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Quotations from Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary

General Jewish Thought
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Shul Bulletin

Aphorisms and Observations, Part 1

It’s over two decades that Americans found a goal worth striving for: peace of mind. But it proved an elusive prize. So now we practice peace of mindlessness. With all his sophistication, contemporary man has no compunctions about confessing his sins – he is almost too ready to do so. We have all heard them: “I’m too kind for my own good,” “I’m too vulnerable” – and too shy, too forgiving, too generous, too soft, etc. The only sins he won’t confess are those he truly cherishes. Ethical dilemma: what do I say to a man who calls me at 11:45 p.m. about a subject that could easily bear postponement to the morrow, and begins with the question, “I’m not disturbing you, Rabbi, am I?” A gem from C. S. Lewis: “Men are not angered by mere misfortune, but by misfortune conceived as injury.” And one from John W. Gardner: “Don’t let anyone tell you we’re confused. We know the values to which we are being unfaithful. You may ask, ‘What difference does it make that we agree on our values if we aren’t faithful to them?’ I would answer that from the standpoint of therapy it always makes a difference what the patient is suffering from. This patient is not suffering from confusion but from infidelity.” A teacher of mussar: “The beauty of a mentsch is in his mind. The mind of a fool is on his beauty.” G. K. Chesterton: a key has no logic to its shape. Its only logic is, it turns the lock. John Updike: Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them. Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings. Question all questions, doubt all doubts.
Character Development General Jewish Thought

Shul Bulletin

Aphorisms and Observations, Part 2

People are not upset at their own lack of intelligence – they bristle only when others say they are not bright. Eduard Dahlberg: few can annihilate one day without anticipating another which will make them just as wretched. More: all experiences are quite similar – we simply have new names for them and imagine that what happened in the past is quite different from what is occurring now. Still more: when one realizes that his life is worthless, he either commits suicide or travels. Rabbis often brood: does all my talking ever do any good? R. Israel Salanter answered: “People say that mussar (preachment) goes in one ear and out the other. True enough, but meanwhile it goes through your head...” A great teacher of mussar: it is said that every lie must contain a grain of truth if it is to exist. Today, however, people act as if every truth must contain some falsehood if it is to survive. Ernest Becker: the man of knowledge in our time is bowed down under a burden he never imagined he ever would have – the overproduction of truth that cannot be consumed... we are choking on truth... the insignificant fragments (of knowledge) are magnified out of all proportion, while its major and world-historical insights lie around begging for attention. Strange: those who attend services every day rarely complain about the length of the prayers. Those who come early on Shabbat sometimes complain. Those who arrive at 11:00 a.m. or so are more vociferous about the length of the service. But the three-to-five-times-a-year daveners are usually those who complain most. Conclusion: the more you daven, the more you like it – and the less you daven, the less you like it. Eric Hoffer: there is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people – we are laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size. More Hoffer: people who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. S. Y. Agnon: when people truly believe, and a man cannot i…
Character Development General Jewish Thought

Shul Bulletin

Aphorisms and Observations, Part 3

God is not an executive vice president of the cosmos in charge of human happiness. A truly religious person does not wake up in the morning and say to God, “What have You done for me recently?” God is not looking for our votes in an election or popularity contest – He wants our service, not approval. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik: the problem with American Jews is not so much that they are not shomrei Shabbat, but that they are not shomrei erev Shabbat... Authentic religion does not cater to what people want and think they need – it teaches them to want what they really need. George Cavell: if the war didn’t happen to kill you, it was bound to start you thinking. Today we know more than ever before – but we understand less. Rabbi Abraham Isaiah Karelitz (the Chazon Ish): everything is difficult. I have hardly ever come across anything that is easy. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Ladi once said to a hasid who complained about his economic situation: “You worry always about what you need, but you never seem to worry about others who may be needing you.” The late Abraham E. Rothstein, former president of The Jewish Center: “Friendship can make certain demands, but when it demands a substitute for the teachings of our fathers, on that point there can be no wavering, no compromise.” The above, in the same address to The Center on Yom Kippur 1930: “We older people well remember the days of our youth. We could not help observing how seriously our parents took their faith, how fervent they were. We could not help but observe the many sacrifices they made for it – but it was not all a one-sided affair, because we also noticed what happiness they derived from it. They were happy; we are not. Why? Simply this. They accepted it wholeheartedly, and in times of stress and worry, took all the comfort and solace that our religion so abundantly offers. When in joy, they were so grateful and appreciative to the source whence all good comes. And why are we not happy? Because most of us are ha…
Character Development General Jewish Thought