A Soulful Journey

“The dimmest lights seemed to have been drained from the air.   Was this the realm of the other side?   Yet there were truths in those words.   How could truths emanate from such darkness?” – Chaim Potok , The Book of Lights All is ultimately from God.   Isn’t this what the Tanach teaches when it praises God as author of all, good and evil?

Three tortoises went out for walk.   One said: “Let’s have a cup of coffee.”   They went into a restaurant when it began to rain. The oldest tortoise said, “Would you mind going home and getting an umbrella?” “Sure.   As long as you don’t drink my coffee.”   They promised and the friend set out. The other two waited. And waited. Two years passed. “Well,” said the elder.   “I guess he’s not coming back. Might as well dink his coffee.” Just then a voice came from the back door, “If you drink it I won’t go.”   - Gerald Zelizer

A Hasid lost his wealth and had to hire himself out. His wife was a good, sensible and pious woman. Elijah the prophet came to the man in disguise one day as he was working in the field and said, “You have six good years due to you.   When would you prefer them, now or at the end of your life?” The Hasid asked, "Why? Are you a magician? I have no money to give. Leave me." Twice the stranger returned. The Hasid then said, “Let me consult my wife.” He told his wife of the encounter and asked, “What shall I do?" She said, "Tell him we want the six years now." So he did. The stranger told him to go home and his wish would be fulfilled. No sooner had he caught sight of his house when he saw his children digging in the ground. And they found buried enough money to sustain them for six years. But his wife advised, "Since God was so gracious let us help others." As each day passed she would ask the youngest child to write down the sums disbur...

“In the 1930s when rumors circulated in Moscow that the figure in Lenin's tomb was wax, a chemist took some correspondents to the tomb. Saying the body would last a century he opened the glass and tweaked the nose of the mummified remains.” - Newsweek 1982 Sometimes the need to affirm what we believe is so strong that we resort to the absurd.

Trees are the kindest things I know, they do not harm, and they simply grow. And spread the shade for sleepy cows, and gather birds among their boughs. They give us fruit and leaves above, and wood to make our houses of. And leaves to burn, for an autumn scene, and in the spring new buds of green. They are the first when the days begun to touch the beams of morning sun. They are the last to hold the light when evening  changes into night. And when the moon floats on the sky they hum a drowsy lullaby. Of sleeping children long ago… Trees of the kindest things I know. -Unknown 


"As the poet said, "Only God can make a tree," probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on." - Woody Allen "And the varieties! Is this tree spruce or popular? Or giant redwood? No, I'm afraid it's a stately elm, and once again you've made an ass of yourself."  - Woody Allen