Got to Feel It

You can mask your feelings through words. You can obfuscate the truth through clenched teeth. It is possible to blur of the distinction between that which lies at the center of our self and that which our mind dictates to our mouth. In other words, we lie.

Not necessarily malevolent lives. Not the kind of which thrust themselves like poison darts toward the hearts of the people we hate.  Most lives are more pedestrian; they are more like self-deception.

Purim for example is not fully understood.  Purim is not one of those holidays that bears up to close analysis. We can find a myriad of reasons for the lack of historicity of the event, the non-clarity of major players in the almost goofy nature of the tale. Purim must be felt.

A group of students approached a great poet to discover the secret of his art. Visiting him at his home, they asked to see the place where inspiration came to him. The poet pointed to a small splash of green fence stop in buying unsightly wall in his backyard. The students blinked unbelievingly at the sight. They asked, “This is where those great poems came from, while you were sitting facing your ugly lawn?”

“You are looking in the wrong direction,” the teacher responded. “Do not look around you-look up. Then you will see what I see.  Look,” he said pointing to the sky, “see how high it is!”

I think most of life is like the artist’s depiction - it is to be felt. 

The founder of the Conservative movement, Solomon Schechter, said more than 100 years ago, "Pleasures are the manifestations of God's love."  Absorb the joy. Feel the wonder of another season of hope and life.