A Soulful Journey

A rabbi met a young man running rapidly along the street. “Why do you run?” the rabbi asked. “I am running after a job,” the other panted. “How do you know that your job is before you and you have to chase it?  Maybe it is behind you and you are running from it.” Stop.   Look.   Listen.

The thief who was caught and being tried complained, “My mistake was not in stealing, it was in not running fast enough.” Perhaps we can all learn from the thief.   Once we learn the lesson of not doing God’s will, we should learn to run fast the next time the opportunity to do a mitzvah comes.

A rebbe stopped a hasid who was hurrying through the street at breakneck speed.  "Where are you rushing?" he asked the hasid.   "The hasid replied, "I am running after my life."   "How do you know you have not passed it by?" replied the rebbe. - Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal We are busy, plagued by incessant demands and needs.  And we run.  We run just to keep pace.  It is time to stop, look around and see where we stand.

“Do you flee from the shadows of the giants of your century, the great ones whose light blind the eye and whose faults numb the heart?   They fill you with hurt, with anger, with awe, do they not, these giants?   They make ashes out of great ideas, do they not?   Do you flee to pagan worlds remote from the civilization of your teachers – to test their teachings?   To escape their visions, their echoes, and the shadows that lie between what they are and what they teach?   How far will you flee?”   - Chaim Potok, The Book of Lights Do not run from you.

A rebbe once stopped a hasid that was hurrying through the street at break-neck speed. "Where are you running?" he asked the hasid. The hasid answered, "I am running after life!"  The rebbe called to him as he ran off, "How do you know you have not passed it by?" It is time to think and reflect so life does not pass us by.