A Soulful Journey

 "When I quote his master's words, it is as if his master's lips still move from the grave." -Midrash Remember the teaching of your former days.  It is how the traditions are passed on as well as the pathway to eternal life.

  "When a scholar dies we are all members of the family and obliged to mourn." The life purpose of a scholar is to teach, to educate.  As the Talmud states,'when someone teaches Torah they are considered on a par with the parent.'  So when a scholar passes from this world we move into a phase of personal loss and mourning.

“On the same day that ur father Abraham passed from the world the great men of every nation, from every age arose and cried, “Alas the world has lost its guide.  Alas, now it is as a ship whose pilot has died.”   -Baba Batra 9a

In the world to come, there are no bodies but only the souls of the righteous alone – without bodies, like the angels. Nothing occurs in the World-to-Come which would involve bodies, such as sitting and standing, sleep and death, sadness and laughter.  - Maimonides , Laws of Repentance

 "...the pure spirit shall flow Back to the burning foundation whence it came, A portion of the Eternal, which must glow Through time and change, unquenchably the same... Truely, he has outsoared the shadow of our night."  -Shelly's "Adonis"

  According to Rabbi Yitz Greenberg the Torah operates on three inalienable dignities:   1.        We are each of infinite worth – no one is expendable, and we quaint cannot quantify the value of any human life.   2.       We are all fundamentally equal – no human being is any more important than any other human being.   3.       We are each totally unique – there is no one else like us, and no one is interchangeable with anybody else.  

"When I was a kid, they told me to do what my parents wanted. When I became a parent, they told me to do with my kids wanted. When do I get to do what I want?" -Sam Levenson This is question that Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, asks.  Essentially, what is my life about?  How do I achieve happiness?

"Scholars will recall that several years ago a shepherd, wandering in the Gulf of Aqaba, stumbled  upon a cave containing several large clay jars and also two tickets to the ice show." "Archaeologists originally set the date of the scrolls at 4000 BC, or just after the massacre of the Israelites by the benefactors. The writing is a mixture of Sumerian, Aramaic and Babylonian and seems to have been done by either one man over a long period of time was several men who shared the same suit." -Woody Allen

An old banker lay very ill in bed, when a friend came to visit him. 'Well,' said the latter, 'how are you?' 'How should I be?  I'm dying.' 'Nonsense.  How old are you?' 'I'm seventy seven already.' 'With God's help you'll live to be ninety.' 'If He can have me at 77, why should he take me at 90?' -Friday Nite Book Aways choose life.  Always.  

"Why should we respect people that are dead?  Should we ever Hitler?  Just because they're dead, why start liking them?" -Dick Cavett Well, what do you think?

  A famous writer was in his study. He picked up his pen and began writing: ** Last year, my gall bladder was removed. I was stuck in bed due to this surgery for a long time. ** The same year I reached the age of 60 and had to give up my favorite job. I had spent 30 years of my life with this publishing company. ** The same year I experienced the death of my father. ** In the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in the hospital with a cast on his leg for several days.  ** And the destruction of the car was a second loss. At the end he wrote: Alas! It was such bad year!! When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad and lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on his paper. She left the room silently and came back shortly with another paper on which she had written her summery of the year and placed it beside her husband's writing. When the writer saw her paper, he read:

 These are the true righteous- even in their death they are thought of as living.  -Berachot 18a Our good deeds outlive us.

  There once were two wicked brothers. They were rich and very unethical in their business dealings. In fact, that is how they got rich in the first place. They attended the same shul, they were Shabbos regulars, they donated generously to the congregation, and to everyone else, they appeared to be upstanding Jews and even pillars of the community. One day, the rabbi of their synagogue retired and a new one came onboard. But this rabbi was different.  This new rabbi was not fooled by the two evil brothers and saw right through them. He wanted to kick them out of the congregation, but the board said, “Rabbi, you can’t kick them out. The brothers may be a little shady, but their shadiness pays your salary, so please drop it.” As time passed, the synagogue started a fundraising campaign to renovate the building. But there was a problem—the economy was in a recession, and there simply wasn’t enough money to break ground. To make matters worse for the shul, one of the wicked brothers died.

  “Dreams and deed are not as different as many think.     All the deeds of men are dreams at first, and become dreams in the end.”     -Theodore Herzl   “In order to be realist you must first believe in miracles.”  - David Ben-Gurion   “Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”   -Golda Meir