Ten Steps to becoming a MVP by Aliza Davidovit

It’s interesting how in our practical lives we acknowledge how action breeds results. When a person wants to lose weight, he goes to the gym; he wants to get smart, he opens a book; he wants to a get a woman, he starts feeding her a load of baloney . Yet so many of these same people who know how to exert an effort to see change in their lives all become “rationalizers” who won’t get off the couch when it comes to God. The same people who are at the gym at 6 a.m., at work at 8 a.m., or on the golf course every Sunday have the nerve to say when it comes to practical religion, “I don’t like to be regimented.” I can’t begin to tell you how many times, as a former rabbi’s wife, that people have told me, “God knows I’m a good person in my heart,” and then they conveniently point to one errant priest or rabbi as an excuse why the entire religion is not for them. How fascinating that they’ve also seen fat people at the gym, yet they didn’t write off the health club as useless. It seems that the only thing not made in China these days is excuses. We manufacture them here at home in excess.

So to all the cardiac-faithful, meaning those who have God in their hearts but not in their schedules, let’s see if you can pass the good person test. How many of the Ten Commandments can you count on your ten fingers that you didn’t violate?

The first commandment in the Old Testament is the belief that God is the origin of all things: “I am the Lord your God.” It is from this starting point that any of the commandments have relevance. So with that in mind, let’s proceed.

II “You shall have no other gods….” Though you may not have a golden calf in your living room, it does not mean you are guilt free of idol worship. ANYTHING that comes between you and God is an idol, including your money, your fancy lifestyle, your fear, your own arrogance and your vanity. If on a holiday you’re on the golf course instead of church or temple, then your idols are those irons. Hhhmmm, not even gold; that sucks.

III “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.” If you drive a car in New York City or Los Angeles, I’d have a hard time believing that to the beat of your honking you’re not taking God’s name in vain. But just let’s say you pass this test, how many times have you made a promise to God and not kept it? Once that plane landed safely, your oath to save the orphans vanished somewhere between the passengers claps and the terminal. That too is calling upon God's name in vain. Would you call the CEO of your company every day and waste his time too? See you in the unemployment line.

IV “Remember the seventh day and keep it holy.” A lot of people will say that they serve God in their own way, when they have the time and not necessarily on the “Sabbath.” Just try that routine on your girlfriend and tell her you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day on June 3rd or tell your wife you’ll remember your anniversary when you get a chance. Good luck! Nice knowing you. (212) 555-1315. Oh, sorry that's the number for a divorce attorney. A relationship with God is the same as any other relationship. Abuse it and lose it.

V “Honor they mother and father.” Most people think this decree means not to be rude to your parents. It doesn’t stop there. This commandment doesn’t have a statute of limitations or expire when your parents pass on. Even after they die your behavior in this world reflects on them. If you behave immorally, are corrupt, or, conversely, are decent to others, your behavior honors or dishonors them.

VI “Thou shalt not murder.” Just as you were about to raise a finger and count this as one commandment you didn’t break, know that embarrassing a person, according to biblical exegetes, is tantamount to murder as it causes the blood to rush away from someone’s face. Breaking someone’s pride and dignity and crushing their spirit is also regarded as a form of murder.

VII “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” The pope once said that even if you look at your own wife in a lustful manner, it is considered adultery. Since then, Clinton never looked at his own wife that way again. The statistics for adultery are very high. But let’s make one thing clear, your wife may be a witch, your marriage may be dead, you may be sleeping in different rooms, nonetheless if you drop your pants in the wrong place, it is still adultery.

VIII “Thou shalt not steal.” As a young girl I remember hearing a story about two people who walked out of an Eaton’s department store with a canoe. They stole it in plain sight. Sometimes what is very obvious goes unnoticed. So you may be surprised to learn that manipulating someone’s mind or heart is considered stealing. When a doctor makes you wait for an hour in his waiting room, he is stealing your time. Let Obama add that to healthcare reform.

