(1) Young Miss Barrington 4/10/2008 1:56:00 AM
I am interested in submitted something for the aurthur above
I am 27 years old and i wasn't ready for what life has thrown my way over the last few months, its all new and most of the time i find it hard to deal with because i have never had to deal with such things on my own before.. and thats where i realised it.. All my life i have been cushioned by my beautiful family who loved me so much they sheltered me from the demands of life. I grew up to be a bubbly, dynamic, friendly and lovable woman as i'm still called today. I had nothing to complain about! Nowadays however, as a 27 year old woman that cushion is no longer there and it has been an eye opener and an experience i will never forget. Sometimes its hard to be that same bubbly person that everyone knows.. life for the first time feels unfair at times. So far, in the end, thngs always work out. With the love of my family, friends and fantastic boyfriend/soulmate which i'm very greatful for. Everything balances out and this is reality. I just don't want to lose that unique spark of mine that makes me, me. Thank you


(2) mike 4/7/2008 9:16:00 PM
Thank You
I turned 30 today and your story has helped me. Life begins at 30!


(3) chad 3/15/2008 2:34:00 AM
Thanks for the advice!!!
I will turn 30 in a month... Where are all the dreams I had in my teens and 20's? I am realizing my mortality... Time flies now! Why is my life going bye so fast? I want it to slow down! I want to have time to enjoy this life God gave me. Am I old? When I am I old???

(4) Irene 2/21/2008 10:35:00 PM
share your story in my book?
I am also turning 30 in March 2008. I am actually writing an entire book about it, partly my story, but also looking for a collection of other stories. I wanted to know if the people who replied to you (the 2008 posts) are interested in submitting a brief excerpt of their life up (or anything they feel like talking about) until their 30th birthday, to include in my book? If you think these people who just turned 30 recently would be interested, even mildly interested, please write back to me at the email id I entered (subject: 30th birthday) and I can provide you with more details to see if you are interested in following through with this. Thank you, and may 2008 be a great year for you!


(5) Beatrice (Bea) 2/20/2008 10:39:00 PM
Truths taht last
It doesnt matter when the message was written, or to whom it was intended.Sound advice is valuable even 60yrs down the line.Thats the stuff truth is made of.I'm not 30 yet but it does help to know that in a few years the fears i presently have in my 20's (being unsure and uncertain) will be put to better light when i turn 30.Thank you Rabbi Leff


(6) keith 2/17/2008 12:44:00 AM
turning 30
I am about to turn 30 myself. My 20's they was a joke; job to job, not doing the things in life as i have should. Less than a week i'll be 30; the last couple of days has been driveing me crazy about being the big 3-0. i hope it;ll be better than my 20's. Reading the article really explain alot and anwsered alot of questions for me. I will 100% in my 3rd decade give it my all. thanks


(7) Anonymous 1/11/2008 10:01:00 AM
George was wrong
You can change the world. Maybe I have no brain now. I just turned 30... Today. The world changes daily. If you do one thing it could impact change. Thus change the world. e.g. If you launched an internet virus that infected every computer in world. That would change the world. It is all in how you look at changing the world.


(8) rob 8/5/2007 4:46:00 PM
teary eye
i don't know if it was the music i was listening to while i was reading this, but this totally hit a note for me. Great great article! Those quotes are amazing!


(9) Sam 12/18/2006 1:27:00 PM
THANK YOU!
I'm turning 30 in 4 days. I'd been feeling depressed about making the shift from my 20s to my 30s and your article inspired me. I was seeing "30" in a different light. I shed some of my idealism many years ago so the transition from idealism to realism won't be major. I do not feel "experienced or wise". Why? Because as much as I have seen, there are millions of things I haven't seen. I've lived my life the best way I can. And I will continue to live, learn and love everyday.
So thank you for putting 30 into a different light for me. The article might be 5 years old, and maybe it was directed to a different religious background, but it was exactly what I needed today.


(10) DEZ 11/19/2006 6:45:00 PM
Leave the garbage behind!!!
I turn 30 in 3 days. I say, "Bring it on." I told my sister-in-law that turning 30 means taking knowledge, wisdom, and experiecne with you and leaving behind ALL the garbage of your twenties. For many, myself, it means drugs, alcohol, and other forms of abuse and neglect. For others...they must figure that out. Here's to a new decade.


