A Soulful Journey

In October 1973 the Egyptian and Syrian armies attacked Israel on the morning of Yom Kippur, the Day Atonement, when all Jews spend the day in Synagogue, fasting and praying.   Many lives were lost in those first hours of fighting.   I heard of a man who went to his rabbi a few days later and told him: “When I heard the news about the fighting in Israel, I slammed my prayer book shut and walked out of the synagogue.   I said to myself, ‘If God is going to let young Jewish boys be killed for defending their country on Yom Kippur I am not going to sit here reciting psalms to Him.’    I walked out of Temple and spent the rest of the holiday sitting at home, angry at God.   Now, three days later, I feel embarrassed by what I did.   I feel guilty for walking out on the Yom Kippur service and I want to know what I can do to make up for it. The rabbi told him, “You have nothing to feel guilty about and nothing to apologize for.   Your...

"Name a behavior and there's a "12-step" program to rescue you from it.  For example, "Everyone in the world is now a co-dependent.  It's gotten bit broad," says Emily Reichert of Delacorte Press, as she critiques our multiple ways of escaping personal responsibility, playing victim role and staying stuck there." - Context , 15 February, 1992

We are partners in redemption.  As the Tanakh states, "Arise with the help of the people."  That is to say redemption is not passive, it requires our participation.  -Rabbi Sidney Greenberg

When the Rebbe urged his disciples to think of God during business they responded, "How can we think of matters of prayer while conducting commerce?" "Why not?" the Rebbe replied.  "You think of business while you are praying."

“And people ask Hashem: What will be in the future?   And Hashem said to them: How long are you to hate one another?”    - Rabbi Mauricio Balter quoting Rabbi Marshall Meyer This is our faith's response to evil; not where are You, God? But where are you, my brother?

“The praying man is the man who inspires the world, who looks on it with compassion and, in this glance, penetrates to the source of all being.”   -Henri J. Nouwen

If a man comes upon a virgin who is not engaged and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, the man who lay with her shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife.   Because he has violated her he can never divorce her.   – Deuteronomy 22 Note the Torah indicates that all willful actions have consequences.   While circumstances have changed the basic premise of rape is inviolate: the act will never go away.   As the scars remain with the woman so the perpetrator can never walk away or erase his actions. Maimonides in his Code refines this notion by explaining that the rapist acts out of a moment of control and enjoyment.   Even if the man is technically not a rapist but one who seduced the woman he is obliged to pay the fine to teach the lesson that no act goes unrecorded, unnoticed, without consequences.   Where rape is involved, the perpetrator must not only pay fifty shekels of silv...

Rabbi Elazar says: Tzaddikim are good people say little and do much.

Time for Joy. 1 . "It's like deja vu all over again." 2 . "We made too many wrong mistakes." 3 . "You can observe a lot just by watching." 4 . " A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore." 5 . "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious." 6 . "If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be." 7 . "If you don't know where you're going, you might end up some place else." 8 . Responding to a question about remarks attributed to him that he did not think were his: "I really didn't say everything I said." 9 . "The future ain't what it use to be." 10 . "I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house." 11 . On why he no longer went to Ruggeri's, a St. Louis restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded." 12 . "I always thought that record would stand until it was broken....