"It is not what one says, but rather what one does, that makes all the difference in the world." Pirke Avot 1:17In the wake of yet another mass shooting in America - this time at a high school in Parkland, FL - we must not only grieve with the families of those who lost loved ones, but demand action from our elected officials. Words are not enough.
Showing posts with label Quote of the week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quote of the week. Show all posts
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Quote of the Week: What One Does
Monday, June 5, 2017
Quote of the Week: God is Everywhere
"God is everywhere save in arrogance." -Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Quote of the Week: Teamwork
One of my boss' favorite phrases is "teamwork makes the dream work." I don't know where she picked it up and if it makes you groan at how corny it sounds, you are not alone. Yet, as we prepare to read Parsha Yitro this weekend, I can't help thinking that it is extremely relevant.
In this portion, Moses' father-in-law, Yitro (or Jethro) visits the newly-freed Israelites in the desert and almost immediately notices the inefficiency of this new nation. All issues in need of arbitration are brought to Moses, who personally hands down judgments on all the people's problems. Seeing that this is tiring for both Moses and the people waiting patiently for their turn to be heard, Yitro proposes a solution: teamwork. Moses chose trusted leaders in the community to hear cases and make judgments for the people's minor issues, leaving only a "major matter" (Exodus 18:22) for Moses to personally hear. By delegating the work in this way, Yitro lessened the burden for Moses and shortened the wait time for the people, so that they would not be overwhelmed.
Where the people had once spent entire days waiting to deliberate their problems, they could now be heard much more quickly, leaving time for other important matters, like finding food and water, protecting themselves from enemies, and worshiping God. We learn from this portion that asking for help and relying on others is not a sign of weakness, but one of strength and trust necessary for the furtherance of any nation and betterment of mankind.
In this portion, Moses' father-in-law, Yitro (or Jethro) visits the newly-freed Israelites in the desert and almost immediately notices the inefficiency of this new nation. All issues in need of arbitration are brought to Moses, who personally hands down judgments on all the people's problems. Seeing that this is tiring for both Moses and the people waiting patiently for their turn to be heard, Yitro proposes a solution: teamwork. Moses chose trusted leaders in the community to hear cases and make judgments for the people's minor issues, leaving only a "major matter" (Exodus 18:22) for Moses to personally hear. By delegating the work in this way, Yitro lessened the burden for Moses and shortened the wait time for the people, so that they would not be overwhelmed.
Where the people had once spent entire days waiting to deliberate their problems, they could now be heard much more quickly, leaving time for other important matters, like finding food and water, protecting themselves from enemies, and worshiping God. We learn from this portion that asking for help and relying on others is not a sign of weakness, but one of strength and trust necessary for the furtherance of any nation and betterment of mankind.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Quote of the Week: Tu B'Shevat
Friday night is Tu B'Shevat, a minor Jewish holiday celebrating the New Year of the Trees. In that spirit, I would like to take a moment to appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds us every day.This weekend, we will read Parsha Beshalach, in which God finally leads the Israelites out of Egypt. There is danger awaiting us on this new journey, not only the Philistines and other people, but from the unforgiving desert wilderness. In Beshalach, we come up against nature again and again - our escape route is blocked by the Red Sea, scarce water is undrinkably bitter, then there is no water at all, and the ground is barren with no food to sustain us on our long trek.
In the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel:
"Monotheism in teaching that God is the Creator, that nature and man are both fellow-creatures of God, redeemed man from exclusive allegiance to nature. The earth is our sister, not our mother." -Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not AloneIf the earth is our sister, she certainly acts like it in this parsha. Sometimes we don't get along with our siblings; we refuse to share our toys and withhold things from them. Sometimes we need a gentle reminder from our parents to play nicely, call our siblings more often, and look out for one another. In Beshalach, nature (with some prompting from God) takes care of us. The sea parts safely, bitter water becomes sweet, food appears on the ground like dew, and water flows freely from a rock.
On Tu B'Shevat, how can we return the favor? Aside from taking a moment to appreciate our surroundings and enjoying this unseasonably warm weather, here are some other ways to celebrate the holiday:
- Clean up your neighborhood - Next time you see a discarded food wrapper on the sidewalk, pick it up and throw it away. Or call your local Parks Department to volunteer to clean up a neighborhood park.
