was really for his own good, aimed at helping the sufferer correct his ill ways and begin a new life, lashon hara free. Without this exact punishment, the transgressor would never learn from his mistakes. It is now clear why the name of this parsha is Tazria. To teach us that even though one sinned, one can always repent and fix his ways. There is always the opportunity for Teshuva, and that in the end, a punishment can be for the better.

I think you can find a similar idea in Shabbos. In Friday night davening before shemoneh esrei, we say "And the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath... it is a sign forever that in six days, Hashem made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed(Vayinafash)." This translation of "Vayinafash" - refreshed, is of the opinion of Rashi. However, the Ramban takes the root of the word "nefesh" - soul, and says that the heaven and earth were given a soul on Shabbos and that the creation of the seventh day gave a new spiritual dimension to the universe. So to, Shabbos also gives our body's a new spiritual awakening that we were lacking during the week. During the week, we are filled with the constant clutter of everything not holy; school, work, the internet... but on Shabbos, we clear that clutter away, and we get to immerse ourselves in pure spirituality.

This idea can be compared to the idea I mentioned earlier with tzara'as. All week long, we are impure, its almost as if we have tzara'as. But on Shabbos, we are isolated. We have no school. No work. No internet to log on to or T.V to watch. We are only involved in the spiritual, and Shabbos is the time to reflect back on your past week. You have time to think about yourself, your midot, and your Avodas Hashem, without any other distractions. On Shabbos, we are reborn, and our souls are refreshed to give a new spiritual dimension to ourselves.

The problem we face is taking the spiritual high we get from Shabbos and bringing it with us to the following week. It is hard enough to get that high, let alone carry it with us through the week and the not pashut times we live in. But if we really use Shabbos what it is meant for; for spiritual growth, Torah and rest from the day-to-day trials and tribulations of the the week, then we can truly be "reborn" and go into every week with a fresh spiritual awakening that can last us from Shabbos to Shabbos and until Moshiach comes.

Not Pashut Times!

In this day in age, we are living in "not pashut times." These times of ours are largely not pashut, and especially not pashut where we call home - America(Galus). The goal of this blog is to try to illustrate and verify how these times are not pashut, while at the same time, try to incorporate ideas on how to prevail over these "N.P.T" through Dvar Torah, unique insights, and hopefully some laughs.