Splendor and despair

Halakhic man enjoyed the splendor of sunrise in the east and the swelling sea in the west, but this very experience, which contained in miniature the beauty of the cosmos as a whole and the joy of sheer existence, precipitated in him despair and deep depression. The beauty and splendor of the world on the one hand, and the fate of man, who can enjoy this mysterious magnificence for only a brief, fleeting moment, on the other hand, touched the chords of his sensitive heart, which sensed the entire tragedy concealed with this phenomenon: a great and resplendent world and man, “few of day, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1) - Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, "Halakhic Man"

Holiness

Holiness does not wink at us from “beyond” like some mysterious star that sparkles in the distant heavens, but appears in our actual, very real lives. “And one called to the other and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; and the whole earth is full of His glory.” - Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, "Halakhic Man"

Of choice

“All is foreseen yet freedom of choice is given” - Pirkei Avot 3:15

“We have to believe in free will: we have no choice.” - Isaac Bashevis Singer

"We and God are co-authors of the human story. Without our efforts we can achieve nothing." - R. J. Sacks

A sad truth

Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive. - David ben Gurion

Thank God for Maimonides

“Thank God for Maimonides! The refuge of the Orthodox Jewish rebel. – Chaim Potack, “In the Beginning”

Meet the Austins

"'What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, the life of any living creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it make any sense, then, to post this question? I answer: the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures to be meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.'" - Albert Einstein, "Meet the Austins", Madeline L'Engle

The Morning Star

The very first day, she had dragged him off to the Wailing Wall so she could insert between the stones a letter to God that she had carefully written. Wishes and messages reached Him in all languages, and, before that multitude, he thought about the apocalyptic atmosphere that had reigned in the days leading up to the Six-Day War. Haim had gone to Israel at the time, and in the face of all the real threats of annihilation, he had thought that it may well spell the end of the Jewish people. But, for two thousand years, hadn’t each generation also thought that it was the end? The world would certainly do without Jews, but it could do even better without mankind.

“Look,” she said, pointing at the crowd. “They’re alive…they’re alive. They’re not ghosts.”

They had come from all continents, witnesses from all the races and traditions, Jews of the East and of the West, white Jews, black Jews, yellow, red, right down to those mysterious Jews from Cochin China, whose eyes seemed to gaze upon a different sky; right down to those beings who seemed to step straight out of legend, Falashas from Ethiopia, who still remembered the Queen of Sheba; right down to the Jews of Harlem, who carried the two heaviest legacies in human history on their shoulders. She said that this country of Israel was first the act by means of which all these scattered people asserted their common identity. But it was also the singular history of each and every one of them, it was the past that they’d torn themselves away from and that lived on in them. It was Cairo, Baghdad and Teheran. It was the mellahs of the Maghreb and all the memories of Arab civilization. It was the shtetls of Poland, Lithuania, White Russia, and all the vestiges of Eastern Europe. It was also Paris, Berlin, New York, and it was Palestine itself, where the Jews had never stopped being, in spite of everything, while the Romans and Byzantines, the Arabs, Egyptians, Mamelukes, Turks and English had run the country. It was a planetary tribe: you’d have said that the totality of humanity’s past had poured into this place and so it thereby reflected, by the sheer nature of things, the whole set of contradictions of the modern world.

Page: 170-171, ‘The Morning Star’, Andre Schwartz-Bart

From the heart, to the heart

If you see your fellow Jew traveling down a self-destructive path, and you seek to set him straight but fail, the fault is yours. The reasoning behind this conclusion is both profound and simple. Our sages have declared that "words that come from the heart enter the heart." So if your words did not enter his heart, this can only mean that they were not spoken in complete sincerity. Had you been truly sincere--had you spoken with no objective in mind other than his good--your words would have entered his heart and would have had their desired effect.

