Up to You

 Consider:

Every person, all the events of you life, are
there because you have drawn them there.
What you choose to do with them is up to you.

Richard Bach

A Concerned Life

Long ago Baba ben Butti would visit the Holy Temple in Jerusalem every day.  He'd bring with him sacrifice to be offered on the altar.  

Baba knew that his life was filled with doubts and so many opportunities to unintentionally offend his fellow.  In his heart he wanted nothing more than to cause no hurt so he brought this atonement "just in case."  Perhaps, he thought, I accidentally ignored someone and they were deeply offended.  Maybe my prayers were done imperfectly, without real intention.

The kohanim, priests, to whom he brought the animals, told Baba ben Butti that his sacrifice was not welcome the day after Yom Kippur as Baba emerged from the Day of Atonement cleansed of sin.

Consider the life that acknowledges the pain we can bring unwittingly.  How much kinder would the world be!

Old Age

 "Crabby Old Woman" By: Phyllis McCormack 

What do you see, nurse, what do you see? What are you thinking, when you look at me A crabby old woman, not very wise, Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes, Who dribbles her food and makes no reply When you say in a loud voice, I do wish you'd try. Who seems not to notice the things that you do And forever is losing a stocking or shoe. Who, unresisting or not; lets you do as you will With bathing and feeding the long day is fill. Is that what you're thinking, Is that what you see? Then open your eyes, nurse, you're looking at me. I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still! As I rise at your bidding, as I eat at your will. I'm a small child of 10 with a father and mother, Brothers and sisters, who loved one another. A young girl of 16 with wings on her feet, Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet, A bride soon at 20 - my heart gives a leap, Recalling the vows that I promised to keep. At 25 now I have young of my own Who need me to build a secure happy home; A woman of 30, my young now grow fast, Bound to each other with ties that should last; At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone, But my man is beside me to see I don't mourn; At 50 once more babies play around my knee, Again we know children, my loved one and me. Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead, I look at the future, I shudder with dread, For my young are all rearing young ones of their own. And I think of the years and the love that I've known; I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel. Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool. The body is crumbled, grace and vigor depart, There is now a stone where I once had a heart, But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells, And now and again my battered heart swells, I remember the joy, I remember the pain, And I'm loving and living life over again. I think of the years all too few- gone too fast. And accept the stark fact that nothing can lastSo open your eyes, nurse, open and see, Not a crabbiy old woman, look closer See Me. 

A Nurse's reply "To the 'Crabbiy Old Woman" What do we see, you ask, what do we see? Yes, we are thinking when looking at thee! We may seem to be hard when we hurry and fuss, But there's many of you, and too few of us. We would like far more time to sit by you and talk, To bath you and feed you and help you to walk. To hear of your lives and the things you have done; Your childhood, your husband, your daughter, your son. But time is against us, there's too much to do - Patients too many, and nurses too few. We grieve when we see you so sad and alone, With nobody near you, no friends of your own. We feel all your pain, and know of your fear That nobody cares now your end is so near. But nurses are people with feelings as well, And when we're together you'll often hear tell Of the dearest old Gran in the very end bed, And the lovely old Dad, and the things that he said, We speak with compassion and love, and feel sad When we think of your lives and the joy that you've had, When the time has arrived for you to depart, You leave us behind with an ache in our heart. When you sleep the long sleep, no more worry or care, There are other old people, and we must be there. So please understand if we hurry and fuss - There are many of you, And so few of us.  

Witholding

 "By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach." -Winston Churchill

Think once, then twice.  Only then speak.

Speaking to God

"Do you know who can protest against His

decree and say to Him, ‘Why do you do such a thing?’‛ 

He who observes the commandments’‛  -Numbers Rabbah 14:6.

In a sacred relationship, we can ask questions forbidden to those who stand outside.

Yizkor

 Yizkor means “May He remember.”

G-d will always consider us.  What we ask for is not so much that G-d remember their lives but that the memory of those we loved will not be forgotten by us.

Another name for yizkor is hazkarat neshamot, recalling souls.

We recite Yizkor because we refuse to forget.  But what we recall is a choice.  We can opt to focus on their many talents and triumphs, or their deficits and defeats.  I hope that we will choose to elevate their memory and ask that they find their way into the Olam shel Emet, the universe where forgiveness reigns and the struggles of mortality are lifted. 

