i love watching the sunrise each morning. it is like a magnificent work of art each day, and totally incomprehensible. as i sit there watching the colors change every second, the thought came to mind how what we see is just a reflection of ourselves. this is a new age belief that i have heard but have had difficulty really "knowing" it, not just "knowing" it...that it is something that i have experienced, not just something i think or believe. and i saw how before the sun rises from the sea, the clouds are already pink and orange because they are reflecting the light of the sun....and the sea is also pink and orange, because it is reflecting the clouds...and suddenly it became much more tangible...there it was in front of me...i still haven't figured it all out, but i think i am the sun...and then everything around me reflects my colors....then just now, when i was reading the daily entry from rabbi jacobson, in preparation for the high holidays, it spoke about the same idea and helped me understand my ulitmate question each time about "so what about the holocaust?" :
Sunday, September 2
Elul 15
FACING YOURSELF
The Baal Shem Tov taught that everything we see, whether good or bad, is really a reflection of ourselves. If it was not, we'd simply not see it.
This phenomenon is part of a merciful way that G-d has of teaching us lessons in life. Most of us have a difficult time hearing from others that we have a flaw which we ourselves don't recognize. Therefore, G-d sets us up to have a confrontation with a person who exhibits that same flaw in some form. We see it and we say "how terrible." But then it dawns on us that we exhibit the same behavior, though perhaps in different form.
The same is true for positive things. We recognize a positive characteristic in others because we have it in ourselves. If we didn't have any element of it, we wouldn't recognize it.
In other words: You are what you see. And you see what you are.
Many Jews living in Germany in the 1930s didn't recognize the evil of the German people because they had none of it in themselves. They couldn't fathom that anyone could murder them in cold blood. If you are incapable of a crime, it's impossible to imagine that someone else is capable of it.
Excerpt from 60 Days: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays, by Simon Jacobson. ©Copyright The Meaningful Life Center, 2012. All rights reserved. www.meaningfullife.com.
Sunday, September 2
Elul 15
FACING YOURSELF
The Baal Shem Tov taught that everything we see, whether good or bad, is really a reflection of ourselves. If it was not, we'd simply not see it.
This phenomenon is part of a merciful way that G-d has of teaching us lessons in life. Most of us have a difficult time hearing from others that we have a flaw which we ourselves don't recognize. Therefore, G-d sets us up to have a confrontation with a person who exhibits that same flaw in some form. We see it and we say "how terrible." But then it dawns on us that we exhibit the same behavior, though perhaps in different form.
The same is true for positive things. We recognize a positive characteristic in others because we have it in ourselves. If we didn't have any element of it, we wouldn't recognize it.
In other words: You are what you see. And you see what you are.
Many Jews living in Germany in the 1930s didn't recognize the evil of the German people because they had none of it in themselves. They couldn't fathom that anyone could murder them in cold blood. If you are incapable of a crime, it's impossible to imagine that someone else is capable of it.
Excerpt from 60 Days: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays, by Simon Jacobson. ©Copyright The Meaningful Life Center, 2012. All rights reserved. www.meaningfullife.com.
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