A Soulful Journey

Jeffrey Hart, a Dartmouth Professor of English wrote: "I conclude that Israel is literally sacred to much or almost all of Jewish opinion.  And I mean sacred taking the term with full literalness... I understand why Israel in fact has become sacred.  The history of the 20th century is, to put it mildly, unique.  The Holocaust is a sort of hole in the cosmos, a guarantor of the existence of evil.  It is an equivalent for Jew son the Crucifixion.  Israel then became the equivalent of the Redemption."

The Mishnah (kelim 17:13) discusses the instance of an amphibian called, "kelev ha-yam," a seal.  The laws of purity are not the same for animals of the sea and land.  Since seals inhabit both land and sea, what laws apply to it?  Fish or land animal? The Mishnah rules that in times of great danger the seal flees the water and takes refuge on land.  Therefore we reckon it to be a land creature. So it is with the Jew, even one who is estranged remains Jewish as he or she returns "home" when threatened.  - Rabbi Yitzhak Ariel Danger brings clear-headedness.  It is what we need to remember when the dust clears.

The story is told about a rabbi who came home from shule one Shabbat, and his wife asked him: what did you speak about today? He said: "I spoke about how the rich should give tsedaka to the poor." She said: "How did the sermon go over?" He said: "I persuaded half the congregation." She said: "Really? Which half?" He said: "The poor." - Rabbi Jack Reimer And when it comes to pass that the entire congregation will hear and understand the Messiah will step into the congregation.

“Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.” –Joseph Conrad

"Success has a hundred fathers while defeat is an orphan."  - John F. Kennedy And yet.  Without failure there would never be success.

A little old lady was sitting on a park bench in The Villages, a Florida Adult community. A man walked over and sits down on the other end of the bench. After a few moments, the woman asks, 'Are you a stranger here?' He replies, 'I lived here years ago.' 'So, where were you all these years?' 'In prison,' he says. 'Why did they put you in prison?' He looked at her, and very quietly said, 'I killed my wife.' 'Oh!' said the woman. 'So you're single...?!'

Chuck Swindoll in his book Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns , tells about "a little girl who lost a playmate in death and one day reported to her family that she had gone to comfort the sorrowing mother. "'What did you say?" asked her father. "'Nothing,' she replied. 'I just climbed up on her lap and cried with her.'" Healing starts with having someone empathize. In the same book, Chuck tells about Joe Bayly, who lost three of his children. He quotes from Joe's book, The view from a Hearse . Joe writes: "I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly. He said things I knew were true. I was unmoved, except to wish he'd go away. He finally did. "Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask me leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, list...

Jack Benny: “Your money or your life!!"    "I'm thinking!” Have you ever heard people say, “I'm killing myself working to make a living?”