- Plant a tree in Israel - You can donate online to the Jewish National Fund to plant a tree in honor of a special occasion or in memory of a loved one.
- Recycle - If you don't recycle at home or at work, look into recycling centers near you or talk to your coworkers about instituting a recycling program in your office. When I lived in an apartment complex that didn't recycle, I drove my cans, bottles, and paper to a recycling center 20 minutes away.
- Composting - Try composting at home; the EPA has a handy guide to get your started. You can do it in your backyard or, if you're like me and don't have any outdoor space of your own, try a smaller composting container inside. I have a friend who has an indoor compost - it's a super-cute ceramic jar on her kitchen counter and it doesn't smell or anything.
However you celebrate, chag sameach; have a happy Tu B'Shevat!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Quote of the Week: I wish I was Jewish
This semester for my field placement at JPDS, I am finally being forced to learn Hebrew in a real way. The third, fourth, and fifth graders know more Hebrew than I do, which makes it hard for me to help them with their Hebrew translations for Judaic Studies, but there are two new students to the school this year who have no Hebrew background, so I have volunteered to tutor them in the aleph-bet.
As an aside, I should mention that, while this is a Jewish Day School, it is also a community day school and they have a number of non-Jewish students enrolled (whether because it is better than their public school options, within walking distance of their homes, or any other reason that a parent would enroll their child in a private school). These two students - a boy and a girl - are not Jewish, so the Hebrew is new and hard for them, but they are so focused on learning it. Time for me to channel their drive, dust off my Rosetta Stone, and give Hebrew another try myself!
During our first lesson today, we reviewed the difference between בּ (a "b" sound) and ב (a "v" sound) and between ד (a "d" sound) and ר (an "r" sound), coupled with different vowels to make different sounds, like "da-beh" or "reh-va." Aside from the Hebrew, I also wound up teaching them about what it means to be Jewish. They were both shocked that I am not from Israel, have no family in Israel, and am not fluent in Hebrew. "But I thought you were Jewish!" the boy said with obvious confusion. We had a quick discussion about what it means to be Jewish, but the duality of Judaism as a people and a religion was a question that took me over a year to understand and three years later, I am still not good at articulating an answer. If the history of the Jewish people has taught us anything, it is that there is no easy answer to that question.
Later on in Judaic Studies, while my female student struggled determinedly to translate Parsha Vayetse - eyes flicking back and forth between the text and her vocabulary sheet to find סֻלָּם and scribble "ladder" above the Hebrew, circling the prefix and suffix on the word וְרֹאשׁוֹ in order to find the root meaning "head" in the middle of the word - she said in frustration, "I wish I was Jewish! Then I would already know Hebrew." If only being Jewish came with Hebrew proficiency that could be downloaded into your brain! Lacking that, we will have to stumble through the language together.
As an aside, I should mention that, while this is a Jewish Day School, it is also a community day school and they have a number of non-Jewish students enrolled (whether because it is better than their public school options, within walking distance of their homes, or any other reason that a parent would enroll their child in a private school). These two students - a boy and a girl - are not Jewish, so the Hebrew is new and hard for them, but they are so focused on learning it. Time for me to channel their drive, dust off my Rosetta Stone, and give Hebrew another try myself!
During our first lesson today, we reviewed the difference between בּ (a "b" sound) and ב (a "v" sound) and between ד (a "d" sound) and ר (an "r" sound), coupled with different vowels to make different sounds, like "da-beh" or "reh-va." Aside from the Hebrew, I also wound up teaching them about what it means to be Jewish. They were both shocked that I am not from Israel, have no family in Israel, and am not fluent in Hebrew. "But I thought you were Jewish!" the boy said with obvious confusion. We had a quick discussion about what it means to be Jewish, but the duality of Judaism as a people and a religion was a question that took me over a year to understand and three years later, I am still not good at articulating an answer. If the history of the Jewish people has taught us anything, it is that there is no easy answer to that question.
