I certainly do feel closer to Heaven and G-d when I am with Jewish peers and family, especially on Shabbats and Shabbatons. That's why it is so important to stick together as the Jewish people and light unto the world by always marrying and being Jewish.

I think that your massage is right, except I would say the main massage is "I'm not better than anyone else". The acceptance starts with young mother not been looked when her child is not behaving 100% (usually the look comes from the people who talk during the service anyway, but the moment the child is making a noise - there is the look). The massage is lets start with ourselves, lets behave the way we want other people behave towards us.
Thank you for the insparation

Thank you, Rabbi Salomon. What we need more than anything is unity and love for one another. I have had the feeling for quite a few years now that if we would all gather in a unity rally, Jews from all over the world at the same time with no agenda other than being one, Mashiach would arrive in a heartbeat.
It's interesting that I am hearing this right after a tour I participated in Jerusalem this week. The tour guide, R' Benjy Levin (grandson of the great R' Aryeh Levin), told countless stories of the great people during the time of his grandfather, to whom respect and love of the other was most important to them. We can all take a lesson from that.

Eventhough we Jews fight sometimes, we still care about each other because we are family. :)

May we all come together and learn and practice as one

Greetings dear Friends,
Since the beginnings of Western Philosophical thought millenia ago.We as people first, have placed ourselves apart from and above the surroundings from which we sprang.TO understand these surroundings,people have been divided,seperated and pigeonholed.
Clinging to the exaltation of the individual and at ease with the notion of finding the signifiance in being a small part of a larger whole.A Proud American to stand with you!

With Best Wishes,
Richard Womack
ArtLiquid.blogspot.com

what you said is perfectly true...May we all love each other and respect each other..Happy Shavuot to you and your family !

Rabbi Salomon provides good comments and inspiration for Jewish unity. Unfortunately this significant holiday occurs after religious school lets out, so it tends not to be taught to children, and many adults, at least in my congregation, know little if anything about Shavuot. The holiday isn't even mentioned in my congregation's newsletter (Conservative movement.) We'll light candles, tell the story of the giving of the Torah, and eat cheese ravioli and cheesecake, but my family may be the only one in this area to do so. I think it's pretty sad that Shavuot doesn't get "more press."