A Soulful Journey

"Awe is standing on the seashore and thinking that it is beautiful while at the same moment being aware that it drowns and kills."  - Rabbi Lionel Blue

Is it true when Robert E. Lee was a plebe at West Point, his classmates voted him "most likely to secede?" - Frank Hughs

Dr. Earl Loomis - one of the founders of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health, told a young eight-year-old who sat in a restaurant with his parents.  They said, “Give him a napkin.”  “He’ll take the fries.”  The mother and sister persistently ordered for him.  The waitress ignored them and took the boy's order.  After she left, he said, “Gee mom, she thinks I’m real.”

When he went to bat for the first time Pete Rose remarked: ”If I ever get to the big leagues and I draw a walk, I’m going to run to first hard as I’ve ever run in my life- they’re going to know I’m there.” Everybody needs attention.

A man came into a bookstore on the Lower East Side. She wanted to buy a siddur for his grandson. The shopkeeper brought him siddur after siddur but the man said, “No, that is not it. That's not what I want.” All the while, his eyes were searching the shelves. Finally he pointed to a siddur and said, “That’s the one I want.” The storekeeper took it down, a big fat siddur with perushim (commentaries) and halachot.  The storekeeper was truly impressed. He said to his customer, “Your grandson must be going to a Yeshivah.” The customer eyed him coldly and said, “No sir. he is only two years old.” The storekeeper, shocked and surprised said, “Then excuse me, why are you buying him in Otzar ha-tefillot?  Why don’t you buy him one of these?”  And he pointed to a little siddur used in the first year of school.”  The customer explained, “You see at the age of two what does a child do when you give him a book? He tears up pages, page after page. If I were to start him with us in little s

When King Yannai was advised to kill the Pharisaic rabbis he asked incredulously, “What will happen to the Torah?” He was told, “The Torah will lie in a corner and those who want to learn will come and learn.” – Rabbi Michael Rosen May it never come to be that the Torah sits alone without eager acolytes absorbing its magnificence.

Reb Hayim Brisker what’s the boy who remained rather obstinate against learning. He could not be persuaded to study. His father was a famous dayyan, judge, and in desperation asked him, “What will become of you?” To this the young lad replied, "I will become a dayyan”. – Rabbi Louis Jacobs

A Rabbi sat in the rear of one of the Hebrew school classes observing the teacher and the pupils. The children were young, and the rabbi was deeply moved by the politeness, attentiveness, and eagerness to learn. At the end of the session he walked forward and warmly addressed the class, “My dear students, may the Almighty help you to understand the Torah and become better and wiser Jews.” The polite young boys and girls replied, “Thank you Rabbi and the same to you!”

Rabbi Akiva began his studies in his middle age and he was hesitant: It is said: When he was 40 years of age he had not yet studied a thing.  One time he stood by the mouth of a well.  “Who hollowed out the stone?” he wondered. He was told, “It is the water which falls upon it every day, continually.”  It was said up him, “Akiva, have you not heard (the verse) “The waters we wear away the stones”?” (Job 14:19) Thereupon Rabbi Akiva drew the inference about himself: if what is soft wears down the hard, surely words of Torah, which are as hard as iron, will hollow out my heart which is flesh and blood! He immediately turned to the study of Torah.  - Avot d’Rabbi Natan, 6

“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” ―  Elizabeth Barrett Browning But you will never see it until you look.

Two donkey-drivers who hated one another were walking on a road. One of the donkeys collapsed, and the other donkey-driver just passed by seeing that it had collapsed under its burden. The second donkey-driver said: Is it not written in the Torah, “If you see a donkey of someone you hate struggling with its burden, and you are hesitant to help that person—you must help that person”? What did the second donkey-driver do? He turned back to help the other man reload his donkey, and then accompanied him on the way. One began to converse with the other, and helped loosen here, lift up there, tighten here, until he reloaded the animal with him. They found that they had made peace between themselves. The one whose donkey was struggling said to himself: “I never understood why this person hated me! See how compassionate he was with me when he saw my donkey and me in distress!” At this point, they went into an inn and ate and drank together, and they grew to love one another. -Midrash Tanḥum

Reb Dov Baer of Mezritch said that a person should learn three things from a child and seven things from a thief. From a child: He is always happy. He never sits empty-handed for a second. He cries for everything he wants. From a thief: He works even at night.  What he cannot accomplish in one night he will try again the second.  All thieves love one another.  He will sacrifice his life for a trivial thing.  No object has a specific value attached to it and he will sell the most valuable thing for an insignificant price.  A thief will take a severe beating for what he has stolen but will insist he knows nothing about it. He will not change his business for anything else in the world.