 

Perhaps they will even hear our prayers and be comforted that we have neither forgotten nor neglected them.

 

In reciting Yizkor we are starkly confronted with our own brief lifespan.  As we remember them, we pray that we too will be recalled with fondness.

 

We now stand at the threshold of a New Year and fervently pray that we find the blessings in our past and emerge into 5786 to become a blessing to ourselves, others and those who come after us.

 

L’Shanah Tovah Tikateyvu

Prayer for Healing

 Ana, HaShem, Please G-d, You are the Healer of all flesh.  Look upon me and have pity.  Support me in Your great love for I need You.  Send healing to me and to all Your children who suffer.  Heal my pain and renew me as in the past.  Grant wisdom to the physicians that attend me so that they may bring to me healing, swiftly.  

Hear my prayer, prolong my life and allow me to live out my years in joy so that I may be better able to serve You and keep Your word with a perfect heart.

Grant me understanding to see how this time of trial can bring me to a place of discernment and more meaningful life. Do not reject You servant, I pray.  

Hear my prayer.

The Tale

Never once did she question the loss of her husband and son.  No one heard her mention even one, “Why me?”  There was simply too much to do.  After the initial shock, there were burial plans, sending notices out to all the relatives, friends and associates.  The non-stop messages from her phone and people stopping by to drop off food and murmur words of consolation.  

The services required her full attention.  She dutifully wrote and delivered eulogies, wiping away the tears as she spoke.   The last shovel of earth did not conclude the process, it was barely the beginning.  When all that ended, there was a house to clean and a million emails and cards to answer.  It was an immense task, but she hammered away at it day after day. 

When her hands became too cramped from writing thank-you’s, there were endless bills to pay, finding all the right papers, filing them with the insurance, the lawyer and then the court.  

Of course there were the same questions, “Did you know?”  “How did it happen?”  “Were there signs?”  And the rest.  She responded to them all with the same lines that after a short while came out mechanically.  “Yes, this is terrible.  There was no warning, no signs.  Thanks for coming.  It means a lot.”

She was stalwart and determined to get everything done correctly.  So it went for months on end.

Through it all, she never threw her fists up to heaven or cursed God.  She remained silent. Unlike Job, she turned her back on faith and never looked back. 

Why should she?  They lied to her.  All of them; her teachers, faith leaders, her parents, everyone.  There was no justice in these needless deaths.  Stripped of her companion and child she could only retreat into non-belief.  If there was a God, he was heartless and cruel.  Since that left a malevolent universe the only other choice was to abandon faith.

 

Such is the story of many who have through neglect or deliberate thought have drifted from their anchor.  

What is the antidote for such a psychic unmooring?

Love.  Even if it hurts.

Check out my weekly Torah videos A Biselleh Torah

Remember Me

 My dear friend,

 

I have been thinking about our conversation.

 

So much detritus lies in the dust after our lives are over.  I remember a song by Craig Taubman entitled, “Who Will Remember Me?”.  It is a powerful question contained in song thinking about dying after a satisfied life knowing that we will not be forgotten.  Yet as the song supposes, what if no one recalls us?  What if our lives are erased and no one remembers our name, how we labored, what we crafted, our joys and sorrows, our creations and missteps?  After life isn’t it a universal wish that we will be remembered?  Don’t we all hope that our lives meant something and have left a lasting imprint on the world?

 

I think of the items I have collected and saved from my parents.  There is almost nothing from my mother and some important documents that have come to me from my father.  But who will want them?  And what happened to all the things of the previous generation?  Sure, I have few photos of my grandparents and a couple of great grandparents, but I accept that even if my children take them, they will not remember who these people were as they have no personal memories of interacting with them or knowledge of their lives, much less physical contact with them.

 

Grudgingly, reluctantly, I have come to accept that the pictures and various documents will reach the rubbish heap.  There is too much for any of my kids to take and little reason for them to want them since these items do not relate in any meaningful way to their lives.

 

And yet.  These are their blood relatives, their forbears, to whom they ultimately owe their lives.  

