Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Teach Me The Path Of Love To Take (Click To Link)

Watching a strangers nail polish dry or reading a bloggers's ambivalence about blogging? I know. And yet.

I need something else.

I am once again writing before sleep, using the new wireless. I just got a call from an old friend who's running a yeshiva, said it might as well be May to him, he's had no break - my heart goes out.

Today was a pleasant day - as the time comes once again to forgive pre-sleep there is no one that I can think of that hurt me today. And I was brought joy. And an old woman at a Starbucks reminded me to take care of my body because "it goes." Thank G-d for the blessings of a day.

"Did you ever consider writing a book?," one of my prodigal friends of 20 years asked me today. He had his ideas and I felt a little like a dog in a Far Side cartoon hearing blah, blah, blah, blah, book.

I don't quite get my own blog. I am drawn inwards, even though this is not so out there. It's not quite shouting off the rooftops. And yet.

I will close with a bed time story for myself. Listen if you'd like. Once upon a time in a world that still exists and wasn't so different about 50 years ago there was a medical student. He was also a rabbi. He was also a father of two with a third on the way. In his third year of medical school it became impossible to meet the tuition and he was going to have to pull out.

A kind man got wind of this and told Marquette University that he'd give the rabbi the four thousand dollars he needed. This kind man was a Lebanese actor. The rabbi didn't believe it until the check came.

Year's later the rabbi had become prominent and was able to help arrange a dinner for the kind man's favorite charity. And he spoke about the kindness that the man had done for him. And he spoke about how proud his Father in heaven must have been to see his children getting along. And he wondered how it could be that a Lebanese Arab and an Orthodox Jew could form such a strong bond. As much as it boggles his mind, he knows it's a holy truth.

And Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski is forever grateful to Danny Thomas. (The story is written up beautifully in Do Unto Others.) And the story has inspired another story today.

Good night and be blessed.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good stories in this post and the one prior.

August 20, 2008 at 7:23 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Thanks - the thing for me about stories and posts is the white fire in between the black fire of the letters, the subtexts, the undercurrents.

August 20, 2008 at 8:44 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The recent tuition story with its tie to the Danny Thomas one made me all teary-eyed. Talk about random acts of kindness.

August 24, 2008 at 8:26 PM  
Blogger Jack Steiner said...

I don't quite get my own blog

It is good to have questions, we learn much from searching for the answers.

August 24, 2008 at 10:51 PM  

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