David Gregory blogs on Shabbat and Tzedakah

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Meet the Press host David Gregory has a personal blog (topped by a picture of him overlooking the Dead Sea), where he’s posting about Sunday’s guests, the political stories he’s following and "making room for the spirtual":

Over bagels and eggs this week a friend who is a well known Washington rabbi described “Aha!” spiritual moments. You know, those times in our lives, when we say, "Aha!" This is what it means to be alive and filled with a sense of purpose and meaning in our spiritual life. 

I experience it when we gather as a family on Shabbat to put money in the Tzedekah box and take a moment to say who we are thinking of  and how fortunate we are to be the hand that gives.

In my new job, I find the work week even more involved and absorbing than before so I am particularly comforted by a prayer I read in my siddur (prayer book). It thanks God for calling us to light the Sabbath candles because, without this mitzvah, I might have never slowed down enough to remind myself what life is really about and about the greater purpose we all have.

Gregory’s blog was pointed out to us through the blog of The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Gregory’s Torah study partner and friend who says Gregory is "very, very spiritual":

He’s actually helped me quite a bit, in part by giving me language to help me relate to the deepest currents of Jewish spirituality. Also, he puts me on his show once in a while, which is helpful. But not deeply. The challenge in Washington — the challenge anywhere, really — is to remember, in the rush of each frenetic day, what actually counts, what actually makes a person a mensch. David is very good at remembering, and reminding me to remember.

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