Sam Glaser is a performer, composer, producer and author in Los Angeles. He has released 25 albums of his music, he produces music for various media in his Glaser Musicworks recording studio and his book The Joy of Judaism is an Amazon bestseller. Visit him online at www.samglaser.com. Join Sam for a weekly uplifting hour of study every Wednesday night (7:30 pm PST, Zoom Meeting ID: 71646005392) for learners of all ages and levels of knowledge.
By Sam Glaser LOS ANGELES — During the Sukkot holiday, the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles erupts in joyful celebration. Our forty-plus kosher restaurants all have sukkot attached. There’s a sukkah on top of Ralph’s supermarket. One could conceivably sukkah hop to a different hut every five minutes and not exhaust the inventory. Google “Sukkah’s […]
The Joys of Sukkot Read More »
Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Middle East, Sam Glaser, USARosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are truly portals to newness. I’ve heard “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” but God gives us that very gift during these holidays. We have a completely fresh opportunity to be the people we want to be. The Talmud illustrates that free will only exists in the present. We are judged where we stand at any given moment. On Rosh Hashana, we can establish a radical new direction, regardless of previous transgressions. This opportunity to become new again isn’t just semantics. Our cells are continuously regenerating. We know change is possible because we have changed as a result of our deepest experiences, both triumphant and traumatic. [Sam Glaser]
High Holidays: Why Are We Here? Read More »
Jewish Religion, Sam GlaserReacquainting oneself with the power of tears is the secret to unlocking the storehouse of simcha. Every passage of Torah and Nevi’im (Prophets) read over the holiday depicts different categories of this uniquely human response to joy and pain. Perhaps the best exercise during Elul is to relearn how to cry by examining the inspiration for our biblical heroes’ most poignant milestones. Here are some of the players in the “Parade of Tears,” based on an intriguing lecture I once heard in Jerusalem. [Sam Glaser]
Rosh Hashana: The Parade of Tears Read More »
Jewish Religion, Sam GlaserElul is the time to press reset, to clear the cache, reformat the hard drive. We blow the shofar every morning of the month in an attempt to awaken our souls from a tepid stupor of habit and mediocrity. We step out of our busy lives to figure out why we are living them. We can only set personal goals when we perceive the disparity between where we are and where we could be. Hopefully, we do this crucial work before we show up in the synagogue on the first of Tishrei (the first day of Rosh Hashana). Get an early start on t’shuva—that way, there’s still time for a rewrite if the first draft of our mission statement is lacking. Imagine hearing on a certain day in the future we can fill a basket with jewels from a king’s treasury. How exciting! It would be dumb to show up with a basket already full of junk, leaving no Room for the king’s gifts. Elul is the time to get priorities straight, clearing our basket so we can fill it with God’s light on Rosh Hashana. [Sam Glaser]
Elul: T’shuva – Masters of Return Read More »
Jewish Religion, Sam GlaserThe Jewish People create their own simcha (joy) and tzuris (pain). Our foes are often generated through karma of our own manufacture. The Talmud recounts the origin of archenemy Amalek, who wreaked so much suffering on our nation throughout the ages. Our patriarch Yitzchak’s eldest son was Esav, twin brother of Yaakov. Esav’s son was Eliphaz, and Eliphaz’s concubine, Timna, was a princess who wanted to convert to Judaism. She presented her case to a beit din (Jewish court) formed by the three patriarchs who all happened to be alive at the time. When they rejected her, she chose to remain with Eliphaz, stating, “Better to be a maidservant to this nation than a leader in another.” Their offspring is Amalek, an individual who was hell-bent on avenging the alleged disrespect shown to his mother and grandfather. This hatred of the Jewish People was handed down through the generations, eventually leading to the tribe of Amalek’s brazen attack on Israel when we left Egypt. Amalek surfaces again in the near genocide concocted by tribesman Haman in the Purim story. [Sam Glaser]
Memories of Tisha B’Avs past Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Sam GlaserFor Jews, there’s one wrinkle in the enjoyment of those long summer afternoons: just in case we are having too much fun, the spoilsport rabbis of yore gave us twenty-two days of semi-mourning smack dab in the middle of waterslide season. [Sam Glaser]
Family vacationing as Tisha B’Av approaches Read More »
Judaism, Lifestyles, Sam Glaser, USAShavuot is a mysterious holiday. This commemoration of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai isn’t given a specific date for its celebration; instead we are told in Sefer Sh’mot (the Book of Exodus) to schedule it seven weeks from the second night of Passover. This year Shavuot will arrive the evening of Thursday, May 28. [Sam Glaser]
A Shavuot revelation Read More »
Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam GlaserOn the first night of Nissan, we start counting until the moon is full on the fifteenth. This is Seder night, our annual birthday party as a nation. Some 3000 years ago, we were an enslaved people yearning for liberation from a decadent tyrant. Thanks to the genius of the Haggadah, every year we gather to start our calendar anew by retelling the saga of the birth of the unbreakable soul of our nation. [Sam Glaser]
Passover and the five levels of the soul Read More »
Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam GlaserFor eight nights, starting with the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev, Jews celebrate the 165 BCE victory of the Maccabees, a brave troop of priest-warriors that vanquished the mighty Syrian-Greeks. Every winter, we commemorate this military miracle by lighting the Chanukah candles, increasing the glow of spirituality in the world and saluting those who keep the dream of freedom alive. [Sam Glaser]
Chanukah: A time of dreams, visions Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Sam Glaser