We're Each Heading Home

Today was a five class day, plus guidance time and and and. I went to a bris this morning. It worked out well that classes started late due to Rosh Chodesh and the bris was in my neighborhood. A while ago I questioned conversations, writing, "How do you view conversations? Do you value them overall? Do you remember them? Are they more often something you keep track of and remember or more often something you do while you eat or shop or walk or drive?" This question gnaws away at me. I tend to remember every exchange I have with everyone (blind spots aside). People sometimes think I can read their mind, but the only "magic" I perform is listening in the moment in a way that subsequently won't let me let go. This morning a nice colleague gave me a ride and we chatted. And every conversation we've had over the last eight or so years was on hand as we spoke. My colleague most likely asked and answered questions politely and moved on. A friend of mine thinks that I live the way everyone should, in terms of experiencing and recalling. I'm not so sure.

I just submitted a dvar Torah for Toldot or my school's weekly Torah newsletter. I sent in this one which appeared here last year. I like the comments that the post brought in. I just noticed the last one now. Anonymous, sorry and thank you. I was thinking of writing up another one to give in, but time is up for that. Still I can write here. I am fond of the idea of Rav Hirsch who builds on Chazal. Rashi cites the idea that the twin brother went their separate ways after they reached Bar Mitzvah age. Rav Hirsch writes that,

"Our sages never hesitate to point out to us the errors and shortcomings, both great and small, of our ancestors, thereby making the life stories all the more instructive for us...In regard to this passage too, our Sages make a comment which indicates that the sharp contrast between the two grandsons of Abraham may have originated not merely in their natural tendencies but may have been caused also by mistakes in their upbringing. As long as they were little, no attention was given to the latent differences between them. Both were given the same upbringing and education. The basic tenet of education, 'Train each child in accordance with his own way' (Proverbs 22:6), that each child should be educated, both as a man and as a Jew, in accordance with the tendencies latent in him and in accordance with the individuality that will result from these tendencies, was forgotten. The great task of the Jew is simple and straightforward as regards it's basic content, but the modes of its fulfilment are as varied and complex as the differences in individuality and the diversity of life that result from these differences..."

Maariv is now. Then homeward bound...