Tag Archives: todays rabbi

The Danger of Being Certain

01 Monday May 2023

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“It ain’t what we don’t know that gets us in trouble, it’s what we know for certain that just ain’t so.” 

 – Anonymous

In the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, Rabbi Kahana is quoted as saying that if the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court,  unanimously finds an accused person guilty, he is acquitted. Why? Because we have learned that tradition dictates that a judgment must be postponed awhile in hopes of finding new points in favor of the defense. Talmudic commentary explains that when a Sanhedrin unanimously convicts a defendant, collusion must be suspected. Since a verdict is reached without any dissenting opinion, the judges on the Sanhedrin are not doing their job properly.

In other words, we should be suspicious of, even set aside, any conclusion without an element of doubt or dissent! Certainty is suspect! 

I recall visiting  Aushwitz-Birkenau some years ago with one of my rabbis, Sheila Peltz Weinberg. Having gazed into the ovens, and as we literally stood upon the ruins of the crematoria, the rabbi remarked, “I pray I am never this certain about anything.” In otherwords, so certain in our cause as to commit genocide.

In my own life, the times I have gotten into the biggest messes have been when I was the least reflective and the most certain. Having no shred of doubt blinds us to other possibilities in an infinite world. We cannot function of paralyzed. But the wisest counsel when we choose a course of action, is to be aware that there may be other worthy  paths, and that despite our best reasoning and intentions, we may be wrong. 

Where in your life are you overly certain, to your peril? 

Versions of the opening quote have been attributed to Will Rogers, Mark Twain, Josh Billings, and Artemis Ward, among others. However, it cannot definitively be ascribed to any of them. It seems to have been collectively developed over many people, times and places. Ironically, the authorship remains uncertain. 

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and student of The All. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joe.laur.com.

The Soul’s Long Journey

12 Wednesday Apr 2023

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“To what does the journey of the soul compare? To a person who planted a vineyard in his garden, intending to grow sweet grapes, but it grew sour ones. He saw that his planting didn’t succeed. He notched it and broke it off and cleared out the sour vines, and he planted again a second time. ‘Until how many times?’ [his students asked.] He said to them: ‘To the thousandth generation.’ ~ Sefer Bahir 185

In our high speed internet era, where nearly every need and whim can be satisfied with a mouse click, it can be challenging to accept that personal growth does not work that way. Our souls have their own timeframe, not measured in minutes, hours, days and years.  

Our souls are on learning journeys, and the greatest learnings are the ones that come to us only after many failed attempts at success. In fact, the case can be made that we deeply learn only by repeated failures.

when i learned to ride a bicycle, i did so primarily by being out of balance most of the time, falling down a hundred different ways, until I found the sweet spot where the force of gravity and the force of my legs balanced, where I rode that dynamic knife edge between left and right, moving forward on a path of balance. Once learned, it is not easily forgotten. You never forget how to ride a bike.  

Our souls are on the greatest trip of all, riding the sweet spot between wonder and knowledge, fear and exhilaration, love and solitude, heaven and earth. I don’t know if my soul is immortal or not. I do know that it belongs to eternity, and will travel that path of learning, passing it down through a thousand generations. 

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and student of The All. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joe.laur.com.

The Fullness of the Earth

22 Friday Apr 2016

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“The Fullness of all the Earth is (G!D’s) Glory!” 

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” 

-Isaiah (Isaiah 6:3 and 55:12)

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I’ve always thought that Earth Day should be called Humans Day, because it’s really not about saving the Earth. She’ll do fine without us. It’s about saving our place on the planet.

I’ve always been fond of these lines from Isaiah. The first is usually translated “the Earth is full of G!D’s glory!” but the Hebrew more literally says that the fullness of the Earth is G!D’s glory. That all of creation not only reveals, but is the fullness of the Divine.

The second line is one of many biblical lines that suggest that Creation praises the Divine, and that we are part and parcel of it all, part of the praising, part of the fullness, participants in the glory. If the landscape can sing and the foliage clap, why are we holding back?

What a difference if we saw the earth this way every day! That all of creation is alive, infused with Divine Presence, sacred throughout its entirety. Earth Day could be a celebration of all creation, a day of joy and wonder, and not one of extraction, fabrication, pollution, annihilation. What if it really is the Fullness of Creation itself that is the Glory of G!D?