Later on in Judaic Studies, while my female student struggled determinedly to translate Parsha Vayetse - eyes flicking back and forth between the text and her vocabulary sheet to find סֻלָּם and scribble "ladder" above the Hebrew, circling the prefix and suffix on the word וְרֹאשׁוֹ in order to find the root meaning "head" in the middle of the word - she said in frustration, "I wish I was Jewish! Then I would already know Hebrew." If only being Jewish came with Hebrew proficiency that could be downloaded into your brain! Lacking that, we will have to stumble through the language together.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Quote of the Week: Anti-Semitism
In May, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum interviewed Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks for their Voices on Antisemitism podcast series. His comments seem especially appropriate in the current global climate.
"People trying to understand antisemitism study Jews, but Jews are always only the objects of antisemitism, they are never the cause of antisemitism. And the result is that you find antisemitism in countries like Japan that have no Jews at all. So when you try and understand antisemitism by looking at Jews you're looking in the wrong place. To understand antisemitism you have to learn to understand antisemites."Listen to the entire insightful interview with Rabbi Sacks here and subscribe to future USHMM podcasts for free on iTunes.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Quote of the Week: Improve the World
US Capitol Grounds Memorial Tree
Aesculus Hippocastanum (Horse Chestnut)
Sponsored by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to honor Anne Frank
"No one need wait; start right now to improve the world"
You may remember in April that I was very excited about the upcoming planting of a sapling from Anne Frank's chestnut tree outside of the Capitol. Well, last week I moved to DC to begin a brand new graduate school program at George Washington University (more on that later) and celebrated my first full week in the city by walking down the Mall to find Anne Frank's tree.
There are a lot of trees across the west lawn of the Capitol, so if you are looking for the Anne Frank tree, go up to the steps of the Capitol and follow the path south. The tree will be on your left, right about where the circled tree is here:
I love the quote that they have chosen to accompany this tree, though I think it is a paraphrasing of this longer Anne Frank quote: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." It seems especially appropriate in this location. The city seems constantly charged with a sense of purpose, perhaps because of its transient nature, which is inevitable in a city built around our ever-changing politics. Even when our government is at a near standstill, the people are active. DC is filled with long-time residents, newcomers, students, and visitors, who use every moment to learn and grow and improve the world - and the world needs a lot of improvements. Here are some recent issues that Congress has failed to make any better:
- Gun control, because we should have said #notonemore a long time ago
- Student loan debt, so Millenials can have a life someday
- Raising the minimum wage, so that everyone can make enough to live
- Extending unemployment insurance, because the job market is still hard
- Funding the Department of Transportation, so you can get from point A to point B without the road or bridge crumbling beneath you
- Immigration reform, because the system is broken
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Quote of the Week: Chestnut Tree
"Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs, from my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy." -Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, February 23, 1944Fourteen years ago, right around the time that I walked away from Lutheranism, I read The Diary of a Young Girl for a study hall class and tried (but failed) to hide my tears when I came to the end of it. I remember following the cut-it-down-don't-cut-it-down debate of 2007 over Anne Frank's dying chestnut tree with a vested interest and being saddened to learn in 2010 (just as I was beginning the official conversion process to become Jewish) that it had finally fallen down.
Since then, saplings from Anne Frank's tree have been planted all over the world and now, the tree is coming to Washington, DC! I am so excited!
 |
| Anne Frank's Tree outside the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, circa 2009 Image courtesy of The New York Times |
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Quote of the Week: Find Your Own Truth
This Quote of the Week comes from one of Matisyahu's "besht" songs: "Bal Shem Tov!"
Search heaven and the seven seas
The answer lies inside you
You know it won't come easy
You've got to find your own truth.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Quote of the Week: Problem-Solving
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." -Albert EinsteinWelcome to week two of the government shutdown. Our congressmen continue to be terrible at doing their jobs, digging their heels in on the policies and views that have gotten us into this mess in the first place. As the markets dive and the larger debt ceiling debate looms, I hope our elected officials will heed Einstein's advice and let go of their old thinking to find a solution and move us forward.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Heschel in Short: Man Is Not Alone
Man Is Not Alone by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Heschel's point: God is ineffable, indescribable, incomprehensible, and un-prove-able, but I can feel that God is here, there, and everywhere. I will spend this whole book trying to describe the feeling of God's presence to you. I'm sure you've felt it too. It is brief, like a dream you can't quite remember upon waking, but it leaves you with a feeling of certainty that you are not alone in the universe. Hold onto that feeling when the modern everyday doubt and skepticism start to set in. Believing in God is not logical by scientific standards, but when you look at the wonders of the world, it is illogical to think that there is not some power out there at work.
