A Soulful Journey

                                Balance   Everything is delicately balanced.  One life supports another.  Tiny fish at once feed upon smaller fish and are fed upon by larger ones.  Like a perfectly calibrated piece of machinery all that exists thrums with predictability.   Night comes to cool the heated earth.  Daylight brings warmth to the fertile ground.  Death makes room for new life.  Everything that exists is in relation to everything else. Is this why God insists that we be good guardians?  Why we have so many commandments to care for one another?  If we do not care for each other the balance will become upset. The Kelmer Maggid was in the midst of delivering a powerful oration.  He shouted out, “Listen. my rich friends! ...

Ulla and Rav Hisda were walking and came to the door of Rabbi Hana bar HaNilai.   Hisda cried and heaved a great sigh. “A sigh breaks half a man’s body,” said Ulla. “No," responded Hisda.   “It breaks my whole body to see the house where sixty cooks and sixty servants used to prepare food for the needy.   Rav Hana used to throw grain – wheat and barley – on the street for those too proud to come in.   And he had four doors just so people could come and eat.   Now it is in ruins and I sigh.” And he cried, “It is enough for the servant to be like the Master.”   - Talmud, Berakhot, 58b What every human being should try to attain is being like God ("the servant to be like the Master") in that God feeds the hungry and provides for our needs. It does not matter to God whether we are worthy or not, the Master always provides.