If your mind tells you that one thing is greater or more important than another, should you listen? It may be wrong. Which of these are longer and which is wider? Now measure.... our minds are rather overrated
If G-d appeared to you and asked you how long you would like to live, what would you say? 100 years? 130 years? Would you make any conditions like: but they need to be healthy years? The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, chose to bless one of his greatest followers Rabbi Yekusiel Liepler, with long life. The Chassid qualified the blessing and said that he was only willing to accept it if it would be infused with spiritual vitality for without that the years were empty and meaningless to him In Genesis Adam died at age 930, Noah was almost 500 when he started building the ark (not bad!) and Methuselah lived a world record of 969 years! Are you jealous? Would you like to live 900 years? What would you do with that time? We study and marvel at centenarians. We ask them for their secrets and diets, lifestyles and habits. I find it very intriguing that some of the greatest in our history like Amadeus Mozart or Rabbi Isaac Luria, the greatest Kabbalist of all ...
Isn’t it interesting that the Nationals lost all three of the games in their own stadium and won all four of the games in Astros Minute Maid Park? Traditionally it is easier to win a game on one’s home turf because you have the encouragement of the fans, the benefit of having slept in your own bed rather than traveling and staying at hotels and a much more familiar playing field, after all half of your annual games are played at home! Yet the Nationals won every game when they were away and lost every game at home (same with the Astros). We read this week about Noah’s Ark. Water raged around him and yet he and his family were safe and focused on rebuilding a kinder more generous world. So too each of us have the ability, even when we are away from our home familiarity and even when stormy waters seek to crash us and drown us from all sides, to build an ark of protection in which we can find clarity and vision for our futures. Congratulations for the Nationals win! Besides...
What happens when people need to choose between money and principles? Let's try the following theoretical experiment. Imagine you put Richard Dawkins, an outspoken atheist, in a sealed room all alone, with no one watching, no recording devices or CCTV's, and you offer him a deal: "I will give you ten million dollars if you will make the following statement right here and now: ‘G-d most certainly does exist, He created the universe, and atheism is a delusion.’ I will never tell anyone that you said it. There will be no record of this one off event. Just make the statement, get the cash, and it will all be forgotten." Does anyone have any doubt that Richard Dawkins would go for it and take the money? Can you think of any reason in the world for him to refuse that offer? Would he even hesitate to accept it? I think clearly not. Now imagine you put the rabbi he debated in that same sealed room, all alone, and made this offer: "Rabbi, you will receive te...