What can you do to celebrate creation today?

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Isaiah (Hebrew: Yeshayahu, literally: “Yah is salvation”), was a prophet documented by the Biblical Book of Isaiah to have lived around the time of 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Friendship as Food

18 Monday Apr 2016

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“The primary joy of life is acceptance, approval, the sense of appreciation and companionship of our human comrades. Many men do not understand that the need for fellowship is really as deep as the need for food, and so they go through life accepting many substitutes for genuine, warm, simple.”

-Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman

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The psychological researcher Harry Harlowe demonstrated that primates raised in isolation  preferred a cloth surrogate mother to one that fed them, and demonstrated strange and aggressive behavior in life. Not only family, but nurturing friendship is a critical “nutrient” to our well being.

In  the second chapter of Genesis, the first thing G!D says about the new created adam– literally, earthling or human- is also the first thing that G!D sees as “lo tov”-not good. “It is not good for the earthling to be alone.” Even the Divine recognizes the need for friends and companions.

They say you can’t get enough of what you don’t really need. If we substitute TV, drugs alcohol, work or other surrogates for friends on a regular basis, we may become a little odd. Hermits are traditionally eccentric. It’s no coincidence that recovery from addiction involves fellowship, and that addiction thrives in isolation. Paradoxically, we need others to be wholly ourselves.

What friend can you reach out to for nourishment today?

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Joshua Loth Liebman (1907–1948) was an American rabbi and best-selling author, best known for the book Peace of Mind, which spent more than a year at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Not The End Of The World

15 Friday Apr 2016

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“Everything will be okay in the end.
If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” 

— John Lennon

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A friend once gave me some sage advice: “Joe, the only thing that’s the end of the world, is…the end of the world.” In other worlds, every situation, no matter how dire, is not the End of Times, unless, of course, it IS the End Of Times.

Most of what we experience, no matter how painful, distressing, or scary, we survive. The worst thing that happens is that we live through it. Maybe we are chastened, wiser or scarred afterward, but we survive, and usually grow stronger or more savvy as a result.

Perhaps, as John Lennon claims, everything will be ok in the end. He certainly knows, wherever he is now, whether or not that’s true for certain; the rest of us go on faith. But life is sure a lot more enjoyable if we live in the paradigm of OK-ness, rather than one of fear and dread of the future. We get to choose the stories we live by, and I usually go for the ones of growth and evolution.

What can you become “okay” with in your life today?

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John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE ( 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the band the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. With fellow member Paul McCartney, he formed a celebrated songwriting partnership.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Seeing Where We Are

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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“Sometimes I go about pitying myself    while I am carried by the wind across the sky…”

-An Ojibwe(Chippewa) song, from Path On The Rainbow

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My daughter was stuck on the tarmac, her flight delayed, but unable to leave the plane. She called me, a plaintive, aggrieved tone in her voice. “Dad, we’ve been sitting out on the runway for 90 minutes now! What a pain.”

I listened calmly, a smile forming on my face.  I spoke in a smooth, even voice. “Honey, I know it’s inconvenient. But you’re not in Syria.They have problems. You and I have annoyances.”

I know I was being a little smug with her. I’ve been in the same spot, whining about traffic, or an unexpected expense, or some other thing my son calls “first world problems.” If I can lift my eyes up from my own navel for a minute, and look at my overall circumstances, I realize I have very few real problems. My life is generally great. Yes, tragedies have occurred, I’ve made terrible blunders a few times, I’ve had my share of disappointments. But when I see the way I usually live, how much I’ve thrived, the love and esteem of my family and finds,  I realize that I truly am “carried by the wind across the sky” even in trying times. Seeing the truth of it minimizes my complaints and maximizes my blessed gratitude.

How are you being carried by great forces today?

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The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, or Chippewa are a group of indigenous peoples in North America. There are Ojibwe communities in both Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the second-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by the Cree. In the United States, they have the fourth-largest population among Native American tribes, surpassed only by the Navajo, Cherokee, and Lakota.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Teach Your Children Well

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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“Who is ignorant? He who does not educate his children”

-Rabbi Jonathan ben Joseph

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Just as the concept of sustainability is meaningless without a next generation, so too is education. If learning is not passed on and built upon, it declines, rather than grows and progresses.

