Mar 1st, 2010
by rabbifink.
The Shul on the Beach Purim 2010
This Purim, The Shul On The Beach opened its doors to the entire Venice / Santa Monica community to join in a Purim Celebration. An excellent turnout from our members, friends and neighbors set the stage for a truly memorable afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. Beithalachmi prepared a wonderful Purim feast that was partially sponsored by Yossi and Joannie Ziff on the occasion of their second anniversary. As always, Jeff Liss planned an excellent party, including first class entertainment (see the previous post), refreshments and a costume contest. Most importantly, our community really stepped up to the plate in terms of hospitality, friendliness and warmth. Led, once again, by Rabbi Mintz, many, many guests were ushered into the Shul. (more…)
Oct 21st, 2009
by rabbifink.
This is post #200 on finkorswim.com. Congratulations to me. As promised, I will do a best of the first 200 posts in the next few days. In the meantime, here is this…
It has been a short 10 and a half months since this blog opened it’s doors to the public. I have had a blast writing my thoughts, sharing links and Jewish content with you, the readers.
The blog gives you a glimpse into a slice of my life. But that is all it is, a slice.
My life goes way beyond this blog. (more…)
Oct 19th, 2009
by rabbifink.
We took the family to Santa Monica Pier on Sunday and our six year old son proved to be smarter than a Supreme Court Justice!
It is so beautiful to walk along the beach and observe all the excitement along the boardwalk and pier. As always, we had a great time in Santa Monica.
For the last few years there has been a protest / exhibit just north of the pier. The protestors are against war in general, the Iraq war in specific and pretty much the entire defense budget of the United States.
They call it Arlington West and they have set up a faux graveyard in the sand representing the fallen soldiers in what they call a criminal war. (more…)
Sep 25th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Video Post
It has been a while since I posted a video of Ozzie. The last video showed him crawling to his toys. That was 4 months ago and boy how things have changed since then.
Even more has changed since I posted the first video of Ozzie playing a game.
Babies change every day. They learn new things every day. We can learn a lot from babies.
Especially at this time of year as we attempt to make changes in our lives. Sometimes it is hard to make change, I think it can be helpful to observe others who are succesful at learning to behaviors and attitudes. Babies definitely change drastically from day to day and month to month and year to year.
As adults we need to “re-learn” how to change. We need to be more like babies to a certain extent. (more…)
Sep 15th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Yesterday morning I received a blogging gift.
Sometimes there is just not much to write and that’s every bloggers worst nightmare. I had a few things that were on my mind that I wished to share but none of those ideas fermented into anything worth posting.
I love blogging and I think it is important to supply fresh content as often as possible. It is no fun to see the same posts every day. I needed something new.
Then I went outside and I found what is perhaps the most disturbing flyer I have ever seen attached to my car. (more…)
Aug 31st, 2009
by rabbifink.
We took the family on a Sunday trip to Pasadena to see the famous Huntington Gardens.
Esteemed Pacific Jewish Center, Board Member, Alan Lipman first told me about this landmark a few months back. He described Huntington Gardens as a place of natural beauty, educational value and cultural significance. I had been looking forward to seeing the gardens in person ever since then.
Yesterday, I discovered for myself that Huntington Gardens is a “must see” attraction in the Los Angeles area.
(more…)
Aug 20th, 2009
by rabbifink.
This week’s big sports news involved my favorite athlete to hate, Brett Favre.
I mentioned Favre a while back in a post about immaturity and athletes. Back then, I was contrasting the complimentary way in which Favre is recognized for his youthful exuberance and the way athletes who act immaturely and hold out for money or take PEDs are lambasted. (Read all about it here.)
I dislike Favre, but it is not really his fault. ESPN makes me hate Favre with over-reporting and unprofessional, blatant favoritism and flattery of Favre. It is just impossible to like a guy who is in the news that much.
For others, the hatred toward Favre is due to his “treachery”. To illustrate I have some photos for you. (more…)
Aug 10th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Finding the perfect blog URL is an adventure. The choices are endless and one’s mood can affect one’s opinion tremendously, leading to potential buyer’s remorse.
As I talked on the phone with my blog consultant, Judd Magilnick, we searched for the perfect concept. Our ideas ranged from the ultra bland, finkblog.com to the ultra creative ifinkican.com. We were having a hard time agreeing and my family was nixing just about every suggestion. (more…)
Jun 15th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Sunday was the launch of a new initiative at Pacific Jewish Center.
First, some matters of introduction.
We are blessed with an incredible location for our Shul.
Our Shul is on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. With thousands of tourists and locals walking along the boardwalk every week, it is a great spot to meet and greet Jewish people from all over the world.