Broken and whole

Only the human heart can be broken and whole at once. - Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

Boston you're my Home

Raising a glass and finishing packing. Boston its been an amazing 2.33 years, I know that we haven't always gotten along (almost a hundred inches of snow this winter) but when I think of this place I'll remember the clouds rolling in from the sea and many late nights with friends. Though I'm reluctant to leave, the road calls and I'm excited for new possibilities and adventures. I'm smiling but my eyes are misty and it feels good.

Shalom A'He

On oneself

In legal questions, one should always decide as permissively as possible and not burden people. One should make things hard only for oneself.

Page 199, Maimonides, Abraham Joshua Heschel

I sleep

I sleep, but my heart is awake.

Song of Songs, 5:2

Mist on my breathe

Woke up this morning, padded out into the kitchen and walked outside, there was mist on my breathe, it was the first subtle sign of winters approach, the sunset is beginning to recede slowly now, getting early and earlier by the week. Summer is coming to a close, autumn and winter are beginning to touch the landscape and I’m smiling. For now it’s a smile of excitement, of anticipation and the approach of shorter days and longer nights, of the explosion of color in the trees and the bird’s winter dance in my backyard. I shudder at the thought of the swirling winds and heavy snow but delight in the silence that it will bring. So on this beautiful last summer’s morning I wrap myself in the early morning air and sense the coming of the harvest and the days of our Awe.

The Heart

A prayer (of sorts) for today from Chabad.org that resonates:

The human heart is beautiful.

The human heart can know secrets deeper than any mind could fathom.
The mind cannot contain G-d, but deep inside the heart there is a place for Him.

Yet there is nothing more dysfunctional than a brain controlled by its heart. Indeed, the finest mind is capable of the most horrid crimes when under the management of the heart.

Let the heart be quiet and hear out the mind. In that quiet listening, she will discover her true beauty and her deepest secrets will awaken.

Beautiful eulogies

If the Jews had not fought back against the Arab armies and had been destroyed in 1948, we would have received the most beautiful eulogies throughout the world. Instead, we chose to stand our ground and defend ourselves. And in winning, we received the world's condemnation. Me? I'll take the condemnation over the eulogies any day. - Golda Meir

Right on sister, I think this does a good job of summing up my feelings about the conflict, Arab world, reject the three No's: No peace, no recognition, no negotiation, then and only then will we begin to get close to solving this nightmare.

The Place Where We are Right

The Place Where We are Right

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood

Yehuda Amichai

Yom Yerushalaim Sameach

Today we celebrate the 44th year since the miraculous reunification of Jerusalem, the ancient heart of the Jewish people and the capital of the state of Israel. Today we remember the soldiers' words carried on radio waves throughout the world crying הכותל בידינו, "The Kotel is in our hands."

As long as deep in the heart
The soul of a Jew yearns
And towards the east
An eye looks to Zion
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Hatikvah

A Blessed Generation

“I thank God for the privilege of living at a time when I can travel to Jerusalem, be nourished by her being and drink from the cup of her dreams. Ours is a blessed generation.”

Marlene Post, National President of Hadassah, 1996

Wickedness & righteousness

As I live, says the Lord God, I do not wish for the death of the wicked, but for the wicked to repent of his way so that he may live. Repent, repent of your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel! And you, son of man, say to the members of your people: The righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked-he will not stumble upon it on the day of his repentance of his wickedness, and a righteous man cannot live with it on the day of his sinning. When I say of the righteous that he will surely live, and he relied on his righteousness and committed injustice, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered, and for the injustices, which he committed, he shall die. And when I say of the wicked man, "You shall surely die," and he repents of his sin and performs justice and righteousness, the wicked man will return the pledge, he will repay the theft; in the statutes of life he walked, not to commit injustice-he will surely live, he will not die. All his sins that he sinned will not be remembered for him: he performed justice and righteousness; he will surely live.

