A Soulful Journey

There are many facets to life. We can be humble or arrogant; indignant or accepting; full of love or bitterness.   We always have a choice of how to accept the life come to us. Moses Mendelssohn worked as a bookkeeper for a very wealthy ignorant merchant in Berlin. “God is not just, a friend once remarked to Mendelssohn. “You, who are so educated and intelligent, are employed by such a rich man who is an ignoramus!” “No,” responded the philosopher.   “God is just.   Since I am educated and a bookkeeper I can always earn a living.   But what would my employer, poor soul, do if he were not wealthy.” When choosing your path, choose wisely.

Much can be learned from humor. Much truth. “Charity is when you bake cookies for the shul bazaar. Compassion is when you buy them back.” - Anonymous Live life practicing charity with compassion.

“Not long after Barbara Longworth moved her house in the Algiers Point section of New Orleans, she notices a boy and girl, both about ten, tearing flowers off their stems in her neighbor’s year. "Longworth’s neighborhood is like many others in New Orleans – full of charm, but threatened by drugs and crime, and scarred by boarded-up buildings and abandoned cars.   It has lots of children but little for them to do. “Stop that!” she yelled at the youngsters again and again, but to no avail.   Did they know how long it takes a flower to grow?   Had they ever planted a garden?   She asked.   No. "So Longworth bought plants.   She gave one to Frank and one to Lisa, their very own to take care of.   And they came every day to tend them and help in the garden.   In their garden. That was the beginning. "Now she has irises, gardenias, periwinkle and Mexican heather where she used to have nothing but weeds.   The children unearthed an old brick side...

A teacher visited a father to talk about his child. “I am not a novice,” the teacher began. “I’ve been at this profession for twenty-five years.” “You don’t look it.” "What do you mean?” the teacher asked. “You look healthy. Among Jews it is a known fact that after teaching for a few years brings on a weak heart or TB.” One of the most unfortunate things is life is when those who educate are under-appreciated. According to Torah and the great Sages of the past, teachers are to be revered on a par with parents! Even today it is customary to stand when a teacher enters into a room at yeshiva.

“ Hello, Abie? How’s business?” “Rotten. Every day I keep my shop open I am losing money.” “Well, why don’t you close it?” “What!! Close the shop? And what shall I live on?” - Friday Night Book Focus on what is real, what is most important. Then all those ancillary bug-a-boos will recede into the background, where they belong.

An old banker was very ill. The doctor was taking his temperature. “Ninety nine point nine,” he said looking at the thermometer. “When it reaches a hundred, sell!” murmured the old man weakly. -Friday Night Book Habits are ingrained. It takes great effort to not react as we have in the past. It takes steely courage to respond in a way that is out of character. Yet, if we do not attempt the change we will forever be trapped by the words and actions of the past.

A wealthy business man sent his servant to Leipzig twice each year to purchase merchandise on credit. Each time the servant purchased new stock on credit, he paid up the old debt. One day the merchant devised a scheme to go into bankruptcy. “When you go to Leipzig this time,” he told the servant, “try to buy a lot of merchandise. You will not need any money because I’ve paid enough already.” The servant was not pleased. He said, “But the dealers will not want to sell without cash.” “Do as I tell you!” the merchant shouted. The servant, having no alternative, went to Leipzig and said, “My master has instructed me to purchase a lot of stock on credit. When I told him that I doubted whether you would trust him for so much money, he told me to hold my tongue.” The dealer immediately understood and did not give him any merchandise. Moral: We may feel at times that we are stuck but we can always find a way to be honest.

  In Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto , Emmanuel Ringleblum wrote in 1941, “People cover the dead bodies of frozen children with handsome posters designed for Children’s Month, bearing the legend, “Our Children, Our Children Must Live – A Child is the Holiest Thing.” Even in the depths of hell people know the value of the holiest object on earth: the tiny receptacle of learning that can become anything - a  child.

“Alles fur die kinder.”   “Everything for the children.”   –Yiddish expression Good and bad.     The good is the unqualified love.   We love our family. We do anything for them, to protect them from harm. The bad is that doing too much can make them dependent or lazy. Idea: Anything in excess is not good.   Too much ice cream gives you a belly-ache.   Too much love is smothering.   Life is a balance.

" You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.  You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell is the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.  You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.  For life goes not backward not tarries with yesterday.  For you are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”     -  Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Humorist Robert Benchley once said there are two kinds of travel - “first class or with kids.” Raising children is a challenging task.   It requires skill, dexterity, the ability to master being sleep deprived and, above all, love.

Rabbi Hisda observed, long ago, that when a woman conceives at an early age her fertility will be long-lived. If however, she delays beyond this point, her fertility will diminish accordingly.” - Baba Batra 119b There are certain things that are left for the young and are not permitted to the old. Likewise, there are gifts given to the old that are not permitted to the young. Both are precious. Both are irreplaceable. Both are necessary. In its own time we grow and mature. Take life as God has presented: Today alone is promised.

Harry Burgess and Les Thurlow have coffee every day at local shop. A tourist asks Harry how he lost part of a finger. Harry responds that it wore out pointing directions to passers-by. One day Harry was ploughing his field with a white horse. It dropped dead. Harry left the horse in the field and went over to see Les and asked him if he wanted to trade his black horse. Les said that would be fine. “Let’s shake on it,” said Harry. And they did. Then Harry stated matter-of-factly, “My white horse is lying dead in the field.” Les said, “That’s okay, my black horse died Monday.” Funny stories with a powerful moral.  Friends offend and have disagreements.  Yet when their love is stronger than ego their relationship is forever cemented.