Select Quotes from Man Is Not Alone
"When in doubt, we raise questions; when in wonder, we do not even know how to ask a question."
"There are more songs in our souls than the tongue is able to utter."
"While the ineffable is a term of negation indicating a limitation of expression, its content is intensely affirmative, denoting an allusiveness to something meaningful, for which we possess no means of expression."
"The ineffable is there before we form an idea of it."
"Science extends rather than limits the scope of the ineffable, and our radical amazement is enhanced rather than reduced by the advancement of knowledge."
"With information we are alone; in appreciation we are with all things."
"There is so much more meaning in reality than my soul can take in!" I like this so much, it has already been one of my Quotes of the Week!
"Faith is not a product of our will. It occurs without intention, without will."
"Thus, awareness of God does not come by degrees: from timidity to intellectual temerity; from guesswork, reluctance, to certainty; it is not a decision reached at the crossroads of doubt. It comes when, drifting in the wilderness, having gone astray, we suddenly behold the immutable polar star." Here, Heschel captures perfectly (and much better-said) my long path to Judaism.
"But there is no man who is not shaken for an instant by the eternal."
"In trying to prove or disprove the existence of God, we are like dancing puppets which, incapable of knowing for what end and how they are capable of dancing, presuming to judge about whether or not anyone is pulling the strings."
"In sensing the spiritual dimension of all being, we become aware of the absolute reality of the divine."
"Faith is the fruit of a seed planted in the depth of a lifetime."
"The greatest obstacle to faith is the inclination to be content with half-truths and half-realities."
"God is not an explanation of the world's enigmas or a guarantee for our salvation. He is an eternal challenge, an urgent demand. He is not a problem to be solved but a question addressed to us as individuals, as nations, as mankind."
"...to have faith is to abide rationally outside, while spiritually within, the mystery."
"It is extremely easy to be cynical."
"God begins where words end." If you couldn't tell so far from these excerpts, Heschel often seems to struggle with words to express his complex thoughts about God. His struggle to find language that can capture the uncapturable creates beautifully poetic literature.
"We were never told: 'Hear, O Israel, God is perfect!' It is an attribution which is strikingly absent in both the biblical and rabbinic literature."
"It is suspiciously easier to feel one with nature than to feel one with every man: with the savage, with the leper, with the slave."
"For the cardinal question is not what is the law that would explain the interaction of phenomena in the universe, but why is there a law, a universe at all."
"Divine is a message that discloses unity where we see diversity, that discloses peace when we are involved in discord. God is He who holds our fitful lives together"
"God means: No one is ever alone; the essence of the temporal is the eternal; the moment is an image of eternity in an infinite mosaic."
"To worldly ethics one human being is less than two human beings, to the religious mind if a man has caused a single soul to perish, it is as though he had caused a whole world to perish, and if he has saved a single soul, it is as though he had saved a whole world."
"...unity is that which the uninterrupted advance of knowledge and experience leads us to, whether or not we are consciously striving for it."
"Monotheism in teaching that God is the Creator, that nature and man are both fellow-creatures of God, redeemed man from exclusive allegiance to nature. The earth is our sister, not our mother."
"Our trust in God is God (Deuteronomy Rabba 1, 10)."
"A man entirely unconcerned with his self is dead; a man exclusively concerned with his self is a beast."
"The shift from the animal to the human dimension takes place when, as a result of various events, such as observing other people's suffering, falling in love or by being morally educated, he begins to acknowledge the other selves as ends, to respond to their needs even regardless of personal expediency."
"Man reaches a new vertical dimension, the dimension of the holy, when he grows beyond his self-interests, when that which is of interest to others becomes vital to him"
"The self, the fellow-man and the dimension of the holy are the three dimensions of a mature human concern."
"If life is holy, as we believe it is, then self-regard is that which maintains the holy. Regard for the self becomes only a vice by association: when associated with complete or partial disregard for other selves. Thus the moral task is not how to disregard one's own self but how to discover and be attentive to another self."
