"The Path of the Just"

Yamah,

Okay agreed on last sentence. I don't use words pulled together by someone else to include God... I make up my own "prayers" of thanks on the fly.

So am I to understand that our purpose to inhabit this plane of existence is to perfect our closeness to God by purifying our souls and therefore prepare our souls for the next higher plane? Let me tell you in all my time spent at Temple never once did they discuss our purpose or life after death.

The latest words in the book that make me uneasy are evil and sin. Personally I feel everyone is doing the best that they can ...at the time. The idea of striving for perfection or being "sinless" seems unrealistic and daunting... And okay I will say it....not fun. IMHO evil is not floating around trying to get you. People make bad decisions based on their life experience or mental illness. They need to take personal responsibility and so does society. Which brings us to accounting.

I weigh my actions and not just daily... All day. Maybe it is because of my profession. But not just at work, it is part of who I am. Not even a conscience behavior, it is automatic. Something taken for granted, so was naively surprised it needed to be said.

Now an aside, this book would be much shorter if the Rabbi used acronyms like BbHN for Blessed be His Name. .

Lastly my father is curious if they teach creationism or evolution in public schools in Israel.

Thank you and looking forward to your feedback.

Wow, there's a lot to respond to. I hope I don't overload you with words!


"I don't use words pulled together by someone else to include God... I make up my own "prayers" of thanks on the fly."
As Bruce Lee said, "First you must learn the rules, then you can break them" (paraphrasing). That's something that all great masters, innovators and revolutionaries had to learn.

The sages were really really smart, wise and righteous. There's absolutely nothing wrong with making up your own prayers or blessings (even according to Halachah - no matter what any Orthodox Jew says), but IMHO it's beneficial to learn why the sages decided on certain prayers. Why do all the prayers start with the specific formula "Blessed are You, Hashem, Our God, King of the Universe"? Why do we bless specifically "Who brings out bread from the earth" before eating bread instead of something else like "Who makes bread" or "who taught us to make bread" or "who gave me the strength to slave away in the kitchen for 5 hours making this $#@& bread"?

"our purpose...is to perfect our closeness to God by purifying our souls and therefore prepare our souls for the next higher plane"
Something like that. The Ramchal changes his definition of our purpose in existence in every book he writes lol. If that's what he said here then that means in context of working toward The Path of Righteousness, at the level in which he wrote that statement, that must be the correct understanding.

"in all my time spent at Temple never once did they discuss our purpose or life after death"
It really depends on what Temple you go to. Reform and Conservative especially don't like talking about it because they don't necessarily agree there is a life after death. Orthodox synagogues sometimes mention it in the Rabbi's Speech. One thing that is universal is that spending one's current life constantly worrying about the next life is no way to live. Judaism is all about living this life in the best possible way. Living for what happens later means getting yourself stuck in Lower Fear or Lower Love.

"The idea of striving for perfection or being "sinless" seems...not fun."
There are two kinds of rewards: Intrinsic and Extrinsic. An Intrinsic reward is gained through the performing of an action itself while an Extrinsic reward is gained as a result of performing an action.

For example, eating candy is Intrinsically Rewarding because you enjoy the act of eating the candy. Working is Extrinsically Rewarding because at the end of the month you get your paycheck.

Intrinsic Rewards can also be called "Pleasure" and Extrinsic Rewards can also be called "Fulfillment".

Ideally everything should grant you both, but that's not always the case.

"...I feel everyone is doing the best that they can.... IMHO evil is not floating around trying to get you. People make bad decisions based on their life experience or mental illness...Which brings us to accounting."
This is a big discussion all on it's own and I don't think it's worth getting into right now.

"this book would be much shorter if the Rabbi used acronyms like BbHN for Blessed be His Name."
Lol...

"Lastly my father is curious if they teach creationism or evolution in public schools in Israel."
In public schools they teach evolution. In private schools for the Hareidi they teach the Jewish version of creationism (which is very different from the christian version btw).

I actually looked into this issue quite a bit when I was coming back to Judaism and the theories of the big bang and evolution fits into Judaism quite well if you use certain high level physics concepts and change the theory of 'random evolution' to 'guided evolution'.

If you look in the Torah the word "Bara" (which means 'creation of something from nothing') is used three times: Creating the Universe, Creating Life and Creating Man. All other stages of creation would have been 'creating something from something' or 'creation through "natural" means'. Interestingly, these three steps in the evolution of the universe still baffle scientists.

For anyone following who is curious about the structure of Jewish prayers
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berakhah

Made it to the part where I am not supposed to laugh or enjoy levity.....ok I may not be as wise as our Sobm (Sages of blessed memory), but no laughter? Bring it Yamah. I mean what would Bruce Lee say????????

If I may be authorized to post here (although no jew and no reader of this book and un-wise clueless stubborn newbie about many things etc), there is a good selection of Bruce Lee quotes here ...
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee.
I like this one:
"Choose the positive. — You have choice — you are master of your attitude — choose the POSITIVE, the CONSTRUCTIVE. Optimism is a faith that leads to success"
Oh and I know a good song about remembering laughter but it's not by Bruce Lee... if you're OK to accept PM I can send you the title (-;
Peace & Laugh & LOVE

I don't remember that statement well but it sounds out of context. Laughter is a big part of Judaism and all the great sages loved to make jokes and witty jabs. How is he defining 'levity'? It probably means something like 'don't laugh at penis jokes', not 'don't laugh ever'.

what chapter are you on btw?

Keep in mind also that this book is a guide to go from normal person (Ch.1) to Righteous (Ch.4) to Saint (Ch.7) to Divine Holy Sage (Ch.10). It is meant to be read slowly and worked on/with. If you're at chapter 5+ I'd suggest stopping, going back to Ch.1 and start practicing some of the exercises he suggests. My first time reading I got up to chapter 7 and I thought to myself 'there's no way I can do all this'. Then I went back and started from the beginning. I probably read the first 4 chapters 5 times before continuing and reading the whole book.

[quote=Yamah]I don't remember that statement well but it sounds out of context. Laughter is a big part of Judaism and all the great sages loved to make jokes and witty jabs. How is he defining 'levity'? It probably means something like 'don't laugh at penis jokes', not 'don't laugh ever'.
QUOTE]
LOL! Thanks a lot Yamah! First laugh of the day and believe me it has been a s...y one

Just my 2 shekels but maybe there was a typo somewhere: instead of levity, maybe it was about not enjoying... Leviticus? Especially the act mentioned in Lev 18:22.. yikes, what an horrible thing to do...
OK I stop here as I don't want to be accused of hijacking Twitter Patted's thread... <-;

Regarding Bruce Lee, I don't know if he has anything to say about levity but I know that he didn't sit around all day watching 'how i met your mother'. Bruce Lee knew how to laugh and joke around - when it was the right time; his life was mostly spend growing, creating and advancing from plateau to plateau, pushing his limits as a Martial Artist and as a human being.

Originally Posted by Yamah

Regarding Bruce Lee, I don't know if he has anything to say about levity but I know that he didn't sit around all day watching 'how i met your mother'. Bruce Lee knew how to laugh and joke around - when it was the right time; his life was mostly spend growing, creating and advancing from plateau to plateau, pushing his limits as a Martial Artist and as a human being.

Indeed Yamah and in some mysterious ways your comment is very helpful, it reminded me something about a mountain I was supposed to climb during this full moon period before Christmas. Oh well, there is still plenty of time to do it!
Thanks again (for the joke and the Bruce Lee reminder!).