They asked Rabbi Levi Yitzhak:  “Why is the first page number missing in all the tractates of the Babylonian Talmud? Why does each begin with the second?” He replied: “However much a man may learn, he should always remember that he has not even gotten to the first page.”  - Martin Buber

When Sam Levinson started the first grade his mother came and said to the teacher, “If my boy Sammy misbehaves, hit the kid next to him.  He learns by example.”

A Hasid once said that you can learn from every situation in life.  “What,” asked his student, “can you learn from a traffic jam?”  The master replied, “From the traffic jam you can learn what happens when everyone is trying to occupy a place which belongs to another.” Be a life learner.

“Learning is not worth a penny if courage and joy are lost along the way.”   - Pestalozzi (a predecessor of Montessori)

How we learn:  1% through taste, 1 ½% through touch, 3 ½% through smell, 11% through hearing, 83% through sight.  This shows the importance of audiovisual materials in teaching and learning along with different modalities to educate. 

I am forever intrigued by the unusual customs of other faiths.  The customs they observe I watch with a dispassionate and analytical eye.  It is easy to understand the meaning of what other religions do when watched from the outside.  What I want to present here are some of the unusual practices of our faith that may be less understood or not usually viewed as an outsider. Did you know that on the lunar calendar, a day called the Ninth of Av, we read the book of Lamentations while sitting on the floor of the synagogue? Lights are dimmed and candles are lit as a dirge-like text and melody is intoned. This day commemorates the fall of both Temples as well as countless of the tragedies. It is a mournful night that travels into the next day when observant Jews fast and weep for destructions that tore us away from the sacred Temples in Jerusalem.  The Ninth of Av is a bleak day, observed annually, for the Jewish people. On the festival of Shavuot we stay up all night poring over an

The late Malcolm Forbes, editor of Forbes Magazine, stated that, “anybody who thinks money is everything has never been sick, or is.”  Pastor David McKenchie, who found this quote, expands its meaning:  “The two most important days of our lives are the day we will born and the day we discover why we are born. We spend most of our lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have and to do. They have no real significance for us, except as they are transcended from the verb to be. The essence of life is tied up in being, not wanting, having or doing.”   -   David McKenchie, Experiencing God’s Pleasure

As was her custom on Thursday night, Shmryl’s wife was preparing the Shabbat meal. This night, she said: “Shmryl something is wrong with this chicken. I will throw it out and cook another one. Shmryl offered a suggestion:  “Don’t throw it out, dear. Our neighbor Beryl cannot afford to buy chicken for Shabbat. Let us give it to him. That way, it will not go to waste and we will do a mitzvah.” And so they do. That Shabbat morning, Shmryl learned that Beryl was home, very sick. Shmryl comes home from Shul and tells his wife that he intends to visit.  “You know,” he tells her, “ bikkur holim , visiting the sick, is a very big mitzvah.” So he visits Beryl, finds him suffering a severe stomach disorder and then returns home. Next Shabbat Shmryl returns to shul. Again, Beryl is absent.  Shmyrl learned that Beryl had died.  Returning home, he announced his intention to attend the funeral the next day. “You know,” he tells his wife , halavat ha-met , comforting the bereaved, is a great mitzvah

A drifter came to a certain village and questioned a passerby on Main Street to ask him about the villagers. ”What kind of people live in this town?" he asked. The villager answered with a question: “What kind of people into the time you came from?” The drifter said: “There were mean. They would not help me at all. Terribly unfriendly. Bad people.” The townsman replied, “Then that is the same kind of people you will find this village.” What we see is a reflection of who we are.

