Tuesday, April 21, 2009

If not now then when? A story about the commissar and the farmer.

at times ill ask myself why not study some Torah? why not give a bit more tzedaka and ill answer myself, when i have time, when i have more money.. i will learn, i will give tzedaka, now its not possible because it's too difficult.

they tell a story, one time back in russia... the commissar, a russian official comes and asks the farmer, comrade he says to him - if you had a cow would you donate it to the kolkhoz? the collective farm?... for the cause? of course says the farmer. good answer says the commissar. and if you had a tractor would you give it to the kolkhoz? definitely yes says the farmer. good and proper answer says the commissar. and if you had a whole factory what about that? in an instant says the farmer. great! says the commissar. so says the commissar what about chickens? if you had chickens would you give those to the kolkhoz? chickens? asks the the farmer. No way, never would i give chickens! how could this be asks the commissar, the cow, the tractor, the factory you would give but mere chickens you wouldn't give? never would i give chickens says the farmers. because cows, tractors and factories are all things that i don't have so i don't mind to give them away but chickens i have!

so whats the moral of the story? many of us are willing to give away money when we'll be rich, to learn when we have time, to help a friend when we become more compassionate because all those things we don't have at the moment. The real challenge, test, and the thing which makes the difference to the world and to G-d is to give of what we do have, to give now and not to wait until tomorrow. This way G-d will not wait until tomorrow either and he will bring the Moshaich today and now and he will take us out of exile and bring us into the true and complete redemption today. Until when can we wait already?

Sunday, April 12, 2009

media negativity



something must be done about the bad news media conspiracy. when i read the news (almost every day) unfortunately it always depresses me. what do "news" agencies report on? deaths, crashes, war, bad accidents, crimes, all kinds of nasty occurrences. all these things are for some odd reason called news!? why do i have to know about all the nasty horrible murders happening all around the United States? I am much better off not knowing about most of them. By hearing about all these horrible events we get so desensitized and start thinking that such a world is normal, G-d forbid!
Our newspapers have to report about people giving charity not people stealing. About babies being born. About people being healed. About people making peace between each other. About people learning and growing and building a good world. This is real news the garbage that papers report on these days is yesterdays news! gone, our of here, out of sight our of mind. This is a call to all media to start reporting on reality, not insanity.