"Na'aseh Adam..."
I liked the last question of the debate: "What don't you know, and how will you learn it?" I'd love to hear people's answer in general. If you choose to answer, please answer. Don't just go into telling your biography - like two people who will remain nameless.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 10:32 PM
4 Comments:
There is so much I don't know and wish to know. I need to be realistic, not get frustrated about this.
I want to know the names of the birds and the trees in our neighborhood. (We are in an coastal "flyway" for migratory birds, so we get a lot of variety.)
I wish I could know more about my grandparents' lives. If any of you reading this have living grandparents, take the time to sit with them regularly, or phone them, and ask lots of questions.
I want to understand how economies work, but fear I never will. (Apparently, judging by the government's failings in this regard lately, I'm not alone.)
I want to know how the local farmers grow those perfect huge globular bell peppers, green and red; whereas mine always look stunted and pathetic.
I want to know how my children's lives will turn out. For that, I will simply watch and wait. (and pray)
Thanks Anne for these beautiful, genuine, intospective answers.
"What don't you know, and how will you learn it?" (I liked that question too!)
I don't know how I'm going to get to the end of the football field.
How will I learn it? This is a tough question. I guess by digging the deepest I've ever dug, by never giving up, by believing getting there is possible and most importantly, with G-d's help.
Shana Tova Rabbi Fleischmann! I hope your fast and day went well and was meaningful.
Maayan
Thanks Maayan. On a discussion blog written live during the debate some people liked the last question and some felt strongly that it was a horrible question - yet another new way to divide the world into two groups of people.
I think I get your answer. It seems to me that in our work on our selves there's a field, kind of like a football field. Those who work hard on themselves get close to the end - but maybe never all the way there.
The other hand the rabbis say that it's not upon you to finish the work and yet you're not exempt from. Rav SR Hirsch points out how frustrating this exhortation can be - why try if you're not expected to finish? He gives a consoling answer: a sincere life's effort, incomplete as it may seem is really something whole - broken though it may seem.
I wish you well in your sincere efforts and I thank you for sharing your thoughts and wishing me well.
I sit now, in the middle of a post YK post - taking some alone time, trying to breathe. As I write, a pachouli candle in a shapely glass jar burns and smells gently good mixed together with the peppermint I've sprinkled around.
I took a break from writing to see this comment and write this reply, gld I did.
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