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