A Soulful Journey

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”  - Elie Wiesel

Abraham Lincoln said, “I do the very best I can.  If the end brings me out right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything.  If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”  - George Steinbrenner Life presents us with choices every day.  We do the best we can.   That is the best we can do.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." -Mark Twain

An 11-year-old boy and his father went fishing the day before bass season started. At first the boy caught sunfish and perch, which were fine to keep. When his pole bent and doubled over, he knew something huge was on the other end. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully worked the fish in and finally lifted it, exhausted from the lake.   It was the largest fish he had ever seen, a bass. In the moonlight, the boy and his father looked at the hand some fish. Then the father lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 10 PM--two hours before the bass season officially opened. He looked at the fish, then at the boy. “You’ll have to put it back, son,” he said. “Dad,” the boy cried. “There will be other fish,” his father said. “Not as big as this one,” the boy protested. The boy looked around the lake… He looked again at his father. Even though no one had seen them, nor could anyone ever know what time he caught the fish, the boy could tell by his ...

“Sinister” is the almost exact translation in Latin for “left.”  The left hand or side is associated with weakness, evil and the feminine. Gauche is French for “right” and is related the words gawky and to gawk. Navelo is Russian for left. Navelo also means surreptitious. Mancino , Italian for left, also means deceitful. The etymology of the world left is lyft , Anglo-Saxon for weak or worthless. What is a left –handed compliment but one whose real meaning is disguised?

“At the opera in Milan with my daughter and me, Needleman leaned out of his box   and fell into the orchestra pit.   Too proud to admit it was a mistake, he attended the opera every night for a month and repeated each time…” –Woody Allen We go to great lengths to not be wrong, even when it is evident to everyone else that we are.

"Israel has its doves and its hawks, but few are just clay pigeons."  - Rabbi Saul Teplitz Israeli mentality is generally not wishy-washy.  People are opinionated and stand on either the right or left.  Indifference is nonexistent.

A Dutch missionary came back to Holland as the Second World War was beginning.  His friends said to him, "Tell us what we should do about the Jews.  Should we help and harbor them?  Should we turn them in?  Should we do nothing?" He said to them, "I cannot tell you what to do.  I can only tell you who you are.  Once you know who you are, you will know what to do." We must always know the right thing.

“Unfortunately, the average private citizen is long on principle and short on principal.” – Stanley J. Lieberman

Human fallibility being what it is, victory and truth do not always go together. Therefore, If you have to always win, you can't always be true. -Rebbe Nachman, The Empty Chair

“An old man sat at a crossroads.   A passerby approached and asked him how to get to the city.   The old man replied, “Both ways lead to the same destination.   That way,” he pointed, “begins in briars but ends in a smooth path.   The other way begins in smooth path but ends in briars.   Now choose.” “So it is with us: there are some who only know peace but will come to pain in the end.   Others suffer now but their end is comfort.”        - Sifre D'varim, Re'eh 53 LIfe is not immediate.  It is about the long run.  We must always opt for the right choice for God's sake, and ours.

  “Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.”   - Abraham Lincoln It is absolutely vital that we pursue the right path, not the one others have laid for us, and certainly not the ones our peers urge us to follow.

“A young rabbi in New York was distressed because he was being unfairly attacked by certain extremists.   He visited the Rav, our great and revered mentor Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, to consult with him.   It was the week that we read the portion Vayetse. The Rav listened to him and made one simple comment on the verse, “And Jacob went ledarkho (on his way) and he was met by the angels of God.”  The Rav told him: If you will go on your way, in the way you are convinced is correct, looking neither to the left nor right, then you will indeed meet the angels of God.  Ignore the extremes and do what is right.”   - Rabbi Norman Lamm

"..."The Lord is merciful.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures."  The problem is I can't get up."  - Woody Allen, Without Feathers There are times when everything goes right and we are not satisfied.  In the course of a day if we are not diagnosed with cancer or get into a terrible collision, or develop a debilitating head-ace; if our children are not run over and no one close to us suffers; if the house does not burn down and if we have a mouth that can speak; if the legs still work and someone cares about us, life cannot be that dreadful.  Can it?

"A fan club is a group of people who remind an actor he's not alone in the way he feels about himself." ~ Unknown Jewish tradition demands validation from us.  That is to say, we are always supposed to question our words and actions to determine if they are in consonance with what God wants.  Believing that we are right is not good enough.

"While I was on my way home one afternoon, a black lady who had been our maid got on. I had been taught that when a lady gets on a bus, you offer your seat. So I gave her mine , but some kids started snickering and whispering as though I had done something really dumb. When I got home, I told this to Mom who was fixing dinner at the long table in the kitchen. She stopped what she was doing, sat me down opposite her in the breakfast nook, and told me that what I'd done was right. Then she said: "You have to understand that you're one of the luckiest people in the world. You were born white, you were born Protestant, and you were born American. That means you'll be spared prejudices that a lot of other people have to put up with. But always remember: You had nothing to do with the fact that you were born that way. It gives you no right to look down on anybody who wasn't. No matter what the other children say, you must never look down on anybody....