Daily Minutes

The day's first battlefield is your bed, and the first shot is fired when the alarm clock rings. "I Want" reaches out to hit the snooze button; "I Should" is ready to jump out of bed and take on another day...

In the Holy Temple, the priests would wash their hands before their daily service. And every individual is a priest in the temple of his or her home and heart...

The Shema starts with Judaism's defining statement: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G‑d, the Lord is One." It then discusses some of Judaism's basics: such as Love of G‑d and Torah study.

You connect your head, your heart and your hand with these leather cables. And then when you go out to meet the world, all your actions find harmony in a single coordinated purpose...

Most people don't think of Judaism as a fringe religion. Yet that's our uniform. Under their shirts, Jewish men and boys wear a poncho called a tallit katan, with fringes hanging from each corner...

Traditionally, Jewish men and boys wear the kippah at all times, a symbol of their awareness of, and submission to, a "higher" entity.

As a bird soars the skies on its two wings, so a mitzvah is carried upward upon wings of love and reverence. Problem is, how do we grow wings? If you don't love, what does it help to have a mitzvah to love?

A Jew is always studying Torah—24/7/365. We take breaks to eat, sleep, pray, make a living and reenergize. The remainder of the time we connect to G-d through studying His wisdom.

The world is a temple and the food is divine—as long as you bless its Creator before you eat or drink...

Do the ritual washing of hands, say a blessing on the food and then dig in to elevate all those carbs and proteins into a divine experience...

Enjoyed the meal? Don't forget to thank the host. You are the host? No, no…you are the guest—in G‑d's world. So when you're finished eating, don't forget your Grace after Meals!

The laws of kosher require that in addition to not eating them together, we wait a specified period of time between eating meat and eating dairy.

You're in the middle of it all, the traffic rages, the phones won't leave you in peace and adrenalin races through every vein—it takes courage to tell the world to stop while you chat with its Maker.

We all know that how we slept at night determines a lot of how we perform the next day. That's one good reason to get into the "Bedtime Shema" routine...