Day 286: It's Not Enough to Be Nice, Timing Also Matters
I think this is fairly self-explanatory. But, just in case you need something else in this entry, I find this quote sums it up pretty well: "Good intentions are insufficient; one must also strive to ensure that one's good intentions bring about good results" (401).
Day 287: Shabbat
If you had asked me last week how my week was, I would've said distressing. All personal problems aside, last week was also the height of my midterms. I had two exams on Thursday and other major assignments due throughout the week. But, because I was so stressed, I didn't do as well as I would've liked to on one of my exams and I've been kicking myself about it.
If you're choosing to ask me how this week was, I'd say much better. Personal problems have subdued a bit, but this week was heavy duty in academics too. I had an exam on Monday and major assignments due Tuesday and Wednesday. Though my focus is still a bit off, it's much improved. Plus (I know this sounds ridiculous), I decided that since I didn't like my grade on that midterm, I've already begun studying for the final in that class. Hey, there's always room for improvement and I might as well start now.
- How to Avoid Giving in to Temptation: I think willpower is a wonderful thing to have and I think it's possible to train yourself in willpower, but I understand that it's often safest to just remove yourself from tempting situations altogether.
- When You're Tempted to Do Something Wrong: N/A
- When There Is No Shalom Bayit in Your Bayit: N/A
- When Jewish Law Permits a Person to Be Publicly Shamed: What would happen if the reason a parent didn't provide for their child is because the other parent didn't make the second one aware that they had a child? I know it's not a typical situation in Jewish life, but what if?
- The Limits of God's Forgiveness: N/A
- It's Not Enough to Be Nice, Timing Also Matters: N/A
Day 288: Help Non-Jews as Well as Jews
We are all created in Hashem's image, correct? Correct. So what makes someone any more or less deserving of help than the next person? Nothing. As Jews, we read in Talmud Bavli, Masechet Gittin (61a) that "we must provide help for the non-Jewish poor as well as for the Jewish poor." We are also taught that we must visit both Jews and non-Jews when they are sick, and we must attend the burials of both Jews and non-Jews. How can we truly know peace if we don't strive to discover its true meaning?
Day 289: The Final Words a Jew Should Speak
Every year, during the month leading up to the high holidays, we recite a confessional prayer to G-d in the hopes that He will grant us atonement and cleanse us of our sins.
Thankfully, I don't have experience in death, but I would think that when it happens, I would like to be pure and cleansed before Olam Haba. It is, for this reason, we recite the vidui, the confessional. To find the text of the confessional or to learn more about it, click here.
Day 290: Should a Jew Donate His Organs?
I remember when I went to get my license, one of the questions I was asked was "would you like to be an organ donor?" I struggled with it. I hadn't thought about it and I remember sitting there and thinking about it: what a wonderful and nice thing to do, but on the other hand, I'd like to be buried as a whole person.
As I read today's section, I was moved by a certain number of Jewish texts that suggest that it would be okay to donate organs, despite Judaism's general discomfort about autopsies. The first is "he who saves a single life, it is as if he saved an entire world" (Mishna, Sanhedrin 4:5).
[Before I tell you the second, I'm not going to lie, I just got very excited about finding out that Rabbi Telushkin and I share a bar mitzvah Haftarah.] The second is from 2 Kings chapter 4 when the miracle of the prophet Elisha breathing air into the lungs of a dead child. Rabbi Telushkin brings in a quote from Rabbi Stanley Garfein to explain: "We may not share Elisha's ability to perform miracles, but today [if we choose to donate our organs], we can share his capacity to restore and redeem life."
Day 291: Listen...Really Listen
Living in a dorm provides itself with many opportunities for consulting and counseling others. As one of the sophomores on my floor, many freshmen come to talk to both my roommate and I but our peers do as well.
In an environment like college, everyone has things weighing down on them: midterms, essays, love life crises, family problems, etc. Everyone has something they need to vent about and everyone has someone they need to vent about it to.
While listening, it's easy to start thinking about all the things I have to get done by tomorrow, or the next day, or the next week, and so on. However, it is so important that these people who have come to seek our help know that we are truly listening to them and that we truly care about them and want to help them with what we are going through. The challenge from now on is to focus on the person we are listening to and make sure they know we are really listening.
Day 292: How Not to Teach Torah
It's really quite daunting, the number of professional development sessions and classes taught in a Teacher Education curriculum about not becoming burnt out. When a teacher is burnt out, they've been in their profession or with a group of students too long. Too much is being taken out of them and they begin to deprive their students of a positive learning environment.
If you asked a group of students what a positive learning environment is like, they'd probably describe their teacher as open, caring, patient, etc. Burnt out teachers are none of those things.
So we, as educators of whatever subject it is we've chosen to teach, should train ourselves to be patient, caring, and open as possible. I recently watched a Ted Talk in which the speaker said "children don't learn from people they don't like."
Day 293: Charity, Idolatry, and Deafness
I decided a flow chart worked really well for explaining this section, so voila! Here's my handiwork:
Day 294: Shabbat
Since these are all sections I've covered in this entry, I will refrain from writing this section as usual.
Day 295: Sanctifying the Secular
I don't believe I can say this any better than Rabbi Telushkin wrote it: "[...] when commons sense is employed in fulfillment of a Torah law, one of the relatively few for which a rationale is given, the ensuing behavior becomes a religious activity as well. So, the next time you go don to clear your walk after a snowstorm, you can also feel that you are fulfilling a divine command. I don't know if that will make the work easier, but it should make it feel holy" (412).
Day 296: Don't Be a Racist
To put this quite simply, we've discussed many times how we were all created in G-d's image. And, taking this a step further, we all come from the same family: Adam and Eve are our great-great-great...-great grandparents. If we were all created in G-d's image and if we come from the same parents, how can any one race be superior to any other?
"'Religious racist' might not be an oxymoron, but from Judaism's perspective, it should be" (413).
Day 297: Never Practice Ingratitude
"Cast no mud into the well from which you have drunk" (Bava Kamma 92b).
"If you have in any way profited from another person with whom your relationship later soured, you must not allow yourself to forget the earlier good that he or she did for you" (414).
I was once close friends with a girl in elementary school. Towards 5th or 6th grade, we got into a fight which destroyed our relationship. I was mad and sour and bitter for a while, but I should just be thankful she brought Dance Dance Revolution into my life.
I was once very close with a guy who lived on the floor above me. We no longer talk, but I am still thankful for the advice he gave me on many occasions that have actually helped me feel healthier in the people I choose to keep up relationships with.
I know a rabbi I don't agree with very often, however I am very thankful for the ways they have helped me in getting back to Israel.
This is an exercise I'd like to keep up with, it feels like a healthier way to look at my relationships and live my life.
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I apologize for the length of this post but am so thankful that I had time today to take a little while and just write and catch up and reflect on my actions lately.
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