A Soulful Journey

  Not so long ago and old man in Russia started learning Hebrew.  That was illegal. A man from the KGB approached the old man and asked, "Tell me, what do you think you are doing?" The old man replied, "I am old.  I could die any time.  I want to learn Hebrew so I will understand what they are saying in heaven." "And what makes you think you are going to heaven, old man? Perhaps you are going to hell." The old man gazed at the KGB and said, "In that case, I already know Russian."  -Rabbi Jacob Radinsky   We work for heaven today.  What we do impacts our present and informs our future. For this reason, nothing is meaningless.  Nothing.

The Talmud records that Rabbi Yehudah the Prince grew old, was afflicted with a long and painful illness. The Rabbis sent their colleague, Bar Kapparah, to see how Rabbi Yehudah was doing. Bar Kapparah returned, and reported that, “Angels and humans were struggling to possess the Ark. The angels have triumphed, and the Ark has been captured. The body that lives in the coffin before us was a Holy Ark, which house the spirit, soul, that was the very embodiment of Torah.”   Talmud records that when Bar Kapparah had reported that the angels had triumphed and the Holy Ark had been captured by them, the rabbis responded, “Do you mean to say that Rabbi Yehudah had died?  He responded, “You said it, not I.”  For Bar Kapparah, Rabbi Yehudah did not die. He remained alive.   Today, through the Mishna of that he edited, it remains even as the day when he wrote it. -Rabbi Simon Greenberg  

   After Jonas Salk (1914-1995), in 1955-56, began to administer his anti-polio vaccine (IPV), he was asked about  the development of his theory.     He explained, in an interview, "Oh, I first got the idea from a young rabbi in our synagogue when he taught us the the biblical law of  tzara'at  (leprosy) [Lev. 13-14]. And that started me thinking about polio."        The interviewer then followed with a reasonable inquiry. "Well, why didn't you acknowledge that when you were being considered for the Nobel Prize for Medicine?"        Salk shrugged. "You have to understand our rabbi. He's a very modest fellow. I offered to share the Prize with him--if I would eventually get it. But he refused."        To this day, the general public does not know about this rabbi's important contribution to modern medicine.                - Rabbi Murray Stadtmauer

"When Rabbi Meir died, the last of the great makers of parables died with him.  When Ben Azzai died diligent students ceased to exist.  When Hanina ben Dosa died, men of courage would no longer lead.  When Rabbi Akiba died, those who know how to honor the Torah disappeared."  -c onclusion of Sotah We live at a time when our impoverishment of spirituality and learning must not impede our hunger to grow in knowledge and morality.

The devout scholar Rabbi Hirsch used to say, "Since the rabbis began to call themselves doctors the Jewish people are sick." What is needed in our age is more Godliness, not more scholarship in secular subjects.

I have a friend who tells the following story:  when he lived in Washington for Thanksgiving day weekend weather forecast predicted snow. He heard the report but ignored it. Early Friday morning, he went shopping and by the time he was ready to return home, there was about an inch of snow on the ground. Without snow tires, his car was immobilized.  A cab driver stopped, shoveled away the snow and finished the job with a throw of salt and sand. He said to my friend, “I want you to go back into the store and buy a shovel and a bag of salt.” My friend pulled out of the cab driver did not go away. My friend put a hand in his pocket to give him a tip. The cab driver refused the money and repeated to my friend, “I want you to go back into the store and buy a shovel and a bag of salt.”   The cab driver still did not depart. My friend began to get nervous. He asked him in desperation, “What do you want for me?” The cab driver replied, “I want you to go back in...

Of Rabbi Meir of Talmudic fame, it was said, “Not a single one of his contemporaries could approximate the extent of his learning.” To be learned is the apex of Jewish yearning.  There is no excuse for ignorant and God is insistent that we consistently an constantly enlarge our scope of knowledge.

" Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions." "You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."   -  Winston Churchill  

Reb Hayim Brisker what’s the boy who remained rather obstinate against learning. He could not be persuaded to study. His father was a famous dayyan, judge, and in desperation asked him, “What will become of you?” To this the young lad replied, "I will become a dayyan”. – Rabbi Louis Jacobs

A Rabbi sat in the rear of one of the Hebrew school classes observing the teacher and the pupils. The children were young, and the rabbi was deeply moved by the politeness, attentiveness, and eagerness to learn. At the end of the session he walked forward and warmly addressed the class, “My dear students, may the Almighty help you to understand the Torah and become better and wiser Jews.” The polite young boys and girls replied, “Thank you Rabbi and the same to you!”