"The statement: 'Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself,' concludes with the words: 'I am the Lord.' It is this conclusion that contains the ultimate reason for that solemn command. True and timeless is that command; but if God were not God, there would be no truth, no timelessness and no such command."
"Zeus is passionately interested in pretty female deities and becomes inflamed with rage against those who incite his jealousy. The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans." This made me laugh out loud on the train when I read it.
"God is everywhere save in arrogance."
"We are attached to two centers: to the focus of our self and to the focus of God. Driven by two forces, we have both the impulse to acquire, to enjoy, to possess and the urge to respond, to yield, to give."
"His concern is wrapt in the independence of the universe which is so well arranged that we are often led to believe that there is no need for occasional repairs. Our perception, therefore, is like listening to a foreign tongue: we perceive the sounds, but miss the meanings."
"The mark of Cain on the face of man has come to overshadow the likeness of God. There has never been so much distress, agony and terror."
"To have no faith is callousness, to have undiscerning faith is superstition."
"evaluating faith in terms of reason is like trying to understand love as a syllogism and beauty as an algebraic equation."
"Faith without reason is mute; reason without faith is deaf."
"To have faith means to justify God's faith in man."
"As we have seen, religion is not a feeling for something that is, but an answer to Him who is asking us to live in a certain way. It is in its very origin a consciousness of duty, of being committed to higher ends; a realization that life is not only man's but also God's sphere of interest."
"Judaism insists upon establishing a unity of faith and creed, of piety and Halacha, of devotion and deed. Faith is but a seed, while the deed is its growth or decay." The idea that faith is not enough, that action is required in addition to faith in almost all cases, is one of my favorite things about Judaism.
"Yet, reason is a lonely stranger in the soul, while the irrational forces feel at home and are always in the majority."
"Animals are content when their needs are satisfied; man insists not only on being satisfied but also on being able to satisfy, on being a need not only on having needs. Personal needs come and go, but one anxiety remains: Am I needed?"
"...the essence of man is not in what he is, but in what he is able to be."
"Our existence seesaws between animality and divinity, between that which is more and that which is less than humanity"
"Man is 'a little lower than the angels' (Psalm 8:5) and a little higher than beasts. Like a pendulum he swings to and fro under the combined action of gravity and momentum, of the gravitation of selfishness and the momentum of the divine"
"There is only one way to define Jewish religion. It is the awareness of God's interest in man, the awareness of a covenant, of a responsibility that lies on Him as well as on us."
"Some Greeks said: 'Passion is a god, Eros'; Buddhists say: 'Desire is evil.' To the Jewish mind, being neither enticed nor horrified by the powers of passion, desires are neither benign nor pernicious but, like fire, they do not agree with straw. They should be neither quenched nor supplied with fuel. Rather than worship fire and be consumed by it, we should let a light come out of the flames. Needs are spiritual opportunities."
"Eternity is not perpetual future but perpetual presence. He has planted in us the seed of eternal life. The world to come is not only a hereafter but also a herenow."
"This is the meaning of existence: To reconcile liberty with service, the passing with the lasting, to weave the threads of temporality into the fabric of eternity."
Heschel's point: God is ineffable, indescribable, incomprehensible, and un-prove-able, but I can feel that God is here, there, and everywhere. I will spend this whole book trying to describe the feeling of God's presence to you. I'm sure you've felt it too. It is brief, like a dream you can't quite remember upon waking, but it leaves you with a feeling of certainty that you are not alone in the universe. Hold onto that feeling when the modern everyday doubt and skepticism start to set in. Believing in God is not logical by scientific standards, but when you look at the wonders of the world, it is illogical to think that there is not some power out there at work.
Select Quotes from Man Is Not Alone
"When in doubt, we raise questions; when in wonder, we do not even know how to ask a question."
"There are more songs in our souls than the tongue is able to utter."
"While the ineffable is a term of negation indicating a limitation of expression, its content is intensely affirmative, denoting an allusiveness to something meaningful, for which we possess no means of expression."
"The ineffable is there before we form an idea of it."