IX “Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor.” Perhaps you would not lie under oath, but any form of lying against another person’s good name, even to aggrandize yourself or your business in an apparently harmless fashion, is wrong. You never know where those words will land and they may in effect lead someone to commit suicide.

X “Though shalt not covet.” Maybe you’re not lusting after your neighbor’s ass, but have you bought things you cannot afford, over-extended your self on a mortgage or debt? We do such things because we covet what others have. We have big eyes on the world and we want the same things as everyone else. Coveting may cause us to hurt others as well as ourselves. The Torah cautions us not to run after our eyes. Imagine if God forbid you were blind, how you would come to reassess which things are really valuable in life.

Dear friends, as you are set to watch and enjoy Superbowl Sunday be reminded that the MVP is not a cardiac player who is a good player in his heart. He goes the distance to make the difference and his ACTIONS, not his love of football, differentiate the winners from the losers.
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Journalist and Former Rabbi’s Wife Takes on 400 Rabbis and Glenn Beck Detractors

I’m very impressed that in such difficult economic times 400 rabbis were able to come together to raise $100K for a newspaper ad in the Wall Street Journal condemning Glenn Beck and what they deem as his improper “references” to the Holocaust.

What a shame that these same rabbis and their confreres who are so worried about the preservation of Jews didn’t read the January 19th article in Haaretz: “Israel’s greatest threat is not security, it's poverty” with 1,774,800 citizens living in destitution. They sure could have bought a lot of sandwiches for $100,000. And how many of them actually work on behalf of the impoverished Holocaust survivors still extant who barely make ends meet and have to beg at the doorstep of Federations, Jewish Family Services, and the Claims Conference?

I’d also like to know where Glenn Beck’s “thank you” note is from these same rabbis for being among the very few journalists/commentators who stood up for Israel during the Gaza Flotilla crisis when the whole world was against it. Couldn’t George Soros lend them 44 cents for a stamp? They may want to watch Beck’s show of 06/02/10 wherein he expounds upon Israel’s history and points to the facts legitimizing the Jewish Homeland when its very right of existence is being questioned and threatened at every bend. With sanctions, boycotts and divestments being the latest vitriolic war against the Jewish State, odd how Glenn Beck’s use of the word Holocaust is what’s ratcheting up their ire?

I’m sick and tired of Jews who keep sticking up for our enemies. And George Soros, at the center of this issue, is no friend to Jews or Israel. As one of the world's richest men, let his relatively sparse philanthropy toward Jewish causes speak for itself. Let his support for J Street with its alleged agenda to delegitimize Israel speak for itself. In 2003 the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ran a story saying, “George Soros says Jews and Israel cause anti-Semitism.” Wow, is there anything lower than blaming the rape victim for the rape.

Perhaps these same rabbis love watching CNN and the BBC where Israel seems to be blamed for all the world’s ills. Is it so hard for them to digest that Fox has been unbiased toward Israel from Operation Cast Lead to the flotilla fiasco?

Why don’t these rabbis take out ads against the United Nations whose Human Rights Council has adopted more resolutions against Israel —than any other country in the world, while terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, who are fighting a proxy war for Iran, are given immunity by that scam of an international body.

Did these same rabbis write angry letters to Columbia University when it invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust ever happened, to speak to impressionable young students?

Did the same rabbis write letters to President Obama saying they were offended that he is forcing Israel to make peace with a Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Ph.D thesis was a blatant denial of the Holocaust? Or do they only know how to love those who hates us and hate those who love us?

Maybe these same rabbis are also part of the Goldstone fan club and prefer to gaze east from the gas chambers than from Mt. Scopus.

In addition, since when is there a copyright over the word Holocaust and how it can be used? All Jews are equal shareholders. I own the history too! But, moreover, since when has the word Holocaust become solely a Jewish fiefdom? Can only a Jew make such references with impunity? Or is this group no better that the Muslim fundamentalists who decry the use of the name of Mohammed by infidels—surely cause to exterminate the offender…not! Whether you like it or not, the Holocaust is just a word, just as is Nazi. What counts are the millions of people who were murdered--if these same rabbis want to honor the memory of the dead, let them behave like menschen and say thank you to today’s friends.

