Mussar/Soul Traits/Character
This year I turned seventy. I’ve never been shy about my age. Never one of those- it’s the 31st anniversary of my 39th birthday kind of people. I know too many wonderful people who died way too young to not appreciate the blessing of each year, each day! So I…
160. “A reporter asked Albert Einstein, “Why is it that we can make atomic bombs, but we can’t make peace?” Einstein replied, “It is because politics is much more complicated than atomic physics.””- quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer Book Review section, June 26, 1983, p. 3 When I was young…
Have you found this to be true? Ironically it is sometimes easier to pray when life is difficult than to remember God when life is good. In this week’s Torah portion, Ekev, Moses prepares the Israelites for a future they have never known. They have spent forty years in the…
The Israelites stand poised to enter the promised land. Moses appoints representatives from each tribe to scout the land and assess the situation. Forty days later the spies return with a discouraging report. Ten of the twelve describe fortified towns inhabited by powerful giants. Their famous conclusion is…
126. “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” (Deuteronomy 16:20) Of all the values in Judaism- kindness, generosity, compassion. Justice is preeminent. Without a foundation of justice, society cannot endure. I love the way Ahad HaAm expresses it- so powerful- “it was their all. . . .(it) is beauty, goodness, wisdom, truth.” …
116. “But a man’s own safety is a god that sometimes makes very grim demands.”- George Eliot, Romola, p. 512 George Eliot is right. Many things about which we think- “I could/would never do that,” suddenly become feasible when we feel threatened. Or, when there is a threat to someone…
Our Mussar class recently studied the very challenging, well, challenging to me, at least, middah of Emunah- faith. Thank goodness our tradition focuses much more on action than on belief. We have broad latitude about how we see God, how we connect with God, how we question God. The emphasis…
Devarim: Just Say Yes Well, it’s the beginning of the end. No, not in our culture, though you might feel that way. I mean in our weekly Torah reading. This week we read Parshat Devarim, the first selection in the 5th and final book of the Torah, Deuteronomy. The entire…
101. Though joy is better than sorrow, Joy is not great; Peace is great, strength is great Not for joy the stars burn Not for joy the vulture Spreads her gray sails on the air Over the mountain; Not for joy the worn mountain Stands, while the years like water…
91. “Religion- the relatively modest dogma that God is not mad.”- Salvador de Madariaga Though sometimes it seems that way, doesn’t it. The incomprehensible variety of the creation, not to mention the inexplicable challenges life brings, both could lead us to question the sanity of the Creator. Without descending into…