A Soulful Journey

A new president was elected as head of a modern synagogue. During the prayers, the cantor called our “ Barchu !” and everyone rose in response. The president grew irate. “How dare you all get up without my say-so? Why did you do it?" They answered, “ Barchu .” “Who is president here? Me or Barchu ?” The moral? It is vital that our ego never become so large that we end up thinking that universe revolves around us. It does not. We are simply one small part of the vast cosmos. Not more. Not less.

  Complaints occupy a great deal of mental space.  They take up a great deal of room in conversation.  Generally speaking, they go nowhere.  While generating great heat they tend to  to let off little steam.  “A group of Jews in the Midwest were dedicating a shul when the ceiling collapsed.   Two of them perished and immediately went o heaven.   The angel Gabriel met them and said: “Due to the accident, you arrived two weeks earlier than scheduled.   We don’t have room for you just yet.”   He called Satan below and told him to put them up for two weeks.   At the end of two weeks, Satan phoned Gabriel very excitedly.   “You have to take these two Jews out of here.   They’re going to wreck the place.”   “But what are they doing?” “They’re organizing a fundraising drive to air condition the place.   That will put me out of business.” – Rabbi Abraham Besdin It's always better to take action when you are dissatisfied rather than fuel the unhappiness with more unhappiness.

“ A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants .” – Alben W. Barkley There is a reason why “covet” figures among the big “Ten.” It is because coveting is so ubiquitous. We fall into the trap every time we begin to salivate over what someone else has. But the Talmud is clear, “Thou shalt not covet” only becomes a sin when we attempt to undermine another for the sake of personal advancement.

We thank You, O God, for our family and for what we mean and bring to one another.   We are grateful for the bonds of loyalty and affection which sustain us and for the capacity to love and to care. Help us to be modest in our demands of one another, but generous in our giving to each other.   May we never measure how much love or encouragement we offer; may we never count the times we forgive.   Rather, may we always be grateful that we have one another and that we are able to express our love in acts of kindness. Keep is gentle in our speech.   When we offer words of criticism, may they be chosen with care and spoken softly.   May we waste no opportunity to speak words of sympathy, of appreciation, of praise. Bless our family with health, happiness, and contentment.  Above all, grant us the wisdom to build a joyous and peaceful home in which Your spirit will always abide.    Amen.      –from Gates of Shabbat, CCAR 1991

Robert Fulgham wrote about traveling to the mountains of Tibet on a pilgrimage.   There he saw old women, pregnant women, and children of all ages climbing up. Also, a  youthful American athlete fought to keep up with their pace. Finally, his energy gave out and he collapsed while the senior citizens kept moving. “Why?” he asked.   “How can they keep that pace and not me?” They were operating on the unseen.   The old ladies had more faith powering their movement while he had only a single goal: to conquer the mountain. Sometimes it is good ask oneself, what I am doing this for?   Just to get to the finish line?   Or is there something more important I should be taking from life?

During her childhood in Eastern Europe, the psychoanalyst, Helen Deutsch, one of Freud’s disciples, was at home alone one day, reading in her bathrobe, when the local wood dealer barged in without knocking.   “I jumped up and demanded angrily, ‘Mr. Stein, couldn’t you knock first?’ “ Deutsch wrote, “The answer was: ‘Why? Isn’t this a Jewish house?’ “  –   Charles Silberman in A Certain People When did life change so that friends need to stand on ceremony?   Do I like it this way?

“France has no permanent friends, only permanent interests.”   - General Charles DeGaulle Is this true for me?   Or am I a faithful friend, no matter what?

“A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes.” - Doug Larson, United Features Syndicate The question is not how many friends you have but how much of a good friend you are.

“ Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” – George Eliot This is a true friend and one worth cultivating for life.

The Searcher "I looked for my soul But my soul I could not see I looked for God but my God eluded me I looked for a friend And here I found all three." - William Blake What we need is what we have to give.  Be a friend and through you others will find their way.

It is not easy following a success yet everyone has their predecessor and will be measured against them.   Rabbi Saul Teplitz followed on the heels of predecessor Max Artz as congregational leader. “Mine has been a very difficult lot during these past 14 years in the rabbinate,” he said in 1957.   “If on a rare occasion I performed a feat worthy of commendation, I was immediately told, “Well, this is what Max would have done.” Remember this above all: Teplitz was a highly successful rabbi. He just had to work harder at it for a long time.   Do not abandon hope.  Do your best.

There are many statements which are aimed at respecting elders.  Here are a choice few that teach this dramatically: 1. The Hebrew word for elderly is 'zaken' which is an acronym for 'zeh sh'kaneh chochma' -- a person who has acquired wisdom. 2. In Midrash Yalkut Shimoni it states: "When the Torah was given at Mt. Sinai, God appeared to the Jewish people as a "kindly, white bearded patriarch, full of mercy." 3. "Rabbi Yossi bar Yehuda of K'far HaBavli said, ‘One who learns from the young, to what is he compared? To one who eats unripe grapes and drinks wine from the press. And one who learns from the old, to what is he compared? To one who eats ripened grapes and drinks aged wine’." - Pirkay Avot 4. Of Avraham, our father, the Torah tells that he was “ Ba bayamim (Genesis 24:1),” advanced in his years – but still growing ( ba literally means coming, denoting forward movement).

Not many people can stand braggarts. They tend to push people away. The conquests of a person ought to be guarded with humility. As my father, of blessed memory, used to say, “A person should not wear their resume on their shirt sleeve.” “…a common operator boasted repeatedly about his elaborate all-electric kitchen. After a week of this talk, the man arrived home one evening to find two tons of coal delivered to his front door. The receipt was marked by A. Hitchcock.”   - From The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

Two anecdotes: Condemned to death by Parisian revolutionaries, Louis xvi consumed six cutlets, a big portion of eggs, and three glasses of wine. Louis xvi loved food so much that on his wedding night when he was sixteen years old, he ate himself “breathless.”   When his grandfather, Louis xv, recommended that he might be filling his stomach too much young Louis replied “Why not?   I sleep so much better that way.” Louis xvi is not alone.   Many people consume great quantities of [fill in the needed word here: food, drugs, sex, alcohol] while ignoring the many good things (and bad… but isn’t that what it means to be alive?) that happen to us.   It is like taking a pain killer that dulls all sensation.

“…in which the peasants seized power by force and quickly changed all the locks on the palace doors so the nobles could not get back in.   Then they had a large party and gorged themselves.   When the nobles finally recaptured the palace they were forced to clean up and found many stains and cigarette burns.”   - Woody Allen , Without Feathers What makes Woody Allen so funny is that there is truth in even the most ridiculous of statements.   Sometimes the funnier it is the more it rings true. Here, he retells of the French Revolution where the workers who overthrew the rich were every bit as nasty and self-centered.   It worked the same way with the Russian Revolution. There are many stories of those who prayed to win the lottery only to have their loves ruined by winning. The moral?   As the Mishna states, Who is rich?   One who is content.”

In 1990 newly elected president, Vaclav Havel, said in his New Year’s speech to the Czech nation, “  People are surprised that the acquiescent, humiliated, skeptical Czechoslovakian people, who had, apparently no longer believed in anything, suddenly managed to find the enormous strength in the space of a few weeks to shake off the totalitarian system in a completely decent and peaceful way. “We ask where did the young people, in particular, who have never known any other system, find the source of political imagination, civic courage, and civic foresight.” In dark times, remember what humanity is capable of doing.   And it all begins with an idea.

We often find ourselves confused about the things that matter and the rest of life.  Here is a story to put it in perspective: A learned scholar from the Jewish Theological Seminary had just finished his magnum opus - a painstakingly involved academic work - and was approached by one of the students at the school.  The student informed the professor of a new book that was in the press and was a remarkable bestseller. "Professor, can you imagine?  They are printing one hundred thousand copies of this novel?!  Doesn't that make you wonder about the work you are doing?" "Ah," replied the scholar. "One hundred thousand copies in a year.  My book will sell one hundred copies in a year but will continue to be sold and read for a thousand years." Remember what is real, most important, and life will be less confusing.

I watched them tearing a building down, A gang of men in a busy town. With a you-heave-ho and a lusty yell, They swung a beam and the side wall fell. I asked the foreman: “Are these men skilled, The kind you would hire if you wanted to build?” He laughed and said, “Why, no, indeed! Just common labor is all I need. They can easily wreck in a day or two What builders have taken years to do.” Which of these roles have I tried today? Am I a builder who works with care, Measuring life by the rule and square, Shaping my deeds by a well-made plan, Patiently doing the best I can? Or am I a wrecker who walks the town, Content with the labor of tearing down? - G.K. Chesterton