You look at yourself and you look at me, and you see two entities. But matter is not really "solid" or clomped in bodies; it is a vast amalgam of infinitesimal points, each exerting a complex web of forces and counter-forces on its fellows. A "human being" is no more or less a distinct entity than an atom in his body, the planet he inhabits, or the universe as a whole.
If you're thinking of celebrating your birthday, you're going to have to ask: Yes, I was born, but what happened?
Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30 Week of September 17-23 
The diverse unity of Israel, the future redemption, freedom of choice, the practicality of Torah, the first completed Torah scroll and the last day of Moses' life--all in this week's Torah reading...
As every serious student of the Talmud knows, pits and oxen don't mix. What is the extent of your liability if you dig a pit and my ox stumbles into it? It depends. How deep was the pit? Did it fall backward or forward? And so on. One might reasonably suppose that since oxen and pits are facts of life, the Torah must implement laws to govern their many possible interactions such as to insure harmony and justice in accordance with Divine will. In fact, the situation is just the reverse. Oxen and pits are not facts of life which the Torah must address. Rather the Torah is the fact of life that necessitates the existence of oxen and pits.
When the man saw me he asked: "What is a small child doing all alone in the forest? Are you not afraid to be in the forest all by yourself?" I answered him: "I am an orphan without father or mother. My father, peace be to him, said to me before his passing: 'Yisrolik, fear nothing but G-d alone.' So I'm not afraid of anything."
When the holy was finally allowed to penetrate to the depths where it belongs, heaven was made a neighborhood. It became a daily occurrence for simple folk to ascend there on ladders of wood, or to arrive through open doors from adjacent rooms.... The messiah was not a fable for these good people, or a possible dream of times to come; for them, redemption was now.
Cunning minds might contend that they were merely naive. I would say, rather, that they bore the mark of wisdom: a good memory of the future, as well as of the past.
In a faraway land lived three sisters whose mother had left them beautiful long and elegant dresses of fine and rare material. They cherished these dresses dearly until, one day, they heard that in America the style was to wear short skirts. Now their dresses no longer seemed so beautiful. The oldest sister just kept on wearing the same old dresses. She usually wore a long overcoat or housecoat to hide them and stayed indoors. |
 "I was offered the honor of serving as the Jewish chaplain for the Sydney summer games," says Rabbi Kastel. "It meant an opportunity to establish a synagogue inside the Olympic Village, offering religious services to Jews from 199 countries." 
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