“Learning is not worth a penny if courage and joy are lost along the way.”   - Pestalozzi (a predecessor of Montessori)

How we learn:  1% through taste, 1 ½% through touch, 3 ½% through smell, 11% through hearing, 83% through sight.  This shows the importance of audiovisual materials in teaching and learning along with different modalities to educate. 

When the haskalah (Enlightenment) movement swept through Russia and the Pale of Settlement, apikorus (atheism and heresy) became a status symbol.  One such apikorus was a guest in small hotel in a shtetl that had not yet felt the tug of the haskalah movement tried to convert the rabbi.  So he went to the scholar and introduced himself as an apikoris. “So you are an apikorus,” said the rabbi, “then you must have attended Yeshiva.” “Oh no,” replied the apikorus.  “I never wasted my time attending such a school.” “The you studied Talmud with a private tutor?” “Oh no,” replied the apikorus.  “Even if I was interested my poor parents could never afford to pay a private tutor. “But surely you must know well Humash and Rashi, the Five Books of Moses along with the classic interpretations of Rashi.” “Sorry to disappoint you, rabbi, but I was never a great student in cheder.” “Then,” the rabbi concluded, “you did not introduce yourself prope...

“Learning should be worn like false teeth-with a maximum of discretion.” – Michael Goulston Be modest in learning, as in all else.

A student went to his master and said, “I feel like it has all been worth it. I have made it and I have you to thank, master.” The master sat down to pour a cup of tea. And he kept pouring until the cup overflowed and still he kept pouring. The student shouted for the master to stop. ”I guess I was wrong,” the master said.  “I thought it could have taken more.” You are only “full” when you admit there is no more room in you to grow…and wouldn’t that be a tragedy?

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”   -Benjamin Franklin

In the realm of Jewish scholarship there are two types 1.     A  ba’al halacha , a person whose knowledge and observance is impeccable but he is likened to a naked giant for while he is great in observance, this is his sole possession. 2.     A  ba’al agadda , whose is an artist and expert in legend and folklore. A masterful storyteller, he is likened to a full panoply.    Outside the exterior gleams but inside there is only emptiness. It is the combination of these two that we strive to reach.  – Dr. Weisberg, University College

The Seer of Lublin was once confronted by a rabbi who said, "How is it that so many people come flocking to hear you?  You, who are not very learned or scholarly?  I, on the other hand, am very learned but attract so few!" "This is easy," said the Seer. "They come because I know so little but speak the word of God, who is so great.  They do not come to hear you because you know so much,;because your learning is so great that you leave so little room for God."

Mr. Rosen came to Canada to sell his friend, Dr. Berg’s, books.   He went to the home of a wealthy Jew and began to discuss Dr. Berg’s brilliant discoveries in medicine. “Who the devil is this guy?   I never heard of him!   What did he do that I should buy his books?” “Don’t you know?   He discovered pinochle,” said Dr. Rosen. “Oh is that so?   He certainly must be a great man.   I’ll take all you have.” Not everyone is interested in expanding their knowledge.  They are only interested in what they already know.  Yet, if we can find something in which they take an interest and then bring them around change is possible.  W should be "our brother's keeper."

A man enters a bookstore on the lower Eastside of New York in order to buy a siddur for his einekle.   The bookseller shows him many different editions, yet he rejects each one in turn. The customer points to huge tome on the top shelf, an enormous Kol Bo siddur that includes dinnim, minhagim and perushim.   Climbing the ladder to retrieve the volume, the mokher sefarim, impressed, asks “At which yeshiva does your grand son study? He must be a real lamdan! How old is he?” “He’s only two.” ”So why are you buying him such a siddur?” “Because my friend, when you give a child a book, what does he do? He rips out the pages!   If I buy him a thin book, by the time he’s ready to use it, there will be nothing left but the cover.   This way I can at least hope that when he grows up is ready to use it, there will be some pages left in the book.”   - Rabbi Al Lewis