A Soulful Journey

Why was the Torah given in the wilderness and not in Israel? To teach us that just as the desert is free and available to all people, so God’s Torah applies, at least in its basic teachings, to the nations fo the world, not to the Jews alone .   - Rabbi Israel Leventhal

A Midrash:   When Moses ascended to heaven to receive Torah the angels complained, “ What is flesh and blood doing here, among us?” they wailed. HaKadosh Baruch Hu responded, “He is here to receive the Torah.”   “Nine hundred seventy- four generations have passed since the inception of the world.   Since that time Your word has been safe with us.   And now you want to give it to such beings??” HaKadosh Baruch Hu responded, “They can do teshuvah .” Hearing the clamor raging in heaven, Moses grew afraid.   What if the angels grew spiteful and destroyed him? HaKadosh Baruch Hu soothed Moses’ anxiety saying, “Hold My throne and you will be safe.”

“When I was young I admired clever people.  Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”  - Abraham  Joshua  Heschel

“A half truth is a whole lie.” (Yiddish Proverb)

Once the Baal Shem Tov stood in a House of Prayer and remained motionless for a very long time.   All his disciples had finished praying but he continued on.   They waited for him a good while, and then finally left for home.   After several hours, when they had attended to their various duties, the returned to the house of Prayer and found the Master still immersed in deep prayer.   Later, he said to them, “By going away and leaving me alone, you dealt me a painful separation.   I shall tell you a parable: “You know that there are birds of passage who fly to warm countries in the autumn.   Well, the people in one of those lands once saw a glorious bird in the midst of a flock which was journeying through the sky.   The eyes of man had never seen a bird so beautiful.   He alighted on the top of the tallest tree and nested in the leaves.   When the king of the country heard of it, he bade them to fetch down the bird with his nest.   He...

Said the Dubner:   “A student wrote a letter to his father, asking for extra spending money.   The father’s secretary read the lad’s letter to his employer in a loud, harsh voice: “Father, send money immediately; I need shoes and an overcoat.”   The father became incensed at the seemingly impolite tone of his son’s letter and refused to answer him.   Later he gave the same letter to his wife to read.   She read it in a low tone of modesty and entreaty.   The father, thereupon, wrote out a check and instructed his wife to mail it to his son. From this letter we learn that he who prays quietly makes a better impression that a noisy worshipper.”   - Newman, Maggidim and Hasidim In prayer, the act matters.  What makes a prayer rise swiftly is how we employ our heart and head when we utter the words.