One of the great moments in sports history came on Sunday afternoon when the New Orleans Saints and the Detroit Lions were playing.  The Lions were leading 17-16, with the time running out.  The Saints had the ball in mid-field.  They called time out with two seconds left on the clock.  The coach then sent Tom Dempsey, an uncertain place-kicker born with a deformed right arm and hand and with half a right foot, to try a field goal. It was a 63-yard attempt. The longest field goal ever kicked in the N.F.L. to date had been 57 yards.  But the athlete with the deformed foot kicked the ball through the uprights and the Saints won. When asked after the game how he did it, Dempsey attributed his success to high school and college coaches and the pros who “spent so much time encouraging me that they simply forgot to tell me that I couldn’t do.” Believe in yourself.  Believe that you can.

Three hunters hire a small plane that lands them in the wilderness where they stalk caribou. The pilot says, “I'll return in a week, but remember what I said last year: planes like this can carry only three hunters and one caribou.” When he returns he sees three hunters -- and three caribou. The hunters say: “Last year we slipped you $100 and you let us load three caribou.” The pilot says: “OK, but this year it's $200.” The hunters grumble but pay, jam the caribou aboard, the plane lumbers a few feet aloft - and plows into some trees. The hunters are scattered through the branches and one shouts: “Where are we?’  Another answers: “A hundred yards firm where we crashed last year.”  - George Will Our task during this short lifetime is to learn from our mistakes.

The Rabbis taught: The pauper, the rich man, and the wicked one stand for judgment before the heavenly throne. The poor man is asked: ‘Why did you not study Torah?’ If he replies, ‘I was poor and busy supporting myself,’ he will be asked: ‘Were  you poorer than Hillel who studied Torah despite his poverty?’ It was said about Hillel that he earned a small coin each day, half of which he would give to the watchmen to gain entry to the Beit Midrash and half of what he used to support himself and his family. When the rich man comes he is asked: ‘Why did you not study Torah?’ If he replies, ‘I was wealthy and occupied with my business affairs,’ he will be asked: ‘Were you wealthier than Rav Elazar? It was said of Rav Elazar ben Charsom that his father bequeathed him a thousand cities on land and 1000 ships at sea. Each day he would take a sack of flour on the shoulder and go from city to city and from province to province to study Torah. The wicked man is asked: ‘Why did you no

If a woman is giving birth with great difficulty the child must be cut in her womb, for her life takes precedence over its life. – Ohalot 7:6

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, If you are walking the loan on a journey, you should occupy yourself with Torah.  If you have a headache, you should occupy yourself with Torah.  If you have a sore throat, you should occupy yourself with Torah.  If your bones ache, you should occupy yourself with Torah.  If your entire body is in pain, you should occupy yourself with Torah. – Eruvin 54a

Rabbi Tarfon said, “Akiva, being too far away from you is like being too distant form life itself.”   -Kiddushin 66b When you are near a person who embodies the Torah, stay close.

"I give tzedaka (charity) to 100 poor people on the assumption that I may find one out of 100 was worthy and I will have the merit of helping him. But you refrain from giving to 100 poor people …lest one of them be unworthy. Therefore know that the average beggar who holds out of hand is presumed to need the money and you should not concern yourself hidden matters.”   Rabbi Chaim of Tzanz

In a study of leadership Max DePree tells that “in some South Pacific cultures, a speaker holds a conch shell as a symbol of a temporary position of authority. Leaders must understand who holds the conch - that is, who should be listened to and when.” Learning to listen is an  attribute .  We used to call it courtesy.

“For the next 2 1/2 hours the Orthodox and Faithful debated the right of juice to pray on the Temple Mount.  One Orthodox man said: the chief Rabbinate has said it is forbidden to go up to the Temple Mount, because we are all ritually impure and may not stand in the area of the Holy of Holies.  One Faithful retorted: “But you don’t except the authority of the Chief Rabbis.”   The Orthodox man shot back: “But you do.” – reported in Jewish Chronicle

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that an institution is the lengthened shadow of a man. This gives meaning to our lives and leaves a legacy afterward.