The Shul is on such a perfect spot for meeting new people it would almost be criminal not to be there on Sundays!
This Sunday (more…)
Jun 11th, 2009
by rabbifink.
After yesterdays disturbing news and my sobering blog post about mid-eastern Jewry I thought something lighter would be appropriate for today.
Our son Ozzie, will be 7 months old in a couple of weeks.
There is nothing quite like the experience of observing a baby grow. They are completely helpless when they are born and they gain mobility, instinct and personality before your very eyes.
(more…)
Jun 8th, 2009
by rabbifink.
This blog post is about men learning at work. By learning, I mean studying Torah.
I taught a class today at Teichman Enterprises.
It was a really great experience and I was inspired and I want to share my feelings with you.
If you are looking for the Australian musical artists known as Men at Work who sing that great song called “Down Under” (the one the “Piamentas” ripped off and sing to the words “Asher Bara”) click here for Men at Work.
If you don’t know what I am talking about watch these two videos…
(more…)
Jun 7th, 2009
by rabbifink.
June 6th. An auspicious date in history.
For most it a day known as D-Day. The day the Allies invaded Normandy.
I have the greatest respect and appreciation for the massive Ally effort to maintain freedom in our world. Thank you.
If you want to see more about that click here.
For others, it is also T-Day. What is T-Day? Nothing, I just made it up.
But it is the birthday of perhaps the greatest video game of all time. (more…)
May 18th, 2009
by rabbifink.
There’s a fellow in the Los Angeles Jewish community named Hilly Zeitlin.
Hilly sends out daily emails with all the important goings on in Los Angeles. He does this for free and it is a tremendous service to the community. (If you want to join his email list click here to subscribe.)
Hilly comes to Pacific Jewish Center for our Sunday morning services most weeks, so we know him well.
From time to time Hilly sends jokes or funny video links. Today he sent a really funny youtube video, I just had to post it. (more…)
Apr 21st, 2009
by rabbifink.
I just had to post this video.
While I was at school today, my 5 month old son, Ozzie, learned a new trick.
It is so incredible seeing our baby grow more and more each day. It seems like just a short while ago he was unable to interact with us and now he is playing games with his mommy.
Reminds me that we too should be growing each day…
My ever resourceful wife captured it on video. I am so grateful to her (and to whoever thought it would be a good idea to add video recording to my Canon point and shoot digicam). You have got to see this video!
(more…)
Apr 19th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Today was closing day at Santa Anita Park. That means the season of horse racing has come to a close at Santa Anita Park and I was there.
Today, we took the boys to see the ponies run.
Previously, we lived in Baltimore MD, home of The Preakness at Pimlico Race Track. The Preakness is one leg in the Triple Crown. In fact we lived right around the corner from Pimlico and we always thought about going to the track for a day at the races. For some reason, we never actually made the 2 minute trip to Pimlico and never saw a race in person.
Today we drove 35 minutes to Santa Anita Park and we experienced our first day at the races. It was amazing. I learned a lot about a lot of things.
First of all, I saw a dad with his 3 sons, ranging from the ages of 9-14. Incredibly, he was teaching them how to bet on the races. (more…)
Apr 6th, 2009
by rabbifink.
To be fair I have had my share of criticism of the New York Times. I don’t call them anti-Semitic though, that just reminds me of Uncle Leo in the Shower Head Seinfeld episode. Uncle Leo’s burger is medium instead of rare so he assumes the chef must be an anti-Semite… That doesn’t stop these guys from going in that direction. (I found them in a google search result, I have never heard of them before…) Maybe Unlce Leo writes for the “American Thinker”.
And when the NY Times has an article that paints Jews in a positive light I feel equally compelled to raise the issue, (more…)
Apr 5th, 2009
by rabbifink.
It is not my style to post a movie trailer on this blog. However, after watching the trailer for the upcoming movie of the famous Maurice Sendak book, Where the Wild Things Are, I was compelled to share my thoughts on the trailer.
First, my thoughts on the book. 1) Never send your child to bed without dinner, it is cruel and it makes me want to cry when I contemplate the very idea, 2) a child’s life should be so wonderful that they don’t need to “escape” to where the wild things are.
Second, my thoughts on the trailer. This is a perfectly executed trailer in one respect and a failure in another respect. (more…)
Jan 26th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Yesterday we took the boys to Adventure City. We had a great time. The rides are perfect for a 5 year old like Rami and he was able to hop onto any ride he wanted with no wait. Some of the rides there are pretty intense and yet Rami was undeterred. I am blogging today because of two women. The first of those women is pictured below waving excitedly. We will get to the second woman shortly.
(more…)
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