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Showing posts from July, 2016

Politics

"When the great minds of the day seek to cater to the masses, the whole order collapses" (Dt. Rabbah, Ch 1; Yalkut Torah, Remez 802).     The Midrash then goes on to recount a fable about the quarrel of the snake's head and its tail. The tail complains, "Why should you always lead. Let me lead." The head shrugs. "Sure, go ahead. You lead." So the tail takes the lead and runs into rocks and thorn-bushes, bruising the entire body. Murray Stadtmauer

Look (at me!)

  “Four of the world’s greatest conductors, or so the joke goes, are bickering about which one is best.   “My Chicago sound” is revered everywhere,"  says Sir Georg Solti, “and I’ve been knighted by the Queen of England.”   “Ah, but my tours with the Boston Symphony have been a triumph,” says Seiji Ozawa.   “I’m the most respected Japanese name since Sony.”   “Yes, but who else here is as celebrated a composer as he is conductor?” interjects Leonard Bernstein.   “It was God himself who inspired me to write my ‘Mass’.”   “No I did not!” snaps Herbert von Karajan.   -Newsweek 10/82

Forgive

“Master of the Universe, I hereby forgive all who made me angry and caused me harm, whether they hurt my honor or my property, whether purposely or unwittingly, whether in deed or in thought. May no one be punished through me or because of me.” –Yom Kippur liturgy