 

To make matters worse, not only do I have these various pieces of family history I have also collected more “things” than they ever had. I have more certificates, prizes, letters, awards, degrees, cherished books and articles than they had in a lifetime.  I remember purchasing a Shas (Talmud) when I was in college. I meticulously researched the best set available, one that had a high rag content and was likely to last generations.  The tomes must weigh well over 200 pounds, and I paid a lot of money (in those days) for them.  Who will take all that?  Already my library has been significantly downsized.  Only that which is most cherished remains with me. And still….

 

My children will suffer through the same agonizing questions as they come of a certain age.  Perhaps my grandparents and great-grandparents; perhaps Moses and Abraham puzzled over the same issues.  Is this just part of the human condition?  We are predisposed to live a life that matters, one where we will be recalled and our life story told.  Except for the Sarahs, Rambams and Einsteins our life histories are swept clean by time.

 

Does anything last?  

 

The people whose lives we touched and helped will also pass away.  So even all those acts of generosity and selflessness will disappear as one generation takes the place of another.

 

On more than one occasion someone has come to me and shared how what I said to them at a time of transition in their life galvanized them to face their trial.  Each time when presented with a story like that I freely admit that I never recalled saying what they told me I said.  

 

I am warmed and comforted by those moments.  It tells me that my life has had meaning, that I made a difference to someone.  Nothing physical lasts, including us.  But something infinitely more important survives the short span of our time on earth. 

 

You have changed the world, one tiny bit at a time.  One pebble at a time you leave behind a mountain of accumulated goodness.  You leave the world in better condition.

 

Ellul

 

The Hebrew word for this month, Ellul, is said to be an anagram for “I am my beloved’s and my beloved I mine.” (Ani l’dodi v’dodi li).  Taken from Solomon’s Song of Songs the phrase expresses an idea that runs quite deep in Judaism.

We all know that love is but what is the opposite of love?  Elie Wiesel, the world’s conscience, taught that the opposite of love is indifference. Is this true?

Why did God create the world?  What purpose could a world filled with endless possibilities of destruction fulfil? Why would God have crafted a place where evil in the guise of indifference to suffering exist?

In my life I have often marveled at the faith and hope people hold in life.  A child dies and the parents find reason to love one another or devote themselves to having another child.  Two people meet, fall madly in love only for their relationship to end in a pyre of pain and exhaustion.  And when time has healed their wounds, they seek new love.  In the extreme, Holocaust victims whose families were brutally murdered raised new families.

Why do people go to such extravagant lengths in the aftermath of pain and horror?  After being singed by death or betrayal we continue to believe.  As humans we keep faith and hope alive.  We know in our hearts that love is still possible.  We seek to live life fully and give live to those whom we love.

To return to the question above, “Why did God create the world?”  Being perfect, God had no need for imperfection.  Yet, this was the ultimate act of love just as you have done many times in your life.  I believe the answer is hope and love.  

Judaism speaks of a world of crafted out of the tendrils of love. All the basic holy texts that we revere hold the same underlying principle.  One of the primary prayers that precedes the Shma in every service describes the fabric of a universe where God wove it out of a love that had no boundaries, no limitations.  

Every time we tap into that vast cosmos and feel the pulsating care that radiates out of the Divine, we can find ample reason to embrace that love and be in harmony with it.

Indifference to this universe of love is a rejection of all things that are sacred.   The path of Judaism is to look for the luminescence of joy, resilience and love that inheres everywhere.

So, at this time of year as we enter into the month of Ellul we are reminded by our sages of old that “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is Mine,” is God's endless commitment of hope and love.

 

 

Everything in its Place

 “A person is obligated to say a blessing for the bad things just as he is responsible to say it for the good.”  Berachot 33b

Having a world view is important.   We know where we stand in a comprehensible universe.  Chaos becomes minimized and confusion reduced.  In such a mind-set everything has a place and makes sense.  There is a purpose to all things.  Nothing is extraneous.  Nothing is lost.

Of Talmudic fame, Rabbi Akiva is a prime example of someone who possessed a world view that enabled him to lead a rich life.  Akiva’s life was far from pristine.  He was an impoverished and illiterate shepherd. He had virtually no possessions, certainly nothing of real value.   Eventually, Akiva fell in love with a rich landowner’s daughter and subsequently spent many years separated from her because of his impoverishment of both money and learning.  His father-in-law had such a low opinion of him that he severed his relations with his daughter when she informed him of her love for the poor and ignorant farmer.  

