A Soulful Journey

  כל המחובר לטמא טמא והמחובר לטהור טהור וכולן אחת אחת בפני עצמן טהורות Any thing that is attached/connected to an item that is impure becomes impure. Any thing that is attached/connected to an item that is pure becomes pure.                          - Mishna  Keleim 12 While this Mishna is concerned with the laws of purity that were of singular importance in Temple times, it has great import in every era.  Values change with the company we keep.  Mix with people  who use foul language and soon we speak as them.  The same goes for drugs, lying, faithlessness.... And, of course, the opposite also applies. The right company can realign our moral compass with tzedaka, prayer, kindness....

 There, where one burns books, one in the end burns men.   -Heinrich Heine Book burnings no longer take place, for the most part.  Our corollary in modernity is the obfuscation of knowledge.  Facts are few, opinions many.  When opinions are viewed as facts and differing “facts” are reduced to ridicule we face the modern version of book burning.  As Heinrich Heine opined, what follows is extremely dangerous.

Stevie Morris was asked by his teacher to find the elusive mouse hiding in her  classroom.  No one else could find the little creature but this child was special and the teacher knew it.  His keen sense of hearing compensated for his blindness.  She appreciated his gift and let him know that he was special. Years later, after he changed his name to Steve Wonder, he never forgot how this one teacher in urban Detroit was the start of his new life of creating music. -Paul Harvey How wonderful this life would be if everyone was told how special they are.

  Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said that " the Bible is meant to be our critic, not we its critic." 

The Seer of Lublin learned from R' Elimelech, who sent him to Reb Zusha. Reb Zusha asked him, "How would you make a person repent?" The Lubliner answered, "I'd show you in the Shulhan Aruch where he did wrong." Reb Zusha answered, "I don't think that would work." Do you think that would make the person feel good?" On the contrary, it would make them feel bad. And if they feel bad, they would run away from you. People do wrong because they don't have the strength to do right." The Lubliner asked Reb Zusha, "How do you do it?" To which Reb Zusha replied, "I shine the light into them, into their hearts, a great light of the love from God.." -From Tzaddikim - May 1931 Two Gun Crowley a serial killer was  apprehended by the police after a shootout.  "He said, "Under my coat is a weary heart, but kind one - one that would do nobody harm." - Al Capone, the most notorious gangster considered himself a he...

There is an old story about a seeker who has traveled high into the Himalayas to find a great teacher whom he believes has the secret of life. After much hardship, the traveler finally comes face to face with the wise one in a cave high in the mountains. The seer has been a recluse for many years, half naked, dressed in only a few dirty rags. His face and head are a tangled mass of snowy hair. His eyes are red and glassy from lack of sleep. The traveler sits nervously at the teacher’s side. “Tell me,” he pleads, “What is the secret of life?” “The secret of life is simple,” responds the teacher. “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” The traveler is startled by the teacher’s response. “A bowl of cherries!” he exclaims. The teacher ponders this for a moment and then questions, “You mean it isn’t?” -Leo Buscaglia The secret of life is in living. The key to living is being awake and aware of the world; knowing that there is an eye which never closes and the ear which hears all.

  A  story related by Rabbi Hugo Gryn  from his native Czechoslovakia about a swan.   A river flooded and swelled and the only way the still-weak cygnets  could be saved would be if the father swan carried them on his back  to a distant and safer bank. Halfway across he asked the first one,  ‘How will you treat me when you grow up?’ ‘Oh, I’ll be the best son  in the world to you! I’ll obey you, care for you, love you . . . ’ ‘You  little hypocrite,’ said the father, and dropped him. He asked the same  question of the second fledgling. ‘What’s the difference?’ he replied.  ‘You just get me to the other side.’ ‘You are no good,’ said the father  and dropped him. The third cygnet thought a while and said: ‘I’m not  sure how I will act, but I can tell you this: I shall treat my young the  way you treat me.’ And in the story that one got saved. It is a story of both honesty and direction.  We are products of our origi...

Take nothing for granted.  All life is a gift - from we water we drink to the fruits we consume; from the clothes we wear and the fragrant smells of the grasses.... "Any person who takes something from his world without attribution, saying a prayerful blessing for the gift, is as if they have stolen from God, Himself."  - Talmud, Berachot 35b Thank God. Literally.

The story is told of a wealthy Jew who would quietly support Rabbi Zusha. He also received Rabbi Zusha’s blessings, and his business did very well. One time, the man came to Anipoli and discovered that Rabbi Zusha was not in town. “Where is the rabbi?” he asked. “He went to visit his Rebbe,” people told him. The wealthy man was surprised. “My rabbi has a rabbi?” Being a sharp businessman, he made a quick calculation. “If Rabbi Zusha’s blessings have helped me so much, then surely his Rebbe’s blessings must be even more powerful. Why support the student when I can support the teacher?” So that is what he did. He stopped supporting Rabbi Zusha and began sending his donations to Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Zusha’s own Rebbe. Not long afterward, his business began to decline. When he realized what had happened, he hurried back to Anipoli and poured out his heart to Rabbi Zusha. “I understand that I lost my success because I stopped supporting you,” he said. “But was my logi...