(11) Giriraj 8/1/2006
Somehow a better understanding seeps in right at beginning of 30
Vision of being 30: Stand in the middle of the road that stretches ahead as far as it is behind... Wonder when so many years passed. To my left are the memories the dreams the ambitions the aims the desires that have gone by and to the right I think I know now after so many years right at the brink of turning 30 as to what to expect ahead on the road to my right. Little that surpises, little that amazes, the infinite possibilities seem like programmed to the actions (commands) of the past. Yet the unknown unthinkable aspect remains firm ahead in its stand waiting for me to approach his hands. This time with knowledge of what could be why it is that is to be...


(12) Lee 3/3/2005
The Age of Reason
Turning 30 is not the evil it is portrayed i am 30 in one hour and am looking forward to a decade of being the younger of the more wiser and knowing group of people.In my 20's i was excused of being still young enough not to know better, now i'm turning 30 i hope for people to listen and understand that what i have learnt may hold some semblance for someone in life.Turning 30 for me will not be the start of OLD age but rather the beginning of a NEW age,an age where i can make my mark on the world and say that I EXISTED.


(13) Lennox 11/11/2003

I turn 30 in two days. I've always considered myself to be a secure, confident person, but for the past two weeks, I've been shocked that biology and time could rattle my shake my confidence. I think its just that in our culture, we assign value to tradition and significance of events in factors of 10. Noone's life can ever really fitinto such a ridiculous formula. I once heard someone say something like, "Nobody knows anything about life until they're 30.



I've had a blast in my 20's and don't feel like I've missed out on anything to feel insecure about turning 30. Yet there is something about that number.

The 20's are a time for soul-searching and experimentation. Now that I'm almost 30 I have a sense of inner peace, I'm not so neurotic about the small stuff and I'm a better judge of character and situations than I ever was and that is something to be proud of--that I haven't accidentally killed myself yet while using a blendor to make margueritas!




(14) sierra 4/15/2003
From another 30 year old
( my apologies if this message is sent twice, but I didn't see it show up)

I read this article, and you hit the nail right on the head.

I will be 31 2003, and I feel like the age 30 has been by far, the smartest year of my life. I have come to realizations, that I had never even imagined before. Also the cold reality of life has hit like a ton of bricks.
Honestly, for me, something changed when I turned 25, I realized I wasn't the dreamy "everything will be just fine person" I used to be.

But 30............Well, that is just another plateau.

I have a two year old son, and he has made me look at things more honestly too....




(15) Sidney 11/26/2002
I Get It...
Reading your article did what it was design to do, make me think. Unlike a few others that have written a commentary. I can appreciate your insight from what it is and see past any differences of opinion regarding politics, religion or outlooks. I will be turning 30 in the next couple of months and have experienced all the feelings you described to some degree. For the record I am not only a Christian, but an African-American. Thanks for providing an outlet.


(16) dave 1/13/2002
how i feel the day of my 30th b-day
your articles made laugh, cry and think very hard, you have some very intelligent insightful and skilled writers. today i turned 30 and read your article TURNING 30. i felt for the first time building up to this age, a sense of hope and reassurance that what i was feeling was normal. i also was encouraged by the article that life isnt over it is just a beginning to a new chapter of life that promises to be better than the last. i mean isnt that what we live and strive for, growing, appreciating and a better all around way of life. i can honestly say that when i die i will have done my best to accomplish my goals, even though i am only starting to work on them now. by trade i am a private investigator, at heart i am a wandering seeker of truth, and understanding, a daydreamer, a hopeless romantic, a lover and a fighter.
for so long now i have not paid attention to the things that really define who i am, i became the investigator for other people and stopped investigating myself. i look on this time period as a time when my life stood still. recently i have started to drift back to my self, once again looking inward becoming the daydreamer and searching for understanding. i believe it is a time for change and in the back of my mind i will always ponder this.

just some rambling thoughts.

dave harwin


(17) Anonymous 12/16/2001
Turning 30
On the eve of turning thirty I seek to make sense of this milestone no more can you play naive because there isnt any more excuses but thats fine because im ready for the next stage being the decade of leadership, development,and contemplation any person worried about this up coming event relax go for a run grab a beer do whatever but just be gratefull you have had the great fortune of making it this far as so many through history have not.


(18) Anonymous 11/11/2001
Robert Browning said it before: "A man's reach should exceed his grasp; else what's a heaven for?"
"Grow old along with me; The best is yet to be; The last of life for which the first was made." from his poem Rabbi Ben Ezra, I believe...