Akiva’s guiding principle in life was, “Everything God does is for our good.”  Now, that does not mean that Akiva joyfully embraced the many painful and terrible things that happened to him but he understood that even bitter medicine was still medicine.  Every event in his life had kernels of growth hidden inside.  It was his task to find it and grow from it.

We hear people say, “It is God’s Will,” when bad things happen.  Such a way of thinking is akin to making the best of every situation and accepting that we can grow and learn from any experience.  Railing against reality does us no good while asking what we can learn from a situation affords great opportunity.

 

“Blessed is God day by day.  He bears our burdens.  The Lord is our salvation. Selah.” Psalm 68:17

 

The Deeds

 Mishna teaches, “All whose actions exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure.  All whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, his wisdom will not last.” (Avot 3:5)  

This Mishna could mean that without implementation we forget.  Has it ever happened that no sooner had you learned an interesting fact that you lost it?  If we do not put into practice what we have learned the knowledge leaves us.  Question for contemplation: If this is true how would we change what we read or watch?

The Mishna could also be a philosophical comment.  What is the purpose of listening to the news?  Or reading the latest journal?  Why bother taking advanced courses or going to school at all?

For our faith, the purpose of learning is to inform life, not simply gather information.  In other words, we learn to change.  There is little value to knowledge if it does not lead to growth.  In fact, one of those most powerful statements of this belief is found in the second paragraph of the Aleynu where it reads our objective is, “to perfect the world.”  Knowledge can be used to win an argument, build a more effective way of killing people, or fix that which is broken.  We choose.

I have performed far too many funerals for my liking.  I recall few instances where the bereaved family proudly told me how brilliant the deceased was.  I remember times when their wisdom was lauded in connection with great accomplishments and also remember other times when their knowledge was mentioned in a derogatory, snide way.

Each hour should contain moments when we actualize the meaning of the Aleynu.  At the end of the day we ought to be able to recall times when we lifted grayness from the world and allowed more light to filter in; when the world became less broken and more whole because of something we did or said.

That is why Judaism insists of the path of mitzvot, action.  We have 613 mitzvot, or behaviors, that govern our lives.  It is learning put into action.

Winston Churchill said in 1936 at the brink of the World War, “I am looking for peace.  I am looking for a way to stop war, but you will not stop war by pious statements and appeals.  You will only stop it by making practical arrangements.”

We are -- there for we do.

 

A wealthy man approached the Gates of Heaven.  He tried to enter but the Ministering Angel blocked his way.  Finally, he took out his checkbook and said, “Everyone has a price.  How much do you want?”

“You don’t understand.  We don not take checks up here.  Only receipts.”

Anyway

 Anyway

 

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Anonymous

Patience

"God of patience, 
teach me 
patience. 
Help me learn 
to wait— 
for the good 
that is just around the corner; 
for the assistance 
that will soon be within my reach; 
for the relief 
that is just a moment away. "


 The Gentle Weapon

On Account

            At the Phoenix House in New York, the celebrated drug rehabilitation center in New York City, newcomers arrive and gather for their first session.  They sit around in their chosen seats and gab.  Then, someone will say something like, “It isn’t your mother or society or even the pushers who put the needle in your arm.  You did.”  Only then does the therapeutic process begin. US News and World Report

Most of what we have leaned is due to pain.  We suffer and grow.  Who among us cannot attribute innumerable physical and psychic scars to moments of shame, despair, and loss?  No one seeks pain but we all grow from it.

They say that nothing is assured except “death and taxes.”

Regarding the first, we are all survivors.  As we age the scythe of the Angel of Death comes closer and closer and we feel more vulnerable to its sharp edge.  Judaism has many prescriptions for addressing death.  You know what they are: immediate burial, shoveling earth into the grave, sitting shiva, observing the eleven months of mourning, yahrzeit…  I find most folks nowadays want to remove themselves from the process.  They want to get it over with quickly and “move on.”

Life waits for no one and we have to run if we expect to keep up.  It is shame.  

I wish society would turn back to when time was not a commodity but a luxuriant gift.  With a determination to sit, tells stories of the dead, say kaddish, and openly weep we give ourselves the gift of healing.  We take responsibility for the true loss we have experienced.  We own it, understand it, and learn from it.  And such time is a luxury.