When the stone altar was constructed in Jerusalem for the Holy Temple, we are told that no iron could be used in its construction.  Each stone had to be quarried by hand using no metal implements.  As the Mishnah directs, "... iron is used to shorten lives while the altar extends life."   Middot 3:4 We use metals to destroy.  Our deepest hopes, aspirations, learning and prayers must be used to allay our worst impulses.  We must never confuse to the two. Our task to bring Godliness into the world, not introduce more chaos and  destruction.

" C louds don’t worry about falling into the sea because they can’t (a) fall or (b) drown. But they are free to believe they can, and they may fear if they wish." -Richard Bach We choose our limitations and our expansiveness.

" E verything is exactly as it is for a reason. The crumb on your table is no mystical reminder of this morning’s cookie, it is there because you have chosen not to remove it." Richard Bach This is the way of life.  We array the things and then live with the consequences.   No one else is to blame.

“In the holy Zohar (Vol. II 20a) it is written, R. Yehuda said: “Yelling and crying are the highest forms of prayer. The Hebrew words tsa’akah and za’akah, meaning ‘yelling’ and ‘crying,’ are one and the same thing. They are much closer to the Holy Blessed One than moaned or whispered prayers, as it is written: ‘If he shouts to Me, I will listen to his cry.’ (Exodus 22:22)"   - Sacred Fire,  Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira (the Warsaw Rebbe) To fervently pray is to open the blocked emotional vessels of the soul. Too often we dampen our heart's need to express what is most needful to us - the deep yearning to love and be loved.  Allowing ourselves to feel the raw power of  emotion is the pathway to be touched by God and becoming whole.

  It was taught that when Zusya was young and in the house of his teacher, a man came before Rabbi Baer and begged him to advise and assist him in an enterprise. Zusya saw that this man was full of sin and untouched by any breath of repentance, he grew angry, and spoke to him harshly, saying, “How can a man like yourself, a man who has committed this crime and that, have the boldness to stand before a holy man such as my teacher without shame, and without longing to atone?” The man, as you might imagine, turned and left in silence. But Zusya regretted what he had said almost immediately and did not know what to do about it. Then his teacher pronounced a blessing over him, that from that moment on, he might see only the good in people, even if a person sinned before his very eyes.   -Martin Buber Who has the internal strength to realize a wrong and bring about a life-long change?  Only a person of resolute character.

Soren Kierkegaard used the example of a ship at sea.  When the sea is calm, the sun is shining and the captain is sober and you have faith that the ship will reach its destination, that is not faith. Faith is when the waves are rough, the sea is tumultuous, the ship is floundering and the captain is drunk and you still believe the ship will reach its destination, that is faith. In a famous illustration of Kierkegaard, when the sea is calm, the sun is shining, and the captain sober, and you have faith that the ship will reach its destination, that is not faith. When the seas are raging, the ship floundering, and the captain drunk, however, and you still have faith that the ship will reach its destination, that is really faith. For In a famous illustration of Kierkegaard, when the sea is calm, the sun is shining, and the captain sober, and you have faith that the ship will reach its destination, that is not faith. When the seas are raging, the ship floundering, and the captain drunk,...

Once Rabbi Zushya was in a class taught by the Maggid of Mezeritch. The Maggid began the class with a commonplace verse from the Torah: "And God spoke to Moses..." Just these few words were enough to excite and astonish Rabbi Zusha. He exclaimed "God spoke... GOD spoke... God SPOKE!" over and over until he had to be removed from the classroom due to the disruption he was causing.   M. Buber

Rabbi Zushya once said: "I learned seven things from the thief: 1) What he does, he keeps to himself. 2) He is willing to take risks to attain his goal. 3) He does not distinguish between "major" and "minor" things, but takes equally exacting care of each and every detail. 4) He invests great effort in what he does. 5) He is swift. 6) He is always optimistic. 7) If at first he fails, he is back time and again for another try." We can learn from every one in every instance...if we are attentive.

  A man had written to the Rebbe in roughly these terms: “I am depressed. I am lonely. I feel that life is meaningless. I try to pray, but the words do not come. I keep mitzvot but find no peace of mind. I need the Rebbe’s help.” The Rebbe sent a brilliant reply without using a single word. He simply circled the first word of every sentence and sent the letter back. The word in each case was “I.” -Rabbi Jonathan Sacks To be happy is to realize it's about "us" not "me."

Professor Solomon Schechter, newly designated President of Jewish Theological Seminary (1902-1915),  frequently took part in the Christian-Jewish Relations Programs. He was once asked by a Christian lady, "Sir, don't you Jews believe in saints? We Christians always pray to our saints. But I never hear you Jews doing so." Prof. Schechter nodded in the affirmative. "Yes, Madame, we certainly have saints. But they are  indistinguishable from the rest of the congregation."   - Rabbi Murray Stadtmauer Is not every person a potential tzaddik?  Each person must be treated as such for if we err and wound one of these holy souls we may destroy a world.

Back in 1921 Charles Schwab was earning one million dollars each year.  He was hand  picked by Andrew Carnegie to construct the steel industry.  Why was he paid such an exorbitant amount?  Schwab admitted that he was paid this salary because of his unique ability to deal with people. Dale Carnegie interviewed him.   “I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.“There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize any-one. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So Iam anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like anything,I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise."    How To Win Friends and Influence People It is much easier to find fault than praise but what does it benefit  the person who receives it?  More, how does it  ...