A Soulful Journey

Rabbi Akiva had a daughter, and Chaldean astrologers told him that on the same day that she enters the wedding canopy, a snake will bite her and she will die. She was very worried about this. On that day, her wedding day, she took the ornamental pin from her hair and stuck it into a hole in the wall for safekeeping, and it happened that it entered directly into the eye of the snake. In the morning, when she took the pin, the snake was pulled and came out with it. Her father Rabbi Akiva said to her: What did you do to merit being saved from the snake? She told him: In the evening a poor person came and knocked on the door, and everyone was preoccupied with the feast and nobody heard him. I stood and took the portion that you had given me and gave it to him. Rabbi Akiva said to her: You performed a mitzva, and you were saved i...

"When the great minds of the day seek to cater to the masses, the whole order collapses" (Dt. Rabbah, Ch 1; Yalkut Torah, Remez 802).     The Midrash then goes on to recount a fable about the quarrel of the snake's head and its tail. The tail complains, "Why should you always lead. Let me lead." The head shrugs. "Sure, go ahead. You lead." So the tail takes the lead and runs into rocks and thorn-bushes, bruising the entire body. Murray Stadtmauer

As you read the following story, as yourself: Is this a good story or bad one? Russell Baker decided this would be a "good idea" spring.  It was a time of love, crocuses, life, and planting.  He put in a fish pond in his back yard.  Russell sat and watched as his 12 fish swam lazily around.  He passed nay evening like that.  About a week later the water beams dark so he put in a filter.  Again, he sat and watched as the fish turned lazily about.  He fed them and watched their mouths pucker and such in mouthfuls of food.  About a week passed before the water began to grow cloudy again.  So Russell brought a frog to his pond.  The frog spat water and was a lovely fountain.  The frog sat on top of a brick.  It looked real and spat rings of water into the fish pond.  But mosquitoes gathered so Russell sprayed.  Then the frog turned a dark chartreuse.  It looked diseased.  So Russell bought water lilies and the ...