Ezekiel 33: 11-16

I’ve seen a lot of people mention Ezekiel: 33:11 in connection with Osama Bin Laden’s death, and while it makes sense to me, I think that taking it in a broader context illuminates an important idea. It reminds us that we can’t simply rest on our merits nor should we dwell on our failures and mistakes. For we will be judged not by our past actions but on our current actions, neither the wickedness nor righteousness of past actions matters only what we do in this moment. That is the central teaching found here and it is an important lesson for us all.

L’Shalom

Justice

"When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers."

Proverbs 21:15

Rafael Eliezer Ben Leah

As a person who spends most of his time obsessing over words and ideas I’m always aware about how inadequate words can be when trying to describe how someone special makes us feel or how something affected us or what something truly means to us. I say this now because for a long time a friend had been struggling with cancer, I found out just a few minutes ago that he finally lost that fight, and it was a fight till the end, even as it felt like an inevitable outcome I still held out hope, prayed for his wellbeing and recovery everyday and tried against all odds to believe it was possible.

This man was there for me at a time in my life where I felt very alienated from those around me. When I first got to Israel he took me under his wing and helped me work though ideas and problems that I was struggling with, he was there for me and he understood me and for that I will forever be grateful. Over the last few months I’ve found my eyes filled with tears thinking about him and his four little girls, girls now without their father, it’s just so hard to think about such a young life being taken away from us so early.

I wish that I had the words, but I don’t, for now I just have my tears.

Baruch Dayan Emet.

A line

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

Oscar Wilde

Freedom is just another word for...

"There is no such thing as freedom, sometimes, though, there's a chance to choose your master." - Orson Scott Card

This is the time of our freedom, we the Jewish people recount the story of Gods great miracles and our release from bondage in the Land of Egypt.

The Sages tell us that "G-d took the Jewish people out of Egypt for the purpose of giving them His Torah on Mount Sinai, thereby enabling them to observe all its commandments. This was the sole reason for the exodus."

So we were taken out of Egypt in order to become slaves to Gods will, in order to be a people free to observe Gods laws, reaping the rewards for staying true to the path, and the accepting the punishment should we deviate. Seems a little oyxmoronic to think that we're released from bondage only to be enslaved again. However when a person thinks about this closely they will come to realize that every person is a slave, every person makes commitments, sets priorities, and binds themselves to things in such a way. During this time what we seek to remind ourselves of that commitment and improve our our understanding of Gods desires for our lives.

You shall have no Gods before me says the Lord to us on Mount Sinai.

Not such an each task.

We all have commitments that we are accountable for, that we must take care of. This is a good thing. Whats bad is when we start putting those things ahead of our truest beliefs, when we prioritize trivial matters ahead of our commitment to God.

This the the lesson of Passover, not that we are all truly free, but we are all free to decide whom we serve. All people serve somebody or something, on this holiday we reaffirm our commitment to the continuation of the Jewish people and our God, who brought us out of the Land of Egypt to be free to choose our own destiny.

Chag kasher v’sameach

Dancin' in the Rain

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain

Vivian Greene

Speak right

“Evil speech kills three people: the one who says it, the one who listens to it, and the one about whom it is said”

Arakin 15b

Praying with fire

"Even when a person cannot daven with intention he must never refrain from praying in whatever way he can. Although for the present the tefillah without kavanah(intention) cannot ascend on high, when he will say a prayer with intention he will revive all the ‘empty’ tefillos, enabling them to ascend on high on the ‘coattails’ of the prayer said with kavanah.”

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, zt"l

Much to learn

There is much that philosophy could learn from the Bible. To the philosopher the idea of the good is the most exulted idea. But to the Bible the idea of the good is penultimate; it cannot exist without the holy. The good is the base, the holy is the summit. Things created in six days He considered good, the seventh day He made holy.

To Jewish piety the ultimate human dichotomy is not that of mind and matter but that of sacred and profane. We have known profanity too long and have become accustomed to think that the soul is an automation. The law of the Sabbath tries to direct the body and the mind to the dimension of the holy. It tries to teach us that man stands not only in a relation to nature but in a relation also to the creator of nature.

