Lessons, Lessons, Wherefore art thou...

Shalom,

This post will be quite peculiar and a short one. Anyhow, it will never be less thought provoking or ignorant at its best. Let's start...

It is always incumbent in our life for some shiurim (or lessons) in our life. Often, when someone hits the wall, he will instantly know that 'I must be careful with where am I heading next time when I am walking...'

This is our daily life, but how about in a more abstract pattern? Let say, in term of life, the successes and failures of life? Surely we heard the axiom 'There is never regrets but only lessons in life' but how far are we to accept such deep meaning in an instance when, let say, you just hit someone with your car!

This is the thing, prevention is better than cure, why truly learn from your mistake when you have the opportunity to learn it from others? Or even you can learn it from the Torah!

That is why we need to have lessons in our life, no matter what kind of lessons, lessons that are given by others and lessons learnt in our life. However, how far will we go to have such lessons and inculcate it in our life? This depends on the individual and one tips do it all: learn by stages. It is never all or nothing...

So, when you fall, pick yourself up, but when others fall, pick them up too and in the process learn with them. Seek spiritual inspiration, and this is the ultimate lessons that you will have without experiencing the real things yourself...

Eating normally and Healthily...

Yom Shevi'i Shalom,

When we eat, have we ever thought of eating as a pleasure? I would say that I did but that is, actually, not an appropriate thing to do...

Why? One simple reason: have you seen animals stuffed themselves with foods? Have you ever seen plants over-photosynthesise until its fruits become so big or its stem filled with starch granules? That will be unthinkable... Obesity exists in the animal world, only when the animal is forced to eat by either its owner or its herder!

If only we eat like the non-humans, then everything will be eliminated. No more obesity and no more cardiovascular diseases. If only we learn modesty of eating from a dog or a cat for example...

So what we should do? Don't overstuff yourself and yes, this should be directed to me too!!!

This is almost like a community message suddenly. Note this:

"A righteous person eats to satisfy his soul (Proverbs 13:25)"

So why we eat? To serve HaShem! Especially for us Gentiles, should eat more to make this world a better place, to make this world truly habitable... To build peace and to remind ourselves of the duty. The holiest task should be left to the Jews, not of our meddling...

Subsequently, just do what we should. eat accordingly, like an animal (with etiquette of course) and don't overstuff...

Yom Shevi'i Shalom,
Henri the Overweight...

Is Dying a Form of Liberation?

We live in a time where turbulence happens almost everyday and mass suicide is not an uncommon matter nowadays. Dying, to some people, is a form of liberation. Also, this concept has its root in paying too much of an attention to the life after. This is when people start to think that that place is a better place, when one starts to think that the world afterlife is a place that will fulfill our need... This is one big no no; Our Sages have never said such a thing to us.

There is three categories of time: past, present, and future (if you say there is more than this, it might be true as I did not take physics, so sorry for that if I am wrong). What is past? Things that have already pass by, happenings which are now bygones, things to be learnt from and forgotten. There is no need to dwell in the past, we only have to look forward.

What is the future then? The future is the time when we cannot predict and cannot foresee. We can only plan to do the best in the future but actually we do not have the power to influence the future as nobody will know what will happen in the future. Only G-d knows. What can we do then? Plan well and do your best, then leave everything to HaShem. HaShem will help those that help themselves and HaShem will know who tried his best or not...

What is the present then? Well, as the name implies, this is, really, your present, a gift. This is when you can truly make changes and truly make this world a better place. Hillel the Elder says, ‘If not now, when?’. This epitomises the way of HaShem, if not the present, when it will be done. No one can change the past and no one can change the future. What can one truly do is to change the present...

This applies same to the above question, is dying a form of liberation? No! Why? King David says this ‘Dead man cannot praise You (HaShem) from the grave...’. When you think that by dying you are liberated, you are actually trying to escape reality and worst of all, responsibility. If you think that dying is elevating yourself to a better world, then you are downright selfish.

Why is that so? Try imagine this situation; just because I wanted a new phone, I trade my old phone for a new one; then you are happy and I am happy but is this an act of pious deeds? You will tell me instantly ‘what the heck?’ but when you apply the same thing to the condition above, treating death as liberation of life, you are no where far from that mobile trader.

Just because you are fed up with life does not mean that you have the right to escape from this seemingly hopeless world. Have you done your part in making this world a better place? You might say that I am just an individual what can I do? Remember this; HaShem turns a killer and a stummer into a greatest Prophet of all, Moshe!

Live in this world, know that everything has an inherent G-dliness in them. This is up to us to discover them. No one say that this is easy but if you never try, you will neve know.

What should I do? Stretch out your hand and touch everything and see everything, G-d is to be found anywhere. Appreciate the qualities of everything in your life, even the lowliest of all, the rock, sang a song to HaShem (Psalms 148).

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