A Soulful Journey

"Do not believe the absurd ideas of astrologers, who falsely assert that the constellation at the time of one's birth determines whether one is to be virtuous or vicious, the individual being thus necessarily compelled to follow out a certain line of conduct."  - Rambam Trust God alone.  And you are in charge of you, and responsible for your actions.

At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring this world into being, to  make room for creation, He first drew in His breath, contracting Himself . From that contraction darkness was created. And when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), the light that came into being filled the darkness, and  ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial ligh t. In this way God sent forth those ten vessels, like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. Had they all arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. But the vessels were too fragile to contain such a powerful, divine light.  They broke open, split asunder, and all the holy sparks were scattered like sand, like seeds, like stars. Those sparks fell everywhere, but more fell on the Holy Land than anywhere else. That is why we were created — to gather the sparks , no matter where they are hidden.   -Prof. Howard  Schwartz Our job is to ...

ITEM: “I was always an unbeliever, raised without religion….And I always tried to suppress nationalistic ardor…as something pernicious and unjust,” Sigmund Freud wrote in 1926.  But when publication of his shocking views on human sexuality in the 1890’s led to his ostracism by Viennese society, Freud joined the Vienna lodge of B’nai Brith, the international Jewish fraternal order, to find people who would “receive me with friendliness.”   Despite his rejection of Jewish religious and ethnic particularism, he told the members in a speech written for the seventieth-birthday celebration of the lodge, “there remained enough other things to make the attraction of Judaism and Jews irresistible – many dark emotional forces, all the more potent for being so hard to grasp in word, as well as the clear consciousness of an inner identity, the intimacy that comes from the same psychic structure.” – Charles Silberman

A fellow was applying for a job and asked by the interviewer, “What are you presently doing?’   He replied, “I work for my brother.”   “And what does your brother do?” “He’s looking for a job.” Never  imitate .  You are unique with a unique destiny.

 “Had anyone suggested at the time that it would not be the Egypt of the pharaohs that would survive and change the moral landscape of the world, but instead a group of Hebrew slaves, it would have seemed an absurdity.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks 

"As  the  my rtle  is sweet to him who smells it, but bitter to him who bites into it, so Israel brings prosperity to the nation which grants it  kindness , and depression to the people which afflicts it with evil."  -Esther Rabbah 6,5  

“You can afford to starve in a garret as an artist but not as a judge.”   - Rabbi Louis Jacobs There is an saying, "You lie in the bed you have made."  We decide the path which we want to tread.   Alternative explanation:  A judge who is in constant need of food or money will not judge poor and rich equally.  Justice is supposed to be blind.

“By your own acts will you be rewarded. And by your own acts you will be distanced and set apart.”   - Eduyot 5:7 We create our destiny by the things we do and the words we utter.   These acts, often forgotten, have the ability to make us proximate to God, or alienated from Him.

“I share the traditional view that even if we [Israelis] wish to be a nation like all the nations, we will not succeed.   And if we succeed – that will be the end of us.” – Gershom Scholem

“Accidents don’t occur, they just happen.” –Isaac Jacob

“We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment.   How many people can boast as much?”    Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot