A Soulful Journey

“All of Judaism is a celebration.  The morning is a celebration.  Perhaps a very modest celebration, but how do you begin a day?  Prayer is a celebration.  It is a song.  He who does not know how to sing cannot be a Jew.”     - Abraham Joshua Heschel

A Jew comes to an inn tired.   There were no rooms available.    Desperate, the man begged the innkeeper who finally admitted there was one room left but he would have to sleep on a cot sharing the room with a Russian army officer.   The Jew trembled.   " Don’t worry," he was told, "the Russian is a heavy sleeper." The Jew asked the innkeeper to wake him early so he could catch a train and avoid his roommate.   A few hours later he was awakened.   Dressing quickly, the Jew made his way to the train station. When he arrived people were saluting him.   When he climbed onto the train he saw his reflection in a mirror.   He was wearing an army uniform. “Darn! The innkeeper woke the wrong man!” We are different things to different people.  It is a matter pf perception.  Yet, one thing we must all strive to attain is consistence in self.  Be true to who you are.

"There are such things as bogus prayers.  They are like monopoly money -- you use them when and where you wish."   -Lionel Blue How would you rate your prayer life?

Maurice Samuel was at a banquet and it came time to bentch , say Grace after Meals.  No rabbi was present to lead it so he was asked to lead.  Samuel responded, "There being no rabbi here, let us all thank God."  - Jack Reimer

In 1878 the New York Times fretted that Thomas Edison was changing the face of American civilization much too quickly.   They advocated that Edison “had invented too many things.” There are times when society rushes forward with one invention coming swiftly after the last.   It is hard to keep up.   How do we cope with what Alvin Toffler termed, “Future Shock”? To take life in stride is key.  Faith is a rock.

One who comes in from a journey is forbidden to pray.   Or one is distraught is forbidden to pray.   What is the reason?   Declares Isaiah, “Therefore now hear this, you afflicted and drunken but not with wine….”   51:21 -Yerushalmi 5:1 Why would the Talmud make such a statement? Surely we need to pray when we are distressed, in need of help?! Perhaps, they reason, that if we prayed out of anger we may say words that we come to regret.   Prayer should always be treated as sacrosanct, not like Monopoly money.

Johnny was enrolled in a Catholic School. On his first day in the new school, he went to the cafeteria for lunch. The children were lined up patiently getting their lunches. At the head of the serving line was a large pile of apples. One of the nuns made a note that said: "Take only one, God is watching." Seeing this Little Johnny made a note of his own and placed it at the other end of the serving line, in front of a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. Little Johnny's note said: "Take all you want, God is watching the apples."

"Every evil act tends to harden a man's heart, that is, to deaden it.  Every good deed tends to soften it, that is, to make it more alive.  The more man's heart hardens, the less freedom does he have to change, the more is determined already by previous action.  But there comes a point of no return when man's heart has become so hardened and so deadened that he has lost the possibility of freedom.   -Erich Fromm  Work to be good.  Strive against the sitra achra .