What is the Sabbath? Spirit in the form of time. With our bodies we belong to space; our spirit, our souls, soar to eternity, aspire to the holy. The Sabbath is an ascent to the summit. It gives us the opportunity to sanctify time, to raise the good to the level of the holy, to behold the holy by abstaining from profanity.

Abraham J. Heschel, The Sabbath, p.97

The Earth Turn

A renowned genius once asked a student, "What are you watching when you sit on a hillside in the late afternoon as the colors turn from yellow to orange and red and finally darkness?"

He answered, "You are watching the sunset."

The genius responded, "That is what is wrong with our age. You know full well you are not watching the sun set. You are watching the world turn."

Jeremy Kagan, The Jewish Self

Kindness

From a yeshiva buddy and a great friend 

Why is there a commandment to not eat a stork (In Hebrew החסידה like the word חסד kindness) in a portion that talks about not eating wild animals specifically? Something named after kindness surely is not wild, right? 

Rashi answers it is because they only do kindness to their own kind. Lesson for today, be kind to all. 

Shabbat Shalom

Service

The prophet serves G-d in a way that is constantly changing over time. When people are at ease the prophet warns of forthcoming catastrophe. When they suffer catastrophe and are in the depths of despair, the prophet brings consolation and hope.

R. Sacks, Parshat Shmini

to the world

G-d is to this world, as your soul is to your body. R. Zalmen Mindell

A beautiful quote from a great Rabbi.  

An Ancient Color

From, The New York Times:

"Tekhelet is the color of the sky," Dr. Koren said in his laboratory. "Its not the color of the sky as we know it; its the color of the sky at midnight...It's when you are all alone at night that you reach out to God, and that is what tekhelet reminds you of."

Shabbat Shalom!

The Halakhic Mind

Just the other day I finished climbing a literary mountain. After many failed attempts at reaching the summit, I finally finished The Halakhic Mind, by Rabbi Soloveitchik. I bought the book over two years ago and couldn’t get past the first five pages. It is technical and often tedious to get though, but the treasures found within make it worth the investment. In this book Rabbi Soloveitchik attempts to fit the halakhic perspective into its place in the world of science and philosophy.  I cannot hope to do any justice to his explanation, but what I can say is reading this book expanded my understanding of not just halakhic thinking but also scientific and philosophical methodologies and reasoning.

This is a book that I will carry with me for a long time. It’s a book that helped me understand my own fascination with the halakha which I simultaneously fight against and am drawn towards. I’ve learned that many observant folk are not bothered by modern, scholastic criticisms, however I am. For me it can be a struggle explaining this thing that is so important and real, yet is often so distant and mysterious.  For those like me the works of Rabbi Soloveitchik are critical to reconciling biblical Israel with the modern world and modern methodologies for classifying and recording our experiences in the world. Reading his words truly makes me appreciate my place in this world and that I am merely standing on the shoulders of giants.

In his own words:  

Halakhah is the act of seizing the objective flow and converting it into enduring and tangible magnitudes. It is the crystallization of the fleeting individual experience into fixed principals and universal norms. In short, Halakhah is the objectifying instrument of our religious consciousness, the form-principle of the transcendental act…Rabbinic legalism, is nothing but an exact method of objectification, the mode of our response to what supremely impresses us.  --Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Halakhic Mind, p.85                                                                                                                                                         

The Theological Roots of Reform Judaism’s Woes

I found this article in Forward. 

I thought that it brought up a fundamental issue with the broader idea's inherent in liberal, multiculturalistic philosophies in general i.e. to stand for 'everything' is to stand for nothing.' For me personally that idea was always troubling and it lead me down the path of a more fundamentalistic thinking. I used to think that fundamentalism was inherently bad, now I see things differently, fundamentalism is wrong only when it causes people to become hateful and bigoted towards those who are not identical to them, but adhering to more conservative ideology as Mr. Kaplan points out below can be a source for real comfort and can form stronger more tightly knit communities. In any event, food for thought. 

