A Soulful Journey

A tailor was having a terrible time making a living.  He went to his rabbi asking his advice.  After thoughtful consideration the rabbi said, “You need a partner.” "But I have had partners before and they have never worked out.” "Not that type of partner,” responded the rabbi. And so next year the tailor opened a new shop called HaShem and Shapiro. Business flourished.   Soon Shapiro decided to move the store from the Lower East Side to uptown. Along with the move, he changed the name to be more upscale as well, Lord and Taylor.    

 A grasshopper walks into a bar.  The bartender looks at him and says, "Hey, they named a drink after you!" "Really?" replies the grasshopper.  "There's a drink named Stan?" Clarity is always important.  Be precise.  Mean what you say.  Say what you mean.

"When Lenin's party was a fairly small splinter group in Russian socialism he named it the Bolshevik party, which in Russian means the majority power.  The opposition obligingly, and with awesome stupidity, accepted the designation of Mensheviks, the minority party.  In a decade and a half they were."  - Carl Sagan Be careful how/what you label, call, yourself as well as others.  You become what you say you are (as well as those others whom you label).

The Cunard Liner Queen Mary was originally to have been named Queen Victoria.  A Cunard official was dispatched to Buckingham Palace to inform King George V of the choice, and he nervously began to explain the matter to the king by saying that the company decided to name the imposing new vessel after the "the greatest of all the English Queens." The delighted king exclaimed, "Oh, my wife will be so pleased!"  The poor Cunard man did not have the courage to point out the king's mistake, so the ship was renamed. It is hard, when we are concerned about hurting the other fellow's feelings, to say what are meant to say.  Yet, softening the truth can sometimes lead to misleading statements.   We should always strive to be kind but never misleading.

  "As is his name, so is he."  -I Samuel 25:25 We live up, or down, to our names.  Choose well.

"If you are planting a tree, and someone comes and says, 'The Mashiach is coming!'— then plant!" No matter what reasonable people or foaming enthusiastic youths tell you: this messiah or that messiah is imminent— plant! The Mashiach is in no rush. When you have patted down the last clods of dirt, and watered your maple, your sycamore, your elm, he will still be wherever he is supposed to be, and more than happy to admire the sapling with you. Messiahs don't come to uproot things. If he wanted to, he could bundle Eretz Yisrael into a package and bring it to you, so you would not have to go wandering again through many lands. If he really is the Mashiach, this One everyone pesters you about, he can bring you Abraham, who will sit by your tree and dispense dates and the flat bread of hospitality, as in ancient days. So plant it now, firmly, water it well, whether or not there is a Messiah today or tomorrow.    - Avot deRabbi Natan B, Chapter 31, Danny Siegel

 Rava stated, "A bad spouse is like continual rain.  They both drip."  - yevamot 63b The Talmud, ever pithy and often humorous, skillfully declares appropriate behavior in any relationship.  Conversation should be up front, transparent and honest.