A Soulful Journey

On one occasion President Harry Truman was asked to speak at a fundraising project to help the children of the White House guard who was slain in the line of duty. With great feeling he said, “You can't imagine just how a man feels when someone else dies for him!” King David must have had a similar feeling for the three mighty men who were so loyal to him. When he expressed a longing for a drink from the well of Bethlehem, three soldiers voluntarily broke through the Philistine lines and secured it for him. David was so moved by their courage that he wouldn’t drink even one drop of that precious liquid. Instead, he poured it out as a libation to God saying: “Can I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” To him their act was as noble as if they had died for him.  - Rabbi Gary Greene   The men and women who defend us at the risk of their lives every day- whether soldiers, police, medical personnel or the person who stops at the roadside to ask if you are...

 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:  The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar. -Wordsworth Not when does life end but when does it  begin ?

 “Myth” as the Greek Statesman Solon said,  is not something that never happened. It’s something that happens over and over and over again. - Krista Tippet

        In the early 1940's, Ben Hecht (1894-1964) was actively involved in the rescue efforts of the Bergson Group, trying to save as many European Jews as possible.         As part of his volunteer work, Hecht, in 1942, was trying to get several prominent Jewish Hollywood personalities to sign a telegram calling for a mass protest rally.         He approached David O. Selznick (1902-65), the renowned producer, and asked him to sign.         Selznick refused, baldly declaring, "I am not interested in Jewish politics. I'm an American, not a Jew!"         Seizing on that comment, Hecht now challenged Selznick. "If I can prove you are a Jew, will you sign the telegram?"         "How are you going to prove it?"         Hecht suggested calling any three Hollywood friends that Selznick would choose and pose the simple question, "What would you call David...

  Hayom katzar v'ha-melakhah merubah  " The day is short and the task at hand is pressing" (Pirkay Avot 2, 15). The Romans had a similar saying. Vita brevia, ars longa. "Life is short and the work is voluminous." Live each day to the fullest for tomorrow is not promised.

An Indian rajah would make regular hunting safaris in Africa. One trip he found a valley filled with brightly colored talking parrots, one of which he captured with a net and took it back to his palace. A year later he told the parrot, “I will be returning to your valley soon.  Is there any message you would like me to bring to your relatives there?” The parrot replied, “Yes. Tell them I enjoy my cage. I enjoy talking with you daily. I am very happy.” The rajah returned to the valley and spoke those words to the birds there. As soon as he had finished, an old parrot keeled over and fell to the ground, motionless. Back home the rajah told the parrot what had happened.  As soon as he said, when I gave your message an elderly parrot fell off his branch dead, the caged parrot fell off his perch and lay motionless at the bottom of the cage. Thinking to himself, “Hearing of the death of his relative must have caused his death, the rajah opened the cage, reached inside, and...

One of the disciples of Rabbi Moshe of Kobryn was asked, "What was most important to your teacher?"  The disciple answered, " Whatever he happened to be doing at the moment."  (Buber)

Blessed is the generation in which Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah lived for in his generation is not an orphan.  Each generation has its own tzaddikim and even moreso recognizes them for their goodness.  Seek them. 

On Chess : In his younger days when trading lumber Reb Simh.ah Bunim of Peshish.a used to play chess with people of dubious reputation, and he would jest sometimes at a fitting moment when making a move, e.g. "Be careful when you move at chess, or you'll end up with one pawn less," and his tone made people listen.  Over time, they realized that the "jests" actually applied to their lives as well as the game.  Eventually he turned their hearts.  Once he played chess with a man whom he wanted to turn from his evil ways.  He made a bad move, and when his opponent took advantage of it, he begged to replay it.  The man consented.  A while later, the same thing happened again, but this time his opponent refused to let him replay it, "I let it pass once, but this time it must count."  The tsaddiq replied, "Woe to the man who has crept so deep into evil that prayer can no longer help him turn."  The man stared at him, silent, motionless, with his sou...

"He who sees his first wife die, it is as though he has been witness to the destruction of the Temple."   Sanhedrin 22b Human relations, love are paramount.  They bring us life and when they leaves we are empty and vapid.  And still, we never give up hope.