Tuesday, June 27, 2006

patience and the WTC

I am greatly annoyed by the habit of some congregants to use the time when the Torah is read as an opportunity to shmooze in the back of the room. They are not showing respect for the Torah. If the service bores them so much, why bother to come to shul at all? Is it just a social occasion for them? If it is, take it outside, don't force the rest of us to choose between listening to them and listening to the Torah reading. Surely, they will lose their place in the World To Come.

And on and on. By the time all these angry thoughts have gone thru my mind I didn't pay attention to the Torah reading, didn't respond to the barekhu and most likely have also lost my place in the WTC.

"When something bad happens to you and you did not have the power to avoid it, do not aggravate the situation even more through wasted grief."
(Rav Mendel of Satanov, "Cheshbon Hanefesh")

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Monday, June 26, 2006

kol hakoes...

Of the angry person it is said that he forgets his teachings (kol hakoes shocheach et torato).A variation on the same claims that being angry is like worshipping idols (kol hakoes keilu oved avodah zarah).
But is this so? Can anger not teach us something, in the sense of reminding us of something that we wanted to forget? Can anger not be a means for reaching to God rather than to the disconnection from God that leads to idolatry?

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