A Soulful Journey

When God created the world He also created insects.   Each species found for itself tasks from which to derive benefit and satisfaction.   The bees were the only species that expressed a desire to serve humanity.   They were not solely concerned with their personal interests.   A thundering Voice then pierced the universe: “Those insects that seek to satisfy their own interests while remaining unconcerned about the welfare of others shall live in the dust and eat the detritus of others.   The unselfish bees, however, shall nourish themselves in the nectar of flowers and give to humanity providing them with sweetness and honey. Moral: So it is among people, there are those who serve and those who serve only themselves.

Rabbi Chanina remarked, “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, and the most from my students” -Ta’anit 7a

A lion escaped from the zoo. The lion then went to take refuge in the histadrut headquarters. The lion proceeded to eat one clerk every day and nobody noticed.  For six months this went on.  One day the lion made the mistake of eating the man who pushes the tea cart from office to office.  Panic then ensued.  - Israeli joke

A man was drowning and yelled for help to a man on the shore. "Swim to the beach and I'll help you," the man shouted back. This is not help. Help is reaching out to somewhere, where they are.

Two farmers were having a long, bitter feud over a fence line.   The quarrel became more and more vitriolic until finally, under the cover of darkness, one farmer went to the other’s well and dropped bags of salt into it, contaminating the water.   He thought he really showed his opponent until a few days later when he lifted water out of his own well and discovered that it was salty.    Both farmers shared a common underground water table. Our desires, whether known or hidden, have a way of filtering into all strata of our soul.   S piteful salt can touch our whole being, contaminating our whole self, like the farmer’s well.   

Hanoch of Aleksandrov explained how this world can be compared to a wedding hall. "A man came to an inn in Warsaw.  In the evening there floated music and sounds of dancing coming from the adjacent house. "They must be having a wedding," he thought. The next evening he heard the same sounds and the next evening as well. "How can there be so many weddings in one family?" he wondered. The innkeeper answered, "That house is a wedding hall.  Today there is one wedding and tomorrow there will be another." "It is the same with this world," told Rabbi Hanoch.  "People are always enjoying themselves.  But some days it is one person and other days it is another.  No single person is happy all the time."  -Francine Klagsbrun

“We Jews have been burdened with a twofold task: we have to cope with the problem of a double confrontation.    We think of ourselves as human beings, sharing the destiny of Adam in his general encounter with nature, and as members of a covenantal community which has preserved its identity under most unfavorable conditions, confronted by another faith community.    We believe we are the bearers of a double charismatic load, that of the dignity of man and that of the sanctity of the covenantal community.    In this difficult role, we are summoned by God, who revealed himself at both the level of universal creation and that of the private covenant, to undertake a double mission – the universal human and the exclusive covenantal confrontation.”    Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik

When Mickey Spillane was asked why he wrote the Mike Hammer novels, he responded that he just wrote what he wanted to read. Do what you love.  Bliss will follow.

A child visited New York City with her father and saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time.   As they boarded the ferry to return to Manhattan, the little one asked her father, “Tell, me daddy, doesn’t she need someone to help her hold up the light?”  - Rabbi Vernon Kurtz

In the midst of the story of the story when Pharaoh’s handmaid stretches out her hands ( vayishlach et amah ) to grasp the floating basket that contains baby Moses, Rabbi Judah commented that her arm miraculously lengthened so that she could reach the basket without endangering herself in the treacherous Nile. Generations later the Kotzker Rebbe asked, “How did she know that her hands would be lengthened to grasp the child?”   He answered, “It is our responsibility to reach out, even if we think we cannot touch the victim.   God will do the rest.” Miracles happen when we put forth effort.

Fruits gathered to hold a discussion among themselves.   They wanted to discover the reason why no fruit but the grape contains the juice from which the finest wines are made. “Her drink is famous throughout the world and exquisitely pleasing to man’s taste,” they declared.   “Why is she so more worthy than we to be blessed with this gift from God?” A cluster of grapes hanging nearby heard the complaint and replied, “All of you grow individually and produce you fruits independently, but we grapes grow together in bunches and are faithful to each other.   For that reason our substance is rich and capable of imparting such distinctive taste and fragrance to our wines.” Moral: In union there is strength. Travel the world with other passengers. Besides, it makes the journey much more interesting.