"Science extends rather than limits the scope of the ineffable, and our radical amazement is enhanced rather than reduced by the advancement of knowledge."
"With information we are alone; in appreciation we are with all things."
"There is so much more meaning in reality than my soul can take in!" I like this so much, it has already been one of my Quotes of the Week!
"Faith is not a product of our will. It occurs without intention, without will."
"Thus, awareness of God does not come by degrees: from timidity to intellectual temerity; from guesswork, reluctance, to certainty; it is not a decision reached at the crossroads of doubt. It comes when, drifting in the wilderness, having gone astray, we suddenly behold the immutable polar star." Here, Heschel captures perfectly (and much better-said) my long path to Judaism.
"But there is no man who is not shaken for an instant by the eternal."
"In trying to prove or disprove the existence of God, we are like dancing puppets which, incapable of knowing for what end and how they are capable of dancing, presuming to judge about whether or not anyone is pulling the strings."
"In sensing the spiritual dimension of all being, we become aware of the absolute reality of the divine."
"Faith is the fruit of a seed planted in the depth of a lifetime."
"The greatest obstacle to faith is the inclination to be content with half-truths and half-realities."
"God is not an explanation of the world's enigmas or a guarantee for our salvation. He is an eternal challenge, an urgent demand. He is not a problem to be solved but a question addressed to us as individuals, as nations, as mankind."
"...to have faith is to abide rationally outside, while spiritually within, the mystery."
"It is extremely easy to be cynical."
"God begins where words end." If you couldn't tell so far from these excerpts, Heschel often seems to struggle with words to express his complex thoughts about God. His struggle to find language that can capture the uncapturable creates beautifully poetic literature.
"We were never told: 'Hear, O Israel, God is perfect!' It is an attribution which is strikingly absent in both the biblical and rabbinic literature."
"It is suspiciously easier to feel one with nature than to feel one with every man: with the savage, with the leper, with the slave."
"For the cardinal question is not what is the law that would explain the interaction of phenomena in the universe, but why is there a law, a universe at all."
"Divine is a message that discloses unity where we see diversity, that discloses peace when we are involved in discord. God is He who holds our fitful lives together"
"God means: No one is ever alone; the essence of the temporal is the eternal; the moment is an image of eternity in an infinite mosaic."
"To worldly ethics one human being is less than two human beings, to the religious mind if a man has caused a single soul to perish, it is as though he had caused a whole world to perish, and if he has saved a single soul, it is as though he had saved a whole world."
"...unity is that which the uninterrupted advance of knowledge and experience leads us to, whether or not we are consciously striving for it."
"Monotheism in teaching that God is the Creator, that nature and man are both fellow-creatures of God, redeemed man from exclusive allegiance to nature. The earth is our sister, not our mother."
"Our trust in God is God (Deuteronomy Rabba 1, 10)."
"A man entirely unconcerned with his self is dead; a man exclusively concerned with his self is a beast."
"The shift from the animal to the human dimension takes place when, as a result of various events, such as observing other people's suffering, falling in love or by being morally educated, he begins to acknowledge the other selves as ends, to respond to their needs even regardless of personal expediency."
"Man reaches a new vertical dimension, the dimension of the holy, when he grows beyond his self-interests, when that which is of interest to others becomes vital to him"
"The self, the fellow-man and the dimension of the holy are the three dimensions of a mature human concern."
"If life is holy, as we believe it is, then self-regard is that which maintains the holy. Regard for the self becomes only a vice by association: when associated with complete or partial disregard for other selves. Thus the moral task is not how to disregard one's own self but how to discover and be attentive to another self."
"The statement: 'Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself,' concludes with the words: 'I am the Lord.' It is this conclusion that contains the ultimate reason for that solemn command. True and timeless is that command; but if God were not God, there would be no truth, no timelessness and no such command."
"Zeus is passionately interested in pretty female deities and becomes inflamed with rage against those who incite his jealousy. The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans." This made me laugh out loud on the train when I read it.
"God is everywhere save in arrogance."
"We are attached to two centers: to the focus of our self and to the focus of God. Driven by two forces, we have both the impulse to acquire, to enjoy, to possess and the urge to respond, to yield, to give."
