One thing I’ve observed about the male psyche in my years of counseling married couples is a certain resistance to interruptions, however reasonable and appropriate, including (or should I say especially?) interruptions from one’s wife.

When Miriam leads the women of Israel at the parting of the sea in praising Hashem with song and dance, she is making her second appearance in the Exodus story. In her first scene, Miriam is instrumental in rescuing the baby Moses after his parents are forced to set him adrift on the waters of the Nile.

“Enthusiasm,” for most of its history as an English word, has had a mixed connotation. The word literally means “being possessed by a god” and by the 18th century had come to mean “ill-regulated religious emotion or speculation.” The Oxford Universal Dictionary gives a 19th century example: “Everywhere the history of religion betrays a tendency to enthusiasm.”

Rabbi Joseph Karo begins his code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Aruch) with a statement concerning the way one should get up in the morning:

I love to run. Three years of cross country in high school planted that love firmly in my bones. For any sport, enthusiasm plays a big role.

Over the few years of my life, I have encountered many people who were enthusiastic over one thing or another. Sometimes they seemed too excited over whatever it was than I thought was necessary for that thing.

It’s hard to imagine a more enthusiastic response to God than the one commanded in the Shema: “You shall love Hashem your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Young children tend to be the most enthusiastic people…ever. With regards to energy, they are also quite well off. Whether the energy fuels the enthusiasm or vice-versa is hard to tell but one thing is for sure, the two are inseparable. A part of it has to do with the fact that life is significantly “newer” for children than adults.

I’m laid back, or so I’ve been told. Years ago I gave a message that seemed particularly compelling to me and I thought I delivered with unusual excitement and passion.

Around the time I entered high school I discovered that it was not “cool” to be enthusiastic. As a matter of fact, phrases like “be cool” and “that’s chill” reflected the tendency towards austere distance from the world.

During the month of Elul, Jewish tradition recommends that everyone practice one of the main disciplines of mussar, cheshbon ha-nefesh, or taking an account of the soul.

The word for “you shall pursue” - tirdof - can also be translated “you shall seek.” In other words, justice is not just an abstract awareness that can be conjured up at times, but rather a social order to be sought out in nearly every sphere of life.

I can recall a time when I was teaching my children a history lesson. We had begun a study on Greece and encountered the topic of the origins of the marathon. For those of you not aware of its origins, here it is in a nutshell.

About 20 years ago, I was having lunch with a local director of a large well-known ministry. He asked me how many hours a week I put into my work. After thinking about it, I told him, on the average, I put in fifty hours a week. He smirked and condescendingly commented that it was a “light week.”

Divine-human partnership is one of the great themes of Scripture. Only God can create, but he places human beings within his creation to bear his image, to fill the earth and subdue it.

Midrash Rabbah Bamidbar asks, “Why does Adonai give the Torah in the Wilderness?” It goes on to explain that Torah is given in fire, water and wilderness. This is to teach us that, just as each of these is free, so the learning of Torah is given freely.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov is well known for his promotion of a practice called hitbodedut (make-oneself-alone). Hitbodedut is the practice of taking one hour (or however long you can) every day and pour out all of yourself before God.

I’ve taken up power dog-walking lately. Jacky, my granddaughter’s golden retriever, is a noble beast, a trained service dog that stays in his service mode best when he’s walking really fast.

Fiddler on the Roof teaches us that there is a blessing for everything in Judaism (including the czar)! One can come to the same conclusion with careful analysis of a siddur or halachic work that discusses blessings.

Diligence is one of the most underrated of human values. Some people think diligence is just being busy. It reminds me of the old Communist proverb. “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”

In parashat Vayakhel, Hashem gives instructions to Moshe regarding the Shabbat. Immediately following that, the instructions regarding the building of the Mishkan and its details are given.

So often, we can become wrapped up in the concept that the spiritual hovers so much above the physical. But the truth of the matter is, without the body which houses the soul, we don't have the ability to perform mitzvot.

So often, we have no idea the impact we can have on a life by just taking a few moments away from our time. If we look at how this story could have ended, it could have been one where the entire family would have ceased to exist within a matter of days.

After spending 34 years dwelling with Lavan his father-in-law, and after confronting and coming to peace with his brother Esau, Jacob needed a vacation. He needed some rest.

Sometimes our idea of diligence is at the expense of those around us. We feel we have the obligation to fulfill our religious duties at whatever price to those around us.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.