To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The world was robbed of a wonderful human being when this man was assasinated, however he was not robbed of life as he is with the Lord.

Failure
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Adam trudged past the gates of Eden, his head low, his feet heavy with remorse and pain.

Then he stopped, spun around and exclaimed, "Wait a minute! You had this all planned! You put that fruit there knowing I would eat from it! This is all a plot!"

There was no reply.

Without failure, Man can never truly reach into the depths of his soul. Only once he has failed, can he return and reach higher and higher without end. Beyond Eden.





A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe
-words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman
Tishrei 4, 5768 * September 16, 2007

The quote above comes from www.chabad.org

I am not sure I agree entirely with this, but it did provoke some thought!

Firstly let me say, I am not sure that it is accurate to say that "this is all a plot" - I say this with great caution as we serve an omniscient God who knew all things from the beginning. My objection is merely that this seems to lay the blame for the "fall" at God's feet.

Nevertheless, this is what I do agree with - all of us have experienced failure of one sort or another in our lives. We can let that God can turn our failures around if we let him, and it is through our failures more often than our successes that we grow and progress. That may sound contradictory - progress through failure raher thqan success, but it is true. The thing is, when we fail, it does alter our route, and we may take a bit longer to get to where we headed, but sometimes, when we take a detour, we discover things that we would have missed, if we hadn't taken the detour.

Obviously, we do not fail on purpose, but we must face the fact that at some point we will meet with failure, and in those instances, instead of giving up, we should realise that we have detour to take, and ENJOY he ride.

Please let me know what you think of this.

John

Today is the last day of the Jewish year, or, it is the first day of the New Jewish Year, depending on what time you actually read this.

Rosh Hashana begins at Sunset today.

Rosh hashana means - The Head of the Year.

I am rather tied up and busy at this time, so cannot do my usual essay - but I wish all my Jewish readers, L'shana Tova (A good year.)

I discovered that part of the traditional meal on Rosh Hashana is the head of a fish. I immediately thought - "Um. pass!" If I had to eat the head of a fish, I'd choose to eat a sardine or a kapenta!

Part of the custom at Rosh Hashana is to go near a body of water that contains fish and recite the following:

Who is like You, God, who removes iniquity and overlooks transgression of the remainder of His inheritance. He doesn't remain angry forever because He desires kindness. He will return and He will be merciful to us, and He will conquer our iniquities, and He will cast them into the depths of the seas.
Give truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham like that you swore to our ancestors from long ago.
From the straits I called upon God, God answered me with expansiveness. God is with me, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me? God is with me to help me, and I will see my foes (annihilated). It is better to take refuge in God than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in God, that to rely on nobles.

I got this information from: http://www.aish.com/hhrosh/hhroshdefault/ABCs_of_Rosh_Hashana.asp