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