Ayekha

A chronicle has it that the celebrated Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady was locked up in a St. Petersburg prison after being denounced by a foe of the Hasidic movement as an agitator against the Czar.

One day the warden came to see him in his solitary cell, and this is what he said:

"I am told you are a rabbi, a Master. So explain to me a passage I fail to understand in the Bible. It says in the Book of Genesis that, after having bitten into the forbidden fruit, Adam fled, so that the Lord had to ask him: 'Ayekha, where are you?' Is it possible, even conceivable, that the Creator of the world did not know where Adam was hiding?"

Whereupon the rabbi smiled and answered: "The Lord, blessed-be-His-name, knew; it was Adam who didn't know."

And Rabbi Shneur Zalman went on: "Do you believe the Bible to be a sacred book?"

"Yes."

"And that it speaks to all mankind, of all times, therefore also to ours?"

"Yes, I believe that."

"In that case, I shall explain to you the real meaning of the question God asked of Adam. Ayekha signifies: Where do you stand in this world? What is your place in history? What have you done with your life, Adam? These are fundamental questions that every human being must confront sooner or later.

"For every one of us, the book of life goes back to Adam. It is he who embodies the mystery of the beginning. But it is to each of us that God speaks when He says Ayekha."

To write, to write about oneself, one's past, one's burden of memory, is somewhat like that: to keep alive this first question in the Bible.

- Elie Wiesel, "And the sea is never full", pg 3, 4

ahh..

A mystical experience is not a satisfying one. It is burning. It is a ride on the tail of a comet, freezing, searing - for cold can burn even more than fire. It is not psychologically satisfying to have nightside and sunside meet in a blaze of ice and fire, to understand God as utterly distant and unknowable and yet so close that the comfort of the shadow of his wings can be intimately felt. In this rare, almost unbreathable atmosphere, sunside and nighside are resolved in paradox, and the incomprehensible is yet in some measure comprehended in contradiction.

- Madeleine L'engle "The Irrational Season" p. 147

latest song

"My whole life is yours
I give it all
Surrendered to your name
And forever I will pray
Have your way
Have your way.."

Ahhhh...

Halfway there

49.8% remaining!!

time flies.

how good is god.

:)

may sky

i had a dream.. i.. stood beneath an orange sky =)

im knackered.

exams in 2.5 weeks. bit of nervous.

but all will be well.

thank god for good friends and yummy food.

should be enough for now, i reckon.

nothing compares

to the greatness of knowing You God!!

encapsulating

"here is what I wanted to tell you today... Get a life. Get a real life, not just the manic pursuit of the next degree, the next promotion, the bigger payday, the nicer car, the better house. (Do you think you would care about those things if you had a heart attack one afternoon, or if you found a lump in your breast?) Get a deep life, not just the relentless comfort of consumer goods and mass entertainments. Get a life filled with relationships, not just a collection of things and accomplishments. Or perhaps I should not say get a life, when what I really suggesting is for you to be careful to build well the one you and you alone already possess"

Bart Campolo