A Soulful Journey

A man befriended a bird in the forest.    The man sought to deepen their friendship and invited the bird to his home for hospitality.    Before they entered the house from the cold, the bird noticed the man blowing on his hands.    “Why are you blowing on your hands?” the bird asked.    “That’s to make my hands warm,” the man replied.    As they sat down to eat the bird noticed the man blowing on his hot soup.    “Why are you blowing on your soup?” the bird asked.    “That’s to make my soup cold,” the man replied.    With that, the man noticed the bird flying toward the door.    “Where are you going?” he asked the bird.    To which the bird replied, “A man who blows both hot and cold with the same breath cannot be a friend.”   Or as someone so well put it: A true friend is there when you need them … a false friend is there when they need you! – Aesop fable retold by Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg

  “Behold they will leave Me while safeguarding My Torah.”   Chagiga 1:7 God and His word are precious and inseparable.    One exists alongside the other.   We acknowledge the Supernal Being whose word is inviolate while accepting that the mitzvot are equally compelling.

Some say: "Life is so short, we know what tomorrow holds."  Therefore, "eat, drink and be merry - for tomorrow we may die." (Isaiah 22:13).  This approach, a pagan approach indeed, teaches "The devil with you today.  Be immoral if you will, be cynical and ruthless, for there is nothing beyond the present."  Scott Fitzgerald summed up this outlook with a pungent phrase that epitomized his own pathetically short life: "Live fast, die young -- and make a handsome corpse."   -Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal. Live for the long run.

Rabbis Hiyya and Yonatan were walking in a cemetery.   Rabbi Yonatan’s tzitzit were trailing him, dragging on the ground. Rabbi Hiyya remarked to his colleague, “Pick them up as the dead will think we are mocking them.”   They will say, “Tomorrow they will join us but today they degrade us.” -Berachot 18a Respect for all, living or dead, is demanded of us.

Someone once said that all of Copernicus was in Newton and that all of Newton was in Einstein, who said, “My inner and out life is built on the labors of my fellow man, living and dead…I must exert myself in order to return as much as I have received.” We stand on the shoulders of the past.

Hillel and Shammai disagreed as to how to live the good life.   Shammai would set aside a calf for the Sabbath meal as early as Monday.   If, on Tuesday, he found a choicer animal he would set that one aside.   And so on through the week, he would miss the beauty of daily living in frustrating preparation for the Sabbath.   Hillel, on the other hand, would take each morsel of food as it came into his hands and enjoy it in its own time.   Each day was precious to him; each moment a joy.   He did   not postpone living.   He would say: “Thank God” each day!   Thus our rabbis stated: “He who has food and says, 'What will I eat tomorrow?' is lacking in faith.”    The true person of faith says simply, 'This is the day the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad thereon'.” (Psalms 118:24)   - Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal

 At a 2000 Memorial Program at the Brooklyn VA Hospital, we dedicated a new clinical building. As part of the program, the then reigning Miss America, also an accomplished singer, entertained us. Afterwards, at a   reception, she circulated among the crowd of patients, employees and volunteers, greeting people and posing with anyone who wanted instant snapshots.      Later, Polina, one of our oldest regular volunteers, rushed to my office and excitedly proclaimed, "Rabbi! Rabbi!  Look! I had my picture taken with Miss America!"      I scrutinized the photo for a few seconds, and then quipped, "Very nice, Polina. Very nice. But, tell me, which one here is Miss America?"      "Oh, Rabbi," gushed the elderly Polina. "You just made my day."      I always tried to "make the day" for my patients--and volunteers.        - Rabbi Murray Stadtmauer Imagine now what good you can do today.  All it takes is a kind word.

The Talmud records the story of the Roman Rufus who challenged Rabbi Akiva, “If your God loves the poor why does He not sustain and feed them?” Rabbi Akiva replied, “So that we, by helping them, save ourselves from guilt and punishment.” -Baba Batra 10 This is our task, complete God's work.