And so, I thank Glenn Beck for keeping not only the memory of the Holocaust alive but the evermore important lesson, how the Holocaust came to be to begin with. By teaching how history unfolded he is doing much more than simply reiterating the slogan “never again,” he is pointing to the incremental steps that eventually led to the Holocaust and alerting us to the signposts.

As an aside, I’d like to remind these rabbis about the Talmudic decree that it is a sin to embarrass a person in public which is regarded as tantamount to murder. If they have a problem with Glenn Beck or Fox, why not raise their complaints behind the scenes? Their act makes it obvious that there is a much bigger agenda at play here.

The Jewish state is in greater peril now than perhaps it has ever been since its coming into existence. Antisemitism, as well, is also on the rise. It would serve our people much better to galvanize around the common purpose of survival rather than posing centerfold in the Wall Street Journal. If they are looking for a word war let them play a crossword puzzle in the New York Times. They will find themselves at home there.

I Don’t Forgive You and Take a Hike by Aliza Davidovit

This week on Facebook I asked my friends how America has been hurt or helped by the forgiving nature of its people. I’m not surprised to learn that my friends are merciful, compassionate and kind-hearted—I chose my friends well. So please friends forgive me for thinking that this country is too forgiving and such lenity is eating away at our souls.

There was a great line in the movie Hud with Paul Newman that hit me: “Little by little, the look of the country changes because of the men we admire.” But when these men plummet, they take us all with them, especially our starry-eyed kids who every day have one less person to look up to. Yes, “the country changes” when the mighty fail and fall.

When public figures such as Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, Mark Sanford, James McGreevy, Gary Condit, Gary Hart, Newt Gingrich, John Edwards, Jim Bakker, and so many more, drop their pants in the wrong building, they are not only cheating on their spouses but on all those who trusted them to be attending business--not monkey business.

When Congressmen are indicted, when athletes get juiced, when Wall Street scams us, when spiritual leaders are caught with their hands in the till, when the media becomes propagandists, they are unraveling all we believe in and everything we are. So why do we find it so easy to forgive? One Facebook friend basically said, albeit using different words: He who has not sinned among us, let them cast the first stone. So, basically, are we supposed to cater to our weaknesses? We might murder one day too, so let’s forgive the murderers. We might rip someone off one day, so let’s forgive the CEO’s for all the people they’ve cheated out of their life savings. Instead of creating a world where we can look up and strive for greatness, we are preparing our safety nets in case we mess up.

I do not believe that our indulgent forgiveness is creating a better world. Sometimes the things we believe in demand tough love. If we make it so easy for everyone to go on the apology tour with a speech produced by a PR company and we forgive them, then we are contributing to our own demise, especially in this age of the information superhighway where misdeeds and apologies become YouTube moments.
Not only do Americans forgive wrongdoers, but it seems to reward them. Tiger Woods’ paramour, Rachel Uchitel, was hired as a special correspondent on NBC's Extra. Sadly, trained, skilled young journalists who work so hard to get a job, move to the back of the queue because engaging in a scandal and having sex with a famous person are the prerequisites to board the express train to success. Is that the advice you would give your daughter vying for a job? If you can forgive Extra for that, then you are giving silent consent.
If we want to prove ourselves as merciful, good people then let’s get a little tougher and less forgiving. Let's have some mercy for the things we value and not pretend it's raining when cheats spit on us with impunity. I say kick the bums out, fire them, take away their endorsements, teach them a good lesson that will make the next guy think ten times before he screws his mistress and his country and corrupts the soul of a nation. How many cheeks can we turn while they keep kicking us in the butt?
In this week’s biblical reading we learn how the Menorah in the temple had to be illuminated by the purest of oil, teaching us that that which is meant to bring light and direction to the world needs to be clean and untainted. Thus, for those who have set themselves as leaders and icons among us, we must demand nothing less. Let a new clarion call rise up throughout the land: “I don’t forgive you, and take a hike.”

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