The stoners have 4:20 (I cannot for the life of me figure that out) and I got this email from Miriam Leah and she was all pumped up about making 6/13 a special day. 613 as in 613 Mizvahs* we have in the Torah. So I thought, any time to promote doing some mitzvahs is ok by me. A few of her suggestions:

1. Look at the clock very early in the morning (6:13), or during dinner (6:13), and shout “Hooray!” Or, you can shout, “Mitzvahs, yay!” It doesn’t really matter what you say, as long as it sounds exciting :o)

2. Have a mitzvah competition.

3. Have a candy seudah (festiva meal):

  • Gummy Fish
  • Chocolate Milk Soup
  • Chocolate covered matzah
  • Green apple sour stick green beans?
  • Baked Bean candies?
  • Animal crackers…
  • And the Dvar Torah is: Mitzvahs are fun 🙂 and Torah is Sweet 🙂
    yay.

    4. Do a really crazy mitzvah you would never think of doing!

    5. Do regular mitzvahs, but just have turbo kavanah

    Feel free to add ideas below!

    *606 in the Torah and 7 instituted by the Prophets.

    About the author

    Rabbi Yonah

    11 Comments

    • Anti-Drug – by Mapik Hey

      We’re created beselim Elokim,
      That means we got spirit from Him.
      Through our nostrils He blew,
      Giving life to me and you.

      But some times we need a fix,
      When we’re feeling down in the pits,
      I know a secrete and this is true,
      G-d is here for every Jew.

      (Chorus:)
      The Lord he makes me high,
      He makes me fly to the sky.
      I am a Jew, I’m not a thug,
      Did I mention the Lord’s my Anti-Drug

      Make some brachas, Learn the halachas,
      You’ll give bubby and zaidy some nachas.
      The feeling that you’ll get from this,
      Will put you into a spiritual bliss.
      (End Chorus:)

      He gave us the 613,
      Better then 420 if you know what I mean.

      You’ve gotta do them every day,
      If we follow the Torah we’ll be OK.

      We can reach him through tiffilah,
      Through service – a.k.a avodah.
      If you follow is every way,
      you can join us as we say…

      Chorus

      – Lyrics courtesy of Mapik Hey
      Printed with Permission

    • According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 4:20 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971, among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking students . They made 420 code for a time to get high, and its use spread among members of an entire generation of fans of the Grateful Dead.

    • Actually, all 613 Mitzvos are from the Torah, the seven D’Rabanan bring the total to 620.

    • 6/13 is Yud Gimel Adar – which happens to be Ta’anit Esther.

      There’s a short Dvar Torah here somewhere.

    • Thanks for the good wishes, guys. Sadly, even after 14 years of day school education, no one ever connected my birthday with the mitzvot until I was 28, and suddenly it occurred to me.

    • You think that’s bad, my daughter is finishing 9th grade of Yeshiva this week and she doesn’t know who Hannah Sennesh and Golda Meir were and she sure as shit can’t sing Hatikva by heart. She can’t ask “how much is this?’ in Ivrit. She can’t tell you about the founding of the State of Israel. She can’t tell you much about the History of the Jews in America either. She can tell you that skirts aren’t allowed to have slits in the back, socks must rise to the knees and that “they say” Coridian makes the only countertops you can halakically kosher for pesach if you are redoing your kitchen.
      I can’t wait to sent her to SUNY Albany or Binghamton or Boston University so she can meet some real Jews and learn about Judaism.

      Yeah, this was a rough birthday.

    • 420 is gematria Ashan. remember?

      I like the idea, until this part:

      “Have a candy seudah (festiva meal):

      Gummy Fish
      Chocolate Milk Soup
      Chocolate covered matzah
      Green apple sour stick green beans?
      Baked Bean candies?
      Animal crackers…
      And the Dvar Torah is: Mitzvahs are fun and Torah is Sweet ”

      I do think what we feed our children and friends is a metaphor for the Torah we give over. Is that really what Torah is? Poison that children insist on? Is that really something you want to celebrate?

      At the the stoner’s drugs won’t give them cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, ugly skin, and every other worst disease under the sun. Rav Yonah! I thought you LOVED your children! Why would you trick them into delighting in a toxic heritage?

      How marijuana could be illegal, but white sugar sold to children during their cartoons, I still don’t understand.