How Do You Like Them Apples?

Day 307: When Pious Words Are Irreligious

When something happens to us that we need to cope up, sometimes we'll tell ourselves that it's for the best, that G-d is watching over us, that He has reasons we will never understand. And it's all well and good to think like that, but the second you try to use words to help soothe another person, they lose all meaning.

"If a person comes to you for assistance, and you tell him 'God will provide,' you are acting disloyally to God. For you should understand that God has sent you to aid the needy person, not to refer him back to the Almighty." -the Leover

Day 308: Shabbat

What a crazy month! Full of travel every weekend, November is promising a lot. A lot of simchas [I hope]. These first two weekends, I'll be traveling home and back to school for two different b'nai mitzvah and then with Thanksgiving, I'll be visiting my brother and then some cousins. I'll be all over! The downside is, it's taking away my time to write and to get ahead with my homework, so I'm here now trying to catch up in between classes!

• Learning to Say "I Need": N/A
• When Anonymous Giving Is Important, and When It is Not: N/A
• When Silence Is Criminal: How does this relate to accounts of sexual assault/rape on campus? If someone has been raped, but they don't report it, is that criminal?
• If You Learn That Somone Is Intending to Hurt Another: N/A
• "You Are Not as Good as You Think You Are, and the World Is Not as Bad as You Think It Is": N/A
• When Pious Words Are Irreligious: N/A

Day 309: When a Half-Truth Becomes a Whole Lie

If you're like me and saw the title of this section and immediately thought "oh no, have I been doing this wrong too?" you're in luck, and off the hook (for now).

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and looked at the apples? The ones on top are bright and shiny or waxy and smooth. These top apples are the ones you want to take a nice bite out of, dip in honey or peanut butter or caramel. These apples are the ones you dream of. Too much? Okay, my apologies. But look at the next layer of apples, the ones right under the ones you wanted. Are they bruised? Moldy? Generally unappealing? Chances are, 9 out of 10 doctors would not recommend eating those apples.

This is one example of a vendor telling us a lie. We are led to look at those apples and think about how wonderful they'd taste and how beautiful they look and we want to buy them all, but in reality, we wouldn't even notice the apples no one wanted to buy.

Sellers are cautioned to tell consumers about the defects of their product in addition to the benefits. Otherwise, they are lying to us.