A Soulful Journey

William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist, perhaps the greatest ever.   He was the publisher of a newspaper called "The Liberator." Garrison was a pained and angry man.   He was bitter and angry at the treatment of slaves.   He hated slavery with a deep and abiding passion. One day a good friend, Samuel May, called up Garrison to calm him down.   “Oh, my friend, try to moderate your indignation and keep more cool.   Why, you are all on fire.” Garrison replied, “Brother May, I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice around me to melt.” We have much to learn from those who burn with zealotry for righteousness.   For principles, justice, goodness, and God we should all be aflame with wisps for fire that touch the heavens.

"This is a common device in all religious fanaticism [distorting religion for one's own purposes] when nobody is willing to listen, but everyone is willing to pronounce."   - Rabbi Lionel Blue One of the primary unspoken tenets of real faith - as opposed to our own invention - is the ability to hear disparate points of view without attacking the one who holds them.

Language is critical.  The words we use and the messages we convey are paramount in Judaism.  Sometimes if we were to stand back and look from a distance at the conversations we have we would be astounded at their pettiness.   A Greek and Jew were talking. "Years ago," said the boastful Greek, "while digging engineers found a long wire in the earth." "What does that mean?" asked the Jew. "It proves that we had the telegraph hundreds of years before it was discovered." "That is a great feat," agreed the Jew.  "In Israel engineers were digging deeply into the earth and they found nothing.  No trace of any wires at all" "What does that prove?" asked the Greek. "It shows that they had wireless centuries before!" Sometimes it is good to look at the things we say dispassionately.  Words are critical.  It is better to think first and speak later.

“Oy, nephew! What’s the world coming to when they have a bomb that can kill more people than one look at Max Rivkin’s daughter?” - Woody Allen in Without Feathers Wouldn’t it be nice if we laughed instead of launching missiles?

“They held in their hands the light of creation – and returned to the world the light of death.” - Chaim Potok in The Book of Lights . Things are good or evil dependent upon the way we look at them. What is evil to one person may be a blessing to another. Think of the farmer who anxiously awaits rain and the entrepreneur who has planned an outdoor exhibition for months. One wants a clear day while the other prays for a sopping rain. Seen in this light, perhaps not all prayers can -- or should -- be answered at the same time, granting every hope. 

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island...and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life."   -Walt Disney If this is true for Robert Louis Stevenson's novels, how much more true would this statement be for the Torah?  God's gift to us?  Best of all, it belongs to you.

The motto "where there's a will, there's a way," is a supposition of modern man. We are "blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by "powers" that are beyond his control.  His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names.  They keep him on the run with restlessness, vague apprehensions, psychological complications, am insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, and, above all, a large array of neuroses."  - Carl Jung This small holiday that we are in the midst of, Hanukka, is a reminder that what is truly great is not what is most valuable but what is most valued.  God is here already.  We do not need to hunt for Him.

"When Hitler started the extermination campaign, he didn't begin with the Jews. He went for the mentally subnormal, saying it would be much kinder to give them a gentle, easy death. Maybe with amniocentesis we are trying to spare the health services with the high cost of dealing with the handicap, and cloaking it with an air of public respectability." - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in "The Jewish Chronicle,"  May 1982. It is critical that we question what we see, hear, and read. There is a reason why God gave us a searching mind . Question the motives of politicians. Question the media. Take nothing for granted. You have a mind capable of ascertaining truth and do not need anyone to convince you of it.