Are right and wrong subjective or objective states?  What makes an act wrong versus justified? This is one of the questions that arises from the holiday of Hannukah. The Jews were living in Greek occupied Palestine.  At first life was good for the Jews. Then after a time they were forced to worship the Greek gods and make sacrifices to them. Unwilling to do this, a group of Jews, lead by the Maccabees, revolted.

I am currently taking an online course called the Science of Happiness.

This is the Article from ABC 13 By Christi Myers:

Americans actually report being among the most unhappy people in the world. Anti-depressant usage has increased 400 percent since 1994. So why are so many people may be unhappy, and what you can do to change that?

Lorraine Robertson is lucky.

"I wake up happy," Robertson said.

This week was a full one and I thought we could all use a good smile.  Here is an article from 1909 (translated from Yiddish) called “The Fundamentals of the Base-Ball ‘Game’ Described for Non-Sports Fans”.  Enjoy:

The murders that occurred on Saturday were a miscarriage of free will. There is nothing redeemable about using our free will to destroy. Fortunately, for us, God has created a world that can withstand our misuse of free will. While the world might be able to withstand these acts of free will, can we?

One day I was speaking to a young man who wanted to be a professional ball player. I was encouraging of his dream and truly hoped he would make his dream come true. I also said to him that even if he did not become a ball player he would make a great coach one day. I encouraged him to broaden his definition of success, to change what winning would look like.

John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA Bruins said:

On the weekend of October 19^th we will be blessed to be lead in song and worship by Rabbi Deborah Zecher (https://deborahzecher.com/) as she joins us at Temple Beth David to be our Artist in Residence.  Please sign up now to take part in this amazing weekend.

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There are four traits that I believe are key to being a Jewish adult: prayer, analysis, leadership and teaching. These are the four tasks that every Bar and Bat Mitzvah demonstrate during their ceremony. They engage the congregation in prayer. They analyze the Torah and read it closely. They lead the service. Then lastly, they teach. 

I would like to share some of the teachings that these young men and women have come up with periodically in the weekly shabbat message. This week our teaching comes from Noah Rockoff where he discusses the importance of trust:

The other day somebody came up to me and asked if it was alright for them to attend Torah study.

I asked, “why wouldn't it be alright?”

 They replied,  “well I haven't paid my dues yet.”

The Rambam teaches us, “Yom kippur wipes clean wrongs committed between a person and God.  For Yom Kippur to atone for sins between people a person must go and ask for forgiveness.

The Rambam continues, “It is forbidden for a person to be cruel and refuse to be appeased. Rather, he should be easily pacified, but hard to anger. When the person who wronged him asks for forgiveness, he should forgive him.

Joy and thriving are not the journey but the destination. According to Archbishop Desmund Tutu, “if you set out to be joyful you're not going to be joyful”. Joy happens when we follow patterns adapted from virtues and live in attunement with people and in harmony with the greater world.

The Dali Lama and Desmond Tutu identified eight pillars to help us live lives of Joy.