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Showing posts from April, 2019

Quotes on Tzedaka

Isaiah 32:17 "And the work of tzedakah shall bring peace." Proverbs 14:34   "Tzedakah exalts a nation." Baba Batra 9a "Rabbi Assi said, “Tzedakah is equally important as all the other mitzvot put together".”

The Poor Among You

"Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily, your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Eternal shall be your rear guard. If you shall pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the eternal will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."   -   Isaiah 58:7-8, 10-11 "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan."  - Exodus 22:21-22 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your

Too Late

What silence we keep year after year With those who are most near to us and dear. We live by each other day by day But the lovely little words we seldom say. Then out of sight and out of reach they go, And with eyes moist and spirits low, We think of many a good word We should have said,  and they could have heard. -quoted by Rabbi Baruch Silvertein

Healing

"One should use a new drug as often as possible while it still has the power to heal."  - Armand Trousseau, 19th century doctor, France God has given us a world which holds many secrets.  It is said that there is no disease that has no cure.  Our task is to never tire of searching for that healing element.

On Tzedaka

“To be is to stand for.” -Abraham Joshua Heschel "To be is to do." - Myriam Mendelow “Say little and do much” - Pirkey Avot "Rabbi Simlai taught: The Torah begins and ends with acts of caring, loving kindness ." - Talmud: Sotah 14a "A person who runs to do just, good, and kind deeds attains life, success, and honor." -Proverbs 21:21 "Whatever I want for myself, I want the same for that other person."     -Maimonides "Advice and words do not fill an empty stomach.”  - Midrash “One who does tzedaka in secret is greater than Moses.” – Talmud, Baba Batra “No one has ever become poor from giving.” – Anne Frank

Be You

Maturity: Among other things -- not to hide one's strength out of fear and, consequently, live below one's best. - Dag Hammarskjold Live life large. Be you.

Fire by Night

It is written, "And God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud . . . and by night in a pillar of fire" ( Exodus 13:21 ). But how is it possible to say this? Is it not written, "The whole earth is filled with His glory"? ( Isaiah 6:3 ). Rabbi Antoninos explained this with the following example: A king once sat in judgment and remained in court until after dark. His children remained in court so that they would be able to accompany him home. When the king left for his palace, he took a lantern and carried it, lighting the way for his children. His officers and nobles saw this and offered to carry the lantern for the king. The king then told them, "I do not carry the lamp because I lack someone else to carry it. I carry it to show my love for my children." Rabbi Antoninos explained that the same is true of God. He reveals His glory before His children as an expression of love for them.  - Mekhlita

Quiet

Later with Rebbe Mendel the Taciturn, we tried to transcend language.  At midnight, our eyes closed our faces turned toward Jerusalem and its fiery sanctuary we listened to the song of its silence – a celestial and yet tangible silence in which both voices and moments attain mortality.”   - Elie Wiesel Silence means turning off all the outer and inner noise.

Instrument of Peace

God, make me an instrument of Your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; wherer there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. That I may seek to console rather than receive; to be consoled, to understand rather than to be understood; to love rather than to be loved. For it is in giving that we received; in self-forgetfulness that we find our true selves, in forgiving that we are forgiven, in dying that we are raised up to life ever-lasting. God, make me an instrument of Your peace. -Francis of Assissi

Speech

“And I understood why God created heaven and earth, why he fashioned man in His image by conferring upon him the right and ability to speak his joy, to express his anguish.  God too, God Himself, was afraid of silence.” -Elie Wiesel This is His gift to us.  Use it wisely.

Our Land

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi used to tell this story of an encounter he had with Brother Rufus, a Native American medicine man. Reb Zalman and Brother Rufus were attending a conference of psychologists and mystics; the psychologists were studying the mystics. As Reb Zalman was explaining the Jewish festival of Sukkot, which occurs at the fall equinox, and the holiday of Passover, which comes at the spring equinox, Brother Rufus lit up! “Oh,” he said, “in the fall you teach your children the shelter survival and in the spring you teach them the food survival.” Rabbi Bonnie Koppell

How a Country Self-Destructs

"If the Spaniards massacred one another, if they set up their own country on fire and bled it, it is because in 1492 they burned or drove away their Jews...  You begin by hating and persecuting others and wind up hating and annihilating you own."  - Elie Wiesel

Desire

“All other desires break down but the true rung attained by a zaddik is only according to his holiness in regard this desire – when he breaks it down completely.”  “Whoever knows the science of anatomy and is aware of the human organs as seen by the surgeon is prepared to find this desire utterly repulsive.”   -Nachman of Bratslav  Rebbe Nachman made these observations about sexual desire.  In truth, any negative pull in our love must be combatted.  This is what we call the "yetser ha-ra."

