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Sounds wonderful! Hope you have a great vacation and a very Happy Chanukah! When I was young, I was so jealous of my Jewish schoolmates during Chanuka LOL
Quote from: arksis on November 23, 2009, 05:42:25 PMSounds wonderful! Hope you have a great vacation and a very Happy Chanukah! When I was young, I was so jealous of my Jewish schoolmates during Chanuka LOLReally? When I was a little kid I was jealous of Christmas....probably because I thought Santa was real. Something about somebody being able to visit every house in the world to give kids presents. Plus the media makes Christmas into gold. Hard for a five year old in a broken home with bitterness against Judaism to resist. And I loved Home Alone 1+2.
I'd prefare to have a Chanukah than Christmas because in the end you know your parents were lying to you all your childhood. It's an awful feeling. Happy Chanukah! to all The Jewish people here.
APPLYING THE PRINCIPLEChesed cannot be predicated on an expectation of return. Did you ever have a relationship where the other person was always keeping score? ("You drive this time because I drove last time!") That's not friendship at all! A real friend sometimes gives and sometimes takes, but never keeps score.How can we apply this principle to our relationships? Let's say a colleague at the office (we'll call him Bill) comes to me and says, "I'm taking care of some personal things on Wednesday, and I need someone to handle my calls. Can you cover for me?" So I'm thinking, Bill sits at the desk right next to me, I see him every day, and at some point I may need him to cover for me, so... "Of course, Bill, sure, I'll be happy to help you out!"But then imagine someone comes to me and says, "We've never actually met, and I work in a different department, and in fact this is my last week with the company. I'm taking care of some personal things on Wednesday, and I need someone to handle my calls. Can you do that?" So I'm thinking, I'm never gonna see this guy again!Judaism says when someone requests a favor, I need to consider: Is my response based solely on whether or not I perceive this as worth my own while? If so, then I'm serving no one but myself.The Torah describes one particular act as "chesed shel emet," the true ultimate chesed: Taking care of funeral arrangements for someone who's died. This is true chesed because in this act we have absolutely no expectation of return.
NO GROUNDS FOR LITIGATIONThis point is a very fundamental cornerstone of our interaction with God. The person who does not thoroughly understand that the relationship with God is built on a foundation of chesed, engages in litigation with God arguing he had been somehow "short-changed." Thus, all the dramatic debates that literature has produced concerning man calling God to task are built on the assumed argument that God "owes us something."A worker may rightfully litigate his employer and tell him, "you are not giving me my due pay for the work done, for behold Mr. X is doing the same work and he is being paid double." But an alms collector cannot logically make the same argument to a donor. If a young person dies, he cannot make the argument to God: "You wronged me, I did not deserve this."Understanding that creation is an act of chesed removes the ability of man to litigate with God. Thus, if a young and righteous person dies, he cannot make the argument "You wronged me, I did not deserve to die." No person ever merited his own existence; no one "deserved" to be born.God's reply to Job's litany of complaints was: "Who preceded me that I shall have to pay him?" (Job 41:3) God, in effect, told Job, "You may question, but you cannot debate."The underlying foundation of all existence is a gift. I owe you nothing. (There is, however, a valid form of questioning God's actions, which we will discuss in a later piece.)This aspect of chesed -- that it is by definition ex nihilo -- has an important ramification with regards to all the range of activity that the Torah deems chesed.While purity of motive is virtuous with regard to every mitzvah, it is intrinsic to chesed. As soon as there is a motivation "for something" -- be it honor or a future payoff -- it has ceased being absolute chesed. It is just another action in the long series of links in the cause and effect chain.
Topic: It's almost Chanuka (Read 1497 times)