The Eternal Haggadah

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear --

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Shelly's poem "Ozymandias" describes a decayed statue with an inscription defying the ages to despair in face of it's might. It expresses sadness at those who thought they were powerful and important and would last forever, and yet their memory has crumbled to dust. Ozymandias is the Greek name of Ramses the Second, considered by historians to be the greatest of the Pharaohs of Egypt. He is suspected of being the Pharaoh of the Exodus. However, although many large monuments were built to him in his time, not enough information about him was preserved for us to be certain whether he presided at that historical event. If not for the Jewish record of it, the whole story might have been lost to history. The Jewish People were at that time only slaves, and built no statues, and yet they are still around today to tell their tale. It is even more ironic than Mark Twain makes it out to be in his essay "Concerning the Jews."

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Click here to read a series of newspaper articles covering the scandal at Agriprocessors meat plant in Posteville, Iowa that lead to the arrest of it's owner Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. The story has been featured in most major newsmedia, but never before have all the facts been laid out in one place.

Empowered

Work in progress:

I will do what I want, and not let anything get in my way. Even if it becomes difficult, I will not let that stop me. I will not let anything distract me from my goals. I will figure out a way to make it happen. I don't let circumstances control me. I know that I am in control. Just knowing that makes it all worth it.

Equinimity

The world is a garden.
It is a beautiful place, with many warm, cozy spots to sit and enjoy.
The many pains, frustrations, and hardships
are the nuances that make it endearing. They make life personal and detailed.
All the effort I put into it on account of these weeds make it mine.
I know it intimately, flaws and all, and
I smile knowingly when I come across one of them. Because nothing has gone wrong. All is as it should be.
These are the little challenges, little games, that it plays with me.
Sometimes I just stop and smell the roses,
and take in the grandness of it all.

Above Self

Rosh Hashana is about accepting G-d as King of the world, as we see from the three special blessings in the prayers for that day, known as Malchios, Zichronos and Shofros. Malchios, kingship is self-explanatory. Zichronos is about how He is in charge of everything, and Shofros is trumpeting His arrival as is done for a king. But what does that mean? Either He is or not, why do we have to do something? It means accepting Him as king of OUR world, the worldview we have in our minds. Normally, I am the king of my worldview. I am at the center of my life, because from where I'm standing, everything seems to revolve around me. (Just as in the theory of relativity, where the observer appears stationary, and all motion is relative to him or her.) I decide how I view the world and what place things have in it, whether they hold a position of importance or insignificance. I care more about what I think on a topic than what anyone else thinks. Who cares what other people think, anyway? Just do your own thing.

Such self-centeredness is ultimately self-defeating. If the value I ascribe to actions is based on my own perceptions alone, then they are only valuable inside my own head, not in the real world. Why should the rest of the world care about how important I think I am and how good I decide I've been? If the importance of my deeds is all in my head, then is it really worth anything, even to me? What is the purpose of doing what I want, if I am only doing it because of own arbitrary whim? As someone once said, "If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, then why does he keep doing it?"

"Like happiness, self-actualizing is an effect, the effect of meaning fulfillment. ...If he sets out to actualize himself rather than fulfill a meaning (out there in the world), self-actualization immediately loses its justification." (Victor Frankl, The Will to Meaning, p.38)

What does give my actions value then? How do I decide what is really important and good to do? Something is only good in the context of a purpose. The frying pan is good for frying in. It is bad for wearing as a hat. The baseball cap would probably be better for that, but it would not be so good for frying in. Is the frying pan good, or is the baseball cap good? It all depends on what purpose you have in mind.

On Rosh Hashana, we recall that the whole world was made by G-d and is governed by His rules. He had a purpose in mind when He created it. So it's really His view and His wishes that determine what is important, and whether something is fulfilling it's purpose or not. He is the King, not me.

Judaism is about the relationship between me and G-d. I do what He wants because He wants it and I love Him and want to make Him happy. It is an expression of the closenes between us that I do these things the way I know He likes them. It is a way of living in which I invite G-d into my life.

(If I admit that values are external to myself, then I will not use only my own intellect to decide what is good. I will seek the advice of experts, just as I would seek the advice of doctors to heal a disease, and not just insist that it ought to work the way that makes sense to me. This is because I acknowledge that it is an objective reality. These experts are the wise men of Israel in every generation, who are so qualified because they have studied to understand what the unadulterated will of G-d is, and have gained enough wisdom to decide accordingly, not merely according to their personal feelings on the issue.)

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.” (Albert Einstein ---From Mein Weltbild (1934). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 12)