A Soulful Journey

"Faith is only real when it is not one-sided but reciprocal. One can only rely on God if God can rely on the individual." - Abraham Joshua Heschel

“I am not here to worry about your needs and I don’t expect you to worry about mine.  It’s every man for himself.”  - Narcissist’s creed     It is not about you.  It is about us.

Prayer:  When Jacob was about to face Esau after many years of estrangement, the midrash ( Tanhuma Buber, Vayishlah  6) tells us that he did three things — and the first was to pray. When our biblical ancestors were faced with a crisis  ויצעקו אל ה ’, they cried out to God. When Jews are faced with a health crisis, they recite Psalms such as chapters 121 and 130 and the  Mee Sheberakh  prayer for those who are ill.  Jewish Unity :  We are told in the Talmud ( Shevuot  39a)  כל ישראל ערבין זה בזה  — “All Jews are responsible for one another”. This has always been the strength of the Jewish people, how much the more so in times of crisis.  We are all in the same boat :  “Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught: It can be compared to people who were in a boat and one of them took a drill and began to drill under his seat. His fellow passengers said to him: ‘why are you doing this!’ He said to them: ‘What do you care? Am I not drilling...

Rav Hisda praised Rav Hamnuna before Rav Huna as a great man.  Huna said to him, "When Hamnuna visits you, bring him to me." When Rav Hamnuna arrived, Huna saw he had no head covering.  "Why have you no head covering?" he asked "Because I am not married," he replied. "See to it that you do not return until you are married." Rav Huna was following his position as a teacher: "He who is twenty and has not yet married, all his days are in sin." In sin? Can you really think that?  Instead say, "All his days are spent in sinful thoughts."  - Kiddushin 29 b An interesting viewpoint about youth.  The talmudic view is to make young people responsible when they are young so they do not turn their attention to things that may bring them, or others, harm

A rabbinic story tells about a group of people traveling in a boat. One passenger takes out a drill and begins drilling a hole under his seat. The other passengers, quite understandably, complain that this action may cause the boat to sink. “Why should this bother you?” this man responds, I am only drilling under my own seat.” The others retort, “But the water will rise up and flood the ship for all of us!” - Vayikra Rabbah 4:6

An ancient Midrash with powerful implications for today: When God created the first man, He showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden. He said to him: “See my works now beautiful and fine they are. Everything I have created has been for your sake. Think of this, and do not corrupt or destroy My world; for if you corrupt it, there will be on one to set it right after you.”    - Kohelet Rabbah

“It is forbidden for a person to taste any morsel of food until he has given food to his animals.” - Gittin 62a Since they depend on us we must attend to their needs before our own.

  A scene just 45 Years ago, board a train in Brooklyn: Poland had been invaded by Hitler in September of 1939, five months earlier. A 12 year old youngster is shouting above the din and the rattle of the train, appealing for funds for the  Va’ad Hatzalah to save Polish Jews. He approached a middle-aged, obviously Jewish man who snarls at him and says, “I don’t care about Polish Jews.  I’m a Belgian Jew…”  - the boy was Norman Lamm When we finally come to the realization that we have a mandate, a  full responsibility to care for one another, the Mashiah will know it is time for him to come.

If someone comes to kill is, we understand that we have the right, and even the responsibility, of self-defense (Berakhot 64b, Sanhedrin 74a).  When others are threatened, we are called to help them as well.  "Do not stand idly by your neighbor's pain." (Leviticus 19:17-19) This is not an option.  It is a mitzvah.

When iron was created, the trees began to tremble. God said to them, “Why do you tremble? If none of you allows your wood to supply a handle for the axe, you will never be harmed.”-  Genesis Rabbah 5:9 Oh! If only we could hear those words spoken by HaKadosh Baruch Hu today!

An older gentleman was on the operating table awaiting surgery and he insisted that his son, a renowned surgeon, perform the operation. As he was about to get the anesthesia, he asked to speak to his son. "Yes, Dad , what is it?" "Don't be nervous, son; do your best, and just remember, if it doesn't go well, if something happens to me, your mother is going to come and live with you and your wife...." Funny, isn't it?  Perhaps what makes it  must  funny is we know that caring for another human being, no strings  attached , is not easy but is our  responsibility .

Do you know the old joke about the new rabbi who comes to town? He wants his first sermon to be a good one, but he doesn’t know what to speak about that will be powerful, and yet will not be controversial. So he goes to one of the old men in the congregation who is known for his wisdom, and he asks him what he should speak about. The old man says to the young rabbi: “Speak against the Amalekites. They don’t have a friend in town.” –Rabbi Jack Reimer It is the task of the living to address the real needs of the world, and not side-step them.   It is not their job, it is ours.

A college student wrote home, "Am without friends or funds." His dad wrote back, "Make friends." A big part of growing up is learning how to solve problems on your own.  When you have done this you have made it.

"Name a behavior and there's a "12-step" program to rescue you from it.  For example, "Everyone in the world is now a co-dependent.  It's gotten bit broad," says Emily Reichert of Delacorte Press, as she critiques our multiple ways of escaping personal responsibility, playing victim role and staying stuck there." - Context , 15 February, 1992

The word “philanthropy” comes from two Greek roots: Philia, meaning to love Anthropos, meaning man. In Hebrew we use tzedaka , which means justice to describe our obligation to our fellow.

“Sometimes we must interfere.   When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, when national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.   Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”   -Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech for the Nobel prize