re: #7 CuriousLurker

Ahh. Do not feel like you just got hit with a lot of homework. However, this is a good illustration that there are several roads towards understanding, the trick is to find your road.

So don’t second guess your decisions. Besides, none of the books recommended by everyone even work…unless you engage with others and ask questions. That is the key. All of the authors and publishers mentioned by everyone—all they want is for you to ask questions.

It also points to the fact that Judaism does not come up to you with clear and obvious meaning. It actually comes in disguise of this dry, pedantic, authoritarian practice. There are people who never get through the disguise. Those are the folks that Bill Maher and George Carlin screw with.

Many such people are now elected Congressfolk, which in a way, kind of makes sense.

So the Torah wants you to get through the appearances, the disguise, it wants you to cut through the stereotype and see it for what it really is. At some level you understand a basic human truth, that in order to get certain behavior from others that is good, then this behavior has to be a part of you. It’s the right cause and effect—that is, this is most definitely a principle upon which the universe runs. And there happens to be a commandment regarding this, that the Rabbi, Hillel, thought was pretty significant.

To put it in Chasidic terms (picking it up from the second half), this guy comes up to Hillel and asks him, “Rabbi, teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” The remainder of the story might be in the book you’ve bought. If not, we rarely close here.