A Soulful Journey

When Franz Rosenzweig died, his long-time intellectual peer, Martin Buber, gave the eulogy.   Later, after a long-winded oration, Buber was approached to be told that about the only thing he said that was true was that we shall miss him.  – Rabbi Jonathan Magonet People always know when exaggeration trumps truth.

“Souls are flaming threads drawn below from on high, their vitality stemming constantly from their Source.”   - Eliahu de Vidas, Kabbalist

When Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan she was dining with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and recalled earlier days.  She said, “We were having dinner and I said, “Lady Thatcher, I’m so confused.  The president wants to make a deal with me, but he wants to just use me against the prime minister.  The prime minister wants to make a deal with me, but he just wants to use me against the president.  With whom do I go?” And she said: “Neither.  When my opponents do that, I just let them go at each other.”  I thought this was very good advice, and I remained discreet.  And they destroyed each other.” – New York Times Magazine. Sometimes the best path is to sit back and watch how events unfold.  Perhaps the hand of God is visible there.

Robert Oppenheim, the father of the atomic bomb, was queried by a congressional committee, “Is there a defense against this dreadful weapon?”   “Yes, there is, “ he answered “peace.”  

Once upon a time, the Baal Shem Tov sent a group of his students on an important mission to help a needy couple in another town.  When they returned, he was not so interested in hearing about their mission as about the minutiae of their trip—what they ate, where the slept, how they traveled, etc.   They didn't understand the relevance of these details, but he insisted on hearing everything. When they related that one morning they sat down near a brook and drank some water there, his face lit up and he said, "That water was waiting from the beginning of time for someone to come and make a blessing over it and drink it."   -Simon Jacobson

Rabbi Yehudah stated, “In the future the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring the Evil Inclination (yetser ha-ra) and slay it in the presence of the righteous and wicked.  To the righteous, the Evil Inclination will appear as a massive mountain, while to the wicked it will look like a strand of hair, easily snapped. Both groups will weep. The righteous will wonderRight, ‘How were we able to climb such a high mountain?’   The wicked will cry, 'How is it that we were not able to overcome this insignificant filament?”'   -Sukkah 52

A Hadassah president died.  She was taken to hell, by mistake.  God then asked the Satan to forward the woman but he responded, “Wait a little bit. This woman, a lifelong member of Ort as well as Hadassah is in the middle of a fundraising campaign for air conditioning." Everyone has their place.  Everyone has their hour.  Cherish them.