A Soulful Journey

“If I create the world on the basis of mercy alone, its sins will be great; on the basis on judgment alone, the world cannot exist.  Therefore I will create it with a combination of judgment and mercy and it may stand.” –Beresheit Rabbah 12:15

“Justice, justice you shall pursue, that you may thrive to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” –Deuteronomy. 16:20

“Let justice roll down like a river, righteousness like a mighty stream.”   -Amos 5:24 Note the importance of Justice against righteousness.  "Justice," said Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, is one of the three necessary pillars of society.  (Avot 18:1)

“You have been told what is good and what God requires you to do.  Only to act justly, and love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”   -Micah 6:8

"The people or parties revolted against one called the "oppressors" and easily recognized as they seem to be the ones having all the fun."  - Woody Allen When politics is mistaken for entertainment or vice versa we are in danger.

"The Puritans called marriage "the little church within the Church."   In marriage, every day you love and every day you forgive.  It is an ongoing sacrament  - love and forgiveness."   -Joseph Campbell

"My parents stayed together for forty years, but that was out of spite."  - Woody Allen Better to live bravely than eke out a life that is only bearable.

For Tzaddikim it [manna] feel to the doorsteps of their homes. For the average person, they need to out and collect it, For the wicked they needed to search for it before collecting it.  -Yoma 75 For the  righteous, life is not a war to be fought and won, each day trudging out to do battle. For the average person life is arduous. For the wicked is painful.

When I was going to be twelve, my great grandfather called my grandfather in Spanish and said, "It's time to tell the boy."  So the next morning, on my birthday. my grandfather woke me and took me to get water.  He began to tell me about the Jews in the Bible, the stories I had heard in Catechism class. I asked him, "Why are you telling me all this?" "Because,"he said, "eres Judio -- you are a Jew." And I said, "No, I'm Catholic," and he said, "No, eres Judio." I got angry, we had been taught to hate the Jews because they were the Christ killers, and here my own grandfather was calling me a Jew.  Then he pulled the water out and poured it over my head and said, "No tas portisado," that is, "you are no longer baptized."  So by pouring water over my head, he took away the baptism; it was time to wash it off.  And all of a sudden I realized that we had these strange foods and custom, these strange s...

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end.  Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.” –Gilda Radner 1946-1989 "Let us eat, and drink for tomorrow we die"-   Isaiah  22:13

When man was created God took one of man's sides, not one of his ribs. Therefore man has both male and female characteristics and female has also combination of both. -hakdama sefer kabbalah

The famous Aryeh Ginsberg of Metz was a man of great learning.  He was a strong advocate of following  halacha , Jewish law.  He believed that the letter of the law was supreme and meant to hold onto stringently. He also bitterly opposed many other halachists for their views.  He made many an enemy this way.  One day as Rav Ginsberg was pulling books from his enormous bookcase the entire lot tumbled down on him and eventually killed him.  However, before he died, he said, “See they finally got back at me.” - Rabbi Louis Jacobs When a person grows bitter they see everything and everyone as a potential enemy.  Wisdom is allowing ourselves to never grow so brittle as to see the world so darkly,  as our enemy.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I do the very best I can.  If the end brings me out right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything.  If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”  - George Steinbrenner Life presents us with choices every day.  We do the best we can.   That is the best we can do.

SHOULD YOU WISH TO KNOW THE SOURCE  Should you wish to know the Source,  From which your brothers drew...  Their strength of soul...  Their comfort, courage, patience, trust,  And iron might to bear their hardships  And suffer without end or measure?  And should you wish to see the Fort  Wherein your fathers refuge sought.  And all their sacred treasures hid,  The refuge that has still preserved  Your nation's soul intact and pure  And when despised, and scorned, and scoffed,  Their faith they did not shame?  And should you wish to see and know  Their Mother, faithful, loving, kind  Who...sheltered them and shielded them.  And lulled them on her lap to sleep?  If you, my brother, know not  Then enter now the House of God,  The House of study, old and gray, Throughout the scorching summer days  Throughout the gloomy winter nights,  ...

