A Soulful Journey

Moshe was imperfect yet nevertheless was a worthy leader of Bnai Yisrael.   Avraham avinu was a faulted human being who lied and said his beautiful wife was his sister in order to protect himself, nevertheless he was our worthy patriarch. Otto Schindler was a womanizer yet he risked his life and saved many helpless Jews. Martin Luther King was an adulterer yet he was an unmatched Civil Rights leader. Sadat attacked Israel on Yom Kippur yet he made peace with Israel. What other flawed human beings deserve our praise and appreciation? -Rabbi Gershon Weissman Don't be too quick to condemn for no person lives without warts.

A friendly neighbor allowed the neighborhood children to play in his lovely front yard after school.  One day the sidewalk in front of his house was being replaced to level the walkway.  As children would do, they wrote in the freshly laid cement and added all sorts of names and stick figures.  This angered the friendly neighbor who started yelling at the kids.  The children's parents were shocked to see their neighbor get so angry at their children whom he always liked and they pointed out to him their dismay at his behavior.  He called out at them: "I love your children in the abstract but not in the concrete." Rabbi Gershon Weissman   It is easy to love from a  distance and harder when we are up close and see all their warts.

Yiddel had a burning question to ask his rabbi.  He wondered who is more holy, who is higher on the spiritual ladder in God's judgment: A person beginning to observe the mitzvot (whose observance is still minimal) or a person who had been fully observant who is now moving away from observance (but whose observance was still far more than the first person)? The rabbi replied that God's judgment is not based on how observant the person is, on high they are on the ladder of observance, but is based on whether one is ascending or descending the ladder.   – Rabbi Gershon Weissman Move up.  L'eila, L'eila, 

What's the difference between a Diplomat and a Lady? When a diplomat says "yes," he means, "maybe", when he says "maybe", he means,  "no", and when he says "no" he's no diplomat. When a lady says "no", she means "maybe", when she says "maybe" she means "yes" and when she says "yes" she's no lady.   – Rabbi Gershon Weissman