Rabbi Judah at the Prince tells how “Antonius would make himself take the torch and light the way for his sons in the darkness and that he would say to all the notables who offered to perform that service: it is not that I have no one to take the torch and light the way from my sons. But it is that is that I have make known to you how beloved are my sons are to me, so that you should treat them with respect.”  Rabbi adds, “In like manner the Holy One, blessed be He, made known to the nations of the world how beloved Israel is to Him: He himself went before them, so that they (the nations) should treat them with respect.  - Max Kaddushin

“If God has granted you the privilege of being a leader in Israel, do not rebuke your people with an angry heart, but with a soft tongue. For Israel is a holy congregation, blessed of the Lord. Let every man be important in your eyes, and not inconsequential. For you cannot know who is worthy and who unworthy. Man often looks upon a fellow man as despicable and worthless, but God looks into the very heart.”  - Hasidic

“While you may seem small in your own eyes, remember you are the leader of the tribes of Israel.”  - Prophet Samuel to the king Sometimes we need to be reminded that represent more than we think.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, author, physician was sometimes quite absent-minded. Once when asked for a ticket on the train he could not locate it. After searching through his pockets and briefcase he was unable to produce it and became distraught. The conductor, knowing Dr. Holmes, said reassuringly, “Never mind sir.  When you find your ticket, I am certain you will mail it in.” Holmes was not comforted. “Mr. Conductor,” he replied, “the question is not where is my ticket but where am I going?”

A man goes to the pet shop to buy a parrot. “We have three,” says the clerk. “This blue one speaks four languages and costs $1000. The red parrot knows six languages and cost $2000. The orange one over there costs $3000, but doesn't talk at all.” “$3,000?!” Exclaimed the man. “How come so much?” “Well,” the clerk goes on.  “We don’t know what he does but the other two call him ‘boss’.”

Harry Truman complained to Ben-Gurion that it is not easy to be president of 200 million citizens. Ben-Gurion replied, “Mr. President, I am president of 600,000 presidents!” Oy.

Rabban Gamliel was moved to tears whenever he read the list of the 11 qualifications specified by the Psalms as a prerequisite for living on God's holy mountain. He would explain his sorrow like this, “Only one who has all these qualifications and does all these things would not be rejected; but one who does only one of them will be rejected.  His colleagues reassured him. “Does the verse say,” they argued, “that one who does all these things will not be rejected? The verse merely states, “One who does these things.”  The verse refers not to all of the 11 qualifications, but to any one of them. There are good people, fine leaders, who dwell in the House of the Lord, but among them are few who filled with equal perfection every one of the requirements listed by the Psalms. They fulfill with some distinction and some adequately. Perfection  is not demanded; only  that  we do  our best. 

A person is required to conceal secrets that his friend revealed to him in confidence, even if it is not slander, because revealing a secret can cause damage to its owner and can undermine his plans ... Furthermore, one who reveals secrets  violates standards of privacy and the trust of the secret's owner and King Shlomo stated (Mishlei 20:19) "One who reveals secrets goes and slanders." This is to say that someone who cannot control himself from revealing secrets will become a slanderer. Sha'arei Teshuva 3:225

“I’m in the ‘ort’ business. As in ‘Your monies ‘ort’ to make money.” -Earl Owensby (B grade movie producer. It is good to know where we are aiming.  Scattershot works sometimes but it does not promise desired results.  Far better is to take aim and then try our best.  That ‘ort’ to be good enough.

John F. Kennedy used to tell the story of when he met with Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey before the Democratic National Convention. Kennedy said, “I had a dream last night. God himself was anointing me and He said, “You shall be the next president.” Hubert Humphrey piped in, “I also had a dream that God anointed me as the next president.” “Funny,” said Lyndon, “I don’t remember doing that.” It seems as though being a big leader and having a big ego walk hand-in-hand.

“Life is like a dog sled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”  – Lewis Gizzard There are many reasons people choose to be leaders.

As President of the Rabbinical Assembly, I received requests from Congregations:  “We want to strong, dynamic leader. However he should not tell us what to do.” Another one stated: “We want to rabbi who should not be too far to the left, and not too far to the right. Just mediocre.” -Rabbi Max Routtenberg

A Hasidic sage directs us to one of the passages on holy space in Torah (Exodus 25:8), and advises to read it carefully. “Build a sanctuary for Me, that I shall dwell ‘ in them’ and not, as we would expect ‘ in it’ ? The Torah parses it this way, the sage explains, so that we understand that “the purpose of the tabernacle is ‘that I shall dwell in them,” which is to say, amidst the leaders, who are the Temple of the Lord…. Holiness is found in people.

