Beast of burden

Isachar an agile beast of burden ....saw that leisure was a good thing........so he bowed his shoulder to bear. (Genesis49:14-15)

Rabi Bunim asked , "If he saw that leisure was a good thing, why did he bow his shoulder to bear a burden?"

Rabi Bunim answers, "Leisure is enjoyable only if one can bear a burden.The person for whom the burdens of life are intolerable , cannot have any leisure either. He never knows peace."

There are some things in life which are unchangeable and they are the burdens we must bear. The reasons for these are known only to God. But if we can accept them with faith,, then we can enjoy serenity. If we defiantly refuse to accept the unchangeable, we can never know a moment's rest, because as long as we are struggling to throw off an inescapable burden , we can never be at rest.

Abraham J Twerski

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On Tolerance

THE patriarch Abraham sat at the door of his tent. It was evening, when he was wont to watch for any strangers who might pass by, for all such he bade enter his tent. He espied an old man coming toward him, leaning on his staff, weary with travel and bent with age, for he was a hundred years old. Abraham rose and asked the old man to come into the tent. He washed his feet, gave him the best seat, and set meat before him. The old man ate his supper in silence, but he offered no prayer before he ate.
"Why dost thou not first worship the God of heaven?" asked Abraham.
"I worship fire only; I know no other God," said the old man.
At that Abraham was very angry and drove his guest out into the dark night. Then God called Abraham and said to him:—
"Where is that stranger who was in thy tent?"
"I thrust him out," said the patriarch, "because he did not worship Thee."
  Then God answered Abraham out of heaven:—
"I have suffered him these hundred years, although he did not honor me, and couldst thou not endure him one night when he gave thee no trouble?"
Then was Abraham very sorry, and went and brought the old man back, and gave him rest and sent him on his way in the morning.


From the Book of Legends by Horace E Scudder

Do not lose your temper!

There is a famous incident in the Talmud: A person should always be gentle like Hillel… “The story is told about two people who made a wager between themselves. They said, “Any person who will go and make Hillel angry will receive 400 zuz.” One Friday one of them said, “I will go and make him angry!” That day was Friday and Hillel was washing his head, so he passed by the door of Hillel’s house shouting, “Is Hillel here? Where is Hillel?” (Disrespectfully and without mentioning his title as the Nasi). Hillel put on his robe and went out to him saying, “My son, how can I help you?” He replied, “I have a question to ask.” “Go ahead and ask, my son, prodded Hillel.” “Why are the heads of Babylonians round?” He asked (Not an urgent matter for a busy Erev Shabbos!) Hillel replied, “I’ll tell you. It is because they don’t have good midwives.”
The man left and waited and came and shouted again “Is Hillel here? Where is Hillel?” The man had a question equally inane and irrelevant for a busy Erev Shabbos discussion but Hillel answered him calmly and with equanimity. This scene repeated itself again and even again and he failed to upset Hillel. Desperate that he was about to lose his bet the man said to Hillel, “I have many other questions to ask but I am afraid you are going to get angry at me.” Hillel put on his robe and sat down and said to him, “Ask all the questions to have to ask.” Said, the man, “Are you Hillel who is called the Nasi-Prince of Israel?” “If you’re really the one” he retorted, “may there not be any more like you in Israel.” “Why not, my son?” inquired Hillel. “I lost 400 zuz because of you!” he exclaimed. Hillel replied, “Always be careful and watch your temper. It is worth that you lose 400 zuz because of Hillel and even another 400 zuz, but no matter what you do, do not lose your temper!” (Shabbos 31A)

Rabbi Label Lam ( Coutesy: Torah.org)

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Duty

Never to tire, never to grow cold ; to
be patient, sympathetic, tender ; to look
for the budding flower and the opening
heart ; to hope always, like God ; to love
always, —this is duty.

Henri Amiel

God's work

What do I do when I want to change a bristle into a

cobbler's thread ?

How do I treat these articles ?

With the greatest attention, care, tenderness, almost

love.

What does the watchmaker do as he puts together a

watch, if he is a master and indeed knows how to make

a watch ?

All his fingers are busy : some of them hold a wheel;

others place an axle in position, and others again move up

a peg

All this he does softly, tenderly. He knows that

if he rudely sticks one thing into another, and even if he

presses a little too hard on one part, forgetting another

part, the whole will go to pieces, and that he had better

not attend to this matter, if he cannot devote all his forces

to it.

I say all this for this purpose:

At first people live not knowing why ; they live only

for their enjoyment, which takes the place of their question,

" What for ? " but later there comes a time for every

rational being, when it asks " What for ? " and receives

that answer which Christ gave and which we all know,

« To do God's work."

Is it possible God's work is less important, or less complicated,

than bristles or a watch ?

Is it possible God's work may be done at haphazard,

and all come out right ?

In a watch one cannot press too hard upon a part

needed ; but the defenders of the worldly life say, " What

is the use of being finical : if a thing does not fit in, bang

it with the hammer, and it will go in." It does not matter

to them that the rest will all be flattened. They do

not see this.

It is impossible to work over a watch without giving

it full attention and, so to speak, love for all its parts. Is

it possible that one may do God's work in such a way ?

It is all very well for a man to do God's work at haphazard

(that is, not to live in love with his brothers), if he

does not believe fully that his work is God's work. But

when he comes to believe that the meaning of his life

consists in nothing but cooperating for the union of men

he cannot help but abandon himself to Him whose work

he is doing ; he can no longer without attention, care, or

love treat all men with whom he comes in contact, because

all men are wheels, pegs, and cogs of God's work.