The Crosby, Stills, and Nash song, “Teach Your Children Well”, captures both the need for older generations to pass on their experience AND to learn from the vision of their children, who will live into worlds we can scarcely imagine.

We can never give the next generation everything they need to know to live into the world they will inherit. But we can equip them to think for themselves, to learn the lessons of the past and to envision the kind of future they want to create. That’s as close as it gets to an antidote for ignorance.

What can you teach a young person in your life today? What can they teach you?

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Jonathan ben Joseph was a Lithuanian rabbi and astronomer who lived in Risenoi, Grodno in the late 17th century and early 18th century. Jonathan studied astronomy and mathematics.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Sweeten the Lemonade

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

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“Therefore, the pure righteous do not complain of the dark, but increase the light; they do not complain of evil, but increase justice; they do not complain of heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain of ignorance, but increase wisdom.”

-Rav Kook

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A friend of mine teaches a life metaphor about lemonade. If the lemonade is too sweet, he says, we don’t try to take some of the sugar out; we add more lemon. If it’s too sour, we don’t try to draw out some of the lemon, we add more sugar. We bring what is needed for improvement to the mix, rather than fighting with what’s already present.

This is Rav Kook’s lesson; rather than resisting or bemoaning some ill, we work to increase something healthy to contract it. As the saying goes, what you resist, persists. By focusing on evil, darkness, heresy, ignorance, we only give them power. Hitting the nail drives it deeper into the wood.

So rather than resisting what we don’t want, we and the world are better served by assisting what we do want, and bringing more of that into life’s “lemonade.”

What’s needed that can you bring more of into the world today?

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Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandatory Palestine, the founder of Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav Kook (The Central Universal Yeshiva), Jewish thinker, Halakhist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar. He is known in Hebrew as HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, or simply as “HaRav.” He was one of the most celebrated and influential rabbis of the 20th century.[1]

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Schooled By Light

05 Tuesday Apr 2016

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“If a rock, though extremely hard, can be hollowed out by water, how much more so should it be possible for The Light, which is compared to water, to change my heart. I will begin to study it, and try to become a scholar of The Light.”

-Rabbi Akiva

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This beautiful act of faith and surrender by Rabbi Akiva has many lessons to teach us. We know that biologically, light can be invigorating, motivating, relaxing or calming. Light can be used for medical treatment, to  promote productivity at work and schools and to enable passengers on long-distance flights to relax. A wide spectrum of knowledge concerning the biological effects of light has been verified in scientific studies.

And light is such a common and powerful metaphor in the spiritual realm as well! “I saw the Light” croons the country singer. “Go toward the Light” is a common deathbed whisper. And most of us are seeking some form  of “en-light-en-ment”.

A friend of mine used to ask, “Why can angels fly? Because they take themselves lightly!” So perhaps if we let light into our souls, to illuminate us, to enlighten our spirits, we can transform the cold heavy rock of certainly, of despair, of hardened hearts. As the sun striking my solar panels outside my window creates electricity, so may the light striking our hearts yield unfathomable power and peace.

What hard bits of yourself can you bring into the light today?

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Akiva ben Joseph (40 – c. 137 CE), widely known as Rabbi Akiva, was a tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century (3rd tannaitic generation). Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and Midrash Halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as Rosh la-Chachamim (Head of all the Sages).

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Light Trumps Darkness

04 Monday Apr 2016

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“A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness.”

-Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

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In Bereshit, commonly known as the book of Genesis, the first action taken and the first words spoken by Elohim (literally “gods”, not God as usually translated), are “Let there be light! “And, of course,  there was light.

Now it follows that if we are indeed created in the Divine Image, then we can create light too- both the internal kind, by brightening ours or another spirits, and the external kind, by simply lighting a lamp. And as external light sources can affect our inward reality, so too can our inward light impact those around us.

As Reb Schneur Zalman says, it doesn’t take much light to dispel a lot of darkness. A little shining on our part, just a choice to “Let there be light”, can illuminate whole worlds. Because Light trumps Darkness. But only every time.

Where can you bring more light into the world today?

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Shneur Zalman of Liady (September 4, 1745 – December 15, 1812), was an Orthodox Rabbi, and the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism, then based in Liadi, Imperial Russia.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.