Rabbi Yitzhak said, “A community leader must not be appointed unless the community has been consulted.”  -Berakhot 55a

Concerning the verse in the Psalm: “Happy is the people that knows the joyful shout; they walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance,” the Baal Shem said: “When the people do not depend upon heroes but are themselves versed in the joyful shout of battle, then they will walk in the light of Your countenance.” – Martin Buber Depend upon you.  God will then be your help.

The Rabbis discussed two types of leaders: 1.     There are those who study but are of little account for they do not act. 2.     There are those who act but do not study (and as a result do not grow).

Both the Hasidim and the Mitnagdim (those opposed to Hasidim) are in error: The Hasidim in imagining that they have a Rebbe. The Mitnagdim in imagining that they do not need a Rebbe.”  - Rabbi Israel Salanter quoted by Rabbi Louis Jacobs Thinking, examining and re-examing what we believe is critical to living a life that matters.

The difference between a holy mystical leader, called a “lighted lamp,” for his disciples and a religious leader or gaon on is akin to the difference between a headache and a stomachache. The little boy has a headache and goes to his mother to complain so that he will not have to go to school. His mother feels his head and discovers that he has no fever and so since him to school. The next time the little boy, if you smart, will claim that he is the stomachache. For this, his mother cannot text him and he will be able to stay home from school. - Rabbi Louis Jacobs

An atheists spent Pesach with the rabbi in order to scoff at him. "Rabbi, what part of the Haggadda are you up to?" he jokingly asked as he entered. "I am up to Had Gadya, where the dog came..."

When John Mortimer, British barrister and author, decided to write, his father warned him, "My dear boy, have some consideration for your poor wife. You'll be sitting around the house all day wearing a dressing gown, brewing tea and stumped for words. You'll be better off in the law. That's the great thing about the law, it gets you out of the house."

It is an Anglo Saxon tradition that when witnesses come to testify, they need to raise their right hand. If it had the letter "F" branded on it, it mean that they had been guilty of a felony. They were therefore an  unreliable witness.

"Rejoice so much in a mitzvah that you will desire no other reward them the opportunity to perform another mitzvah." - Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav

"It is not too baffling that you should say..." - Deuteronomy 30: 11 We must never cease to try to understand what is opaque to us now.

"The law is no respecter of reason."   -Rabbi Fred Morgan When it speak we must listen an do.

"If you only obey the law when it is reasonable, it totally denigrates the law.  If you take this attitude then there is no law." - Rabbi Louis Jacobs

"If the facts are against you, pound the law. If the laws against you, pound the table."

"For me, too, God is not a law giver.  But He commands." - Franz Rosenzweig What is your relationship with the One?

"The law is an ass." - Charles Dickens. There must be a systematic way of judicial process. It cannot be decided in individual cases by judges. - Rabbi Louis Jacobs

"A lawyer's time is his stock in trade." - Abraham Lincoln

Lawyer:  “Did you serve your debtor with the injunction I gave you?” Client: “Yes.” Lawyer:  “What did he have to say?” Client: “He told me to go to the devil.” Lawyer: “Then what did you do?” Client.: “I came to you.” “ Why does a horse snicker hauling a lawyer away?”   - Carl Sandburg The witness finished, the plaintiff’s lawyer began, ”What is your business?’ ”I am an entertainer in a café.” ”Don’t you feel that is it is a very lonely job?” “Possibly,” he answered. “In comparison to my father, it is a job that I can be proud of.” “What was your father?”  “A lawyer.”

This story is told about a man who had reached the ripe old age of 100 years. On his birthday reporters came to interview him.  One of them asked, “To what do you attribute your old age?”  He replied, “I breathe fresh air, take plenty of rest, and do not eat too much. I live at careful life.” The reporter said, “I had an uncle who did all these things and he died when he was only 50 years old.” The old man retorted, “The trouble with your uncle was that he did not keep it up long enough!” We must always take good care of ourselves but in the final analysis our fate is in God’s hands.

The Talmud has a long discussion on the sanctity of the book of Esther. They concluded, “ They confirmed in heaven what was accepted on earth.” In other words, the Bible, Torah, is a living document, which we are supposed to read, reread, debate and interpret.

