A Meditation Room in a Buddhist Cave in Ajanta, India - Buddhists renounce the physical world, believing that suffering comes from attachment. They will retire into meditation rooms like this one for long periods of time, avoiding the rest of the world and its occupants. Judaism, in contrast, believes that holiness is best achieved by living in the world.

This week’s parsha, or weekly Torah portion, is Parshas Kedoshim.  This parsha starts out with Hashem telling us, “You shall be holy.”  In our travels, we have encountered many different religions.   Each one has its own path to spirituality.  Some people become nuns or monks.  Some become hermits.  Some renounce speech, or eating, or intercourse.  Some sequester themselves away in meditation for hours, days, weeks, or even years.

This week’s parsha answers how Judaism sees being holy.  It includes all sorts of commandments – everything from keeping the Shabbat to respecting your elders to giving charity to the poor.  It covers topics as broad as being honest in business to not practicing black magic (ok, maybe those too aren’t so different after all!).  It even issues the seemingly unfairly juxtaposed commandments to “love your neighbor” while reminding you to avoid forbidden relationships (including avoiding loving your neighbor’s wife).  But what do all these things have in common?

In Judaism, we believe in living in the world.  Being holy doesn’t mean sitting in the lotus position on a mountaintop meditating for months.  By all means, if meditation helps you come closer to G-d, then go for it, but it isn’t what Judaism really defines as holy.  In Judaism, being holy is what we do in our everyday lives – what we eat, what we wear, how we speak.

As we travel, we try our best to maintain the highest level of “holiness” that we can – and even to improve ourselves!  Travel poses lots of challenges in all of the areas addressed in this week’s parsha, from “How on earth will we keep Shabbat in the middle of nowhere, India?” to “How can I respect others if they’re so vastly different?”  In Judaism, overcoming these challenges is the true key to holiness.

I fly a lot and it was interesting to hear about what someone thought about when he realized his plane was going to crash and he’d die. The three things he learned are congruent with Jewish thought. It made me think about how we really don’t know when our time is up.

‘Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.

It’s a five minute video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/ric_elias.html

Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson suggested in a letter that “as a segulah and protection against accidents, one should have a sidur (Prayer book), Tehilim (Psalms), Tanya and a tzedakah box (Charity box) in his car.” The Rebbe then mentions in the letter that it is appropriate to publicize this.

Most Chabad Chassidim will take along the above-mentioned even if they are traveling by plane, boat, train, or going anywhere for that matter.

I have long had the custom to travel with a mezuzah, one, for the extra protection, and two, because one should put up a mezuzah on their door post if they will stay at a fixed place for more than 30 days. It does occasionally happen that I will rent a room for more than a month.

In the attached picture with this post, I am on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. I am holding a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe which has Tefilas Haderech printed on the back, and the white thing is a mezuzah.

To read about my Mt. Kilimanjaro climb:

http://travelingrabbi.com/2005/08/01/kilimanjaro-climb/

I’ve been missing my Tefillin so I thought I’d post this story about how I won a raffle for $1,200 worth of Tefillin. Got the smallest Tefillin made. How I lost them in Guatemala and how they miraculously reappeared. Read the full story:
http://travelingrabbi.com/2007/12/20/lost-tefillin-in-guatemala/

On chol hamoed my custom is not to put on Tefillin. Some people do and some don’t. If one has the custom to put on Tefillin on chol hamoed and has traveled to a community where the custom is not to put on Tefillin on chol hamoed, he should put on his tefillin in private usually by praying on the women’s side if there are no women in the Shul

May a Jew go to Egypt?

The Torah seems to mention three times that there is a prohibition for a Jew to go back to Egypt. The Rabbis give a number of reasons why going back to Egypt would be an affront to G-d who took us out. The Arizal also says that there are no spiritual sparks left there for a Jew to elevate in Egypt so why go?

Overall the prohibition is on going back to Egypt to live there. The Rabbis largely do not have a problem with a Jew going to visit Egypt.

‘So go to the pyramids, go’… Well maybe now is not a good time to visit Egypt. It may be good to wait for things to cool down a bit. I was there in 2005 a couple days after the Sharm el-Sheikh bombing (maybe that was not a good time to go either), so if you are going to visit Egypt than timing is important.

Ridding a horse at sunset around the pyramids was my highlight. I did not get a chance to visit the Egyptian 1967 war museum. I am very curious to know what it shows.

Here is a good article about the prohibition of against living in Egypt

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/976660/jewish/The-Prohibition-Against-Living-in-Egypt.htm