In Honor of Zion Ben Hannah
Last night I went with Zion and his family for the yarzheit (sorry about the spelling!) of the man Zion was named after (his father's brother). So what I learned this morning, and everything I learn throughout today will be in his honor. Today was the first day I woke up early to read 2 special "start of the day" prayers... and let me just tell you how fantastic my day has been going. I caught the bus the second I got to the bus stop... the train came as soon as my feet touched the platform... I got to work 15 minutes early (it only took me 1 hour!!) which is a record!! So I encourage all of you to start by saying the Sh'ma every morning and every evening, and see how your life changes... just try it out! And if you already do that... well then let me know and I will figure out something else for you to do :).
I have a story about last night (at the yarzheit)... I have gone to many yarzheits at the same shul over the years with Zion's family, and I always thought (wrongly) that the Rabbi was a bit cold towards women... but I must say that I think I judged him way too fast. Last night, he came into the kitchen (where the women were preparing food for the blessings afterwards), and he spent a good amount of time asking everyone how they were. While he didn't talk to me specifically (he was talking to everyone else in Hebrew), he smiled at me, and that was enough to get the warm feeling that he cared. So I think I am often too quick to judge people, and this is really disturbing to me as I may judge people wrongly and become overly opinionated without a strong foundation in that opinion. So this is my word of caution: be careful not to jump to a conclusion about a person you truly have not yet given a chance.
...which leads nicely to a bit I learned this morning... from Mishnah 13 "If the spirit of one's fellows is pleased with him, the spirit of the Omnipresent is pleased with him." The interesting thing to me about this mishnah, is that it actually gives a way to "measure" how well you are doing... and I think this is very reassuring to humans (haha or at least to me!!). However, at first glance, there seems to be a contradiction. Nobody can please everyone all of the time... and there surely cannot exist a person with no enemies... or even if the word enemies is too strong, everybody has somebody who does not think the highest of him / her. So it is explained that the only thing that is significant (and "desirable") is to be pleasing in the eyes of non-sinners. So if you don't think too hard, this makes sense... Hashem only cares if we please non-sinners... so please the "good" guys, right? However, how does one distinguish sinners from non-sinners? Is a sinner someone who sins most of the time? If you said yes, then what is most of the time? Or if someone sins at all, do we consider him a sinner? And if this is the case, then isn't everyone a sinner, because everyone (as far as I know) sins at one point or another. So then it becomes difficult (at least in my eyes) to figure out who is important to please and who is "undesirable" to please? I suppose one method is to go with gut instinct... who do you think Hashem would want you to please... but from my previous false conclusions I made about a Rabbi, I think it is fair to say that judging someone is perhaps not the way to go (at least for me)... Opinions? Answers? More questions? I want to hear from all of you!!! I know you guys are reading this, so post something!!!!
I have a story about last night (at the yarzheit)... I have gone to many yarzheits at the same shul over the years with Zion's family, and I always thought (wrongly) that the Rabbi was a bit cold towards women... but I must say that I think I judged him way too fast. Last night, he came into the kitchen (where the women were preparing food for the blessings afterwards), and he spent a good amount of time asking everyone how they were. While he didn't talk to me specifically (he was talking to everyone else in Hebrew), he smiled at me, and that was enough to get the warm feeling that he cared. So I think I am often too quick to judge people, and this is really disturbing to me as I may judge people wrongly and become overly opinionated without a strong foundation in that opinion. So this is my word of caution: be careful not to jump to a conclusion about a person you truly have not yet given a chance.
...which leads nicely to a bit I learned this morning... from Mishnah 13 "If the spirit of one's fellows is pleased with him, the spirit of the Omnipresent is pleased with him." The interesting thing to me about this mishnah, is that it actually gives a way to "measure" how well you are doing... and I think this is very reassuring to humans (haha or at least to me!!). However, at first glance, there seems to be a contradiction. Nobody can please everyone all of the time... and there surely cannot exist a person with no enemies... or even if the word enemies is too strong, everybody has somebody who does not think the highest of him / her. So it is explained that the only thing that is significant (and "desirable") is to be pleasing in the eyes of non-sinners. So if you don't think too hard, this makes sense... Hashem only cares if we please non-sinners... so please the "good" guys, right? However, how does one distinguish sinners from non-sinners? Is a sinner someone who sins most of the time? If you said yes, then what is most of the time? Or if someone sins at all, do we consider him a sinner? And if this is the case, then isn't everyone a sinner, because everyone (as far as I know) sins at one point or another. So then it becomes difficult (at least in my eyes) to figure out who is important to please and who is "undesirable" to please? I suppose one method is to go with gut instinct... who do you think Hashem would want you to please... but from my previous false conclusions I made about a Rabbi, I think it is fair to say that judging someone is perhaps not the way to go (at least for me)... Opinions? Answers? More questions? I want to hear from all of you!!! I know you guys are reading this, so post something!!!!
posted by Diana @ 6:50 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home