Every year around your birthday, the family comes together and it becomes a festive occasion. You share memories, laugh about the good times and discuss all the things that are worth discussing.
In kid of is like a progress report on everything that happened until now. (Like what you talk about with your spouse on your anniversary).
And even when a person passes on, their birthday is still an opportunity to review their whole life and discuss the lessons and ideals that they stood for.
But the Kabalah says that it is even more then that. All the good things that a person did throughout their life are still having a chain reaction until this very day. The charity that they might have given to that poor man kept him alive and gave him strength to live another day and do more good. Those good deeds brought more good deeds and all those new ones brought even more.
So the ripple affect continues even more then one can fathom.
We don't even know how much the good we do has an affect on the world.
(Now to sound a little intellectual, I will mention Einstein's theory about matter that it never disappears - just changes forms. So the positive energy in the world created by the good deeds is still here).
Why do I mention this?
This coming Friday is the birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He was born in 1902 and took over the leadership of the Chabad movement in 1950.
On his birthday I will be visiting his gravesite in Queens together with over 10,000 other people, who will come together and gain inspiration and take insight from his life on how to care for a fellow Jew.
The goodness that he accomplished has rippled and rippled into the more then 2500 Chabad Centers around the world where they have become lighthouses spreading the light and warmth of Judaism throughout the world.
As has been the custom for thousands of years, that you utilize a holy day and a holy place to pray for one's family and loved ones.
Those who would like to send me their names so that I can mention them at the Rebbe's grave, are welcome to do so. Please include the Hebrew name and the person's mother's Hebrew name (if you don't know the Hebrew names, then English will do).
Pleas email me: [email protected]