What do we learn from such attention to the time of shiva and going to say kaddish on yahrzeits?  One lesson is that we are far less than we think we are.  In the end we are dispensable.  We may attempt to stave off the claws of the death but it will only be a temporary stay.  Then what will happen to our clients?  People who depend on us?  They will “move on” and forget about us.  This is one of the lessons of being quiet and waiting for the lesson.

An idea from our past: the kaddish is the prayer that asks God to acquit the dead.  It is an altruistic prayer, a gift to the souls who have passed.  That is noble.  It is also an act of memory and who does not want to remembered after their life is over?

Another item learned from saying kaddish is the broad path that is left by death.  When we stand to say kaddish in a community we are rarely alone.  Looking around we see others who have suffered. We knowingly look at them and they at us as we share a bond, a sacred unspoken bond.  We support one another.  That is why kaddish happens only in a minyan, in a community.  It is never to be said alone.

Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “God is concern, not only power.  God is He to whom we are accountable.  In the wake of religious insight, we retain an awareness that the transcendent God is He to Whom our conscience is open.”  In other words, God wants us to be accountable.  He does not desire us to pass by the many roads of life without looking both ways.  We are supposed to laugh, cry, talk, be silent at all the appropriate times.

And regarding taxes (see third paragraph), a law student was finishing a course in federal income tax.  As he was walking in to take the final he spotted a penny, heads up, on the ground.  He picked it up and said to the professor, “It must mean good luck for the exam.”

“Not necessarily,” he replied.  “But it does mean you have taxable income.”

Be accountable.  Be responsible.  It is God’s gift to you and the best gift you can give yourself.

Do

 Once there was a lonely woman.  She went to class by herself.  She did homework alone.  No one wanted anything to do with her.  There was a good reason for it; she was not a nice person.

Feeling isolated, she went to a rabbi seeking advice.  A far as she was concerned she was fine.  Life was treating unfairly (people tend not be able to see personal flaws).  While sitting with the rabbi her personality shone through and he saw the young woman for what she was, selfish and self-centered.

“What should I do?” she wept as she told of her isolation.

The rabbi listened compassionately, waited and then said, “Here is what I want you to do.  Go to the school cafeteria as you usually do at lunch but I want you to look for people to help with their trays, paying for what they cannot, getting them salt, a seat, whatever.”

The young woman went away relieved that she had a specific task to do.  It enabled her to focus on something and slowly, as she performed these helpful duties, she began to see herself differently, and, as a result, others began to view her differently too.

Many programs like Dr. Phil or lots of self-help books emphasize what is wrong with our lives and how to fiddle with it.  They tell us to enroll in step programs or take certain classes which will change our behavior.

The Jewish approach tells us that what we do influences the way we think and behave. That is why we place such a heavy emphasis on mitzvot and tend to minimize creeds or statements of faith.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “God is more immediately found in the Bible as well as in acts of kindness and worship than in the mountains and forests. It is more meaningful for us to believe in the immanence of God in deedsthan in the immanence of God in nature.”

Heschel teaches us that our actions, mitzvot, as a response to the call of God.  That in addition to the fact that when we act we change our character are strong reason to follow the mitzvoth our faith places before us.

There are always mitzvot to perform  On Shabbat we bless our children, bless our spouse, light candles, make Kiddush.  Pesach follows with its own actions/mitzvot.  Each time we act with God, travel the path of our ancestors we alter some powerful part of our self.

 

 

This is for the thoughts I place at the bottom of my column:

A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought- -Abraham Joshua Heschel

Av

"Woe unto the heart that is not broken,” wrote Aryeh Cohen. 

No one wants pain but no one can avoid it.   

People let us down.  

Our bodies are instruments where the parts wear out and sometimes are defective.  

The things that we expect to make our lives simpler often do the opposite.  

When life does not cooperate with our expectations it is frustrating, to say the least.

 

As we pass through time we amass a wide array of these broken experiences.  Learning how to manage life’s disappointments is wisdom.   Wisdom does not come from books or what others teach us, it what we learn as the wheel of life turns.

 

This month on August 13 is Tisha B’Av, on the Jewish calendar.  Tisha B’Av is a day of historic tragedy.  It marks when our ancestors the Children of Israel, were sentenced o forty years of aimless wandering in the desert. It is the day that marks the destruction of the both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem.  It is also the anniversary of when Betar, the last breath of Jewish independence for 2,000 years fell.  Jews all over the worlds read Jeremiah’s Lamentations and fast.