Enjoy

The root of the problem facing liberal Judaism is theological. The pluralistic theologies of Reform Judaism make it difficult to reach consensus on what we Reform Jews believe on any given issue. The liberal approach to observance makes it impossible to set and maintain high expectations in terms of communal participation… As members focus on what they want rather than what they can contribute, it becomes increasingly difficult to build committed religious communities…The sociologist Rodney Stark has popularized the thesis that religious groups need a strict theology in order to make serious demands on their adherents and that these demands, in turn, make a religion more compelling.

Since a liberal theology leads to an emphasis on the autonomy of the individual, personal choice is inevitably promoted at the expense of the authority of God. In the absence of a strong theological basis for making religious demands, the members lose interest and wander off.

One might think that most people would prefer a congregation that allows each member to find his or her own comfort level rather than one that requires all sorts of obligations, theological as well as ritualistic. That is not necessarily true.

Yes, many potential members are deterred by high upfront demands. But for those who join, the commitment is much greater. Since most of the members in a demanding congregation are deeply committed and religiously active, the collective religious experience is much more fulfilling.

As the Reform movement has increasingly emphasized religious autonomy and the importance of choosing what each person finds spiritually meaningful, it has become impossible to compel members to come to services regularly, study Torah seriously and contribute to the vibrant well-being of their congregation.

R. Dana Evan Kaplan

So, What Do You Say to Him?

From Gutman Locks, a most interesting man who once had a conversation with my own father at the Kotel...

Enjoy:

A non-Jewish man from Latin America came to the Kotel yesterday with his son. He told me that his wife was Jewish. I told the boy that since his mother was Jewish, he too was Jewish. And since he is a Jew, when he grew up, he had to marry only a Jewish girl. I explained how we are a people and not a religion, but he was so young that it did not seem to make an impression on him, especially since he loved his father, and his father was not Jewish.

I asked his father what the boy’s Hebrew name was. He had forgotten it. I told the father to be sure that the boy received Jewish education. “He has a beautiful heritage, and you do not want him to lose it,” I told him.
They walked away. A few minutes later they returned. He had asked his wife, and she told him that the boy’s Hebrew name was Zvi. I felt that I really didn’t get to the little boy, so I tried one last thing.

I said, “Zvi, be smart like your father, marry a Jewish girl!” He smiled broadly. I think I got him that time.

A paradox

"The Sephardic way is a paradox: to keep tradition but to stay open. The Torah is not there to put handcuffs on you. We try to find solutions. We put unity first… I was taught that Torah and tolerance go hand in hand."

Rabbi Chaim Amsellem, MK Shas

From, Rabbi Chaim Amsellem: Charedi Rebel , this quote represents one of the main reasons I'm so attracted to the Orthodox Sephardic communities, there’s an acceptance of the sanctity of the Torah and of the laws, but also enough openness to accept the frailty of the human condition, the frailty of all men. There’s a big difference between knowing there is an objective Truth, capital T, and thinking that anyone community is capable of living that truth one hundred percent.

To soon, to late

'To soon old, too late smart'

               Got this piece of advise from an older dude in shul the other day. We were talking about how with age comes experience and wisdom and he told me that for to many things in life we're to soon old and too late smart...Meaning to say that far to frequently we grow old before we grow wise and the bad or misguided decisions we make in our youth we are forced to live with for a long time and sometimes the wisdom we need to make the correct decisions comes long after the reverberations of those decisions are felt. A little somber, but he said it with an ironic smile that made me think that some of that wisdom he talked about might just have seeped in anyhow.

L'Shalom.

