Brief Thoughts
Martin Klamen, my dear friend, and visitor to this site told me an amazing thought in the name of Rabbi Yaakov Neuberger (who quoted it in the name of "the baalei mussar").
When Moshe asks G-d for a replacement he requests someone who will be able to understand the spirits of other people (ruchot). When Hashem replies, he describes his choice as someone who has the spirit inside him. The question and answer don't seem to match. The explanation could be that in order to understand others you first have to understand yourself.
Rabbi Yamin Goldsmith is a dear friend who I had the honor of spending a little time with yesterday for the first time in a while. He is so insightful and so good. I am blessed to count him as a friend.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 1:24 PM
6 Comments:
Rabbi Neuberger was my Rebbe in College and also the Rabbi at Einstein when we lived there.
A bigger mentch you will never find.
Yes. The real thing.
Interesting. I have to think about that one a bit. It seems to me that sometimes it is easier to understand others than ourselves. If you consider how easy it is to solve the problems of another as opposed to your own.
But there is something to be said for understanding yourself. In the role of teacher it helps if you understand the curriculum.
I'm talking about really helping someone, which i think often takes understanding them in a deep way, which you can't do for someone else for real unless you've done it for yourself.
I don't know Rabbi Yamin Goldsmith, but he gets a congratulations on being one of this year's ATID fellows
( http://www.atid.org/about/fellows.asp )
Yes, I know. I congratulated him. Of course he was humble about it.
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