A Soulful Journey

  Living is not difficult.  We were not consulted - as far as we can recall - about being born.  The same will be true when we exit this world; it will happen without or permission. Living is easy: living a quality life is the hard part.  That is why the vast majority of our literature attempts to give meaning to the mundane.  Starting with the Torah, God guides us through various stages of moral devlopment.  From the simple living of Eden to the Laws of Noah to Sinai and the culmination of the revealing of the 613 mitzvot God teaches us through example and law. Countless times throughout history, it has been has proven that humanity, left to its own minds, are ingenious crafters of vicious behavior. With a navigational guide to point us in the right direction we have a much better track record. With this thought in mind it is curious that the Talmud warns us, "In a place where you drink water do not throw stones." - Baba Kamma 92b...

"The chief problem with death, incidentally, is the fear that there may be no afterlife - a depressing thought, particularly to those who have bothered to shave."  -Woody Allen   We work throughout or life to life days of integrity and making contributions to a world that leaves it better than we found it.  There is rightly a fear of death if we have not worked to those ends.  

"In your sermon don't yell them what was in the day's paper.  The are much better at it." - Rabbi Dow Marmur A rabbi's purpose is to engage people in morality not the latest news or sports scores.

One[’s first] theft, even though small, is worse than the greatest robbery.   –Baba Batra 88a Why would the Talmud make such a claim? Probably because once one has gotten away with a crime the next one takes less moral argumentation.

A member of the Texas state legislature was speaking of a new bill to outlaw certain types of sexual behavior.   He remarked, “There are three things wrong with this so-called New Morality.   It violates the law of God.   It violates the laws of Texas.   And I’m too old to take advantage of it.” – Rabbi Harold Kushner

13% of Americans believe in all Ten Commandments. 9 out of 10 lie regularly. 1/3 of all married Americans are unfaithful to their spouses. 1/5 of all American children lost their virginity by thirteen. 7% would kill a stranger if offered enough money. -The Day America Told the Truth—What People Believe About Everything That Really Matters

An eight-year-old boy found an envelope with $600.00 in it.   He returned it to the bank who found owner.   The man gave $3.00 reward.   Outraged, the boy’s teacher took up a collection for him to give $150.00 savings bond.   – Mary Arguelles in Newsweek Teaching one another to be honest takes effort and thought.

I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country.   I do not think it can survive on this basis and unless some kind of catastrophe strikes us, we are lost, but by our own very nature we are drawing catastrophe to ourselves. What we have beaten in nature, we cannot conquer in ourselves.”   -John Steinbeck

"Mine has not been a generation that offered its children certainties.  We have treated them to endless argument instead....  Our children in many cases have grown up under the false illusion that there are no firm principles, that for every cause there is a counteracts, for every reason to fight there is a reason to run." - Marine  corps veteran James Webb Perhaps the greatest truth is that life is not fair.  It simply is.

“Freud demonstrated that mental sickness cannot be understood apart from moral problems.   The psychoanalyst is the physician of the soul.”   -Erich Fromm We are responsible.  There are no excuses for evil.