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Showing posts from January, 2013

Have Faith

"The woman in the taxi is having a discussion with the driver.  "The point is," says the driver, "that God is always with the Jews, always." What then, asks the woman, about the Christians, the Moslems, the Buddhists.  God has not time for them?  "Yes," concedes the driver, "he does, but he has more time for the Jews." What about the Holocaust? the woman asks.  The driver is silent for the rest of the journey.  As the woman gets out of the taxi, he turns to her and says: "Lady, you're OK as a person.  Your problem is that you have too little faith."

A Contingent Faith

Eugene Borowitz was in Brixton, England at the time of the Six Day War.  When he first heard about it, he remarked, "if we don't win I won't believe in God." -Albert Friedlander Real faith is accepting life not making it contingent on the outcome events pleasing us.

What You See

"A casual stroll through a lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."   -Nietsche Which statement more true: Does the observation describe reality?  Or does the observation describe the person?

What Kind of Giving?

Rabbi Akiva teaches: “Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18) constitutes the greatest principle of the Torah.  Note that the Torah does not say, “Since I was humiliated, let it be just the same for my neighbor, or “Since I was insulted, let my neighbor be insulted as well.”  Rabbi Tanhuma says, “If you choose to behave in such a manner, know well whom you are actually insulting, for “God created humankind in the divine image.” (Genesis 5:1) – Shabbat 156b When we give the best of ourselves, we become the best self.

What We Can Do for the Poor

“One who gives gifts of charity will know God’s blessing.  One who lends to the needy is behaving in an even finer way.  But the one…who invites a needy individual to become a partner in business is the most praiseworthy of all.” –Rambam Mattanot l’Aniyim Elevating another life elevates our lie.

Feeding the Hungry

Rabbi Natan Bar Abba taught in the name of Rav: “The world is dark for those who depend for their meals on the generosity of others, as it is written, ‘He wanders about seeking bread without knowing where he will find it; he knows that the day is indeed dark for him.’ (Job 15:23)  Rav Hisda said: “More precisely, his life is no life.” –Talmud, Beitzah 32b Our human -- and Jewish -- task is to alleviate the suffering of this world.

My Prayer to You

Master of the universe! 
You listen to the anguished cries 
and desperate wails 
of every one of 
Your beloved children. 
You hear my incoherent cries, 
You comprehend my jumbled words. 
I try my best to reach You; 
with my inadequate prayers 
I call out to You, 
and You understand.           
- Rebbe Nachman, The Gentle Weapon

The Value of Age

From this one may see that there is no reason to pity old people.  Instead, young people should envy them.  It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future.  But the have more than that.  Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past – the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized – and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past. …The values of each nd every person stay[s] with him or her…because it is based on the values that he or she realized in the past, and is not contingent of the usefulness that he or she may or may not retain in the present.” –Viktor Frankl

On Average

Three statisticians go deer hunting with bows and arrows.  They spot a big buck and take aim.  One shoots, and his arrow flies off ten feet to the right.  The second shoots, and his arrow goes ten feet to the left.  The third statistician jumps up and down yelling, "We got him!  We got him!"  -Bill Butz With words and actions there is no "averaging out," there is only  the reality of what has been done.

Words

"A kike is a Jew that just left the room."   -Alan Gould We may keenly intuit the truth of Gould's pronouncement but it also contains a vital kernel for everyone to learn.  It does not matter whether a person can hear what we say about them; it only matters what we say.

Protection of the Soul

In the Talmud the Amora Rava says: “At the time when man is judged, he is asked if he dealt truthfully in business, if he set aside time for Torah study, if he fulfilled the first commandment of procreation, if he hoped for salvation, if he engaged in wise debate, if he ascertained the deeper meaning in life, and mostly, if he revered God. This is likened to a man who instructed his agent, ‘Take me up a kor (a specific measure) of wheat in the loft,’ and he went and did so. ‘Did you mix in a kab (a small amount) of humton (a kind of preservative)?’ he asked him. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Then it were better that you had not carried it up,’ he retorted.”  - Shabbat 3a, quoted by Judge Elyakim Rubenstein God has placed within us a soul.  It is the most precious thing we possess in our life. But it must be protected.  Our task is to return it in much the same condition as it was given.