I was really glad to see the response to yesterday's blog post. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. No, there's nothing you can do about it. Due to the overwhelming chorus of cheers I heard about the post, I'll be making solar energy a corner-stone of my energy platform for years to come. Yes, once again, I'm being sarcastic.
In other news, today's Hayom Yom was a classic one indeed.
The individual's Avoda must be commensurate with his character and innate qualities. There may be one who can drill pearls or polish gems but works at baking bread (the analogy in the realm of Avoda may be easily understood). Though baking bread is a most necessary craft and occupation, this person is considered to have committed a "sin."
So what exactly does this mean? That's a good question. How does a person know what they're capable of? And what if they are indeed capable of something, but they hate doing it? The answer to the first question is, presumably, "Try as hard as you can, and wherever you reach, that's your potential." My question is, how do you know which direction to take in the first place? Supposing you should be a lawyer, but instead become a doctor...is your life a wasted one? And in Avoda, how do you know what to pursue? Everything? But then there's a strong possibility that you'll get nothing. And as for the second question, is there an answer? "Deal with it" isn't a very nice response, and, "You were created to suffer" also doesn't have a nice sound. What do you tell the guy (or gal)?
Any answers anybody?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Thoughts on Shtuff
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2 comments:
Dear Mr. Real Shliach: once again you have managed to fall into some fairly profound issues that, and I mean this sincerely, have troubled thinkers for centuries. A while back you wrote the story of a king and his prime minister who responded to everything by saying it was "all good." Finally, after losing part of his finger in an accident, the king couldn't take it anymore and had the prime minister locked up. But this event too proved to be "all good" for both of them. So given that the Master of the Universe is indeed the Master of everything in the Universe, one could argue that we are exactly where we should be, professionally, personally, and geographically. The logical end-point of this thinking would be to paralyze one i.e. why not just stay in bed, that's presumably where I'm supposed to be? Yet, it could be argued, trying to change one's status, location or profession, might be considered going against the wishes of the Master of the Universe (well, I suppose that if He does not want you somewhere else, he won't let you get there). Time prevents me from expanding now but I would like to pass on a story told to me by a Chabad Shaliach regarding the DC-10 crash in Chicago many years ago. A man was scheduled to be on that plane to attend a very important business meeting - of course his alarm didn't go off, his car had a flat tire, the cab was late and he missed the plane by seconds. As he stood there watching it take off, how he cursed his bad fortune - as he watched it literally crash and burn, how he thanked the Lord! The problem with that story though when I thought about it, is that for the 260+ people on board - well, their alarm clocks did go off on time, their cars did start, not all of them were travelling on potential life-changing trips merely fun and frolic, some were great parents, etc. So what's it all mean? (As noted above other duties prevent me from continuing at this time, but I will likely add a further comment later.) Yours Leo de Toot.
Of course it sucks. Judaism (at least the fundamentalist type practiced by TRS and his cohorts)really doesn't give a sh*t how happy you are with your position. "Deal with it" and "You were created to suffer" is exactly what the clergy tell us all the time.
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