 

Why?  Why bother to remember an historic event that has no bearing on our life?

 

A story:

 

One Tisha B’Av Napoleon rode by a synagogue in small town and noticed Jews sitting on the ground and wailing bitterly.

“Why are the Jews crying?” he asked a bystander.

“They are mourning their land which was destroyed about two thousand years ago,” he was informed.

These words deeply impressed Napoleon.  “A nation that can mourn over the destruction and loss of their land which occurred two thousand years ago,” he exclaimed, “Such a people will never perish.  They may be certain they will survive and that their land will eventually be restored to them.”

 

Our memory - both individual and collective – takes our pain and uses it to become wiser in our years.  Just as a scab started out as a bleed, it becomes much more resilient when new skin forms over it.  But, and this is crucial, a scar remains to remind us and teach us how to enrich our lives through the panoply of our experiences, good and bad.

Ten Commandments of Coming to Shul

I.      Thou shalt dress appropriately.  No revealing attire (keep shoulders and frontal area covered; nothing risqué). Wear clothes that reflect standing before the Lord.
II.     Respect and keep the Shabbat.  This means no smoking, cell phones, pagers, cameras, etc.
III.     Do not disturb thy neighbor.  People are trying to daven (pray).
IV.     Children are always welcome at Shul.  Use our children's room if they need a change of scenery.
V.      Do not swear.  This is the House of God.
VI.     Males wear a kippa.  All those who are called to the bima (elevated stage) cover their heads.
VII.    A tallit (prayer shawl) is worn by adult Jews.
VIII.   Thou shalt not clap.  Instead, say "yasher koach!"
IX.     When the Ark is open, stand and do not enter or leave the Sanctuary.
X.      Covet thy Siddur and Humash.  Treat them with respect.  If they fall, kiss them.  Place them right-side up when finished.

Miracles

A question: If there was enough oil for one night, then the first night was no miracle. So why celebrate 8 days? The answer is that the first night was also a miracle. Why? Because if all the oil were used up on the first night, then even God could not make the lights burn for the other seven. Even God does not provide one hundred percent miracles.  Nes Bederekh Hatevah -- the miracle too is done in a natural way. If there is oil, God can stretch it. Man must provide the one jar, then God can make it burn for eight days.

Elisha is confronted by the Shunamite woman. He asks: Ma Yesh Lokh Babayit -- "What do you have in the house?" After she tells him she has one jar, he tells her to keep pouring, and the oil keeps pouring and fills many utensils.

The same thing happens at sea. Why didn't God raise and carry them from one side of the sea to the other?

You know the story about the child who comes home from Sunday school and the mother asks: Jimmy, what did you learn in school today? And the child describes how the engineering corps built pontoon bridges, and these escaped convicts ran over the water, while the airforce was giving cover overhead. And the mother says: That's not how I learned about the crossing of the sea. And the child says: Mom, if I told it to you the way the teacher told it to us, you would never believe it!

The sea did not split until Nachshon ben Aminadav jumped in. Man must make his contribution to the miracle. Nes Bederekh Hatevah.

Hashamayim Shamayhim Lashem, Vehaaretz Natan Levnei Adam God is in heaven, and we are here -- this verse is not to be taken literally. Man cannot tell God to mind His own business, stay in heaven and not mix into earthly matters. God expects man to aspire to heaven and not limit himself to earth. 

Thoughts are Real

 Why does the Torah tell us that after giving birth, a mother must bring a sin offering?

Rabbi Simon bar Yohai answers, "Since she may have cried out in the midst of her birthing pains, "I will never again let my husband come near me."
For such a thought, the Torah requires that a sin offering be brought.
Two ideas emerge from this passage. The first is that people are prone to say regrettable things. We will cry out in the depth or pain despair uttering curses or vows that, given a moment of rational thought, we would never say. The second notion is that even though all humanity may succumb to such wrong and excessive language; we are not excused from what comes from our mouths. We are always held responsible for what we say.
 
The Mishna in Pirkay Avot states, “Know what is above from you. An eye that sees, an ear that hears, and all of your deeds are recorded in a book! (2:1)