A Soulful Journey

 The Gerer Rebbe said: "Exile contains redemption within itself as seed contains the fruit." Never give up.

I n every generation, the soul of Moses and the soul of Korach returns.  When the day comes that the soul of Korach will willingly subject itself to the soul of Moses then Korach will be redeemed.   – Rabbi Simchah Bunin of Psychysha Until then we wait, pray and practice the tenets of our faith.

Jeffrey Hart, a Dartmouth Professor of English wrote: "I conclude that Israel is literally sacred to much or almost all of Jewish opinion.  And I mean sacred taking the term with full literalness... I understand why Israel in fact has become sacred.  The history of the 20th century is, to put it mildly, unique.  The Holocaust is a sort of hole in the cosmos, a guarantor of the existence of evil.  It is an equivalent for Jew son the Crucifixion.  Israel then became the equivalent of the Redemption."

We are partners in redemption.  As the Tanakh states, "Arise with the help of the people."  That is to say redemption is not passive, it requires our participation.  -Rabbi Sidney Greenberg

Yehuda Amichai, an Israeli poet, wrote, “Once I was sitting on the steps near the gate of David’s Citadel and I put down my two heavy baskets beside me.   A group of tourists stood there, surrounding their guide, and I became the point of reference.   ‘You see that man over there with the baskets?   A little to the right of his head there’s an arch from the Roman period.’ ‘A little to the right of his head?’ responded the tourists, ‘but he’s moving, he’s moving.’ I said to myself, redemption will come only when they are told: ‘Do you see that arch from the Roman period?   It doesn’t matter, but near it, a little to the left and then down a bit, there’s a man who has just bought fruit and vegetables for his family.”

Only four players in the history of professional baseball have made four errors in a single inning. Bob Brenly of the Giants was one. He was playing at third base when he missed four hits in the fourth inning. What did he feel about his failure in front of his teammates, wife and the thousands in the stands? Fear? Embarrassment? “All of those,” Brenly said. “After the fourth one [error], I never wanted to see the ball again. I tried to hide behind the third base umpire a couple of times, but he kept moving.” Then when it was Brenly’s turn at bat he hit first a home run then an RBI. At the bottom of the ninth inning he hit another home run and clinched the game. What a wonderful ending for a man who was trying to bury himself in a hole! When the day is dark and little light filters through remember Brenly. There is always redemption.