A Soulful Journey

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest -Shakespeare

A man wants to go to find Elijah the prophet. So he prepares himself, gather his food, set off, because he has heard that Elijah will be at one particular Seder in the small village, in the middle of nowhere.  And finally after a long journey, he approaches a house, old and ramshackle. He looks in through a cracked window as an extended family gathered to celebrate the Seder. They are wearing their finest for Yontif and yet he can see that they are poor because the clothes are patched, the walls are bare and even for this, the greatest meal of the year, there is barely any food on the table. And he wonders, can Elijah really be here? Sadly, he realizes he must have come to the wrong house. Elijah cannot possibly be here at this table. He starts to walk away. As he walks away he forgets about Elijah in the simply heartened by the warmth, the children smiling and singing and the lights of the candles. And then he thinks about the fact that he has so much food and they h...

“A talking human, said the Maggid of Mezridtch, occasions no surprise, a talking bird evokes astonishment and admiration.  So too a virtuous angel is no novelty in the realm of the spirit but God and all His angels rejoice at the virtuous man who lives the good life despite his propensity for evil.”   -Louis Jacobs

“A man's Self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house.” - William James Is this true?  Are you limited by all that you own and see?  Aren't you more than that?  Perhaps as David, the psalmist, crafts, we can be "Little lower than the Angels?"

  When God was creating the world God shared a secret with the angels, human beings will be created in the image of God. The angels were jealous and outraged. Why should humans be entrusted with such a precious gift when they are flawed mortals? Surely if humans find out their true power they will abuse it. If humans discover they are created in God’s image, they will learn to surpass us! So the angels decided to steal God’s image. Now that the divine image wsa in the angel’s hands, they needed to pick a place to hide it so that man would never find it. They held a meeting and brainstormed. They angel Gabriel suggested they hid God’s image at the top of the highest mountain peak. The other angels, objected, “one day humans will learn to climb and they will find it there.”  The angel Michael said, let’s hid it at the bottom of the sea.” No the other angels chimed in ‘humans will find a way to dive to the bottom of the sea and they’ll find it there.” One by ...

When a gaon, rabbi in a large city, grew old and feeble, he decided to change his position for one in a small city.   There he would be able to live peacefully and freer from responsibilities.   The gaon assembled the overseers of the community and said, “My dear friends, I am old and weary.   I would like to settle in a small city, where I can live quietly, but I want your permission to do so.” The people, realizing that the rabbi had served them wholeheartedly for many years consented.   The sage immediately wrote to a nearby city, which was in need of a rabbi, and told them he would be willing to accept the position at a small salary, if only her were permitted to live peacefully.   The people were thrilled beyond words.   They elected the most distinguished personalities of their community and sent them to fetch the rabbi.   When the men arrived to take him and his family, the inhabitants surrounded the coaches and began to shout, “We will not p...

A Rabbi loved to golf.  One Yom Kippur he managed to get away for a quick nine holes.  On the first hole he achieved a hole in one!   The celestial angels clamored: "How can you allow this to happen on the holiest day of the year??" God replied, " Who is he going to tell ?"

A Midrash:   When Moses ascended to heaven to receive Torah the angels complained, “ What is flesh and blood doing here, among us?” they wailed. HaKadosh Baruch Hu responded, “He is here to receive the Torah.”   “Nine hundred seventy- four generations have passed since the inception of the world.   Since that time Your word has been safe with us.   And now you want to give it to such beings??” HaKadosh Baruch Hu responded, “They can do teshuvah .” Hearing the clamor raging in heaven, Moses grew afraid.   What if the angels grew spiteful and destroyed him? HaKadosh Baruch Hu soothed Moses’ anxiety saying, “Hold My throne and you will be safe.”

"When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and stars that You set in place, What is man that You are mindful of him, Mortal man that You take note of him? Yet You have made him little less than the angels And adorned him with glory and majesty?"  - Psalm 8:3-5 All of us, even those we dislike are made in the same image.

A man devoted himself to spend a whole day reciting Psalms.  He wanted to finish reading them all.  Towards evening, as he was nearing the end, the shamash of the Synagogue came over and asked that he go to the rabbi as soon as possible.  He answered that he would come as soon as he finished reciting Psalms. Later the rabbi asked, "Why did you no obey my summons?" The man explained the great task he was performing. The rabbi replied: "I called you to take up a collection for a poor Jew.  Psalms can be chanted any time.  They can even be sung by the Angels but mortal need to aid the destitute.  Tzedaka is a greater duty than chanting Psalms inasmuch as Angels cannot do tzedakah.

The overseers of the Brisker Synagogue decided to discharge the shammes, sexton.   They asked the rabbi, Reb Yoshe Ber, to break the news to him.   Reb Yoshe Ber refused. “Why won’t you do it?” the overseers questioned.   “You are the rabbi.   And he is your shammes!” Reb Yoshe Ber answered, “You recite every morning the passage where God ordered Abraham our Father to bring his son Isaac to the altar as a sacrifice.   That command God gave himself.   But when He told him to hold back his hand and not strike his son, God spoke through an angel.   Why didn’t God send an angel to speak at the beginning?   Because an angel would have said, ‘If you want to kill a Jew, do it yourself’.” Lesson? We need to protect one another.

The Rabbis teach: When Israel is in trouble and a Jew separates himself, two angels accompany that person and place their hands on his head.  They say, 'This man has separated himself from the community will not see its redemption.' It is further taught: If the community is in trouble, a person must not say, 'I will go home, eat and drink and have peace in my soul.'  Each person must share int he burdens of the community as did Moshe Rabbenu .  The one who shares its turmoil will live to its its redemption. - Taanit Our responsibility is always to assist one another.  We are charged by God and blessed by His emissaries to always be a part of k'llal Yisrael .

“A young rabbi in New York was distressed because he was being unfairly attacked by certain extremists.   He visited the Rav, our great and revered mentor Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, to consult with him.   It was the week that we read the portion Vayetse. The Rav listened to him and made one simple comment on the verse, “And Jacob went ledarkho (on his way) and he was met by the angels of God.”  The Rav told him: If you will go on your way, in the way you are convinced is correct, looking neither to the left nor right, then you will indeed meet the angels of God.  Ignore the extremes and do what is right.”   - Rabbi Norman Lamm