A talmid chacham

A talmid chacham is a Jew who lives with G-d and reflects G-d in all aspects of his life. For him, there is nothing other than G-d and His Torah and mitzvots. A talmid chacham is not measured by the number of pages of Gemara he has memorized. Neither is he measured by the number of hours per day that he devotes to learning. A talmid chacham is measured by his dedication to Torah learning…when I was about ten years old, my friend said something I’ll never forget. He told me that his little brother had come home from school after learning about how G-d had spoken to the Avot and the Nevi’im, and he had asked his mother, “Why doesn’t G-d speak to Daddy? He learns whenever he has time!” Their father worked in diamond polishing. He would go to work early in the morning and return late in the afternoon, but he learned at every opportunity. His little boy didn’t understand why G-d did not speak to Daddy too. This father represents what a talmid chacham is…It’s a matter of dedication.  R. Shimshon Dovid Pincus, Shabbat Kodesh, p.108-109

Told a little differently, I was once sitting at seder after a long day, my eyes were closing. I was drifting in and out when the Rabbi asked me a question. I mumbled something, sheepishly grinned and admitted that I hadn’t been paying attention, I was tired. He looked at me, smiled and told me a beautiful story.

He said, “I was once sitting in a class much like this, and in this class there was a man who would always be there, and he would always fall asleep. One day the Rabbi, asked him, ‘why do you always show up if you’re just going to fall asleep in my class,’ he replied, ‘Rabbi, I’m a working man, at the end of the day, I’m tired and all I really want to do is fall asleep in front of the television. But I know if I do that my kids will see it, and I don’t want them to see that, what I want them to see he me going to learn after I work so they will know that it’s important to me and so it should to be important to them.’ What you do matters.

Shavua Tov   

Multiculturalism and Moral Relativism

The first people to try multiculturalism, the Dutch, were also the first people to regret it. When asked what the difference was between tolerance and multiculturalism, they replied that tolerance ignores differences; multiculturalism makes an issue of them at every point… Multiculturalism is part of a wider phenomenon of moral relativism, a doctrine that became influential as a response to the Holocaust. It was argued that taking a stand on moral issues was a sign of an “authoritarian personality”. Moral judgment was seen as the first step down the road to fanaticism.

But moral relativism is the deathknell of a civilization. In a relativist culture, there is no moral consensus, only a clash of conflicting views in which the loudest voice wins. Multiculturalism, entered into for the noblest of reasons, has suffered from the law of unintended consequences. By dissolving national identity it makes it impossible for groups to integrate because there is nothing to integrate into, and forces them to find sources of pride elsewhere. Without shared values and a sense of collective identity, no society can sustain itself for long.

Chief Rabbi J. Sacks, ‘The Times’, February 2011

The salvation of man is through love and in love

The most important sphere of giving, however, is not that of material things, but lies in the specifically human realm. What does one person give to another? He gives of himself, of the most precious he has, he gives of his life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for the other- but that he gives him of that which is alive in him; he gives him of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humor, of his sadness- of all expressions and manifestations of that which is alive in him. In thus giving of his life, he enriches the other person; he enhances the other's sense of aliveness by enhancing his own sense of aliveness. He does not give in order to receive; giving is in itself exquisite joy. But in giving he cannot help bringing something to life in the other person, and this which is brought to life reflects back to him; in truly giving, he cannot help receiving that which is given back to him. Giving implies to make the other person a giver also and they both share in the joy of what they have brought to life. In the act of giving something is born, and both persons involved are grateful for the life that is born for both of them. Specifically with regard to love this means: love is a power which produces love; impotence is the inability to produce love. - Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

it is upon us to praise

Aleinu was the song that Yehoshua wrote down before conquering Eretz Yisrael, it is our battle cry and we sing this song of praise to god each day.
  
L'Shalom

The Essence

The essential teaching of Chassidus, from the Baal Shem Tov:

Be simple, be earnest, and spread that simplicity throughout everything you do. Simplicity is a receptacle for G-d's simple Oneness.

On the way

Re-reading, ‘The Way of Man’ 

Excerpts from Chapter V. Not to Be Preoccupied with Oneself

‘He who has done ill and talks about it and thinks about it all the time does not cast the base thing he did out of his thoughts, and whatever one thinks, therein one is, ones soul is wholly and utterly in what one thinks, and so he dwells in baseness. He will certainly not be able to turn, for his spirit will grow coarse and his heart stubborn, and in addition to this he may be overcome be gloom. What would you? Rake the mud this away, rake the mud that way – it will always be muck. Have I sinned, or have I not sinned – what does Heaven get out of it? In the time I am brooding over it I could be stringing pearls for the delight of Heaven. This is why it is written: “Depart from evil, do not dwell upon it, and do good” – turn wholly away from evil, do not dwell upon it, and do good. You have done wrong?  Then counteract it by doing right.’ – Rabbi of Ger

Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk once said to his congregation, ‘what, after all, do I demand of you? Only three things: not to look furtively outside yourselves, not to look furtively upon others, and do not aim at yourselves’  That is to say: firstly, everyone should preserve and hallow his own soul in its own particularity and in its own place, and do not envy the particularity and place of others; secondly, everyone should respect the secret in the soul of his fellow-man, and not, with brazen curiosity, intrude upon it and take advantage of it; and thirdly, everyone, in his relationship to the world, should be careful not to set himself as his aim.  – Martin Buber

QOTD

‘Who you are is God’s gift to you; who you become is your gift back to God.’

Gods Word

Where is the Torah? Does it reside in the heavens with the angels? Or in a parchment scroll in the ark of the synagogue? Or with the rabbis and scholars?

It lives in the heart of each person who learns it, in the voice of the one who discusses it and in the life of the one who lives it.
That heart, that voice, that life - that, too, is G-d's word.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson זצ״ל

For everything there is a season...

I got this message a while back and want to share it today. It’s a mantra that I try to repeat to myself when I don’t understand why something is the way it is. When confronted with the ever present reality that most of life is beyond my control I pray. It’s cathartic at best and harmless at worst. Praying for others is especially difficult, looking for meaning in the answers when outcomes don’t turn out as anticipated can be especially so. But it’s important and necessary and good.

The end of the message offered only this truth: Prayers do get answered; tho I'm not sure by whom. We sometimes do not like the answers.

A local call

And one more joke for Monday afternoon...

While on vacation in Rome, I noticed a marble column in St. Peter's with a golden telephone on it. As a young priest passed by, I asked who the telephone was for. The priest told me it was a direct line to heaven, and if I'd like to call, it would be a thousand dollars. I was amazed, but declined the offer.

Throughout Italy, I kept seeing the same golden telephone on a marble column. At each, I asked about it and the answer was always the same.

I continued my tour and arrived in Israel. I decided to attend temple services at a local synagogue. When I walked in the door I noticed the golden telephone. Underneath it there was a sign stating:"DIRECT LINE TO HEAVEN: 1 shekel."

"Rabbi," I said, "I have been all over Italy and in all the cathedrals I visited, I've seen telephones exactly like this one. But the price is always a thousand dollars. Why is it that this one is only 1 shekel?"

The rabbi smiled and said,"You're in Israel now. It's a local call."

Hebrew School

A bit of levity on a Monday morning, enjoy.

The Hebrew School class had just finished and the rabbi asked if the children had any questions. Little David quickly raised his hand. “Yes, David? What question would you like to ask me?”

“I have four questions to ask you, Rabbi. Is it true that after the children of Israel crossed the Reed Sea, they received the Ten Commandments?”

“Yes, David.”

“And the children of Israel also defeated the Philistines?”

“Yes, David, that’s also true.”

“And the children of Israel also built the Temple?”

“Again you are correct, David.”

“So my last question, Rabbi, is: What were the grown-ups doing all this time?”

a contrite heart

God harkens to prayer if it rises from a heart contrite over a muddled and faulty life and from a resolute mind ready to redeem this life.

p. 63, The Lonely Man of Faith, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik