Unlike mice, maple trees and angels, who are content to be what and where
they are, the human being is constantly "on the go"--forever striving
to get somewhere, preferably somewhere where no one has been before.
The problem is, there's nowhere left to go.
Genesis 12:1-17:27 Week of November 5-11, 2000 
After devoting its first two sections--Bereishit and Noach--to the first 2000 years of human history, the Torah now begins its account of the origins of the people of Israel, which it traces to a Divine call received by Abraham in the 75th year of his life...
One morning, when Paul was 7, I received a stat call to the emergency room. Paul had collapsed at school, a paramedical squad was bringing him in. He was in full arrest, I was there the moment he arrived. The code team, with me directing, worked like a well-oiled machine. Everything went like clockwork, except that Paul wasn't coming back. I ordered more magnesium to be given. As CPR continued onward and almost an hour had passed, my thoughts began to run wild. "Oh G-d," I pleaded in my thoughts, "Please not this one. Not him."
Are Religious Jews Narrow Minded?
Generally, we are taught to resolve any paradox, as though they are messy creases in the bed sheet. As Nihls Bohr muttered in a rather pessimistic moment, “Science’s job is to reduce all mysteries to trivialities.” Personally, I don’t believe that this is what human intellect is all about. Human intellect in the raw is the small child giggling in delight as s/he turns a toy over and over, fascinated with the impossibility of what life has to offer. The sages say that G-d “plays with the Torah” just for this reason--delighting in its conflicting views, paradoxes and enigmas...
A strange thing has happened since my diagnosis several months ago. It seems that G-d’s voice has grown louder. The voice is not a voice, or at least not only a voice, but sensations and emotions, visions and dreams, a cascade of perspectives and comprehensions, and the simple beauty of a caf? filled with people, located on a busy, noisy, dusty street. A beauty that, when looked at through the cracks my illness has caused in the surety of my life, simply knocks your socks off. |
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