Coping with the pace of life

After my last post, a few people suggested that I write for every Shabbos mevorchim, which sounded like a reasonable frequency to me. And the next one approached, I thought about what to write, and didn't really come up with anything that good, and before I knew it, it was Rosh Chodesh, and now we are already blowing shofar, and if I blink, Rosh Hashanah will be upon us. So at this time of year, it's only appropriate to reflect on the pace of life and what to do about it.

I have this theory about why the older we get, the faster time seems to pass. If someone is 20, then one year represents 1/20th or 5% of their life so far. But if they are 40, then a year represents just 2.5% of their life, so a year might appear to pass twice as quickly. Having passed both of those milestones, I'm often asking myself: "where did the time go?" as week blends into week, month into month, and so on. I put things in my diary well in advance thinking they are not going to happen for a while, and before I look around, they are upon me.

Aspirational Chabadniks

I was once asked by a litvisher guy who was involved in outreach: "What is Chabad's secret sauce? What are the tactics that make Chabad so successful?" This question is coming from someone who is also in the outreach business, sees an outstanding example and aspires to be similarly successful.

In the global philanthropic community, similar questions are asked by those interested in finding ways to help young people engage with their Jewishness. This is something being addressed by some of the largest and most innovative foundations in the world,