You shall love Adonai your God with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your being. Set these words, which I command you this day, upon your heart . —Deut 6:5-6 Even when you hold it in your arms, you have not grasped it. Wrapped and turned in upon itself  the scroll says, Not yet. Even when you take them into your eyes,  you have not seen them; elegant  in their crowns the letters stand aloof. Even when you taste them in your mouth  and roll them on your tongue or bite the sharp unyielding strokes  they say, Not yet. And when the sounds pour from your throat  and reach deep into your lungs for breath, even then the words say, Not quite But when your heart knows its own hunger and your mind is seized and shaken, and in the narrow space between the lines your soul builds its nest, Now, says Torah, now  you begin to understand. - Barbara D. Holender

An ancient Midrash with powerful implications for today: When God created the first man, He showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden. He said to him: “See my works now beautiful and fine they are. Everything I have created has been for your sake. Think of this, and do not corrupt or destroy My world; for if you corrupt it, there will be on one to set it right after you.”    - Kohelet Rabbah

Hasidic  Rabbi  Simcha Bunim of Peshischa said:  Be sure to have two pockets sewn into your clothing. In each pocket carry a note, to read as needed. In the right-hand pocket: “I am but dust and ashes.” In the left-hand one: “For my sake, the world was created.”

Hasidic  Rabbi Simcha Bunim   of Peshischa said:  Be sure to have two pockets sewn into your clothing. In each pocket carry a note, to read as needed. In the right-hand pocket: “I am but dust and ashes.” In the left-hand one: “For my sake, the world was created.”

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." -Mark Twain

Parsimony, soft-heartedness and naiveté are vices in a man but virtues in a woman. - Hasdai ben-Ha-Melekh v'ha-Nazir Like all aphorisms this is as true as we want it to be. You must strive to be you, every day, every moment. When you aspire to be someone or something that you are not an innate part of your soul is crushed.

We thank You, O God of life and love, For the resurrecting gift of memory Which endows Your children, fashioned in Your image, With the God-like sovereign power To give immortality through love. Praised be You, O God, Who enables Your children to remember. - Morris Adler

"The evil man must be forgiven every day.  He must be loved, because something of each of us is in the most evil man in the world and something of him is in each of us.  He is ours and we are his.  None of us is separate from any other.  The peasant's prayer is my prayer, the assassins's crime is my crime."   -William Sarovan, A Contemporary High Holy Day Service

"I've been rich and I've been poor.  Rich is better."  - Sophie Tucker Sophie Tucker was on of the greatest (Jewish) performers in American history.   Like all of us, she suffered and prospered. Good and bad awaits all.  Of course we all prefer good to bad yet even bad has a purpose.  Our task is to discover its purpose and allow it to refine our being.

"Man has been here 32,000 years.  That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for.  I suppose it is.  I dunno.  If the Eiffel Tower were now representing the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; and anybody would receive that the skin was what the Tower was built for  I reckon they would, I dunno."  - Mark Twain

Groucho Marx used to say that he was so busy reviewing books that he didn’t have time to read them.   –Rabbi Louis Jacobs Is this you?  Slow down.

"The ideal man has the strength of a man and the compassion of a woman."  -Zohar Archetypes do not always work in reality but the force of this statement is clear:  We must never be so inflexible as not not see the other side.

"Man who does not believe in God is like a frog that puffs himself up and makes himself rather ridiculous.  But as man is not a frog, if he puffs himself up to the size of a superman he becomes a dangerous creature, a wild beast which, before ultimately being destroyed, destroys others." -Ignaz Maybaum

Abraham Joshua Heschel was shocked when he read that man was defined as a composite of iron, phosphorus and other chemicals in a Nazi Germany textbook.  It indicated that a human being was only worth a few dollars. It was then easy to understand that they were on the road to dehumanizing people. A human being is of infinite value. It cannot be gauged by weight, minerals or even money. We are all far deeper, more complex. We are the creations of the Almighty.

“God is silent…now if we can only get Man to shut up.”  -Woody Allen Speaking is easy.  Listening is an art.

"Which is the most important verse in the Torah?" Rabbi Akiva said, " 'Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself'; This is a fundamental teaching upon which the entire Torah is based'." HIs colleague, Ben Azzai, said, "The greatest teaching in  the Torah is "This is the book of the generations of man, in the likeness of God, He made him." Akiva moves us to treat one another with kindness. Azzai instructs us to first know that we are each crafted in the image of our Maker.

"Today is the oldest you're ever been, yet the youngest you'll ever be."

Rabbi Amram said in the name of Rav, “There are three transgressions which no person escapes even for a single day.  They are - sinful thought, calculation on prayer and slander.”    -Baba Batra 164b There is hope for you.  No one gets an “easy pass” on life.  We all struggle with the same demons.  Therefore never abandon hope.  Think of life as a test, an examination, for which we are always preparing.