A Schnorrer and Shelmiel

Baron Rothschild was visited by a schnorrer who looked sturdy enough to be employed in a more productive profession. ”How is it,” he asked, “that a healthy young man like you has become a schnorrer?  Isn’t there anything else you can do but beg?” “No Baron, I can’t do anything else.” “What do you mean, you can’t do anything else?” ”Well, you see I’m a schlemiel.” “But there must be something that you can do!” ”I can play music.” ”Oh, you can play music? And what instrument do you play?” ”What instrument? The trombone.” The Baron rang the bell and a servant appeared. ”James,” he said, "fetch me my trombone.” “You see,” said the schorrer, when the servant had disappeared, “I told you I am schlemiel. I said I could play the trombone and you call and just happen to have one.” -Friday Nite Book

The Game

The second time the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals played each other one of the coaches predicted: “It will be a typical Browns-Bengals game.”  -George Will Nothing is the same. Everything is different about this moment, this game and this you.  This has never come before and never will again.

The Cookie

Two Rabbis were sitting at a table with two cookies, one big and one small. After a long while of eyeing the cookies one reached out, grasped the larger and devoured it. ”How could you do that?” asked the other. ”Well, which one would you have taken?” ”I would’ve taken the smaller! “So I did not want to dishonor you.”

Safety Deposit Box

For the safekeeping of his wealth, the Emperor of Anam (an early territory of India) placed it on a small island in the middle of a lake which was filled with crocodiles.  When he wanted to make a withdrawal, he had the crocodiles killed, then later replaced to guard his valuables.  Today we use a safe deposit box.  - Alexander A. Bove jr. If you had a box where you stored what was most valuable in your life what would go in it?

A Vision

And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds.  But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise. I thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth-that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which men can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: the salvation of man is through love and in lo

The Long Run

A cynic once remarked. "All marriages are happy.  It's the living together afterward that creates all the problems." Falling in love is the easy part  Maintaining love, during the darkest nights of life, is when it is proven and can blossom.

Study and Marriage

Our rabbis taught, “If one has to study and marry a woe, he should first study and then marry.  But if he cannot (live) without a wife, he should first marry and then study.  “Rav Yehudah said in Samuel’s name, “The Halakha is: (A man) first marries and then studies.”  Rabbi Yohanan said, “(With) a millstone around his neck shall one study Torah??” Yet, they do not differ: The one refers to ourselves (Rashi: Babylonians); the other refers to them (Rashi: in Israel). – Kiddushin 29b Note: Rashi explains that Babylonian traveled to Israel to study, leaving their wives in Babylonia and were therefore free form worry.  In Israel, students had wives, and all their worries, were therefore with them.  Rabbenu Tam, in Tosafot, reverses the positioning.

Kind Saul's Last Prayer

My God, like an ox Ploughing among your stones I was strong. On your yoke of thunder I was silent. My silence was a curse. I am weary.  You take The royal cloak form my shoulders And hide the purple of your slain army In your mounds’ innocence. My God, all-highest mighty, Smiting my spirit like a storm on the field. Your harvest lies before you.  Amen. -Saul’s last prayer (Piaggis)

Realized Love

A couple lived in Sidon.  They had been married for 10 years without children.  The husband then demanded a divorce.  So the couple went to see Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai.  The rabbi opposed their divorce and tried to convince them to stay together but the husband was adamant. "Since you have resolved to divorce," the rabbi told them, "you should give a party to celebrate your separation just as you gave one to celebrate you wedding." The couple agreed. During the course of the evening the husband, who had drunk to  much wine, said to his wife, "My dear, before we separate, choose whatever you consider most precious in this house and take it with you when you return to your father's house to live." After the husband had fallen into a drunken sleep the woman ordered her servants to carry him to her father's house and put him to bed here.  In the middle of the might the husband awoke. "Where am I?" he called out. "At my father&

Work at It

A prominent magazine featured a story about Ben Brafman, the noted Orthodox criminal-defense attorney who takes on the toughest cases. The article described him as “an overnight success.” Mr. Brafman responded to the piece by stating, “It took me forty years to be an overnight success.” Do not give up.

The Work

The story is told of Lawrence of Arabia who travelled to Britain to represent the Bedouins. Returning from the foreign office and ready to return to the Arab lands he noticed that in every room of the hotel the faucets were missing. Confronting the Bedouins they admitted their crime.  “If these faucets can produce such water here imagine the benefit it would bring to our arid land!” Most of us have wishful or magical thinking.  We hope we will win the lottery, inherit a fortune, be the most compelling person in the room…. Yet water does not magically appear without hard work and an infrastructure.  Everything worthwhile takes much effort.  And only then grants rich rewards.