The difference between such a man and a watchmaker

is only this, that the watchmaker knows what will result

from all the parts ; but a man, in doing God's work, does

not know, does not see the external side of the work. A

man is rather an apprentice, who hands, cleans, oils, and

partly unites the component parts of the watch, which is

unknown to him in form, but known in its essence (the

good).

I want to say that a man who believes that his life is

the fulfilment of God's work ought to labour until he

gets seriousness, attention, care in his relations with men, —such caution as will make squeaking, force, breakage impossible, and all will always be soft and loving, not

for his own pleasure, but because this is the only condition

under which God's work is possible.

When this condition is wanting, one or the other is

necessary,— to attain this condition, or to throw up God's

work and stop deceiving oneself and others.

As the watchmaker stops his work the moment there

is some grating or squeaking, so also must a believer stop

as soon as there is an inimical relation to a man, and he

must know that, no matter how little important this man

may seem to him, there is nothing more important for

him than his relation to this man, so long as there is a

squeaking between them.

And this is so, because a man is an indispensable wheel

in God's work, and so long as he does not enter amicably

where he ought to enter the whole work comes to a

stop.

The relations among men make it obligatory upon

them to find in each of them and in themselves " the son

of man," to unite with him,— to evoke in themselves and

in him a desire to approach him, that is, love.

I shall be told, " this is hard to find."

All you have to do is to act like the watchmaker:

tenderly, carefully, not for yourself, but for the work, and

it will come to you naturally.

A disunion takes place for no other reason than that

I want by force to drive an axle into the wrong wheel.

If it does not fit one way or another, mend yourself:

there is a place for it,—it is necessary and will do the

work somewhere.

As you attain your aim and get the better of the work

in making boots or watches, not by a tension of strength,

but by care, by tenderness of treatment, so it is also with

the treatment of men. And not only is it so, but as

many times more so, as a man is more complex and more

delicate than a watch.

It is not possible to work one's feelers out sufficiently

well to treat people with them. And the longer and so

the thinner these feelers are, the more powerfully do they

move people.

I wish that a man who is near to me should not lead

an idle and luxurious life.

I can, with my rudeness, take away from him the possibility

of luxury and compel him to work. If I do so, I

shall not advance God's work one hair's breadth,—I shall

not move the man's soul.

If I extend my feelers more finely and farther out, I

shall prove logically and incontestably to him that he is

a dissipated and despised man. And with this I shall

not advance God's work, but shall only live with him in

communion, seeking out and strengthening everything

which unites us, and keeping away from everything which

is foreign to me. And if I myself do God's work and

live by it, I shall more certainly than death draw this

man to God and cause him to do God's work.

We have become so accustomed in the worldly life to

attain our aims by means of the stick of power, of authority,

or even by means of the stick of logical thought, that

we want to do the same in God's work.

But one stick jumps upon another.

But God's work is done with very delicate feelers, for

which there are no obstacles.

LEO TOLSTOY

If Though Speakest Not

If thou speakest not
I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it.
I will keep still and wait like the night with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience.
The morning will surely come,
the darkness will vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden streams breaking through the sky. Then thy words will take wing in songs from every one of my birds' nests,
and thy melodies will break forth in flowers in all my forest groves

Rabindranath

Endless Time

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.
Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.
Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.
We have no time to lose, and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.
And thus it is that time goes by while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.
At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet there is time.

Rabindranath Tagore

Problem of good and evil

When a pregnant woman is nearing her time, she is often taught how to relax into the pain of contractions. There is, in this process, an important and valuable lesson for all of us in dealing with painful situations in life. The lesson is simple in principle, but hard in practice. It is that relaxing into pain is far more effective than resisting pain.
Childbirth is a peculiarly appropriate situation for describing the benefits of living life by 'going with the flow', for it can be considered both literally and as a metaphor. A woman who is actually in labour and cannot but tense up at the pain of the contractions causes herself more pain over a longer period, for she retards the birth of her baby. Given this, one cannot help but wonder if it is not true quite generally that tensing against pain causes the pain itself to be worse. Certainly, many people have found that physical pain is worse if they are tense, and lessens if they can relax.
But the idea of childbirth can also form the basis of a metaphor for thinking about the 'pain' of tribulations in life. For tribulation always attends the coming-into-being of anything new, and it seems quite probable - does it not? - that 'tensing up' against the pains of tribulations is likely to 'delay the birth'. But what does 'tensing up against the pains of tribulations' mean?
It can mean both resisting change and electing to fight one's way through obstacles. In Taoism,  water is very frequently used as a metaphor. A river does not try to move the rocks out of its path, but flows round them in order to achieve its objective - the sea. But notice something: although initially the rock is not removed, over the course of time, it is worn away by the flow of water around it. The gentle action of water - the Taoist would say - eventually has the power to wear away even the hardest of rocks.
In this we see how it is that patience is a virtue. For gentle action patiently and continuously applied by the river leads eventually to the complete erosion of the rock. Patience, then, is a virtue not because of some moral nicety that says it is good to be patient, but because it is a quality which assists the attainment of objectives.
In Taoism, this thought is extended over all qualities, and, as a result, a whole worldview results. The Taoist worldview is one which accepts that progress along any way - whether that way be physical or spiritual - is bound to be met by obstacles. But, in Taoism, obstacles are accepted and the essence of its philosophy is that one should treat them as does the river its rocks - by flowing round them.
Here we have, then, a very powerful and subtle way through which we can approach the business of living.

Ray Walder

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

WHEN I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
'Doth God exact day labor, light denied?'
I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent
That murmur soon replies, 'God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.'

John Milton