If Noah were building an ark today he’d probably have some modern devices like GPS and satellites. The boat would be made mostly of metal and have an engine.

Here is a guy in the Netherlands who’s built a replica of Noah’s ark. I’d like to go there someday and see this ark. Click here to read the full story.

I think the greatest lesson to learn from Noah is that he spent 120 years building the ark. People thought he was crazy yet he kept on doing what he knew was the right thing to do and kept building for 120 years until the floods came. 120 years is the maximum life span of modern man. This means that we should be prepared to spend our entire life doing something we know is right regardless of if the world says we’re crazy.

Life is not a trial like on this movie they were filming in Rajasthan India. They kept shooting the same scenes over until they got it right. With life we only have one chance to get it right.

‘Today is my birthday,’ or better I should say ‘today is my Jewish (Hebrew) birthday.’ As Jewish people we follow the lunar calendar and all the dates of our festivals are set according to this. The same is true of our birthdays.

Yom Kippur this year was on October 8^th, next year Yom Kippur will be on September 26th. Why the change? Why can’t we just have Yom Kippur on October 8^th every year?

The reason is that all holidays need to be on a specific date because this is when their energy is aligned in the spiritual realms. Having Yom Kippur on the wrong day would be like showing up to the courthouse for your case on a Sunday morning and there is no one there. Simply, it is the wrong day.

A birthday is a very special time. On our birthdays, our ‘Mazal,’ which in some ways is our Zodiac, is aligned and we can receive great energies and blessings for the entire year. I grew up only observing my Hebrew birthday which followed the lunar calendar.

According to the Torah it is actually forbidden for a Jew to count the secular months according to the solar calendar. We can name them but it is best not to count them. Thus when I fill out forms that want a date, instead of writing in a number in the box I’ll write the three letter abbreviation for the month.

Now back to the Jewish Hebrew birthday. A birthday from A Jewish point of view is not a time for a big party. It is a serious time to reflect on the past year and to make resolutions for the coming year. Just like we do on Yom Kippur. What is special is that, on our birthday we are given extra power to achieve the goals we set for the year, if we set them on this specific day. Our power extends beyond the self. On our birthday we should bless people with what they need and they should bless us.

Last night I had a small ‘birthday farbrengen.’ A ‘farbrengen’ is a Yiddish word. It is a Chassidic concept where a group of friends come together to make a few  l’chaims and to inspire one another. A birthday farbrengen has all that a normal farbrengen would have, like singing, sharing inspirational stories, and words of wisdom, and in addition, everyone goes around the table and blesses the birthday person. The birthday person then in return goes around the table one by one and gives a blessing to each individual.

To find out your Hebrew birthday you can use this calendar here.

Life is not a dress rehearsal, it’s the real thing! When shooting a movie you can do the scene over until you get it right. In life we only get one chance to get it right.