A Soulful Journey

One contributor to a popular magazine told the story of putting her young daughter to sleep late one night. The little one was frightened. The mother, calming her down as she brushed her hair reassured the little one, "Don't worry. God will be here. He will always be watching over you." "Mommy," came the tiny voice back. "I know that God's always with me. Right now I need somebody with skin." Connect with someone you care for. Let them know that you love them. At the same time, be unafraid to tell those you love when you need them close by.

It is no easy task to inform the world. It is daunting to even think about trying to change it. Perhaps then the essential message is not "how much" but "how." "You don't have to do great things, but the little things you are doing can be done with great conviction, great wisdom, great beauty and great love." - Ruth Krehbiel Jacobs

Two young Israeli soldiers were called up for reserve duty. Their assignment was to patrol a neighborhood of Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. The time was tense. One of the two soldiers saw an Arab woman rummaging through garbage. The solider approached her and gave her his sandwich. The companion looked at his mate. "You know, I would not want to go to war with you next to me. You might shoot too late." The other solider responded, "I do not know whether I could go to war with you. You might shoot too soon ."

Integrity of word is an important ideal in life. When we are honest in dealing with other people two things immediately occur: 1. The other trusts us. There is no end to the good that can proceed from this. 2. We trust ourselves. When we speak wrongly we develop a negative self-image. There is no end to the bad that can come from this. In both instances, speaking earnestly fosters harmony. That is why the Talmud stresses this to us in gentle admonition, " One should not bargain about the price if he has no intention of buying it. " Baba Metsia 58b When integrity of word becomes our standard, our piece of the universe is harmonious.

Avihu Ben-Nun was the Commander of the Israeli Air Force when thousands of stranded Ethiopian Jews were dramatically airlifted to Israel. He said, "For me it was as thrilling as Entebbe . This time the whole world was watching. Five hundred Ethiopian Jews would be brought together according to the numbers on their foreheads. They sat on the floor of the airplane and didn't move an inch during the entire flight, so silent and cooperative were they. When they were told that they were coming close to Jerusalem, their eyes shone. And they began clapping their hands and singing for they knew they were arriving in the Land of Yisrael ." Sometimes deprived of what we need, we finally understand the necessity for what has been missing in our lives. It is not what we want but what we need.

One who is learned in Torah, but does not have yirat shamayim , fear of God, before his eyes is like a treasurer who possesses the keys to the inner door, but lacks the keys to the outer door. How will he endure? ~Shabbat 31a

It is not about getting through life without pain. That is not realistic. We are all hurt, wounded beings. It is not about living to avoid pain either. It will come anyway.It is about living a full and meaningful life. As an old African proverb states,"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." Pain can dull our feeling or sharpen our awareness. We decide which path will be travelled. Long, long ago two came to the conclusion that Eden, perfection, was not for them. They wanted to experience life and struggle, failure and conquest. That is why Adam and Havvah ate the forbidden fruit. It enabled them to feel the vitality of the moment.When they decided that exile was preferable to utopia they journeyed out into the world of discovery; a universe of life and death. Only then were the first two human beings truly happy. DH Lawrence wrote a powerful poem called "Phoenix". "Are you willing to be sponged out, erased, cancelled, made nothing...