“From the time that the Temple was destroyed, the Holy One has nothing in his world but the four cubits of  Halakha .”   - Berakhot 8a Once upon a time, we went to the Temple to speak directly to God; now the law is our connective tissue to heaven.

In the novel, "The Country of the Pointed Firs," a woman notices a number of painted wooden stakes around the property of a retired she captain, Elijah Tilley. She asks the captain why those wooden stakes are driven in the ground. Tilley tells her that when he first bought the farm and plowed the ground, every once in a while his plow would snag on the large rock underneath the surface of the ground. The snags not only slowed his progress but dulled his plow. So he put up stakes to show where the underneath rocks relocated so he could avoid them. The author says that’s what the 10 Commandments are all about. God has said that these are trouble spots in life. Avoid them and you will not snag your plow.

“An author doesn’t die of typhus but of typos.”   -I.B. Singer What brings us into darkness changes from person to person.  That is why an off-handed word, which means nothing to us, may highly insult someone.  It is vital to choose words carefully and pay close attention to how people react to us.

Yankel : “Congratulate me! My wife gave birth to a ten-pound girl!” Butcher: “Including the bones?” A point of reference will differ from person to person.  We all have different priorities and values.  The key to healthy living is accepting those differences in others.

The late Koppel Rosen told the story of his congregation that was shy one member for a minyan one day. They sent someone across the street to min the needed man.  Knocking on the door the reply came, “I am an atheist.”   To this the shamas replied, “An atheist doesn’t daven Mincha?” – Rabbi Louis Jacobs

One day [William] Wordsworth at a large party leaned forward… at the moment of silence and said: ‘Davy, do you know the reason I published my “White Doe” in quarto?' ’No,’ said Davy, slightly blushing at the attention this awakened. "To express my own opinion of it replied Wordsworth.” Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes Far better is to be praised than to self praise.

“Before the rise of industrialism Democritus put forward the event extraordinary idea that universe was not a seamless whole but consisted of particles-discreet, indestructible, irreducible, invisible, unsplittable. He called these particles atamos ”  - Alvin Toffler

”An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”   John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir  

At the meeting of the Board of rabbis in a large city in America the guest speaker was the famous Ashley Montague. For years the board had invited prominent Jewish scholars to speak at the annual gathering. This time it was decided to aim for a great public name, a general celebrity, not a Jewish one. After the speech, one of the rebbitzens cried to Dr. Montague, “What can we do to keep our children from assimilating, from intermarriage, from leaving our faith?” The answer from the benign professor and author was, “Madam, why are you crying? You should rejoice! Our prayers have been answered.  This is what we came to America for: to integrate, to assimilate, to join humanity, to wipe away archaic distinctions based on tribalism and superstition!” Be careful with what you embrace.

When Napoleon and his troops marched toward Russia the Rebbe he had a dilemma. Was he to pray for the liberators who brought freedom and equality? Or should he pray for the hated Russians? The Rebbe chose to pray that Napoleon fail. The Russian hatred of the Jew would at least shield the Jew from assimilation while Napoléon would bring with him profane influences. When the Rebbe read the Megillah on Purim he read,  nofil tipol (he will surely fail) to mean that Napoleon would fall. "In the Jewish Pale there was light but in the gentile realm there was total darkness.”

“Two politicians fell into a deep ravine with steep sides. “We are trapped!” cried one.  “No,” said the other, we’ll just assume a ladder.”  - George Will It is nice to have an imagination but it should never take us away from reality.

The Slutsker Rav when visiting New York in 1900, said that anyone who emigrated to America was a sinner…it was not only home that the Jews left in Europe, but their Torah, their Talmud, their Yeshivot – in a word, their yiddishkeit, their entire Jewish way of life.”  - Samuel Dresner With all its freedoms and permissiveness America presented a whole new challenge to this age-old faith, one with which we are still wrestling.

“Say to them you are shepherds because, “Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.” – Genesis 26 In this way Joseph, forerunner of his brothers in Egypt, sought to use the hostility towards shepherds to ensure that the Jews ere kept separate from the populace.  Joseph wanted to keep his family from assimilating and being swallowed up by the land.

