On Super Storm Sandy

I'm a little late getting to the party on this one, but I wanted this for posterity. Happy that as the winter begins to take hold, we're all recovering the best we can...

Veteran meteorologist Stu Ostro of the Weather Channel, (capital letters in the second paragraph are his):

"History is being written as an extreme weather event continues to unfold, one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States.

 "REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE OFFICIAL DESIGNATION IS NOW OR AT/AFTER LANDFALL -- HURRICANE (INCLUDING IF "ONLY" A CATEGORY ONE), TROPICAL STORM, POST-TROPICAL, EXTRATROPICAL, WHATEVER -- OR WHAT TYPE OF WARNINGS ARE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AND NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, PEOPLE IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM NEED TO HEED THE THREAT IT POSES WITH UTMOST URGENCY.

"A meteorologically mind-boggling combination of ingredients is coming together: one of the largest expanses of tropical storm force winds on record with a tropical or subtropical cyclone in the Atlantic or for that matter anywhere else in the world; a track of the center making a sharp left turn in direction of movement toward New Jersey in a way that is unprecedented in the historical database, as it gets blocked from moving out to sea by a pattern that includes an exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure aloft near Greenland; a 'warm-core' tropical cyclone embedded within a larger, nor'easter-like circulation; and eventually tropical moisture and arctic air combining to produce heavy snow in interior high elevations. This is an extraordinary situation, and I am not prone to hyperbole.''

on the need for balance

"Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: If there is no Torah, there is no worldly occupation; if there is no worldly occupation, there is no Torah. If there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; if there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. If there is no knowledge, there is no understanding, if there is no understanding, there is no knowledge. If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." Pirke Avot,3:21

Reciprocation

Pacifism only works when it is reciprocated. Holland can afford to be more or less pacifist because it’s surrounded by European Union countries with similar dispositions. Lebanon and Israel face hostiles who use violence as a matter of course. - Michael Totten, “The Road to Fatima Gate”

Lessons

"I believe the lessons of the Holocaust are these. First, if an enemy of our people says he seeks to destroy us, believe him. Don't make light of it. Do all in your power to deny him the means of carrying out his satanic intent." - Menachem Begin, "The Prime Ministers" by Yehuda Avner

What we want to hear

Nobody these days wants information, everyone wants affirmation. - Colin Cowherd

A Gentleman

“If it is right, it happens — the main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away. - John Steinbeck

"A gentleman is simply a patient wolf." - Lana Turner

A religion can be theologically problematic but devotionally true.” Yossi Klein Halev

On Achdus

Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, the son of Rav Avraham Kook taught specifically how we must love heretics. He brings the example of Avraham who when told that Lot(very evil man) had been kidnapped during the war of the 4 kings against 5, he immediately went to war bringing his students and followers with him just to save an evil idol worshiper. Another example he brings is Moshe Rabbenu who came down the mountain to his followers worshiping the golden calf. G-d told Moshe he wanted to destroy the people, but Moshe said if you destroy them, I want you to destroy me too. He was also willing to give his life for the sake of idol worshipers. 

Rav Kook also taught that derech eretz precedes Torah. Our sages ask: why were the armies of Ahav(one of the most evil kings of Israel) victorious while King Saul fell in battle? Although Ahav was wicked, there was loyalty and love between the people of his kingdom at the time and Loshon Hara wasn't heard. In Bereahit Rabbah it is stated: so great is peace, even if people worship idols, yet there is peace between them, it were as if I(G-d) cannot pass judgement against them. In Saul's time, they were the greatest scholars and tzaddikim but there was little loyalty and love, and Loshon Hara was spoke.

Learning and Praying

The Talmud (Taanis 2a) refers to prayer as “service of the heart” avodah shebalev. When one prays one addresses directly God, so it may be asked, when does God speak to us? The answer is through learning Torah. The words of our Torah are the words of the holy one blessed be he, by learning Torah we enable our service of the heart to let God’s voice in.

The Virtuous Life

According to Maimonides, there are two models of the virtuous life. He calls them the way of the saint (Hassid) and the sage (Hakham).

The saint is a person of extremes. Maimonides defines hessed as extreme behaviour – conduct in excess of what strict justice requires (Guide for the Perplexed III, 52). For example, “If one avoids haughtiness to the utmost extent and becomes exceedingly humble, he is termed a saint (hassid)” (Hilkhot Deot 1: 5). The sage is different. He follows the “middle way” of moderation and balance. He or she avoids the extremes of cowardice on the one hand, recklessness on the other, and thus acquires the virtue of courage. The sage avoids both miserliness and renunciation of wealth, hoarding or giving away all he has, and thus becomes neither stingy nor foolhardy but generous. He or she knows the danger of too much and too little – excess and deficiency. The sage weighs conflicting pressures and avoids extremes.

These are not just two types of people but two different ways of understanding the moral life. Is the aim of morality to achieve personal perfection? Or is it to create gracious relationships and a decent, just, compassionate society?

