A Soulful Journey

Bertrand Russell was lecturing in New York on the consequences of a double negative.  He said that while a double negative implied a positive, a double positive did not mean a negative.  Whereupon someone in the audience replied, "Yeah, yeah!" -   Rabbi Louis Jacobs Sweeping statement are always suspect and seldom correct   Question what you hear.

 "All things can be replaced except the wife of one's youth."  -Talmud, Sanhedrin 22a

Rabbi Meir used to give public sermons every Friday evening. A certain women, who enjoyed his lectures greatly, attended regularly. One evening, his sermon was especially long and when the woman returned home she found her house dark and her husband angrily standing at the door. “Where have you been?” he shouted at her. "To hear the rabbi preach," the woman replied. ”Since the rabbi’s preaching has pleased you so much,” the husband said, “I vow that you will not enter this house until you have spat in his eyes. That is his reward for the entertainment he has given you,” he added sarcastically. The husband barred the doorway and refused to allow his wife to enter. The strongest woman went to live with a neighbor. When word of the incident reached Rabbi Meir he sent for the woman. Pretending to have pain in both his eyes, the rabbi asked her if she knew of a cure for his illness. The simple woman nervously said, “No.” “Spit seven times in my eyes,” said the Rabbi, “perhaps that...

“I rose about midnight, took a large earthenware vessel, crept with it under my mother-in-law’s bed, and began to speak aloud in the following fashion: “O Rissia, Rissia, you ungodly woman, why do you treat my beloved son so ill?  If you do not mend your ways, your end is near, and you will be damned for all eternity.” Then I crept out again, and began to pinch her cruelly and after a while I slipped silently back to bed. The following morning she got up in consternation and told my wife that my mother appeared to her in a dream and had threatened and pinched her on my account.  In confirmation she showed the blue marks of her arm. When I came from the synagogue I did not find my mother-in-law at home, but my wife in tears.  I asked her the reason, but he would tell me nothing. My mother-in-law returned, with a dejected look and eyes red with weeping.  She had gone, as I afterward learned, to the Jewish place of burial, thrown herself on my mother...

"Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith." -Paul Tillich.

Count Patotsky, a proselyte from Vilna, had a friend Zaremba who followed Patotsky’s idea – he and his wife had converted to the Jewish faith. After they become Jews Jews, Zaremba said to his wife, “Let us get a divorce now.  You marry a real Jew and I’ll marry a Jewess, and in that manner we will be rooted into the Jewish race.” Zaremba’s wife smiled wisely. “Two people were once stranded in a desert,” she said, “and lost their path.  They wandered aimlessly together, suffered hunger and thirst and were tortured by the burning sand and blistering sun.  Finally, a miracle happened and they found the road back to civilization.  When they reached their destination, they clasped each other’s hands and said, ‘When we lost our way we suffered great pain and agony together.  Now that we have found a place of refuge, is it wise that we should part?  Is it fair’?” Hold hands with the ones you love.  Do not let go.

Rabbi Judah said in the name of Rav, "If you see two people continually quarreling there is a blemish of unfitness in one of them and they are [providentially] not allowed to cleave to each other."  - Kiddushin 71b There are times when people cannot get along.  When that happens wisdom dictates that they avoid one another, and thus avoid conflict and turmoil which affects not only them but everyone around them.

Speaking in 1975 in Baltimore at a ZOA gathering, Menachem Begin delivered a speech on why Israel should not give up land for a promise of international guarantees.  The next morning headlines appeared in the Morning Sun, "Ex-Israeli Terrorist Asks for Weapons." Some things never change.

A couple was driving home from a party.  On the way, she leaned over to him and asked, "Why aren't we so close any more?" He responded, "I haven't moved," he said as he pointed to the steering wheel. Try harder.  It will yield results.

  These announcements were found in synagogue newsletters and bulletins. Even spell check wouldn’t have helped!... Don’t let worry kill you. Let your synagogue help. Join us for our Oneg after services. Prayer and medication to follow. Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our congregation. For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs. We are pleased to announce the birth of David Weiss, the sin of Rabbi and Mrs. Avi Weiss. Thursday at 5:00PM, there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All women wishing to become Little Mothers, please see the rabbi in his private study. The ladies of Hadassah have cast off clothing of every kind and they may be seen in the basement on Tuesdays. A bean supper will be held Wed. even in the community center. Music will follow. Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the J.C.C. Please use the large double door at the side entrance. Rabbi is on vacation. Massages can be given to his secretary....

People need big dreams, expansive horizons, large challenges, stretching ambitions.  Faith gives birth to these "from-a-distance thoughts".  -unknown Dream away.  Dream large.

"I as a Jew do not know what despair is.  Despair means utter futility, being utterly lost.  I will never be lost.  I know where I came from.  I know where I am going.  I am the son of Abraham.  Despite my imperfections, deficiencies, faults and sins, I remain a part of that Covenant that God made with Abraham: we are going toward the Kingship of God and the Messianic era.  This is the preciousness of being a Jew.”  - Abraham Joshua Heschel

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is life, fight for it. Mother Teresa

In the early 1900s, of the Jew who decides that, in order to make it in the world, he needs to pray and align himself with the Episcopalians.  So he joins the local Episcopalian Church.  Eventually, living in a nice big house and doing well in his business, he decides that he needs to join the local country club — which, of course, in those days, is restricted.  So the membership committee invites him in for a talk.  After a while, they ask him, “So, Mr. Keen [nee Cohen], you say in your application that you're an Episcopalian. Is that really the case?”  “Oh, yes,” he tells them.  “I’m an Episcopalian, my father’s an Episcopalian, and my grandfather,  ala v  ha-sholem,  was also an Episcopalian.” Isn't it good that we no longer need fear of being who we are in order to be accepted? 

When the Romans tortured him, Rabbi Ishmael cried out in pain to heaven, a voice returned, “Ishmael, one more cry from you and I will return the world back to chaos.” Rabbi Ishmael refused to utter another sound.  He swallowed the pain but would not cry out.   This occurred during the Hadrianic persecutions and such was the power to Rabbi Ishmael that his cries reverberated through the cosmos causing even God to weep. God cares, deeply, about our lives.

Despair is not only a sin but it is also unwarranted.”   C.P. Snow Hope, on the other hand, is both the solution and necessary lifelong.

"Magic is believing in yourself; if you can do that, you can make anything happen." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

An old Jewish woman just turned ninety, became ill and called the doctor.  he examined her carefully and looked doubtful. “Can you cure me, doctor?” the old woman asked hopefully. “Dear Granny,” said the doctor soothingly.  “You know what happens when one gets older.  All sorts of ailments begin to happen.  After all, a doctor is not a miracle man.  He cannot make an old woman younger." “Who’s asked you to make me younger, doctor?”  protested the old woman, irritably.  "What I want is to grow older!”   Listen. Only then speak.