"His concern is wrapt in the independence of the universe which is so well arranged that we are often led to believe that there is no need for occasional repairs. Our perception, therefore, is like listening to a foreign tongue: we perceive the sounds, but miss the meanings."
"The mark of Cain on the face of man has come to overshadow the likeness of God. There has never been so much distress, agony and terror."
"To have no faith is callousness, to have undiscerning faith is superstition."
"evaluating faith in terms of reason is like trying to understand love as a syllogism and beauty as an algebraic equation."
"Faith without reason is mute; reason without faith is deaf."
"To have faith means to justify God's faith in man."
"As we have seen, religion is not a feeling for something that is, but an answer to Him who is asking us to live in a certain way. It is in its very origin a consciousness of duty, of being committed to higher ends; a realization that life is not only man's but also God's sphere of interest."
"Judaism insists upon establishing a unity of faith and creed, of piety and Halacha, of devotion and deed. Faith is but a seed, while the deed is its growth or decay." The idea that faith is not enough, that action is required in addition to faith in almost all cases, is one of my favorite things about Judaism.
"Yet, reason is a lonely stranger in the soul, while the irrational forces feel at home and are always in the majority."
"Animals are content when their needs are satisfied; man insists not only on being satisfied but also on being able to satisfy, on being a need not only on having needs. Personal needs come and go, but one anxiety remains: Am I needed?"
"...the essence of man is not in what he is, but in what he is able to be."
"Our existence seesaws between animality and divinity, between that which is more and that which is less than humanity"
"Man is 'a little lower than the angels' (Psalm 8:5) and a little higher than beasts. Like a pendulum he swings to and fro under the combined action of gravity and momentum, of the gravitation of selfishness and the momentum of the divine"
"There is only one way to define Jewish religion. It is the awareness of God's interest in man, the awareness of a covenant, of a responsibility that lies on Him as well as on us."
"Some Greeks said: 'Passion is a god, Eros'; Buddhists say: 'Desire is evil.' To the Jewish mind, being neither enticed nor horrified by the powers of passion, desires are neither benign nor pernicious but, like fire, they do not agree with straw. They should be neither quenched nor supplied with fuel. Rather than worship fire and be consumed by it, we should let a light come out of the flames. Needs are spiritual opportunities."
"Eternity is not perpetual future but perpetual presence. He has planted in us the seed of eternal life. The world to come is not only a hereafter but also a herenow."
"This is the meaning of existence: To reconcile liberty with service, the passing with the lasting, to weave the threads of temporality into the fabric of eternity."
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Quote of the Week: Faith
"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Quote of the Week: Whatever you are...
"Whatever you are, be a good one." -Abraham LincolnHere's to new beginnings. L'Shanah Tovah!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Quote of the Week: Religion is...
How do you define religion?"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." -Abraham Lincoln
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Quote of the Week: Love Your Neighbor
ואהבת לרעך כמוך זה כלל גדול בתורה
Ve'ahavta le'ray-ech camocha ze clal gadol ba'Torah
Love your neighbor as yourself is the whole Torah
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Quote of the Week: Meaning
"There is so much more meaning in reality than my soul can take in!" -Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Count the Omer: Day 30
Day 30: Gevurah sheb'Hod, Justice and Restraint within Humility
"He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice
to love goodness,
And to walk humbly with your God"
-Micah 6:8
Friday, April 19, 2013
Count the Omer: Day 25
Day 25: Netzach sheb'Netzach, Ambition within Endurance
"When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there." -Jim HensonWhat lasting impression do you hope to leave on the world?
Please pray for Boston this weekend as the police and FBI continue the manhunt for the suspected Boston Marathon bomber.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Count the Omer: Day 24
"Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance." -Virgil
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Quote of the Week: Happy birthday to me!
"He would say: At five years old [begin] Scripture; at ten years old [begin] Mishnah; at thirteen years old [one is obliged to observe] the commandments; at fifteen years old [begin] Gemara; at eighteen years old [enter] the marriage canopy; at twenty years old pursue [a livelihood]; at thirty years old one attains full strength..." Pirkei Avot 6:25
Today, I am right in the middle of finding a career and attaining full strength. Awesome!
Today, I am right in the middle of finding a career and attaining full strength. Awesome!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)