A Soulful Journey

There is an old story about a seeker who has traveled high into the Himalayas to find a great teacher whom he believes has the secret of life. After much hardship, the traveler finally comes face to face with the wise one in a cave high in the mountains. The seer has been a recluse for many years, half naked, dressed in only a few dirty rags. His face and head are a tangled mass of snowy hair. His eyes are red and glassy from lack of sleep. The traveler sits nervously at the teacher’s side. “Tell me,” he pleads, “What is the secret of life?” “The secret of life is simple,” responds the teacher. “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” The traveler is startled by the teacher’s response. “A bowl of cherries!” he exclaims. The teacher ponders this for a moment and then questions, “You mean it isn’t?” -Leo Buscaglia The secret of life is in living. The key to living is being awake and aware of the world; knowing that there is an eye which never closes and the ear which hears all.

  A  story related by Rabbi Hugo Gryn  from his native Czechoslovakia about a swan.   A river flooded and swelled and the only way the still-weak cygnets  could be saved would be if the father swan carried them on his back  to a distant and safer bank. Halfway across he asked the first one,  ‘How will you treat me when you grow up?’ ‘Oh, I’ll be the best son  in the world to you! I’ll obey you, care for you, love you . . . ’ ‘You  little hypocrite,’ said the father, and dropped him. He asked the same  question of the second fledgling. ‘What’s the difference?’ he replied.  ‘You just get me to the other side.’ ‘You are no good,’ said the father  and dropped him. The third cygnet thought a while and said: ‘I’m not  sure how I will act, but I can tell you this: I shall treat my young the  way you treat me.’ And in the story that one got saved. It is a story of both honesty and direction.  We are products of our origi...

Take nothing for granted.  All life is a gift - from we water we drink to the fruits we consume; from the clothes we wear and the fragrant smells of the grasses.... "Any person who takes something from his world without attribution, saying a prayerful blessing for the gift, is as if they have stolen from God, Himself."  - Talmud, Berachot 35b Thank God. Literally.

The story is told of a wealthy Jew who would quietly support Rabbi Zusha. He also received Rabbi Zusha’s blessings, and his business did very well. One time, the man came to Anipoli and discovered that Rabbi Zusha was not in town. “Where is the rabbi?” he asked. “He went to visit his Rebbe,” people told him. The wealthy man was surprised. “My rabbi has a rabbi?” Being a sharp businessman, he made a quick calculation. “If Rabbi Zusha’s blessings have helped me so much, then surely his Rebbe’s blessings must be even more powerful. Why support the student when I can support the teacher?” So that is what he did. He stopped supporting Rabbi Zusha and began sending his donations to Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Zusha’s own Rebbe. Not long afterward, his business began to decline. When he realized what had happened, he hurried back to Anipoli and poured out his heart to Rabbi Zusha. “I understand that I lost my success because I stopped supporting you,” he said. “But was my logi...

When the stone altar was constructed in Jerusalem for the Holy Temple, we are told that no iron could be used in its construction.  Each stone had to be quarried by hand using no metal implements.  As the Mishnah directs, "... iron is used to shorten lives while the altar extends life."   Middot 3:4 We use metals to destroy.  Our deepest hopes, aspirations, learning and prayers must be used to allay our worst impulses.  We must never confuse to the two. Our task to bring Godliness into the world, not introduce more chaos and  destruction.

" C louds don’t worry about falling into the sea because they can’t (a) fall or (b) drown. But they are free to believe they can, and they may fear if they wish." -Richard Bach We choose our limitations and our expansiveness.