A Soulful Journey

Know that faith, miracles, prayer and the Land of Israel are all a single, organic whole. The Land of Israel is the place where faith, miracles and prayer reach their highest expression.   -Rebbe Nachman

“Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do…. For me, the conception of hell lies in two words: ‘too late’.” –Gian-Carlo Menotti

“We are God’s stake in human history.” –Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Who was the mother of Moses?” asked the teacher. “Pharaoh’s daughter, answered little Abie. “Oh no! She just found him in the river.” “Yeah. That’s what she said!” Even children need to learn faith.  Especially children.  

In the tale of the Tower of Babel we are told of humanity united in its desire to reach heaven.   The story is use to describe the degradation of humanity.   Yet, the reader is left with a question: What is so terrible about constructing a tower?   Even if their purpose was to storm the Gates of Heaven, what is so bad?   After all, they could never possibly complete such a ludicrous task! “This brief episode, told in a few verses, troubled the Rabbis because they could not understand why so drastic a step was taken against a relatively innocuous undertaking.   A Midrash offers a striking interpretation.   It explains that when the tower was being built, tier upon tier, if one of the workers fell from an upper platform to the ground and was killed, his fellow workers paid no attention o him.   But if a brick slipped out of a worker’s hand and fell to the ground, there was wailing and lamentation, because the process of building was being delayed....

All journeys can serve as a means of repairing one’s faith. Sometimes a person travels because he feels unsure that God can provide from him where he is; this is a sign of blemished emunah (faith). Later, when he makes another journey, he can repair the damage to faith that made him take the earlier trip. This is true of the individual just as it was of the Jewish people as a whole in their journeys through the desert. -Rebbe Nachman Our life is a journey. Faith will steer us, if we let it.