A Soulful Journey

Three youths hid themselves on a Sabbath in a barn in order to smoke.  Hasidim discovered them and wished to flog the offenders.  One youth exclaimed: "I deserve no punishment, for I forgot that today is the Sabbath."  The second youth said: "And I forgot that smoking not he Sabbath is forbidden."  The third raised his voice and cried out: "I too, forgot."  "What did you forget?" he was asked.  The lad replied: "I forgot to lock the door of the barn."  - Newman , Maggidim and Hasidim Everyone rebels.  The important thing is to not forget that it is rebelling.  When that is lost, what is left?

Years ago, while in Miami giving a lecture on Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, otherwise known as the Chofetz Chaim, the most beloved Jewish leader in the pre-World War II world, I mentioned a story, perhaps a legendary story, I had heard about a student in the rabbi’s yeshiva in Radin who was caught smoking on the Sabbath, creating a scandal.   But before he was expelled from the yeshiva,, the Chofetz Chaim asked to see the student first and in two minutes, so the story went, convinced the young man to give up the folly of his way. I would give anything, I told the audience, to know what the Chofetz Chaim could have said in two minutes that one part of Israel has been trying for over thirty years to convince the other part of Israel to believe. But as I’m going on and on about the Chofetz Chaim in this Florida hotel, I notice an older man in the front row trembling uncontrollably. After the lecture he ran up to me and asked me where I had heard the story.   But even before I c...