Good Moed Vietnam

A short while ago the song Two Out of Three Aint Bad came on a public radio and it dawned on me how terribly sad the lyrics are. About a year ago Treppenwitz had a post about sad lyrics matched with tunes that belie the darkness of the words. This song deserves to be up top.

Now, Western Wall comes on my CD player - "Wasn't taught this, but I learned something new. Had to answer a distant call - at the Western Wall." I brought the song with me to Israel, but didn't feel like listening to it. Now, back in the diaspora - this song brings me solace.

Recently I've been thinking. Recently. Pirkei Avot states that jealousy removes a person from this world. One explanation of that is that jealousy (along with desire and honor) are with a person until the end when they escort him as he is removed from this world. Another possibility is that jealousy wears a person down and leads to early death. A third approach is that by "this world" the rabbis mean a true perspective of the spiritual reality of life. There's truth to all these views particularly when they're combined. I sigh as write this, and sigh again as I pray for others to not be jealous of me and for me to not be jealous of others. May we all be blessed to use that energy instead to go about our own business.

Recently I heard someone dismiss someone else's activities as being the result of their having too much time on there hands. We all have the same amount of time on our hands on any given day. Perception is nine tenths of the flaw. When we say someone has too much time on their hands aren't we really saying they don't spend enough of their time the way we do?

Another thing we need to tone down as much as possible is our judgment of others. The rabbis never tell us not to judge. Instead they implore us to judge with delicate empathy.

I am distressed that two recent posts are sliding down this page. I really poured my kishkas into what I wrote right before and right after Yom Kippur. I'd very much appreciate your reading these two posts (1,2).

Something on my mind is memory. Sarah Shapiro recently wrote about a memory that was so vivid to her, but her sister didn't recall it. It had to do with a childhood contemporary that accidentally killed her own mother. Not the type of thing you'd think someone would imagine. But also not the type of thing that you'd expect someone to forget. And yet. These type of things happen all the time.

Sukkos is my elephant in the room. Why am I writing about all but this holiday? As I pose the question it dawns on me that Pesach comes to you, but you have to go to Sukkos. When you are in your home typing on Chol HaMoed Pesach, you sit surrounded by papered shelves and potato based cookies. But if you don't go to the Sukka, you can do your own thing. Something about the essences of the days -Passover came to us in Egypt. Sukkot were built by us when we went to the desert...