Teacher: If I loaned your father $25, for him to pay back at two dollars a month, how much what are you owe me at the end of five months? Student (quickly): $24. Teacher: You don’t know your arithmetic.    Student: You don’t know my father.

In 1832 the Supreme Court sided with the Cherokee nation absent the state of Georgia’s attempt to steal their lands.   President Jackson said, against the Native Americans, “[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision, now let us embrace it.” Law must always bee heeded. Ignoring it brings anarchy.

Wherefore ha-Moshlim (those that speak in parables) say, ‘Come to Heshbon! (Numbers 21:27). Ha-Moshlim means also those who rule their evil inclinations.  Come to Heshbon (to the reckoning), means, come let us consider the account of the world; the loss incurred by the fulfillment of a precept against the reward received by its observance, and the gain gotten by a transgression against the loss it involves. (Baba Bathra 78b) – Jacob Haberman While we may vacillate when it comes to observing God’s Will we need to bear in mind the risk that we take by ignoring it.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature.  He becomes interesting to other people.  He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and open ways for better understanding.  Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.  – Robert Henri , “The Art Spirit” We are all artists as we imagine how life can be different than it is presently.  Every time we conjure up a new way of doing things we are crafting a new art.

“…[A] national need is laundries that will send you a sheet of pins with every shirt instead of making you pick the pins out one at a time, out of the collar or your neck.” -Groucho Marx Groucho’s brilliance was seeing life as it is and finding it ridiculous.  

“When the victor in the Greek world was rewarded for his efforts, he received from laurel. A wreath was bestowed upon the athletes in the agon, the games, after which he would rest on his laurels.”   - Rabbi Theodore Gluck

Jay Leno called the first time he realized that comedy was just calling: It was in the fourth grade in Mrs. Alan's class. She was talking about how the Sheriff of Nottingham wanted to boil Robin Hood's Merry men in oil. I put my hand up and said, “They shouldn't do that to Tuck.” ”Why not?” Can I said, “Well, he’s a friar!” That got a huge laugh. It was the first instance of my life with the teacher said, “All right, that’s enough of that,” and kind of laughed. Then I heard her repeat it to another teacher. Oh, this is power , I thought.  This is terrific. We say  each  morning: " What are we?  What is our power?  What is our might?  What can we say before You?

O, what men dare do!  What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do .   –Shakespeare,  Much Ado About Nothing One of the lessons we have derived from the events of our time is that we cannot dwell at ease under the sun of civilization, that man is the least harmless of beings. It is as if every minute were packed with tension like the interlude between lightning and thunder, and our moral order were a display of ancient oaks with ephemeral roots. It took one storm to turn the civilization into inconceivable inferno. Trees do not die of age, but because of barriers that prevent the rays of the sun for reaching, because of branches that lose self-restraint, spreading more than the roots can stand. We today may rarely gaze at the sky or horizon, yet there are lightenings that even overbearing trees do not cease to dread. Only fools are afraid to fear and to listen to the constant collapse of task and time over the hedge, with life being buried beneath the ruins.

Two statements below are about law.  Which is true for you? 1. “When Law came into the world, freedom came into the world.” – Beresheit Rabbah 2. ”For me, though man is a law-receiver, God is not a law giver, and thereby the Law has no universal validity for me, but only a personal one. I accept, therefore, only what I think is being spoken to me.”  – Martin Buber

“When Michelangelo was a little boy, one of his friends gave him a small Greek sculpture of a human form, half chiseled from marble.  For the rest of his life, Michelangelo kept that little statue by his bed.  It was the last thins he saw before he went to sleep, the first thing he saw when he awoke.  For him it became a symbol of man’s anguished effort to be liberated from the prison of his own ignorance.  Michelangelo devoted his whole life to freeing figures from stone. Sometimes it would take him months, even years.  Always he began with a vision of the man or woman locked up in the stone.  He said, “It is my job, my task, to set that man, that woman, free.”  Such was the inspiration that great man – and, indeed such was the inspiration of the great movement, of which he was an exemplar – the Renaissance, as we call it today.”  - George Ross, “Let Us Live Before We Die” We have a dual responsibly- to free both ourselves from the bindings that imprison us and free others from t

“The truest expression of a people is in its dance and its music.  Bodies never lie.” – Agnes DeMille