A Soulful Journey

  Mencius once asked his disciple to describe a good man.     “A good man is one who is loved by everybody,” he was told.   “No,” he rejoined.  “A good man is a man who is loved by the good and hated by the bad.” Christians would say, “A good man is one who loves everybody.” Jews would say, “A good man loves the good and hates the bad.”

Motto of the French Foreign Legion: If I falter, push me on. If I stumble, pick me up. If I retreat, shoot me. My wish: Every solider would retreat, no more guns would be made, and no more instruments of death will be manufactured.

Once a powerful warlord gathered his massive army & attacked his neighbor, a small nearly defenseless country.  War commenced & against conventional wisdom, the tiny army threw back the bigger. How was this possible?  “All my warriors,” said the king “shared the same concerns, they knew their neighbors.  Their children depended on them.  The homes were close to each other.  They fought for themselves.  That was their secret.” When we fight for those  who  we love God gives us the  strength along with our inner determination.

 The story is told of the Chafetz Chayim who struggled to get out fo bed but eventually fell back down exhausted and asleep when he realized, "If I am already up, then so is my yetser ha-ra (impulse to do ill)  I had better get to work."  -Hyam Maccoby Fight to be best you can be!

Elie Wiesel told of a woman who lived in the Carpathian Mountains during the time of Hitler. She had heard that people in Warsaw rebelling and fighting back. She exclaimed, “They should be quiet not protest. The war will end and everything will be all right.” At this point in his address, Elie Wiesel turned to President Clinton who was sitting on the dais and said, “I have recently visited Bosnia and cannot sleep at night. Why don’t we intervene?  There are those in America today who say we should do nothing about this was the slaughter, just as the woman in the Carpathian Mountains counseled inaction in the face of the Nazis.”  And then Elie Wiesel resumed his story: “This woman never knew that the war against Hitler had come to an end, for she perished with her entire family in Auschwitz.” He paused for a moment and concluded, “That woman which my mother!”

“A very popular error, having the courage of one’s convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack of one’s convictions.”     - Nietzsche This is the real test of strength.

"We shall fight Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and fight the White Paper as if there were no Hitler."  -David Ben-Gurion, 1939 What do we learn from this brave statement?  That Ben-Gurion was prescient? No, we learn that we must stand up for each other and against evil.

"A terrible fight is going on inside me -- a fight between two wolves. One is evil, and represents hate, anger, arrogance, intolerance, and superiority. The other is good, and represents joy, peace, love, tolerance, understanding, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, inside every other person too."  The grandson then asked: "Which wolf will win?" The old man replied simply:  "The one you feed." 

Ask: Where has the man of sixty gone? His trees no longer put forth twigs and roots, His sinews are thin and weak, No longer do they rise to fight his wars.   -Ibn Ezra Age is a good thing. It gives perspective  What we once thought was inviolate we learn was not.  Is it age or the pendulum of death suspended over us?  It does not matter.  Wisdom is knowing what is important and what is not.

It is important to realize the value of a good argument.  A legitimate argument is one that argues for the sake of finding the right solution.  A misdirected argument is one that argues for the sake of being heard above the din.  In the first instance, people listen to one another's side. In the second instance, they simply bellow to be heard. We often get the two confused. “…the old inner-city synagogue that had just moved to the suburbs acquired both a modern building and a modern rabbi. At the first Sabbath service, when the congregation recited the Shema Yisrael prayer (“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One…”) half the congregation stood up while half remained seated.  The standing half yelled. “Stand up!” to the seated half, while the seated half yelled, “Sit down!” to the standing half. The new rabbi was upset at the boisterous commotion, and after the service he asked representatives of both groups to meet with him and the old rabbi to ascertain...