The intuitive answer of most people would be to say: both. That is what makes Maimonides so acute a thinker. He realizes that you can’t have both – that they are in fact different enterprises.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

A Talmud Torah

Rambam, "Talmud Torah 3:10"

Anyone who decides to be engaged in Torah [study] and not to work, and will be supported by Tzedaqa - this person desecrates God's name (Chillel et Hashem), degrades the Torah, extinguishes the light of our faith, brings evil upon himself and forfeits life in Olam haBa (The world to come); since it is forbidden to derive benefit from the words of Torah in this world. The Rabbis said (Avot 4:5): Anyone who derives benefit from the words of Torah in this world, forfeits his life in Olam haBa. They further commanded and said: (Avot 4:5) Do not make them [the words of Torah] a crown to magnify yourself or an axe with which to chop. They further commanded, saying: (Avot 1:10) Love work and despise positions of power (Rabbanut). And: (Avot 2:2) Any Torah which is not accompanied by work will eventually be nullified and will lead to sin. Ultimately, such a person will steal from others.

A moment of Zen

I thought this one was really funny...

Restaurant bathroom doors should be identified with the words, ‘men’ and ‘women.’ Silhouettes and cartoon drawings of sombreros, bowler hats, puffy skirts and pretty mouths do not provide enough information for drunks. – Teddy Roosevelt

All men of Genius

I quite agree with Dr. Nordau’s assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots. – Oscar Wilde

Unreason

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. - Pascal

Emor

Tumah does not mean defilement. It means that which distracts from eternity and infinity by making us forcibly aware of mortality, of the fact that we are physical beings in a physical world. The holy is the point at which heaven and earth meet, where, by intense focus and a complete absence of earthly concerns, we open up space and time to the sensed presence of God who is beyond space and time. – R. Jonathan Sacks

Ki Tissa

Ki Tissa - the words with which the Torah commands the census does not literally mean "counting," but rather "the elevation of one`s head", impressing upon us that when we realize that we count, our heads are lifted up and we are elevated, That realization, that we can impact on the destiny of the world, that our words and deeds have significance, charges us with responsibility and allows us to grow and become better people.

No sweet song

There is no sweet song that is not equally bitter, save that which is shallow and meaningless. - Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

Whole Stones

Rabbi Yochanan ben Yakkai said "It is written: 'You shall build the altar with whole (Shlemot) stones' -(Devarim 27:6)- stones which make peace (Shalom). Now, is this not obvious: If The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said of the altar stones, which cannot see, hear or speak, but help to make peace between Israel and their father in heaven, that we must not treat them harshly, how much more so of one who makes peace between man and wife, between one city and another, between one nation and another, between one kingdom and another, between one family and another, that no harm will befall him." Mekhilta: Shemot 20:22

Achieving your ambitions

Sometimes the best way of achieving you ambitions is to stop pursuing them and to let them pursue you. – R. Jonathan Sacks

A ray of holiness

‘..thus is it written (Kohelet 2:13) “Then I saw that wisdom surpasses folly as light surpasses darkness.”’: Tanya, Chapter 12

The Alter Rebbe – Schneur Zalman of Liadi – explains the analogy is used to illustrate how wisdom is superior to folly: The superiority of light over darkness is manifest in the ability of a tiny ray of light to banish a great deal of darkness. Furthermore, the light need not battle darkness to banish it; the darkness disappears as a matter of course with the appearance of light. In the same way is the wisdom of holiness superior to the folly of evil. A mere ray of holiness suffices to banish — as a matter of course — a great deal of evil folly.

Holy Ground

Heard at a Shabbat table:

There was once a community that was in deep trouble. They were shrinking, they were impoverished, they couldn't get along. No one would step up to leadership and if they did they would be destroyed by those who criticized them. Clearly it was a community heading downhill.

This little town had some self awareness about their predicament so they invited a famous rabbi to come and speak with them. However after meeting with them, the rabbi did not have a solution, not to their shrinking population, not to their poverty, not to their dysfunctional communal structure. When he left the people were even more discouraged than before, except that just as he was about to go, someone heard him say, that one of the 36 righteous, one of the lamedvavniks upon which the world depends, lived in this little town. Now maybe he said efsher, perhaps one of the lamedvavniks lived in this town, no matter, word began to spread and slowly, slowly things began to change. Instead of treating each other roughly, people became a little bit more courteous - after all you wouldn't want to be rude to a lamedvavnik. They began to listen to each other, they were more willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt- after all the motivations of a lamedvavnik would certainly be kindly. Slowly the town got cleaned up, people began supporting each other, the economy improved, and other people passing through found it a pleasant community and decided to settle there. Looking back the people wondered. The rabbi had done nothing and yet accomplished a great deal. All these changes because of an efshar, a perhaps, a hint to remember-that every spot on earth is holy ground.

Unity

"The true unity of God is that nothing exists other then God. A true belief in the unity of God should tell you, you don’t need to run away from darkness but rather find how the darkness is also God. If you need to run away, to escape you haven’t come to truly penetrate, been able to truly reveal, how within the darkness, within the negativity is also God, the ultimate non-dualism." - R. Shmuel Braun, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov

Go here for the whole speech.

Shabbat Shalom.

The Rabbi’s Decree

And, so the Rabbi’s decree “A man should honor his wife more than himself and love her as much as he loves himself.” – Maimonides

Your nature

When you break out of your nature, you enter the realm of the G-dly. - Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

Fixing boundaries

The thrust of Halakah is democratic from beginning to end. The Halakah declares that any religion that confines itself to some remote corner of society, to an elite sector faction, will give rise to destructive consequences, that far outweigh any putative gains. A religious ideology that fixes boundaries and sets up dividing lines between people borders on heresy. - Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, "Halakhic Man"