A Soulful Journey

An Indian rajah would make regular hunting safaris in Africa. One trip he found a valley filled with brightly colored talking parrots, one of which he captured with a net and took it back to his palace. A year later he told the parrot, “I will be returning to your valley soon.  Is there any message you would like me to bring to your relatives there?” The parrot replied, “Yes. Tell them I enjoy my cage. I enjoy talking with you daily. I am very happy.” The rajah returned to the valley and spoke those words to the birds there. As soon as he had finished, an old parrot keeled over and fell to the ground, motionless. Back home the rajah told the parrot what had happened.  As soon as he said, when I gave your message an elderly parrot fell off his branch dead, the caged parrot fell off his perch and lay motionless at the bottom of the cage. Thinking to himself, “Hearing of the death of his relative must have caused his death, the rajah opened the cage, reached inside, and...

 Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger (1926-2007), a Jewish apostate from Poland, became the cardinal of Paris but on his death bed, requested that  Kaddish  be recited at his funeral.   Remember who you are and live it.

“I rose about midnight, took a large earthenware vessel, crept with it under my mother-in-law’s bed, and began to speak aloud in the following fashion: “O Rissia, Rissia, you ungodly woman, why do you treat my beloved son so ill?  If you do not mend your ways, your end is near, and you will be damned for all eternity.” Then I crept out again, and began to pinch her cruelly and after a while I slipped silently back to bed. The following morning she got up in consternation and told my wife that my mother appeared to her in a dream and had threatened and pinched her on my account.  In confirmation she showed the blue marks of her arm. When I came from the synagogue I did not find my mother-in-law at home, but my wife in tears.  I asked her the reason, but he would tell me nothing. My mother-in-law returned, with a dejected look and eyes red with weeping.  She had gone, as I afterward learned, to the Jewish place of burial, thrown herself on my mother...

There is a famous Hassidic story about Reb Zusha of Anipoli, who was a paragon of piety and of compassion. Reb Zusha was laying on his deathbed surrounded by his disciples. He was weeping copiously and no one could comfort him. One student asked his Rebbe, "Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham."  Reb Zusha answered, "When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?' Why didn't I fulfill my potential, why didn't I follow the path that could have been mine."   - Rabbi Jonathan Waxman Do.  Do not think.  Or wait.  Do it now.

Year ago, Sir John Gielgud celebrated his ninetieth birthday.  As famous as he was for his acting career he was as renowned for his faux pas.  While lunching with playwright Edward Knoblock, Gielgud motioned to a man entering the restaurant.  “He’s the biggest bore in London, second only to Edward Knoblock.”  Then, realizing whom he was with, Gielgud backtracked.  “The other Edward Knoblock.” –Mel Gussow in New York Times Pay attention.   Think before you speak. Once the words are out, they can never be retracted or fixed.

"When a person sins twice he begins to legitimize it and then believe it is correct.”  - Talmud, Moed Katan 27b

Richard Nixon approached Ted Sorenson after J.F.K’s inaugural address with these words: “Ted, I listened to Jack Kennedy’s inaugural yesterday and I have to admit there were some words that he said that I wish I had said.” Sorenson, touched by Nixon’s comment, said, “I guess you mean the comment about, ‘Ask not what you country can do for you…’.” “No, not that one, the one about “I solemnly swear…’.” –Richard Nixon Moral? Perhaps if you want something bad enough....

"Forget yesterday, live today and approach tomorrow with enthusiasm, for each  day you live is a gift and not a right."   -Unknown

An American poet has written: "I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know; I want to be able as days go by.  Always to look myself straight in the eye. I don't want to stand with the setting sun, And hate myself for the things I've done." -Edgar Guest Think then act.  

“This is the beginning of a new day God has given me.   This day to use as I will.   I can waste it or use it for good.   What I do today is important because I’m exchanging a day of my life for it.   When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something I have traded for it.   I want it to be gain, not loss; good not evil; success not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.”   -Anonymous

"Teach me, dear God, 
 to make a fresh start; 
 to break yesterday's patterns; 
 to stop telling myself 
 I can't— 
 when I can, 
 I'm not— 
 when I am, 
 I'm stuck— 
 when I'm eminently free." 
  - Rebbe Nachman, The Gentle Weapon