(19) Anonymous 10/11/2001
not quite accurate
Just a note - one can run for the US House of Representatives at the age of 25, the Senate at 30, and for president at 35. The senate is supposed to be more deliberate, though, by design, so the point is well taken, regardless.


(20) A 20-yr. old conservative 10/8/2001
A defense
I think that a number of the previous comments have misunderstood what Rabbi Leff is trying to say about Communism. In practice, it is true that Communism has been a total failure, due to human nature. However, from the viewpoint of a dreamer, isn't it a utopian ideal to have no poverty, no racism, and no greed? Rabbi Leff sees now that Communism is doomed to failure, and to the achievement of goals antithetical to the original aim, because it runs with the assumptions that man is entirely rational and has full control over his desires and feelings (and that man is inherently good). However, the spoken goals of the Communist movement seem to be in-line with the Jewish characteristic of being "rachamanim b'nei rachamanim" - "merciful children of merciful parents". Woe is us that the evil inclination forces us into the dog-eat-dog capitalist world that is necessary to defend our own well-being and the well-being of society as a whole


(21) avi 10/4/2001
Communism is not stupidity, it is evil
Why must one wait to be 30 to become realistic? Why does 'dreaming' (how about 'planning ahead'?) differ from being realistic?


(22) sharon 10/3/2001
I'll always be a bit of a socialist
why a commusnist? Stalin is dead and so are a lot of the people who disagreed with him. most people put Stalin and communism together.
or china and communism? is that such a nice thought? I think socialism is more humaine and more worthy of having the throne of idealism for the 20 somethings of today and yesterday


(23) Shira 10/3/2001
Hitting the age of 30 and a change of view.
When a person reaches the age of 30 one's view of life changes becoming more
realistic. It's harder to be a dreamer at age 30.


(24) Anonymous 10/2/2001
Right on! Discard the unworkable, retain the good.
This article and comments reminds me of these maxims from Ethics of the Fathers: "Do not scorn any man, and do not discount anything. For
there is no man who has not his hour, and no thing that has not its place." And also, "Who is wise? He that learns from all men."

A lot of what we take for granted came from the ideas and sweat of people whose worldview are diametrically opposed to ours. These contributions are the ideas that were deemed sound and beneficial and thus were retained while the unworkable or bad ones were discarded. Much like the dynamics of evolution. Much like the dynamics of growing up.

I admire Rabbi Leff for going to less traveled places and picking up precious stones and wisely leaving the chaff. Thanks for sharing these precious stones.



(25) Anonymous 10/1/2001
Very Good, But...
Should one give up trying to make the dreams a reality. In Halachic Man, Joseph Soloveitchik defines his titles personality as one trying to actualize the perfect world set forth in Torah. Taking the ideal and measuring it against the real. This piece was excellent and touched many personal heartstrings, however, does one give up? I don't have the answer but am not ready for the partial no, in this article.


(26) Mark 10/1/2001
You may be thirty, but you have a lot to learn ...
Rabbi Leff,

Your comments about how you admire communism are moronic. You say 'Communism is a great idea and dream, taking care of all members of society without class envy, but it is impractical.' I guess that depends on what you mean by 'taking care' of them. If you mean taking care of them by way of the murder of millions, then I agree, since this is the record of communism. I for one, don't want to be taken care of. I want to be responsible for myself, and expect others to do the same. This is how adults behave. You clearly don't have a grasp on reality though, if you admire such a system. The reason communism doesn't work, and indeed can't work, is that it does not account for variations in personal ambition, or human nature. People don't all want to be equal. I want to be better off than the other guy, and I want to do it through my own hard work. What you describe as merely impractical, is in fact, impossible. Shame on you. Grow up. Be a man.


(27) Anonymous 10/1/2001
sincere, but misdirected.
The previous respondant made a very valid point in regards to HaRav in
Halakhic Man. Also, if not for the
"immature" idealism of the Forefathers
and Foremothers in Tanach, the world would have remained a pagan, cruel world. On this point, yoram Hazoni has written a fantastic essay on
"civil disobedience", a proud jewish tradition; don't forget the 8-hour workday and six day work week many of our great grandparents fought and even died for, as well as more recent battles against antisemitism, sexism, racism. If simply turning 30 is supposed to cause any sort of enlightenment about how we "can't change the world", it should be that the ethics we DO change the world with (and by extension the actions, ie, Mitsvot..), had better have a Transcendant basis. Before considering further "insights" from Shaw, it might help to bear in mind that he was an early supporter of Hitler (Toland's bio of Hitler, p.409), as well as Irish fascists.